Dirt, Sand, Mud, Popsicles & More Dirt

Max ended up looking like this in a matter of 2-3 hours of being outside!

It sure makes his eyes really blue and his hair really blonde!!

He was taking handfuls of dirt out of the garden and throwing them down the back of his onesie.

Then he moved to the sandbox and it was so hot out that the sand just stuck to him. 

We are on vacation right now and I am pretty sure he will be looking like this for the next 7 days! 

Mallory tends to stay pretty clean.  She usually has a popsicle stain on her face and a popsicle drip line stain on her arm.

Morning Sunshine

I had to run some errands on Friday (my day off) so I stopped at the park since it was a beautiful morning before we did my errands.

The kids get so excited when I do random things like this.  It wasn’t planned.  I had to go to the post office which is right across the street from this little playground. 

We tried to get Max to pose with us for a picture.  He is too busy.  And… he could not understand what I wanted.  : )

This was as close as we got. 

Then we took a little walk – burn off some energy before we run errands my secret little plan.

Max falling behind… and fake crying… wants me to carry him.  Doesn’t like to be last in line. 

Found a lion water fountain. 

Now this thing screams “GERMS!  DO NOT TOUCH!”  However, kids are kids and they must touch it.  So I bite my tongue and let them for a bit and think…

…I drank out of a lion like this as a kid in my park and I’m still here. ; ) 

Family Fun To Come!

Jesse has had his eye on a Polaris RZR4 for a long while now. Him and Mallory would sit down and get on Craig's List and search for them. We soon found out they are hard to find.

After a long time of searching – they found one!  I’m not sure who loves it more… Jesse… Mallory or Maxwell!!  The squeals, screams, and giggles that come out of these kids when Jesse takes them for rides.  The tears that come when he stops and tells them the ride is over.

Jesse was working on it one Saturday and the kids just sat in it and played and played and imagined and played.

Using a Lego to put more gas in it.

Um, Max… you shouldn’t drink the gas.

Whew!  He gave it back and Mally can put more gas in it so she can go to the store.  That shirt Mally is wearing… she calls it her “work shirt”.

They don’t even have to go anywhere – they just like to sit in it!

This boy!  He L.O.V.E.S. it!  He has to have really long rides or he breaks out into tears if you come back too early.

She loves it too!  She likes to sit in the back and scream and giggle when you go fast!

We have a vacation coming up and we are bringing this little family vehicle and hoping to get some good fun in!

Staying Up Late

Every once in a while (about once a week) we will let Mallory stay up late and do something special with us, Momma & Daddy.  Maxwell goes to bed as usual.  Sometimes we play a game.  Sometimes we read books.  Sometimes we have a campfire.  Sometimes we water flowers.  Sometimes we eat snacks.  What ever we do she totally digs it!

This special night she got to help Daddy mark off the driveway.

He is so much more patient with her and letting her help him than I am.

She is total little girl during these projects too.  Asking all kinds of questions and talking none stop!

Always two steps behind ready and willing to help where she can.

She wanted to paint too.

Our streets are completely torn up, and have been for about 2 months now.

In every direction.  The kids and I use to go on daily walks and we haven’t done that in so so so long.  I think Max learned the word “bumpy” from bouncing down these roads in the truck.  It will be awesome to have these streets back.  But Max is loving all the big trucks and diggers!

They painted the letter M!

Blueberries!

Mr. Max has figured out how to climb up on the chairs.  And when I’m setting the table for supper – you can find him right here trying to get into it before everyone else.  He has little to no patience when it comes to waiting for supper.

Then Miss Mallory will sneak to the table and help him if he can’t reach!

Which then became a fun game of roll the blueberries back and forth.

They are become such little buddies… and troublemakers!

Hot Hot Hot!

It has been really hot here.  Really hot!  And really hot for a long time!  We’re talking 90s with lots of humidity!  There has been lots of water play.  And we have to keep putting water on the patio because otherwise it is too hot and they burn their little feet.

I cleaned out the pantry and I had all these empty baby food jars that I was keeping and I got sick of them and tossed them.  Well the kids love to play with them!

She just poured water between these jars over and over.

Then Max started hitting Mallory on the head with the shovel.  And didn’t listen when I told him no and repeated to hit Mallory.

So he had to take a timeout and I peeked and took a picture.

He cries!  He does not like timeouts!  And it takes him a while to recover from being on a timeout.  Which is probably why this is the last picture I have from this day.  : ) 

A Picnic and A Jeep Ride

A couple Sundays ago we left Mallory’s blanket at Grandma Mary’s house and didn’t realize it until we were driving down our street. Its an hour drive back to Grandma Mary’s house. Um. Paper. Rock. Scissors. Who is going to break the news to her?

It didn’t take her long to figure it out on her own and the tears. Oh the tears! The tears! Did I mention there were tears? There were tears! I so brilliantly came up with this plan… Mallory you can have Mommy’s special blanket! Do you want to sleep with Mommy’s special blanket tonight? Between sniffles and tears she says, but what will you sleep with? Aw!! So sweet! I reassured her that I would be okay and she could have my blanket and that we would go get her blanket after work the next day. Easy! She went to bed without a hitch!

Mommy’s special blanket – was just the blanket from the living room.  : )  Shhhh!  She thinks it is my blanket! 

Well the next day Jesse sent an email that it was a beautiful day and we should take the Jeep out and go for a picnic.  He forgot I needed to go get Mally’s blanket.  It was a prefect plan.

We could stop at a park between their house and ours.  Eat a picnic of nachos… tacos were on the schedule that night and I couldn’t figure out how to turn them into a picnic – so I made deluxe nachos.  Delish.

Kids got to play at the playground.

The kids were huge fans of this unplanned picnic, park and Jeep ride night!

After the park we went to get Mally’s blanket.  Was she so excited to get that back in her arms! 

The moon was kind of neat on our drive home.

I was working on metering on my camera on how to get pictures without having to use my flash.  I got it!  Blurry!  But I got it!

I was able to get a picture of this sky!

On the way home it was a little chilly and Mally kept asking to roll up her window… she didn’t have a window to roll up. So I kept tucking her into her blanket.  And she eventually fell asleep.

Max fell right to sleep.

And this is how you look after a night of riding in the Jeep!!