A good man

A good man takes care of his little ladies.

Letting her fingers dry, getting her toes done, and watching Wizard of Oz on the computer in the living room.  She's livin' large.

Setting a good example...

My first try at curling Maddie's hair.  It turned out really well and I was really proud of myself.

We just had to be vigilant about keeping her away from an open flame.

Lots of hairspray.  Lots.

I did these myself...let Tim off the hook.

And I found a $5 book at Dillons that is going to feed my need for a breezy beach read.

Uncomplicated.

That's the word for the next month.

We also made our sponge balls, sponge bobs, bally-balls.

Whichever term you care to use.  Each one of my kids as a different name for them.

Tie a string around the middle.

This literally took me 4 minutes to do both of them.

I can't wait to see the kids launch these around in the pool.

Random post, I know.

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

is our battlecry.

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

we shout to the sky.

See how we go

my brother, sister, and I.

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

It's time for us to fly.

We feign no grace

or pretentious dignity

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

As we dive under the sea.

Together we'll go

To places unseen

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

With our senses so keen.

Come play with me

If you possess the fortitude

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

is ultimate attitude.

It won't always be pretty

It won't always be smart...

...but

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

it's time for us to start.

This is our summer

This is our time

WHOOLEY KAHOOLEY

It's our time to shine.

Frustration

What I want to do:

Play hide and seek with Ella's sock puppy.

Work on my 4th of July quilt and chill with Payton.

These are all Chalkabock full of ideas.

How wonderful to just close my eyes, open, point, and do whatever it says.

Do something beautiful here.....

or here....

or here.

Instead, I have hydronephrosis.

It's just not as pretty.

It's interesting, but not pretty.  Not lovely at all.

Oh well.  Knowing everything about hydronephrosis will eventually pay off, literally.

Hydronephrosis will end up paying for more yarn...more fabric....more snuggle time and Spiderman pajamas.

Keep your head down, Kelly.

Plow through.

4th of July

We started right away with finding a frog in the skimmer.  Payton named him Kermit and he was Payton's buddy (whether he liked it or not) for the rest of the day.  I later used him as a motivator to get Payton in the water.  I attribute the success of the day to this frog.  Payton would not have learned to "swim" if it wasn't for him.

Sharing our frog with Nana.  Nice one-finger touch Mary Lynn...reminds me of Ella.

So after MUCH coaching and begging and bargaining....Payton finally got in the water and learned to noodle swim.  What finally made him try?  Chasing the frog.  He liked swimming with Kermit.  I have had a major issue with getting my kids in the pool but I finally sucked it up and taught them some basics.  They loved it.  They did fabulous.  They swam all....day....long.  Jump in and kick, jump in and kick.  Why did I wait so long?

Jump in and kick.  Swim to the other side, touch the flowers, turn around, swim back, and repeat.

Ella was doing it too with the others and she loved it, I just didn't have the camera out.  Payton and Maddie were the main fish of the day.  They must have swam for 4-5 hours total. 

Then they noodled together for a while.  Buddies. 

Time for dinner and then....fireworks. 

Payton was beside himself.

Light and run.

Monkey see, monkey do.  Ella was so proud of Payton.  She wanted only him to light her fireworks.

We didn't leave Salina until 11pm.  The kids didn't make it 10 minutes before they were all sacked in the car.

Unfortunately, nobody slept in so yesterday we had an overabundance of attitude and grouch.

Oh well.

It was worth it.

Oh say can you see....a red lobster on me....

I've been wanting to do this craft for a while since I'm in my permanent Cape Cod mood.  I found this site off Pinterest, but the link is

http://www.crafty-crafted.com/animal-crafts/hand-and-footprint-lobster/

It doesn't really require a tutorial though.

The only difficult part of it is.....

Painting the foot of the 7-year-old in bright red paint.  Actually that part is easy.  Not being stressed while the 7-year-old has bright red paint on his foot is the hard part.  Paper towels were on hand.  It only gets worse though...

Impressed?  I am.  You should see the back of her shirt.  Somehow she kept herself completely clean except for the back of her shirt.  I still don't understand that one.

One foot and two hand prints later.  Now the website has the child use a black fingerprint for the eyes. 

I used a marker.

I'm very happy with that decision.  You can only handle so much stress.  This was Ella's lobster...quite the high arch on her.

Payton's lobster...as flat-footed as he can be.

Next we applied bubbles using the eraser of a pencil.  I thought that would keep globbing at a minimum, but the girl's still found a way.  We made a bunch of lobsters, some to keep, some to share.

This is mine.  I used Payton's feet, but I did mono-color bubbles for a clean red, white, and blue theme.

How unoriginal, but I do really love it.

We may do this every year.  They are so happy and fun.

I finally finished their hopscotch mat, too.  I started it on our Mother's Day weekend and just finished it.

Ella jumping backwards.

Maddie just laying on it.  Not so much hopping, has she been scotching?  Maddie....