Water Fountains Are Good For More Than Just Getting Wet

Downtown right by the river there is a fantastic water fountain.  It is especially designed with kids in mind.  Water bursts forth from black metal pipes, sometimes reaching as high as fifteen feet in the air.  Small jets of water pop out of small holes.  Kids of all ages run and shriek through this frequented fountain in the summer.  Thankfully, since we live in a relatively small town, it hasn't been overcrowded when we've visited.

Eyes must be windows to the soul, because looking into these pretty peepers are my favorite part about visiting the fountain.

 Look at how they glimmer with excitement!

 Excitement, pleasure, pure happiness,

it's all there in those eyes.  Every single time they run into the water it is a glorious as their very first splash.

The excitement does not fade.

The grins are also fun to watch.

So is the plotting.  What feat of superhero skill will this boy attempt next?  Karate-chopping the water jets?  Sounds like fun!

Yep, pretty fun.  Why kids are the most uninhibited while soaking wet is something I don't quite understand.  Adults lose this along the way.  You want me flouncing around, dripping wet, in a bathing suit in front of a whole bunch of people without even the cover of being surrounded by a pool of water?  No thank you.  

Of course, there are always the times when Everett demands my attention and announces, "Mom! You have to watch this [daring new trick] I'm going to do.  And I'm going to yell GERONIMO really loud!"

Uninhibited?  Yep, that's her, right here.  I never get these kinds of smiles under other circumstances.  Every time the kids ran to me and told me about something amazing they saw, I had to snap another picture.

And then both kids will start to be engrossed with the water again for a while.

What happy faces!  This is what I like to see!

And then you have the leaping.

Combined with excitement, leaps can't be beat.

William was content to sit back and watch the kids.  He loves baths but was not sure about gallons of water raining down from high above his head.  Joel was content to read a book.  I was content to snap pictures. (148, to be exact.  And you thought I am posting a lot today.)

Finally, though, it is time to go home.

You can always tell when the kids are getting cold.  And Ashley is always done first.  I try not to laugh at her, but Cold Ashley can be pretty funny.

Thank goodness for hooded towels.  These were a gift long ago and they are my favorite.  (Everett thinks they are great for playing Superman, which he is doing here.)

The kids especially enjoy the towels because they are large enough to turn them into yellow, furry boulders.

And then it is time to go home.  And because this particular adventure took place right after dinner, the kids slept very well.  I'm thinking we need to make this a regular activity for this exact reason.  Come and visit us!  We will take you to the river to get soaking wet as well.  And maybe we'll let you play in the fountains, too.  (ha, ha.)

On Being Observant

(I debated about posting this story, but it will be awful if I forget about it.  If I don't post it here, I will never write it down.  Read or skip--this one deals with private parts, though I don't name them directly so we don't show up on some strange person's google search.)

Everett is four-and-a-half and is very observant.  I learned just how observant he really is as we were watching the movie Anastasia two nights ago.

We got to the part where Anastasia goes to Sophie's house with her comrades to prove that she is the lost princess.

Sophie bounced and giggled about in a too-small purple dress.  Everett's eyes widened.

"MOM," he said, grabbing my arm with great urgency, "Look at that lady!  Those things are SO BIG."  Everett poked my bra to show me what he was talking about.

I couldn't help it.  I busted up laughing at his innocent wide-eyed wonderment.

I asked him to tell me again what he said in case I somehow got it wrong.

"Those things that that Lady has are SO BIG."  Everett paused.  "No, look Mom!  Right there!  Look!"  He was truly, deeply amazed.

So I took a few minutes to explain about private parts and how to talk about them and when and why we need to be respectful.  He gets it--the light bulb turned on.  "Just like [boys parts]!" he said.  We've had the boy parts talk many times.  I don't like using euphemisms so we say the names of things straight out and respectfully.  I have explained before about some female anatomy terms (hello, he's seen me breastfeed two babies) but he must have forgotten.

Later when I was telling Joel this story, I shook my head and commented, "typical male."

"What?!" Joel retorted, "I can't help it if the boy is observant!"

So, we'll just stick with calling it observant for now.

Father's Day With the Best Father in the Universe

No really, he is.  At least, that is what our next-door neighbor calls him because she and her husband watch Joel play outside with the kids every day.  Little do they know that he plays with the kids inside every day as well!  But I do.  So when someone tells me how lucky I am that Joel is such a great father, which happens often, I smile and say I try my best to remember it.

Needless to say, Father's Day was a very fun day for us.  Everett had helped me pick out Joel's presents.  Ashley and Everett both were anticipating this day for weeks.

On Sunday morning when I woke Ashley up, I told her that Father's Day was finally here.

"YEAH!"  she exclaimed, "and then it will be Ashley's Day and then Everett's Day and then William's Day!"

We made Joel's dream breakfast of french toast and bacon.  The kids carefully helped me load it up on a tray, which Everett painstakingly carried up the stairs and into his father's room.  Ashley took care of the orange juice.

Both were very proud that they did not spill "even one little crumb!"

We three sat down to eat our servings and Joel came down to join us.  "I want to eat breakfast with my family," he said.

So he did.

The real treat was that we had stake conference, and even though it was a bit of a drive, we didn't have to leave until after our Church meetings usually start.  Plus, Joel was home all morning and helped me get the kids ready (this is more like a Mother's Day present but who's counting?).

After church, lunch, and naps, it was time for presents!  Everett and Ashley were thrilled that it was finally time.

So we blindfolded Joel,

brought him outside,

and the kids revealed the presents.

Water guns for all!

But the kids quickly learned that whoever has the biggest gun wins.

Then they all came inside and we revealed the final present:

Thank you, nerf.  Joel has been wanting one of these ever since Everett got a marshmallow-shooting bow for his birthday.

First up: target practice.  These are the unfortunate victims.  I probably would have chosen something non-human-like, but oh well.

Ashley was amazed with the nerf gun.

After lining each other up against the front window and taking shots to see who could land a dart the closest without actually hitting the victim, the wars began.

Everett used his bow, and Joel used his nerf gun.

The best thing about the whole arrangement is that Joel ran out of ammo faster than Everett, who had twenty shots.  If the marshmallows got eaten, we got out some more.  

Holding Joel's fallen ammo hostage upped the ante a little bit as well.

It was a fun afternoon.  We finished with dinner and calls to grandparents.

We love our Joel and are so glad he is the father of this family.  We couldn't ask for a better man for the job.  Thank you!

Summer, What is it Good For?

Why, lunch time picnics in the back yard of course!

And it doesn't matter what you eat.  Everything tastes better when eaten cross-legged on a blanket outdoors.

But it is a definite plus when your mother lets you eat potato chips for lunch.  Happy Day!  And of course those chips were the first things gone.  Next come a few bites of sandwich, then a sideways glance at the homemade applesauce.

Having time for a little day-dreaming is also a plus, as is wearing your favorite hand-me-down dress up.  Maybe this dress is more suited for an afternoon tea?  We'll have to get going on that one.

Ashley had the most fun with her special horses.  Did you know that it is more fun to play with horses outside because there is real grass out there?

Of course, Everett did get in on the fun.  Horses are not just for girls, even the horses with curly hair, long eyelashes, and heart necklaces.

And Ashley was so happy to have someone to play horses with.

Poor William was taking a nap and did not participate.  He would have loved running around, eating sticks and leaves and ignoring his lunch completely.  Maybe next time.

Painter's Trick From a Definite Non-Expert

Some of you want to know my magical trick for painting straight lines.  Well, it definitely isn't magical, and it is actually pretty easy!  All it takes is a little extra time.  If I can do it, you can too.

What you need:

two inch painter's tape
pencil
tape measure
paint roller and/or good quality paint brush

(Start with your base coat of paint--you might have to do two coats to make it even.  Once that dries, you are ready to begin.)

First you need to mark off where you want your lines to be.  I did this using the tape measure from ceiling to floor.  I made a little pencil mark every few feet or so.

Then, take your painter's tape and place it along the outside edges of the lines you want to show.

Next (and here is the important part), if you have textured walls, take a roller or brush and put your base coat on the inside of your taped-off stripe and go all along the edges of the tape.  The reason for this extra step is that it seals the edge of the tape, and any bleed-through will be the color that is already there so it won't show.

Once that is dry after about an hour, go ahead and paint with the color you want the actual stripe to be.  Your top color won't bleed through because you've already created a barrier.  You will probably need to do two coats.

Once it is dry, carefully pull off your tape and run your fingers along the ruler-straight edges.  Then be happy knowing that you won't be bothered by tiny little bleed-throughs on your walls for the rest of your life.

Easy, peasy.  If anyone has any further questions, feel free to ask.

The Boys in the Big Blue Room

When we first moved into our house, Ashley and Everett were thrilled to share a room.  William had a quiet room all to himself, and everyone was happy.  

Everyone, except Mama and Papa.  Ashley and Everett were so excited about being in the same room that they would regularly stay up until 9:30 or 10:00 playing, messing around, and jumping off their beds.  The kids didn't even have toys in their room to tempt them.  No amount of consistent punishment, incentive, or yelling would get them to knock it off.  The punishment was worth the fun.

William just had his first birthday in March.  Joel and I tossed around the idea of putting the boys together and giving Ashley her own room.  I worried that William is too little, that Ashley would be scared by herself, and that the whole thing would be a miserable failure.

I had been talking about painting the room blue for quite some time.  I finally decided to do it.  So, one weekend while Joel was gone, the kids and I picked out paint and got busy.  I painted during William's naps and late at night while the kids slept in sleeping bags in the basement play room.

I didn't have very good before pictures, but I took these shortly after we moved in last December.

White walls, brown accent wall.  Not too shabby, but I wanted something a little more fun for the kids.

Of course, while they never complained about the (lack of) color on the walls, they were ecstatic that the room was going to be Everett's favorite color.

And here is the after!  I decided to go for stripes because they are fun but not just for preschoolers.  Joel wasn't a big fan of the idea, so I did a rough rendering of how it would look so he could okay it when he got home.  I had enough paint to paint over the stripes with no problem, but he said to go ahead and keep them and I finished them up.

I loved how the blue looked with the dark wood trim and luckily enough, our furniture matched it as well.  It is a little tricky to do a perfect line when your walls are textured (because the paint leaks under the tape no matter what), but I found a great way to do it.  If anyone wants to hear about it, let me know.

My original plan was to do all the stripes the same size, but I ended up liking it best with the darker stripes a little narrower.  They were even narrower when I put on the very first coat and I almost wish I had left them that way, but I figured 1/2 inch on either side wouldn't really make a difference.  I had to get the lines perfect.

Everett, who has been into Speed Racer lately, calls them his "racing stripes". 

Here is my little sickie-with-a-sore-throat, the north side of the room, and an unfinished dresser.

William's side of the room.  Even though I like to keep things simple, maybe we need some sort of fun wall decoration.  I haven't thought of anything yet.  Do you have any ideas?

Independent Miss Ashley was thrilled that the boys got to be together so she could have her own room.  I wondered how she would do by herself but so far she has not talked about being scared.  We let her have a few books in her bed so she can read herself to sleep.  It is nice that she wakes up refreshed every morning.

But they all like to play in here together.

So how is it going with William and Everett together?  I was pretty nervous to try it out.  William is a very light sleeper.  I can't even check on him when he is asleep because as soon as the door opens, up pops his little head and he is ready for fun.

BUT, it took one night with five or so minutes of fussing and confusion and one nap time to get William adjusted to his new room.  Now, a few days later, it doesn't even phase him when Everett pops in and out or when we come in at night to do this or that.  If William wakes up when this happens, he just rolls over and goes back to sleep.

And William wakes up each morning to a happy greeting from his buddy Everett.  They are very proud to have a boys' room.

Next up: Painting Ashley's room.  I'm thinking we'll do a nice, light, butter yellow.  And because eventually we will need to get her a big-girl bed, I might do a red bedspread and accessories (we are starting from scratch so we might as well choose something we like).  This way, if we need to switch kids around later, all the bedspreads will coordinate with the different rooms.  Do any of you have any other ideas?

Primary Questions

Everett had a substitute teacher in his primary class on Sunday.  She found Joel after church and told him that Everett said something funny.  

(Nothing new about that, Joel thought.)

Apparently the class was talking about Missionaries.

"How do missionaries act?"  the teacher asked.

Everett replied, "They do NOT go outside and pull their pants down."

Everett's teacher laughed and told him he was exactly right.

I laughed too when Joel told me this story.  But I was also happy to hear what Everett said.  Apparently all my talks with Everett about appropriate behavior outdoors have begun sinking in.  I am just hoping he thinks that sentiment applies to him as well as Missionaries the world over.

Nap, Please!

William fell asleep at his high chair after church on Sunday.  Usually Joel gets him to sleep during Sunday School while I'm teaching my class, but it didn't happen this particular day.

Poor guy.  By lunch time he was pretty wiped out.

I don't think I've taken a fall-asleep-at-the-highchair picture of my other kids, so I had to grab this opportunity.  And yes, the flash did wake him up.  So did removing the tray.  No problem though--he went right back to sleep, head bobbing and body swaying away.

Love Thy Brother

Ashley has always loved William but has also been a little distant.  Lately, however, she is becoming more demonstrative with him.  I think this is because he is now walking and interacting more like a toddler and she sees him more as a companion than just a baby.

On Sunday I found Ashley and William playing "Ring Around the Rosies."  William laughed whole-heartedly as she chanted the rhyme.

Everett soon joined in and the three of them had a great time.  William was thrilled with this new game.

Of course, Everett had to get some time with William all to himself.

William didn't mind.  Those boys love wrestling with each other.  Ashley usually keeps her distance with an air of indifference.

These two take wrestling very seriously.

And Ashley takes twirling very seriously.

Ashley is not too much of a girly-girl, but she loves prancing and dancing and twirling like a little ballerina.