Signs

Just got home from a friend's mom's memorial service. A serious tear jerker. But the whole time there was this beautiful yellow swallowtail butterfly flitting around the backyard, just above everyone's heads. Simply amazing.

Where's the beef?

We keep a Costco sized box of individually wrapped peanut butter snack crackers in the car, so that whenever we see anyone standing at an intersection we can help them out. It's a tough thing explaining to the kids that there are people out there that don't have enough money for food, or even a place to live. They're learning that we can help them by providing a snack, something that could end up being the only thing they eat all day.

Today we were stopped at a red light for a left hand turn. There was a man directly next to us with a sign that read "Visions of a Cheeseburger". I rolled down my window and handed him a couple packages of crackers. As I rolled my window back up, Owen said, "Hey, hungry doesn't start with a V." I told to him that the sign was asking for a cheeseburger. "Well, why don't you give him a cheeseburger?" "I don't happen to have a cheeseburger in the car, nor do I know where to find one right now," I replied.

His response? "HELLO, Mc.Donald's, Mama!"

Paying it forward

My awesome friend Gen was scheduled for a hysterectomy a few months ago. Some other friends of ours, two sisters who are nurses, had just started their own company selling designer hospital gowns. They named it Annie & Isabel, after women in their family that they looked up to while growing up. I thought one of their gorgeous gowns would make a great gift, so I ordered one for Gen. Here's the post she did about her experience.

Are you freaking kidding me?!

Why are four year olds into EVERYTHING? Geez! This afternoon alone, for example - Owen wanted barbecue sauce to dip his french fries in. He asked for a spoon and I told him no. Skip ahead ten minutes to me sorting the mail and hearing him say, "Oops, I spilled barbecue sauce on my shorts." He'd gotten a spoon and was out of his chair, reaching up to the bar to scrap sauce off his plate. A large spoonful had fallen on his brand new khaki shorts. I (not so calmly) told him this was why we didn't use spoons to eat sauce, wiped off the glob, and took his shorts off. I put them on the top of the washing machine and sprayed them down with stain remover.

Half an hour later, as he is watching a movie, I head outside to throw some recycling away. In the minute it took me to walk outside to do that, what happens? I walk back in to him in the bathroom, looking for a tube of toothpaste - which I had put on the top shelf a few nights ago after catching him sucking the stuff straight down. He said he need to brush his teeth, because he licked the barbecue sauce off his shorts and it tasted yucky. Hello, stain remover!

Fairytale Town

Some of our cousins are in town from up in Washington state, so we met them at Fairytale Town this afternoon for some fun in the sun. We got there before them and took a bunch of pictures, and almost as soon as they got there my camera battery died. I'll have to see if I can get some pictures from their camera. They so enjoyed playing with cousins their own age!

Lauren with Mother Goose

Owen with Mother Goose

My crooked kids in the crooked house

City kids on a tractor

Enjoying a seat of honor in King Arthur's court

Listening to Jessa tell them about indians and teepees

Sitting in Cinderella's pumpkin coach

The Tin Man and Dorothy

How our evening looked

My poor boy. We always forget ear plugs for him during the fireworks. His ears are pretty sensitive - for example, he puts on Adam's shooting headphones when he helps me use the Kitchen.Aid mixer! I put a note on the calendar for next 4th of July so I don't forget them!

Happy 4th of July

Cousins

Movie night

This was the scene at our house after a full day of playing outside in the heat. Notice the filthy bare feet.

On hiatus for summer - be patient!