Not So Lazy For The Boys

Recently, while I was spending a lazy summer day on the blanket with Helena, and Bella was doing this for an hour...

...the boys found some sticks and made up a game. That is pretty common place in our household. In fact, they bring sticks home just about everywhere we go, and they get kind of attached to certain sticks. Right now, under the train table in the play room, there is a duct-taped stick. That stick traveled from our dinner stop after a summer weekend away to Columbus for a stop at my husband's family's house. The next morning a frantic call was made to GiGi (my mother-in-law): "GiGi, Max was wondering if you know where his weed-eater stick is." Thankfully, GiGi is such a wonderful grandmother that she knew right where Max had left his weed-eater stick, and it then made the trip from Columbus to us the following week. It has since been broken and duct-taped twice. That's one special stick. The sticks in this particular story have been four-wheeler handle bars since this lazy summer day. The boys set up jumps for their four-wheelers and went ripping around the yard on them, sound effects and all. Max has really been Mr. MeToo with Kane lately, copying EVERYTHING that he does. Don't take my word for it - see for yourself. Kane jumps off of the tree.

Max jumps off the tree.

Kane zooms around and jumps over the bucket.

Max jumps over the bucket.

Kane's next jump is the tee-ball tee.

And by now I hope you can guess what came next.

It is a fun relationship to watch develope. Especially when it is under this pristine, crystal blue sky that we have had day after day this late summer.

It is my idea of a perfectly glorious lazy late-summer day.

Summer Thunderstorms

I absolutely love thunderstorms. As a child, I used to sit on our back porch swing and watch the thunderstorms roll in with my mom and dad. Those are some of my fondest childhood memories. So this time of year is extra dear to me, because I love a good summer thunderstorm. There is one heading our way right now. As I type I can see the lightning lighting up the sky out of my back doors. Who needs a white noise machine when you can fall asleep to the sound of rolling thunder and falling rain? Summer naps during an afternoon thunderstorm just can't be beat. 

My kids are not afraid of thunderstorms. Sometimes they are intimidated if the thunder is really loud, but we love to sit and watch the rain and count the seconds between lightning and thunder to tell how far away the lightning is. This summer, one of our favorite parts about afternoon thunderstorms is playing in the water in our backyard before it soaks into the ground. We stick on our boots and head out for a quick inspection of the garden, because that wonderful rain is doing so much for it.

Then we head behind the garden in the back of our yard, which is where the water all collects and slowly but surely runs out of the drainage pipe. Not before we get a good bit of running and kicking in, though.

Of course, eventually the boots come off, because they are absolutely filled with water.

On this particular day, before the rain water drained away, the kids decided they would be rice farmers, and got out their rakes and hoes to take care of their rice paddy. If only we could put in a rice paddy in the backyard. Rice being the only grain Bella can have, we go through enough.

They worked diligently to remove all of the weeds from their rice paddy. And I enjoyed some time in amazement at my childrens' imaginations. Now these will be some of my fondest memories of thunderstorms when I'm old. And hopefully they'll sit around reminiscing about when Mama let them play in the rain water after thunderstorms, telling their kids as they count seconds between lightning and thunder and get their rain boots ready for some summer fun.

TinkerBella

Bella went out with her wings on yesterday. TinkerBella.

A Toothless Fairy instead of the Tooth Fairy...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're easier to catch on film.

Growing

We grow good things around here: veggies, herbs, flowers (our gardens are doing wonderful this year), and kids....

We also grow imaginations.

Bella, with her play horse on the blue part of our area rug: "Kane, he's in the Uncling Pool." I ask what an Uncling Pool is. "You know, it's the pool that is only for uncles."

Bella comes to me with a story of Kane: "Mama, Kane said that the things he is making up are called The Gooeys, and that they ALWAYS have to mess things up. They put the TV to where it will never come off of pause and they're messing up our pterodactyl's nest!" I claim ownership of that idea. No one gets to write a book about that but me.

And Max, as we speak, has escaped, bare-bottomed, into the back yard, where he's walking around with his foam pirate sword doing a perfect weed-whacker impression. He has always been so good at imitating sounds. And Bella and Kane are following to look for Blue Beak and Pink Legs, our two newly-fledged and aptly-named Mo Does (Morning Doves).