Sprinkler Pics

Poison Ivy

We love our little local park. We go at least a couple of times a week. 

Our favorite thing to do is walk the trail.  There are bridges and a little brook.  And lots of weeds and flowers for little hands to pick.  After we pick our fill we feed our gatherings to the goats at the petting zoo. 

(It's my favorite spot to take pictures, too.)
Last week my mom spent a few days with us while my husband was away. We went on our usual little walk, picking little weeds and flowers to feed the goats. 

"Amy," she said.  "You'd better be careful.  There's probably poison ivy out here."

(Do you know where I'm going with this?)

As a direct result of my mother's comment I am now covered in poison ivy for the first time since I was a kid. There's a thick patch on my chest that crawls up my neck to my jaw line. Little spots are bubbling up on my arms and fingers and toes.  My armpits.  My legs. When read stories to Brooke she sits and stares at the poison ivy instead of looking at the pictures.  I'm itchy and yucky and miserable.

On a positive note, I will say that I am sososososo glad it's me and not the kids.  Also, I learned from Fancy Nancy: Poison Ivy Expert that people with poison ivy are not contagious, so that's good too.  (I get my medical information from only the most reliable sources, you know.)

Anyway, moral of the story: listen to your mama.

The end.

Happy Father's Day!

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,

The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,

The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle’s flight,

The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,

Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it Dad.
--Anonymous

We just love our "Daddycakes"!!  Happy Father's Day to you!   
Love, Us 

Such Siblings

Ah, siblings.

There are a lot of sweet times right now. 

Lately Brooke has been waking up at 5:30 in the morning.  I have not.  She plays by herself for awhile, then goes into Nate's room with an armful of toys and books.  She wakes him up and they play through the crib bars. 

It's sweet. 

But most of the time they're such siblings.  Stealing toys.  Chasing.  Whopping each other upside the head. Wrastling. (Yes, wrastling.)

Sometimes I use their little spats to teach them how to play. 

Sometimes I just ignore them.

And sometimes I yell, "for pete's sake, you two STOP FUSSING and BE NICE and DON'T MAKE ME COME UP THERE!"

That hardly ever works.

At least they're in the same weight class now.

It's Summer Now

It's summer now.

Holy cow, it's hot.

So there's a whole lot of this going on.

And this.   

 Another day, another tea party.  Ours are clothing-optional...

...and manners-optional.  We usually opt out of both.

Like a good mama, I keep the kiddos healthy and hydrated with a steady diet of ice cream and popsicles.

Our four strawberry plants and two tomato plants have produced a grand total of one green tomato.  It's a little early for the tomatoes, but the strawberries are duds, I guess?  Who knows.

And my mild obsession with the gerber daisies continues.

They are such sweet little models.  They just sit outside my door, looking pretty and waiting to get their pictures taken. 

And that's how we're doing summer so far. :-)

Name that Flower

Brooke and I started some sprouts a couple of months ago. We watched and waited. And waited.

Andwaitedandwaitedandwaited.

Then we got this.

And the very next day we got this!

I don't know what kind of flower it is. It's the kind that you can forget about for a day or five and then water it and apologize and it forgives you and perks right back up.

The gerber daisies all whithered but new ones are sprouting up every day.

They start off going through a bit of an awkward phase.

They are such cheery little things.  My new favorite flower, for sure.  :-)

Child's Play

This week I'm linking up for the picture challenge over at I Should Be Folding Laundry.  The theme this week is "games."

I like this one because it's sooooo him right now.

Diaper on, belly out, and so focused on getting the little magnets in the little thingymajigger that he doesn't notice he's being watched. 

Are Legos considered a game?  Maybe not.  But that's what we played this morning.  

We loves us some Legos.

Yes, we're all about the games around here. 

I can't wait for a summer full of them!