Nighttime Pool Party

Today we had the pool out on the grass for a play date with Lily and Patrick.
After they swam, Paige asked Lily to get on her back. Then she wanted me to swing them around on this pillow, like Jess does. But I'm not strong enough to do it safely, so I had to refuse.
The kids must have worn her out, because in the afternoon Paige passed out in the laundry basket.
Tonight the pool was still in the grass, so Paige decided to go for a nighttime swim fully clothed.
Cason was really wanting to join her, but he settled for her comedy act.

It consisted of her making funny noises while throwing a ball into the air, splashing his face in the process.
And he loved it.

Until she got a little too excited, and poked him in the eye JUST as I took a picture.
She said sorry right away, at least. She's just now starting to do stuff like that. She's always been really careful, and gentle with him. But now that he interacts with her so much, and laughs at her, she gets a little rough when trying to be funny. So he gets poked or tickled a little too hard. But he never minds very much. I usually make her stop and say sorry before he's even acted upset. But he's a tough feller. He fell a minute after having his eye poked tonight, and got mad and cried. Paige told him it was okay, and that he's "strom!" (Strong). She even flexed for emphasis. This is her flex.
They're still friends.

Speaking of Tortoises....

...who is the proud owner of this one?
Jess and I have carried this one from place to place with us, living in our bathroom, ever since our apartment with Chris, Craig, and sometimes Scott and Wes. A couple months ago I was cleaning the bathroom and moved him from his spot by the sink so I could wipe it down. I asked Jess "Where did you get that little turtle, anyway?" and he said "I thought it was yours."

So we stole him. Which of you did we steal from? And have you seen him in our homes and wondered at our nerve, stealing from you and displaying him in plain sight in our front bathroom?

Samuel L Jackson

Lily brought over Paige and Cason's new pet today. He arrived, with nothing to his name but the dirt on his shell and the name Sammy. Jess wants to name him "Corbeldee". Prounced "Core-bull-dee". No chance. That's his usual name he brings up for things when we can't think of a real one. Like before we thought of Cason's name.
Paige is very excited to have him, telling Cason to "shhh, be kiet, turtoo sleeping!" Now she's looking at THIS picture:
...and claiming he wants her juice.

Roast Pig

We stumbled upon this stuffed piggy that Faith and Paige had decided to cook up in Paige's play kitchen. Poor pig.

Snail Stack

Awesome sunglasses, earlier today:
Faith is spending the night with Paige, much to her delight. This very moment they're chasing each other around the house, with a toy serving tray, yelling "It's mine!", and cracking up. Fake fighting over it.

Earlier they played a sort of baseball game with a flyswatter and bouncy balls. Until all the balls were in neighboring yards, never to be seen again.
Cason and I hung out in the grass.
Except when he abandoned me to search for something, anything, to put in his mouth that he shouldn't.
That one's a definite boy. An explorer.

He also got a girlfriend today. Both our kids, this week. We went to see Tyra at work, and he kept flirting with the girl that works with her. He was smiling, and putting his head on my shoulder like he was shy. Then he kept going to her, wanting to be held. She's cute, but a bit old for him. She DOES live right down the street from us though.

Anyway, back to the sleepover. We had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins,
and chocolate chip cookies, for Faith. (She's allergic to pumpkin). Then they collected snails, their favorite part of the night I think.
They put them all in a little cluster, and they started climbing each other. They even had this stack that was 3 snails high. Snail circus act.

Myscream and Elomade

The little ones had a lot of fun together today. They played peekaboo under the table.
Cason helped Paige practice drawing circles.
And here they are. In pencil, not the blue stamp.
Paige fed plums to her baby.
We found out Cason really likes hanging out in the tent with Paige.
I tried to make a pumpkin smoothie thing for Paige, and our blender thought it would be cool to do this to me when I tried to lift it off and pour it in the cup.
It was fantastic. Cleaning it up was a dream come true.

So she had a bowl of vanilla "myscream" instead. She took it out to eat in the wagon. (This WAS all today, she just changes outfits a lot lately)
Cason stood at the back door and screamed at her.
Then tonight Paige asked for an "elomade", which is lemonade. I went and got it, and then for like the 3rd time now, delivered a freshly filled sippy cup to Jess, like he was the one who asked for it. He thinks it's really funny when I do it.
Laugh it up.

Inferno

Sorry 'bout the lack of new posts. There's been plenty to write, I've just been lazy. You should see our house.

Anyway, we're test driving this:
This one's used, but still a bit fancy, with unnecessary features driving the price up. So we're not getting it, but we DO want a Pilot, just a less expensive one. Also in dark grey, or olive green.

On the way home from the dealership, we saw a truck ON FIRE. We were only a mile or so from our house, and this truck at a stop sign had flames coming out of the bottom. It was crazy. I'm not even sure the guy knew at first. So we pulled over, a pretty good distance away, and called 911, but Jess said some Unisource trucks were behind him, conveniently, and busted out their fire extinguishers. Lots of really cool citizens of our town were around. Driving around it, through the clouds of smoke, because apparently they were in too big a hurry to make sure they weren't going to die in an inferno at any moment.

Then Jess made fun of me for sounding frantic on the phone. Then I got mad at him. Then he said sorry, so we're good.

Then tonight Colton had his allstar championship game, which he won, woop woop. So they go to State now, in a couple weeks. Paige has a boyfriend now, whom she met at the game the other night. I made Jess take a picture of them together, but he couldn't because Paige ran off. So he had to look like a creepy guy and take a picture of this little boy. Hopefully his parents didn't see Jess taking it. Haha.
Jess says that it looks like he's from out of town though, so it's gonna have to be a long distance thing.

Jess had to spend like 2 and a half hours at the playground with Paige. Cason hung out with the rest of us and watched the game. Grampa let him relax in his chair for a while.
And relax he did.

Happy Birthday Barby!

Today was my beautiful mom-in-law's birthday. Barby is a wonderful person, and a great mom and grama. She's smart, laid back, and fun to be around. She always has LOTS of energy, especially for hard work outside. It's impressive really. But most of all, she has lots of energy for her grandkids, so they have a ton of fun with her.

Thank you Barby, for everything you do for us all. Happy birthday, and we love you!
The closest thing we have to a shot of her with all 3 grandbabies.

Apparently We Eat Too Much Fast Food

We pulled into the drive in at KFC today, and immediately heard Paige say "Combo" from the back seat.
Proving once again how cool she is. And what piggies we are.

But just to prove SOMEBODY in our family eats healthy, Cason with his cereal and blueberries.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads we love. But especially to Paige and Cason's daddy. We all love you so much. You honestly couldn't be a better dad (or husband). I love to see their faces when you first come home from work. Their expressions are usually something like this:
Cason has such a wonderful role model. He's gonna be quite a guy.
And Paige's future husband is gonna have some massive shoes to fill.
He better be willing to play a mean game of Daddy Dinosaur, and to get punched in the face by a 2 year old.
Thank you for making our days so much more fun. And for taking such good care of us. And for a million other things. We love you.

Conversations Through the Vent

Today we had a coed baby shower to attend, for my quasi-cousin Melissa. I made her a nursing cover. They're one of my standard baby gifts now, because I love mine.
Melissa got lots of good stuff. The babies had lots of fun with a bunch of family.
Cason looked handsome.
Paige looked beautiful.
Chris adored Jess.
AND Paige received another awesome finger puppet from "uncle" Michael. The coolest one yet, in my opinion. A mama and baby llama, from his trip to Peru. Thanks Michael. On the way home Jess said, Uncle Mike is nice to get that for you, isn't he? And she said "Uncle Nice." So that's your name.

We went over to my mom's for a while, so Jess could hook up her stove for her. First of all, we tried going last night, but ended up needing a part from Home Depot, and had to wait for today. But on our way last night Jess noticed his cell phone riding on the hood of our car, because I put it there while I buckled Paige in, and then forgot it. We pulled over to get it, and we both said we'd grab it. Jess goes "Oh no you won't." So of course it turned into a race. It was closer to his side, so I jumped out just before he put it in park, and dove across the hood to try and get it. I lost, but he did admit that he was impressed by my effort. Paige was grinning when we got back in, and goes "Mama funny on a car!" She talked about it for a while.

Speaking of driving, look at how Jess drives, instead of buying sunglasses.
While we were at mom's house I went outside to see how her garden is doing. I planted a TON of squash seeds a couple months ago, to make sure I got a few healthy plants. I ended up with like 12, so I sent some over to my sisters and mom, since I didn't have a ton of room. Well mine started off strong, but recently quit growing, and looked wilted and just unhealthy. THESE beauties are the ones I sent to my mom:
Whatever.

Mine are now in here:
But since my mom just likes gardening, and doesn't really cook much with squash, I got to take home the first big beautiful fat yellow squash we harvested today. Her labor, my gain.

Tonight Tyra and I were baking some Father's Day goodies. While we baked, Paige discovered she could talk to Jess through the vent between the kitchen and living room. She was SOOOO pumped. She kept running back and forth telling us to "LOOK", and trading rooms with him, while they talked through the vent.