My sweet boy has been in a “stage” lately. There has been a little sass, a little naughtiness, a little rebellion, and a whole lot of whining. It is a good thing I have my mom and B around here to tell me it is just a stage because I wasn’t into having “that kid” for the rest of my life. Well, on Saturday, my boy and I had a special date. After his TBall game, we met Nonnie and B at the mall for some lunch and a bit of shopping. He got two new outfits, water shoes, and a swim shirt he wasn’t leaving the store without.
After that, he and I went to the grocery store to pick up everything we needed to make strawberry jam. It was our first attempt ever, and I had the best helper in Scout. He helped me pit the strawberries, measure the ingredients, stir, and pour. We had the best time making it, and when we got to finally sample it the next day, we gave each other a high five! It was a success, and makes the most delicious toast! Too bad I have completely gotten out of the habit of taking pictures, and don’t have any documentation of our jam-making. But every once in a while…..one on one time without cell phones and cameras…..does a relationship good!
(I don’t know how to turn it!)
We ended our day at China Moon. My boy had been carrying around a dollar and a quarter all day to find something to buy. He finally decided on taking me to dinner. I told him I was thrilled, and that if he was buying me dinner than it was an official date. He agreed, and agreed to all of the terms. Including….opening my door, acting appropriately at dinner, being polite, paying the money and tip, making me feel really special. I’ll have to admit that at a few points I might have actually said, “Scout, you might even better at this than dad.” My boy complimented me, he was so polite that the owner and the neighboring table both complimented him on being the perfect gentleman, and he eagerly paid — and when the waiter brought him back his dollar and quarter, he couldn’t believe our meal was free! I guess he didn’t see my plastic hidden under the dollar. But the best part of the night was when I opened his fortune and read it to him. It said, “You have strong potential for financial success”. I explained afterward that it meant that he was really smart and a very hard worker. To which he replied, “Mom, do you know why I am such a hard worker?” I asked him why, and he said, “I work so hard so I can go back to Heaven with you.” Talk about melting my heart.
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Our special date was awesome. And that “stage” I was talking about earlier has gone by the wayside. He has been planting kisses on me, he’s been sweet, he has tried to tease less, and he is my huge helper. If only I had known exactly what a special date would do for my boy — I would have done it two weeks ago.
Our second annual trip to the U-Pick Strawberry farm took place today. It was just me and the kiddos, and we had such a good time. I made sure to read the rules to my kids before heading into the motherland.
It was a good thing that there wasn’t a rule against eating as you go, because my kids easily doubled our loot by their constant taste testing.
Icka just kept picking and picking. Each time she or Scout found a good one, they would call out, “This one’s a BEAUTY!”
Scout called out the BEAUTY comment, and tricked Icka into devouring this totally unripe strawberry. Scout thought he was a genius. And Icka must not have caught on, because she ate every last morsel.
In an attempt to keep the rules, I jumped over one of the rows. In one fell swoop, I broke my flip flop (allowing me walk like an idiot the rest of the time)….
…and swiped a strawberry that painted a really nice design on my white pants. By the way — who is the moron who wears white to something like this?
My kids weren’t fazed, and picked on.
Scout was pretty stoked at our bounty in the end.
But he wasn’t stoked when I didn’t have wipes or a rag in my car to wipe he and Icka down with. So I grabbed a diaper and filled it with water from my water bottle and started cleaning my kids. When I got to Scout’s face, he said, “Mom….I am embarrassed by this.” Oh how sad. Poor little guy. I have never even heard him utter that word before. But to his dismay, I kept wiping as I was almost hysterically laughing.
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The classic is that when I got home and told Tristen that story, she just said, “Scout…welcome to your heritage.”
It’s true my boy….it really is a life-long sentence for you!
Unfortunately, we are WAY past that!
The other morning, I found the kids on the front walkway as they peeled and ate about seven cuties. It was cute how Scout was instructing Icka, and they were just hanging out like best buds.
When I got a little closer and realized that every single peel was thrown all over the front yard, things didn’t seem as cute. But still decent.
So I headed in to get them a bag to fill up with the peels.
When I came out, I found my daughter just hanging out by the gutter.
When I told her how disgusting it was, she UN-apologetically glanced my way. Then she was right back to playing in the water. (I can’t confirm, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she just took a sip or two. NO wonder she is my child who gets worms!)
But in the end, and with the majority of the work done by Scout, every single peel made its way to the garbage.
Guess where I have been the last few days?
Picking this beauty up.
All I have to say to those who hate on minivans……
is that
#1 You are stuck up.
#2 You have bad taste.
#3 You are probably kind of ugly.
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CHEERS to minivans!
And sorry Scummy — Micah thinks minivans are WAY sexier than Sequoias.
(And Tacky secretly does too!)
About a year ago, Scout started asking if he could run home. So once we got through the gate, I would let him out of the car, and he would run like the dickens –as long as he stayed on the sidewalk. There are times when all six times we go through the gate in a day, he gets out and runs home. It started when he would watch Jake run at X-Country meets, track meets and his marathons. So in an attempt to be just like his cousin, he would try and run as fast as possible. I always yell out and tell him to pump his arms, sprint faster, or I tell him how fast he is going according to my speedometer. It really is a cute little tradition of his.
But about four months ago, guess who wanted in on the action. Ickity Dickity’s adventure doesn’t go so smoothly. She always wants to go in the street. When she runs, she looks at me a smiles the whole time and runs crookedly — running into things. She stops to smell the roses, or pick them. She never seems to run the whole way which makes this a timely and cute tradition. Somehow, she adds another five minutes onto my drive home. But, truth be told, she ties with the cutest runner out there.
So when I just don’t have the time, she will opt for driving on my lap instead. But not my Scout. He is “run or die” all the way.
Right before we headed out to church, Scout went into the wrap room and got himself a tie. The cutest part is that he wore it all throughout the day. Bob Samuelian actually tied it for him, and he thought he was hot stuff. Then when Micah came on the scene, he retied it to make it look like Colonel Sander’s tie from KFC. Either way, my boy looked styling! Especially when he went up for his birthday song because he had turned four just the day before!
This was after church — and before we retired it back to the wrap room.
It is astonishing that my baby is four! In honor of his big day, we had quite the festivities. It went a little something like this…
For breakfast he chose Cheerios with as much sugar on them as he wanted. It was literally disgusting.
Then he got to feel all of his presents. But before he opened them, we had a TBall game to get to.
He had two really good hits off the T. And his third at-bat was “coach pitch”, and he line-drived it up to first. I was really impressed, and it was a great birthday treat for him.
Afterward, he ran through the tunnel — quite possibly the best part of the game to him.
Even above snacks!
After the game, he got his first present of the day from Auntie Bree. It was a sucker that had a scorpion in it. You can tell by his reaction he wasn’t too thrilled.
Then we went home to open presents. He got a bunch of dive toys, and ANOTHER big red ball!!! Scout and my mom both almost cried — but for different reasons!
Here is my big four-year-old waiting for Nonnie’s gift.
He was SO stoked! Nice pick Nonnie — even though this is what I said I was going to get him, but then you trumped me and said that I shoudn’t since that is what YOU were going to get him. You little rip off artist…but I’ll admit that my day became a little cheaper that way.
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We then headed to the pool with a few friends (Thacks, Seastrands and Zimms) for a little pool time. It was VERY low key, and exactly what I knew Scout would love.
And LOVED he did — seeing as this is the only picture I got of him the whole day. this little boy has turned into a fish, and didn’t stop for over three straight hours of boiling heat. And when asked the next day about his favorite part of his birthday, he said that “swimming” was the best part.
Glad to hear it my boy.
Remember Auntie Bree’s suckers? Well, Icka dove right in.
She was even nice enough to offer it around to all of the other kids. Grey was the only taker — to Britni’s disgust!
Unfortunately, this was only her first few bites. It went further, and she managed to eat the entire scorpion.
NASTY!
I’ll admit that as a mom I should have stopped it. And quite honestly I was going to. But that little Icka had the whole critter eaten so fast that when I was putting a halt on any more sucker, I just saw her chewing away, while holding the rest — that had not one trace of scorpion in it.
Apparently it didn’t bother the little princess, because she was soon on to bigger and better things like “water-falling” the people in the hot tub.
Icka and Ivy.
How freaking cute are they together.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOUT — you little fish!
One of Icka’s treats in her Eater Basket was a set of fake nails. They were the perfect size, and after Bella put them on, we were rolling. We told her to run and show Nonnie how pretty she looked with her new nails on. About two minutes — literally two — she came back with all but two of the off. Bella, frustrated by the work gone to waste, said, “Sushi…..why did you take your nails off? And where are they?” Then Sushi opened her mouth, and let all of her fake nails fall out and land on Bella’s floor.
Doesn’t she look like she is from New Jersey with glitzed up little sausage fingers and a really bad fake tan.
Knowing that the mice weren’t going to be welcome at our home much longer, Bella re-gifted them to Trey and Chloe for Easter. She told them she had a treat for them, and it wasn’t bunnies — because they were too expensive!
Here they are as they open the mystery gifts.
When they finally got them open, one fell to the ground, and nobody would pick it up until Icka saw Pinky in trouble.
She saved the day, and went right over to pick Pinkie up.
Then took him for a swing.
Then took a swing herself.
Then did a little climbing.
And finished it with a big spill.
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Enjoy your mice guys! And you better take good care because Icka asked the entire way home about where Pinkie was.
Hopefully not Heaven just yet.
After Church, we headed to our third Easter Egg hunt. The first two were at the Hansen’s and Grandma and Grandpa’s. Both of which were a blast. Both of which, I had no camera. Then the next morning, they woke up to find their Easter baskets hidden in the house. Afterward, they put on their Sunday Best and we headed to church. Then we came home for mini naps, and finally headed down to the real party. Inclusive of the Cliffords, Brrockbanks, Denisons and Ures. Megan made awesome pork tenderloin and artichokes. And she also found time to fill almost 300 eggs. After dinner, Micah and I (along with some trusted kids) headed out to hide all of the eggs. And then the hunt began!
Navy — being the youngest — headed out first.
She was pretty excited to see an Elmo egg!
She lucked out in the dog house.
B helped her see some of the goodies she had found.
As soon as she realized that all of her eggs were filled with treats, she stopped looking and started opening.
This baby chick was one of her favorite finds.
Then it was Scout’s turn to head out.
He was a trooper and looked all over the hill.
And then asked for some help to get an egg up in the tree.
Then Scout joined Icka in opening the treasures.
My favorite hidden egg - was in a real bird’s nest, and had a decent amount of $$$ in it.
Cade claimed it, but needed Chloe’s help to retrieve it.
The hunt got intense when everyone realized the $20 egg was still out there.
Luckily it wasn’t the one in Nonnie’s shirt!
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HAPPY EASTER!
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