Upon Returning From Vacation

Monday, July 25

Sissy had her first day of Cinderella ballet camp this week. Obviously, she loves it. She loves to do nothing more than dance. And add it to my list of failures as a mother: I forgot to take her on her 2nd day. Just forgot.

Tuesday, July 26

Dash had his second-to-the-last day of hip-hop class tonight. The kid loves to "break dance" and do the Irish Jig, etc. He asks regularly to take tap dancing lessons - or something similar. So we thought that "hip-hop" might be a good choice for him. His earnestness during class is adorable.

Maybe Wednesday, July 27

Sissy was THRILLED with the results of taking her hair out of her braids today.

One Day This Week, Maybe Thursday or Friday?

The kids walked around outside with their rainboots and umbrellas today - for quite awhile. It was so muggy and humid outside, my camera immediately fogged up when I took it outside, hence the fogginess.

Saturday, July 30

The Lego tower Dash has been working on the past couple of days finally reached the ceiling.

Sunday, July 31

Sissy requested that she and I "make something together." I think about how often my oldest child and I cooked together; he sat on the counter with me almost every time I cooked for almost five years. And how infrequent it is now that one child gets to do that with me alone. (There are usually two others begging to be involved, as well.) Therefore, she and I baked chocolate chip cookies. And she got to lick the beater all by herself.

Googie and Papaw came over to visit. Papaw brought little wooden airplanes over for the boys and went outside with them to play.

Monday, August 1

They had a morning of "making potions." Ingredients: Kool-Aid packets, hotel lotions/shampoos, etc., water, baking soda, and vinegar. They also stirred around and dissolved some of those biodegradable packing peanuts.

This is what all of their potions pretty much looked like.

I also finally blew up the kid pool I had bought a couple of weeks ago. I even got in it with them because it's actually pretty deep. I can sit in it with the water up to my chest. The only bad thing about such depth is I wouldn't let them play in it alone outside, and I never want to stay outside as long as they do. But they played in it two different times today before they dished out all of the water for the plants.

Tuesday, August 2

This is Dash's "big thing" lately. So far, it hasn't gotten old for him to do it repeatedly to us - and for anyone who comes over. Another one of his "big things" lately: "Watch how long I can hold my breath."

Today, Dash decided he wanted to play "department store." So all on his own, he started carrying things out of the kitchen up to his room. This is what he organized on his chair. (Unfortunately, we did find an Earth Balance in his room the next day - or so - that had to be tossed out.)

And he took some of his clothes out of his closet and displayed them around the room.

He set up his cash register, and Sissy and I "shopped."

Wednesday, August 3

No pictures today, but we went to Little Rock for Tornado's dentist appointment. We had to wait for an hour and a half, which was very tedious. Thankfully, they had cartoons in the waiting room. Next, we bought a few essentials, including supper to eat in the car at Whole Foods, then headed to Wild River Country, where we met Daddy. We didn't get there until 5:30, but it was still so muggy and hot, I was huffing and puffing by the time we made it up the hill and all of the steps. I thought I was going to have a panic attack because the air going through my nose to breathe was so hot, it felt like no air was going in. When you stay inside everyday, you forget how hot it is outside. We cooled off as soon as we started playing in the water, though, and we had a really nice time.

One Day Soon After

All of the kids' summer activities ended, and it was pretty nice to look forward to another couple of weeks free before school starts. This ample free time lended itself to Mommy staying in bed until 8:30-9 every morning. What a life!

Well, one morning, apparently the boys watched Home Alone, which was showing on directv. I'm not upset by this, but I wouldn't have let them watch it, had they asked. (Bad language, etc.) This has prompted us to hide the Netflix remote before we go to bed at night and to REMIND them that they are only allowed to watch the pre-selected DVRed shows without permission.) Anyway, they thought it was HILARIOUS, I guess. The rest of the day, Dash kept setting up booby traps. Such as the one above. He thought we might walk into the office, step onto these toys and slip. His intentions, of course, were completely humor-based, never assuming anyone would get hurt. I'm sure he was imagining it in a very over-the-top, slapstick way. He had quite an elaborate one set up in the living room, but I didn't get a picture of that one. Of course, I had to pretend like I was falling down, complete with shrieking, more than once that day. He would just CACKLE. He loved it.