Snow Cones Make Me Happy

How is it that I still love snow cones?  You'd think that someone who spent their childhood couped up in a metal box selling snow cones every summer would totally hate them.  Not me... I still love me a coconut snow cone.  And evidently, so do my kids...  

Tropical Delight is still in business at Grandma's house... and it makes her a really popular woman.  Snow cones made us all very happy this Memorial Day. 

Duck. Duck. Duck. Goose

We spent the morning at the duck pond on Saturday.  I thought for sure the kids would run the other way when the ducks jumped out of the water and waddled towards us.  Surprisingly, they weren't afraid and got right in the middle to feed them. 

                            

Tucker played the whole "one for you, one for me" game.  He may have eaten more bread than he threw to the ducks. 

 

Reese said "eat it" after she threw each piece.  So funny.... she's even bossy when she feeds the ducks.

The kids can get me up early every Saturday morning to do stuff like this.

Swing Batter Batter

Ya know, it's great to work for schools that have winning teams, but it sure does make you have to go to a lot of games. Between my school winning a state football championship and Chris' school winning one in basketball, we've been to a record number this year.  The kids are finally getting to the age where they can join us and it's not a total beat down so we took them to watch Brock win the regional semi-final baseball game on Thursday night at La Grave field.  They actually made it all 7 innings.  Tucker was all about the game... he just kept yelling "hit the ball, hit the ball" in his deep little raspy voice.  Reese was all about the snacks and flirted with the guy sitting behind us all night.  Which it totally weird, because she's usually so shy.  Anyway, we had a great time... stayed up too late and paid for it on Friday... but it was fun.

Sorry for the lousy iPhone pictures... I forgot to take my camera. 

4-Wheelin' It

"Ride. Ride. Ride."  This is what I hear every time we see a lawn mower, a tractor, a motorcycle... pretty much anything you can ride.  Tucker LOVES to ride the 4-wheeler with Grandpa right now.  He's obsessed and acts like a crazy man when Grandpa goes to get it.  It's cute to see them together... I think Grandpa likes it almost as much as Tucker. In another year or so, he will be driving one of his own.  Yikes... must get helmet.

Twinkle Twinkle ABCs

Reese is quite the little singer. She's always been a copy cat, but lately she's taken it to a whole new level. When we sing, she watches our mouthes intently, trying to learn the words as quickly as possible. She catches on and learns new songs insanely fast. And it kind of freaks me out how she recognizes tunes and can sing everything on pitch (now you know she didn't get that from me).

We normally sing in the car and at bedtime, but tonight she put on a little show in the tub while she was playing with her letters.  Okay, so she can't spell... but just wait, she can sing. 

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She must be a musical genius.

Summer is Here...

And so is the heat. It was 93 degrees today. Really? Does it need to be that hot already?  Hopefully it's not a sign of what's to come this summer.  Thank goodness we got to spend some time in the pool this weekend.  We spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then the kids spent the night so Chris and I could have a date night.  They were a little tentative about the water at first but I'm sure they'll be fish by the end of the summer.  We tried floaties and a life jacket... Tucker was pretty sure he was going to drown, so I may have to get a couple of those crazy swimsuits that have the innertube around the waste.

You'll notice that in most of the pictures, Tucker is in the water... and Reese is not.  She didn't want to get her ruffles wet.  Are you surprised?

 

Stupid Sony Camera

Chris took his high school band to Hurricane Harbor today, so the kids and I decided to tag along.  It was their first water park experience, and overall a success.  We spent the day in Pirate's Cove where they could run and splash and play on a few small slides.  Tucker absolutely loved it... we knew he would. He's a fish.  Reese was content to run and play on the water's edge most of the day.  She would barely put her big toe in the water.  In her defense, it was C-O-L-D.  I guess she's going to be a "lay by the pool" kind of gal like her mom.  It pretty much has to feel like bath water for me to venture in. 

We had a few minor injuries which is not at all surprising.  Tucker has spent the last few weeks with some kind of scab on his face.  Just when it starts to heal and go away, he gets another one.  Today, the giant bucket of water that dumps thousands of gallons of water every 15 minutes almost drowned us all.  The bell that normally sounds to warn you that it's about to dump wasn't working so we had no warning at all.  It knocked both the kids over and Tucker came up bleeding... from his face again.  He now has a huge scrape across his chin to go with the one on his cheek. I'm gonna have to get this kid a helmet. 

I took at least 100 pictures of the kids today and when I got home, realized that my camera is done for it.  It's been acting funny since I dropped it and broke the screen.  Instead of adorable images of the kids playing in the water, I have 100 or so blank squares.  I didn't get a single shot.  So sad.  We're going back in a couple weeks though, so I guess I'll try again.  

Until then, I leave you with this...  

A totally unrelated, random picture of Tucker. I just love this boy. 

The Bug Collector

I never thought my daughter would like bugs.  She's afraid of the 4-wheeler, bubbles in the bath tub, and usually the vacuum cleaner, so I just assumed she'd be the kid afraid of flies and grass hoppers.  Surprisingly, she's quite the opposite. 

Tonight she came running in the house saying, "Spahder, Spahder". I naturally assumed there was a spider on the back porch that she wanted to show me... and I was praying it wasn't a brown recluse or something.  But as I walked toward her, I noticed something in her hand.  Instantly my mind went back to the time she brought me a giant dead cockroach (and no, she didn't find it in my house... we were actually in a funeral home. Long Story). Anyway, it ended up being a huge dead bumble bee... probably the biggest bumble bee I've ever seen.  Why is she obsessed with dead bugs? Does this look like the face of a disgusting kid who picks up dead things? 

I guess I should just be glad she's not eating them. Gross. 

High Maintenance but Hilarious

Having two kids the same age makes it next to impossible not to compare. Tucker is agreeable, laid back and pretty easy. Reese, on the other hand, has been labeled the difficult one. She’s temperamental, moody, stubborn… just plain high maintenance sometimes. She is all those things… but stinkin’ hilarious too. When she’s happy… she is really happy. When she’s silly… she’s really silly. She’s constantly making me laugh.

Most of the time, it’s just minutes after making me want to scream.

Couple funny stories:

She’s way into playing mommy right now. She’s bossy (like me) and must be in charge (again, like me) so she makes a great mommy. The other day she was putting her baby to bed in her playpen so she hugged her, gave her kisses, and said, “love you”. She laid her down, looked at me, looked at the baby and yelled “NO” and then spanked her. Then she picked her up, spanked her again, looked at me and said, “Spankin”. Okay, so we may need to reevaluate our discipline methods.

She also must have kisses when she hurts herself right now. She totally milks all her injuries. If she falls down, bumps her head, etc… she comes running, yelling “Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.” It’s amazing how magical a kiss can be. She’s always healed instantly. Anyway, last night she pinched her finger while playing with the faucet in the bathtub. She looked at me with pouty eyes and said “Kiss. Kiss.” Then she smiled and said, “I kiss it” and she kissed her finger. Instantly, she was healed. One less thing she needs me for now. (Sniff Sniff).
Little Miss Personality is constantly keeping us on our toes… we’re either laughing or crying when it comes to this girl. She looks so sweet doesn’t she?

Don’t let her fool you… she’s a mess.

Shiner

It's usually not good when Nana Cheryl calls me at work, so I was nervous right away when she called at lunch time on Friday.  Sure enough, she was calling to report an accident.  Tucker fell, hit the coffee table, and busted his eye open.  She put a steri-strip on it and didn't think he needed stitches but wanted me to come look just in case.  I usually err on the side of "he's okay... no big deal" because he so tough but since he had a 1/2 inch gash on his eyelid, I was a little hesitant to tell him to just rub some dirt on it.  I totally didn't want to sit in the ER for 3 hours just to have them put Neosporin on it and send us on our way either though. 

Luckily, we have a great athletic trainer at my school who was more than willing to take a look at it for me.  We headed out to the field house where he was worked up just like one of our state champion football players.  Coach has seen his share of cuts, breaks, tears, etc. so I was confident he'd know what we'd need to do.  Thank goodness he said a trip to the ER wasn't necessary.  He cleaned it up and put some derma-bond on it... what he said they would if we went to the hospital. 

Yesterday morning, the cut was almost completely closed up... but he did have a pretty nice little shiner.  Poor Tuck...