On a New and Improved Thing-a-ma-jig

When we moved to Virginia, we had to leave our old thing-a-ma-jig behind and there was much crying and gnashing of teeth involved in this decision.  The kids were kind of attached to the old thing.  In case you don't know, a thing-a-ma-jig is a contraption built completely from found objects and leftover bits and pieces of this and that.  You can't have any plan in mind when you start construction, it's always a work in progress and it's never really finished.  It's all very technical.  In Florida all the wood we used had been collected by us from the river on base.  Alas, here we don't have a river right across from our house so we haven't done any thing-a-ma-jig constructing since the big move.  However, over the past few weeks Chris finally took the initiative to haul bits of this and that home that washed up out of the Potomac River at some of our favorite parks.

It's not stealing, it's free beach clean up services.

Well, long story short, a new thing-a-ma-jig has been born--this time with the added bonus of wheels thanks to a defunct lawn mower that the boys stripped for parts.  I think Chris loves working on it just as much as the boys do.  It justifies his hoarding of any part or do-dad that could ever, maybe, possibly, come in handy.  The kids love to pull it back and forth across the yard and David is desperately trying to figure out how to install some sort of engine.  Probably because he's the only one strong enough to pull it while it holds passengers.  The cousins seemed to like it too.

Who doesn't love a thing-a-ma-jig?

Spring Evenings with Daddy

  

The weather has been so great this past week and with the warm temps and extra sunshine we've been spending most our evenings in the backyard--well I've been forcing the kids to spend most of their waking hours in the backyard really.  It's good for them :)  They just especially like it when Dad is home and will do fun things like pitch them the ball and push them on the swing and not pretend like he can't hear them begging for said activities while he reads a book.

David started coach-pitch baseball this year which seems like a ridiculous time commitment with two games and one practices a week plus an optional Sunday batting practice but we'll make it through--it's a lot of activity for this homebody to wrap my mind around.  He seems to like it, but all he really wants to do is batting practice.  To him, practicing any other baseball skill is just a waste of valuable time that could have been spent hitting the ball over the fence into the neighbor's yard.

He might be a little crestfallen when he realizes that an actual home run will take a considerable bit more umph.  

Dinosaurs

We have a bit of a dinosaur obsession overtaking our home at the moment which includes copious dinosaur books from the library (it doesn't matter what they are exactly as long as they come from the dinosaur section and we make sure to bring home at least twenty) and enough daily begging to watch Walking With Dinosaurs that I wish we had never introduced the concept of dinosaur documentaries* to the children.

It is also why I probably shouldn't have been surprised to find this on our back porch.......

It's Pangea in case somehow you didn't recognize it.

All three boys worked on setting it up and it was really cute to watch them all playing together.

That is until John Michael dared an attempt to actually play with the dinosaurs instead of just setting them up in their correct location and gazing lovingly at the perfection of his handiwork which is apparently how Henry saw the activity progressing. In protest Henry informed us that  John was "ruining the game" and that if John was going to continue to be allowed to move the dinosaurs then Henry wasn't playing anymore at which point he stomped off to go inside.....which obviously taught us all our lesson.......

Having a little brother is so hard :)

*Am I the only one who feels slightly bad letting their children watch dinosaur "documentaries" that you are pretty sure are at least half completely made up?  I feel like I should be interjecting every five minutes something along the lines of "you know the paleontologists are probably just making their best guess about that super specific thing they just said that they're sure the dinosaurs definitely did there......"  No paleontologist is perfect......I mean, they thought there was actually such a thing as a brontosaurus after all :)

Summer Fun

Last week we finally busted out the slip and slide--and by slip and slide I of course mean a piece of plastic sheeting with some pool noodles stuffed around the end to pool the water.  We promised one a while back but once we got the children super excited about the prospect of some good old fashioned summer fun and all decked out in their swim gear and sunscreen we realized that we had no idea where our old plastic sheeting was.....maybe the recycling?  The children were not impressed with my substitution of just playing with the hose......

Well just plain old hose play no longer!  Now we have a hose and a plastic sheet :)

John was not pleased with the whole "sliding on wet plastic" situation.

He was pleased with the "stealing mom's sweet tea" situation though......

.....very pleased.

Henry also doesn't care for the slip and sliding.  Building yes, sliding no.

Me:  That's a great castle you've built there Henry!
Henry:  Mooooooommmm.  It's a throne.
Me:  Oh, are you going to sit on it?
Henry:  (looking at me with complete exasperation) No, only the king sits on the throne.
Me:  I'm sorry, I don't know what I could have been thinking........

David however, David loves the slip and slide and also being the only one who wants a turn.

T-ball Saturdays

We've entered the world of organized sports.  We were going to sign up both the boys but Henry's birthday is one week shy of making the cut-off.  In the end the coach said he could play but that would have been another seventy-five dollars and he didn't seem to care one way or the other so........

 

I wasn't sure about committing to a sports schedule so early because it seemed like an awful lot of work but  David likes it and, let's be honest.......those uniforms are precious.

David's also been playing catcher so.....double precious :)

We've only had one game so far and it was hilarious--full of boys making dirt angels and running around in circles chasing loose balls while dads tried unsuccessfully to maintain some semblance of order.  I"m sure they'll figure it all out eventually :)

For now, our Saturdays are booked until summer........

Long Weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend!  Besides working on getting things done around the house we spent ours mostly adventuring.   We found a great new park with its own natural spring so I took it as a sign that it was time to finally make nut boats with all the shells I saved from our nut garland :)

I think the boys' favorite part was holding the candles and dripping the wax into the boats--well David's favorite part anyway.  Henry did one nut and then got "tired" which is Henry speak for "I don't want to do this anymore and if you try to make me I'll collapse in a heap on the floor and pretend to be dead."

They were really easy to make and turned out super cute.......

Out of twenty-two boats only one made it through the tumbling rapids and kelp forests to the freedom of the open water.    Side-note, nut boats flung off of a bridge will most likely immediately capsize--who knew?

We didn't see the snake warning until after we were finished......

Poor John was relegated to the stroller while we all played in the stream.  We did eventually free him though so he could stretch his legs....you know, once we were safely away from the water hazards and the snakes.  He was pretty excited.

Don't be fooled by that gummy grin---this little man is about to turn one.......in other news, we're thinking of renaming him Toothless.

When Life Hands You Lemonade...Mix

Summer may be over for you, but here in Florida it's pretty much always time for a lemonade stand.

We teamed up with the boys' best friends who are pretty much their exact ages and temperaments.  They provided all the great ideas and the lemonade.....and the perfect location...and the snacks......we provided the stand and the beautiful artwork.

As we watched the children running rampant I told their mom that I love being at her house because it makes me feel less crazy.  She said that that wasn't exactly a compliment, but really it was.  See, I consider her to be a really good mom and when I see her boys exhibiting the exact same, let's say challenging, behaviors as my own little darlings it makes me feel like it's not just me and that good moms can have crazy kids so maybe I'm a good mom too.

The key to having a successful lemonade stand, aside from amazing signage, is to have five of the cutest boys you've ever seen line up along the road shouting and waving "lemonade! lemonade!" at every passer-by and when those passer-bys say that they don't have any money have the children yell "it's free!"  Once the customers have partaken of their free lemonade that's when the children need to go all puppy dog-eyed and look sadly at their cup marked 'donations' and then back up at the customers.  Then just sit back and watch the dollar bills start pouring in.

And if someone asks you if your lemonade is 'hand squeezed' or 'hand scooped' just laugh at them and tell them that of course it is 'hand scooped.'  We're sure not hand squeezing lemonade for strangers around here--I don't care how many quarters they pay us :)

Boys are for Flinging

Welcome to my children's favorite pastime.

One hose + one piece of plastic sheeting from Lowe's + four pool noodles + one piece of rope = endless fun.  Especially when you have a husband who thinks it's hilarious to tie up his children and fling them back and forth as fast and far as possible.  Over and over and over again.

Throw in some baby soap and a plastic pool and you are ready for anything.

We really should have put this up oh....three months ago........then again we live in Florida, so we probably have another two or three months of slip and slide weather left.