I think I'll go for a walk outside now...

Yesterday the kids and I went to one of the big box pet stores and forty eight dollars later we left with a collar, a harness, a leash and a small bag of kitty treats.  

Do people even put cats on leashes?  I honestly don't think I have ever seen it done. 

We are trying to cover our bases for our first overnight away from home with Dickens.  We are bringing him up to the cabin for a couple of days.  I think I have put the fear of God into the boys with horror stories of what will happen to our poor little kitten if he manages to escape from us at the cabin.  Spencer asked me yesterday if we could just leave him home where he will be safe. 

I wish we could leave him home, but I know that he would go CRAZY!  This little cat that we have is the most people loving cat that I have ever seen in my life!  That is a good thing when you take in account that my kids want to torture him play with him constantly, but it is not so good when you want to go somewhere and leave him ALONE for a couple days.  I am hoping as he grows up he will grow a little more into not minding being left alone. 

Whatever the future holds, the boys sure loved taking him outside and trying to take him for a walk.  I guess that is money well spent.

P.Y.T

I can hardly believe it. My little girl almost has enough hair for a ponytail. I put one in the other day and she managed to keep it in for a little more than a half hour. The little barrettes only lasted about five minutes.

New options for Hailey's hair is big stuff around here. Last summer I posted about her pigtails. If you look at those pictures her hair doesn't look that much longer now - 11 months later. Why does her hair grow so slow??? You can see she has been working on her mischievous grin though. She definitely has that look mastered!

The title of this post is a shout out to Michael Jackson who passed away a few days ago. Whether you loved him or hated him, you have to admit that the impact he had on music will most likely never be duplicated. I was a fan of his. I will never forget staying up late to watch Friday Night Videos in hopes that they would play "Beat It", "Billie Jean" or the ever elusive "Thriller"! When my Mom rented the "Making of Thriller" VHS tape for us that had the actual video at the end of it - it was nothing like we had ever seen before. We were mesmerized by the dance moves and his ability to make a story out of a song. He had an amazing talent.

I don't even pretend to understand any of his recent erratic behavior. I think it is obvious he had sort of a tortured soul and was desperately trying to fill parts of his life that were void. I believe he would have made a great comeback at some point. I think he had more to share with this world. He was a man of unsurpassed vision in the music industry. I hope he has now found the peace and contentment that he seeked so fervently on this Earth.

This is the life!

We had intended to go to the beach today. Not our beach. We were going to drive to one where we actually had sand to sit on and play in. The water is finally warm - mid seventies. We were all looking forward to it.

Then while watching the news last night I found out that "they" were urging people to stay out of the water, especially children, because the water was filled with green mucky goo that they called "algae blooms".

Ewww.

So, when the day is 85 degrees and you live next to a huge, beautiful lake that is full of sickness causing algae blooms - what is a person to do?

You call Grama and see if she will take you to the yacht club pool. That is what we did and we had a great time.

Hailey would "mump" off the side of the pool all day long if she has someone willing to catch her and "hep meeeee" back onto the edge.

I love this photo of Ev. He looks so proud of himself. He is really doing great this year in the water. I can't wait until parent watch day at swimming lessons next week to see how much he has improved since last summer.

Our little Mark Spitz. Literally. Spencer still amazes me with his fish like qualities. He never wears a life jacket anymore. And he NEVER gets out of the water.

Trent joined us twice this week at the pool. He was amazed that he could sit in a chair and someone would bring him an ice cold beer. Look what he has been missing all this time!

The girls hangin' pool side in their hats. I burned my scalp the other day so my Mom let me borrow one of her sun hats to protect my tender head. I got Hailey's hat at Old Navy on the clearance rack. I think it is left over from Easter but I think it makes a great sun hat.

We really have been living these summer days to the fullest. We are going all day long and trying to make the most of the beautiful weather. The kids fall into bed every night completely exhausted.

The dog days of summer - you gotta love 'em!

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My own little Bobby Flay

A couple of nights ago I decided to make a veggie pizza for the kids and I for dinner.  

Kids and me? Seriously, I should know this.  I was once an English major.  

Anyway, I know it is not the healthiest choice on Earth with the buttery crescent rolls and the cream cheese, but I feel like the broccoli and carrots kind of make up for the badness.  I even managed to sneak on some orange sweet peppers because they blended in with the carrots and the kids could not tell the difference.  

When Spencer saw the pizza he asked me if that was the kind of veggie pizza that he liked.  I told him that it was.   He bit into it and devoured his whole piece.  Then he told me "When I took the first bite I didn't really think it tasted like the kind that I liked.  Then on the second bite the flavor of it really seemed to pick up!"

I guess all the nights we watch the Food Network together are really starting to pay off.

I have no idea why they are tired...

9:00 am - Evan's first t-ball game.


10:15am - Spencer goes to swimming lessons.


10:55am - Spencer comes home from swimming lessons.


11:15am - Scarf down some Mac n' cheese while watching Spongebob.


11:45am - Evan goes to swimming lessons.

12:25pm - Evan comes home from swimming lessons.

12:35pm - Pack up wagon and Burley to walk to the beach.

12:58pm - Walk to the beach.


1:15 - 3:15 - Play in the water and sand at the beach with friends.

3:35pm - Home from the beach.

4:00pm - Friends from beach come over to play.

5:30pm - Friends from beach get picked up to go home.

5:31pm - Sit on the couch and watch Spongebob.

5:50pm- Pick at dinner and beg to watch Penguins of Madagascar.

6:15pm - Play outside on play set and in driveway with scooters.

6:50pm - Leave to play at the park while Dad meets with scout leaders at the park.


8:00pm - Home from park. Sit on the couch and watch "the crab fishin' show".

9:00pm - ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!

Now that is a full 12 hour day!

Blog note: I have no idea why my lines will not space evenly. I tried about twenty different times and couldn't get it to work. Extremely frustrating.

It's beginning to look a lot like summer...

Our beach has taken a huge hit by the rising lake levels this summer. Last year the sand continued a good fifteen to twenty feet beyond what it does now. See that log protruding out of the recently formed dune grass cliff? I swear that wasn't there a month ago when the kids and I walked down to play around on the beach. I know that because I had my camera with me and I know that I would have wanted to get a photo of the kids sitting on it. I know that because I wanted to do the same thing today and they would have none of it.

The water is rumored to be in the mid sixties but it felt warmer than that to me. It was very dirty though. Last week we had a ton of rain that caused many rivers in the area to swell over their banks. There is a lot of flooding in areas around us. The water was calm as well which didn't help to wash away the floating debris. Once you waded in past ten feet or so it was OK but the thought of raw sewage and swimmers itch was just kind of giving me the willies.

The kids didn't seem to mind at all. Spencer was in the water from the minute we got there until the minute he had to be physically removed from the water. He ran into some of his buddies down there and played around with them the whole time. He seemed like such a big kid wrestling around in the water with friends, trying to dunk his buddie's older brothers, and tearing down the beach at a pace that I have never seen him move at any sporting activity he has ever participated in.

Evan and Hailey are pretty content to hang around at the waters edge and make castles or look for treasures in the sand. There were plenty of "treasures" today - I was just not sure I wanted them to be touching any of their new found loot. After Evan grew tired of yelling at Hailey for wrecking his creations for about the nine hundredth time, he joined all the boys in the water and had a great time splashing around.

I am about at my picture limit with this post, but I can't get over how cute my kids are all sun kissed and brown. And seriously - Hailey's bikini - I have a serious case of clothes envy with her wardrobe. I am dressing vicariously through my daughter. Hey, she has the bod for it - my body was sacrificed by bringing them all into this world.

If you listen closely, you can hear Jillian Micheals screaming.

Rainy day

I told you that there would be more pictures of Hailey in her new raincoat.

I figured since today was a rainy, dreary day - it was the perfect day to make that happen. The day I took these photos, the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to peek out. I was hoping to see a rainbow, but no such luck.

We have had some wonderful summer like weather the past few days. Today's rain has really thrown the boys for a loop. Evan's t-ball practice was cancelled this morning. They still had swimming lessons - in the rain - but I guess wet is wet. They are both jonesing to go the the yacht club pool with Grama. We were going to go there yesterday but the boys were still feeling a little sick from the virus they both came down with the day before at the EXACT same time. It was the same thing that Hailey had the week before - it was just so weird that they both were fine all morning and then walked in at the same time complaining of a headache. Fevers soon followed. And Evan copied his sister completely by getting up in the night to throw up. On our freshly cleaned carpet. At least it was only one little spot in his room. (And to be totally honest, I was thankful that it wasn't in his bed because I had just finished putting his whole bed back together from his latest pee "accident".)

Anyway, back to the raincoat. Hailey loves this coat as much as I do. The size is supposedly a 4T. I don't know if it is mis-sized or not. (Is that even a word?) It is from TJ Maxx so that could be a possibility. It is a bit big for her, but I wanted her to be able to wear it for several seasons. I think that will happen - unless of course she wears it out!

I just can't get enough of those giant, yellow buttons. The coat just screams happiness - don't you think?

I love the vintage feel that these last two photos have. In the last one she was looking for a rainbow.