New House Part One: The Patio

Well, we're not really in a house. We're renting a little town home for a while until we find a house we want to buy. But for some reason we use house synonymously with home. Either way, the kids love it, which is good because it's not as though they get a say in where we live.

I think one of their favorite parts of the house is our private patio. There is no fence, so I have to watch them pretty carefully, but they can do all sorts of fun things out back. We're not allowed to have a swimming pool, but we have gotten around that by filling buckets up with water and giving the kids sponges to play with.

I didn't realize when I bought this swimsuit for Ashley that the back hole was so big. It's too bad, too, although seeing two inches of diaper is definitely a nice look. The only nice thing is that the straps can't fall off her shoulder like in her old suit.

Chalk and sponges + water = hours of entertainment.

Everett enjoyed making colorful "rivers" of water by rubbing chalk in the cement crack water.

(I have to tighten up the shoulder straps, too.)

This is Joel after I threatened to get him wet. I'm putting this up because this is such a classic Joel-won't-go-down-without-a-fight look.

This is a video explaining why I'm still the kids' favorite. It's only a few seconds long, but it shows what most people already have seen from Joel any time there is water involved.

(password: mean)

I think he gets some sort of strange satisfaction from making them cry, but he does make me look like the benevolent one, and the best thing is, the kids never notice that I'm laughing at them along the way.