Making the most of the rainy days

We have had about 18 days of rain around here. Today was a sunny afternoon and the kids made the most of their time outside by finding leftover rain puddles to play in. The puddle pictured here was found in their workbench toy. They spent quite a while getting messy and pretending to cook in the water puddles that had formed on the work bench.

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Busy Day!

Jeff had graduation to attend this morning. This afternoon he began to work on taking out the old toilet in the kid's bathroom. He began by shutting off the water and draining the water from the tank and bowl of the toilet. He then left the bathroom for a few moments to get his tools. Apparently while he was gone, Allie used the facilities and left a "present" for him. He had to start over from the beginning by turning on the water and flushing the waste before he could fully remove the toilet!

After the toilet was removed, I painted the bathroom before we installed the new toilet. I placed the empty paint can on the front porch because it was raining and I didn't want to go out in the sprinkles to take the can to the garage. The rain stopped while I was painting and the kids and Jeff went outside. While I was painting, I heard the front door slam. I hollered down from upstairs and asked who was in the house. The response from downstairs was "me!" Allie was inside in the downstairs bathroom and I heard the faucet running. I hollered down to ask little miss "ME!" what she was doing. She responded that she was washing off her paint. At that point I got a little nervous and wondered what paint Allie could be washing off. When I got downstairs I recognized the color that I was using on the kids bathroom walls. The paint was on her hands, her outfit and her hair. I stepped outside and then saw her hard work. She had found a brush in the garage and spent a great deal of time painting our concrete front porch, the wooden porch railing and our cedar siding a lovely oatmeal brown color. I actually liked how the siding looked in oatmeal brown (instead of the stained dark cedar color). Jeff wasn't so happy with the look! He sprayed the house off as best he could, however there are still some lovely oatmeal hues in the creases of the wood and on the steps and porch rails!

Jeff put the trampoline together for the kids this afternoon while Allie painted the porch and I painted the bathroom. The instructions said 3 people were required to complete the trampoline assembly, but my man stepped up and finished most of it by himself. I only had to come outside 3 times: once to consult on the best location for the trampoline, once to help figure out which screws were supposed to be used on the legs of the trampoline and once to help him flip the whole thing over! Ryan was brave enough to be the first one on the trampoline. I think that Jeff should have gone first just to make sure he had it all put together right :)

This evening while the boys were mowing our jungle, I mean lawn, Allie and I walked up the driveway to get the mail. As we were walking she asked me if I thought she was a big lady or a little lady. I said I didn't know and asked what she thought she was. She responded by telling me that she was a big lady. She then went on to tell me that big ladies paint and do dishes so she thought she was a big lady! :)

Ryan's Mother's day present

Jeff brought home some Roses for my mother's day present from him. He also brought some outdoor flowers for the kids to give me. The card he picked out from the kids was a card that contained "credit" cards good for certain items such as help clearing the table, a nap (for me not them), etc. As I read the card from the kids out loud, Ryan started scrunching up his face to express his dislike for the items on the credit cards! Ryan also had a present for me that he had made in preschool. It is an adorable towel with his footprints and a picture drawn on it! They made his footprints look like people and the two people are holding hands! He said the people on the towel and the "Ryan and mom". Also enclosed in the gift from preschool was a paper with the following questions and Ryan's answers to the questions:

1.) What's your mom's name - Jennifer
2.) What does she do - Takes pictures
3.) How old is she - 36 (not quite right on this one!)
4.) What does daddy call mom - Honey
5.) What is her favorite color - Pink
6.) What is her favorite food - El Charro
7.) What is her favorite movie - The Bee movie (this was a "date" movie for Ryan and I last year).
8.) How many brothers and sisters does she have - One
9.) Where does she like to take you for fun - Park
10.) What message do you want to send her for Mother's Day - I love you!

Swimming + Sunshine + T-ball = Summer??!!??

The sun shined today all day for the first time in about 12 days! After almost 2 solid weeks of rain, the kids begged me to let them swim the first time they saw the sun today. We started to get their old pool out, but the 3 air caps are missing. The last time I saw these, Buster had one in his mouth and I had to chase him down to get it back. So, I assumed trying to find the air caps was going to be a lost cause! After more begging from the kids, we loaded up and took a trip the store to get a new pool. The kids decided they needed to dress for the occasion. Already in their swimming suits, they pulled on t-shirts and cover ups and then added some unique accessories!
Once we got home, the kiddos spent the afternoon going down their little tykes slide and into the pool, while I spent the afternoon trying to stay dry and away from their splashing!

To finish off our nice day outside we headed to our t-ball practice!

Dirty Boy

This is my floor
Notice the dirt?

This is where the dirt came from:
When I asked what he was doing, he told me he was digging for treasure!

Hello Pizza Hut. May I take your order?

Ryan has now learned how to dial Grandma and Grandpa on my cell phone! Beginning to read has helped him with this task and he can now find their name in my phone address book and place a call to them. This new skill was tested out MANY times yesterday and each time Grandpa would answer and ask to take Ryan's Pizza order! These are some photos of the kids on one of their MANY calls to Grandma and Grandpa yesterday.

Ready for Preschool

I had to go to Ryan's school today to help the 6th grade class get do a project to prepare for their promotion at the end of the month. Allie went with me and spent the morning in Preschool with Ryan. We have been talking to Allie about starting preschool next year and each time we talk about it she has a different reaction. Sometimes she wants to go and sometimes she absolutely refuses to even consider it! Well today she went into the preschool room to visit and clung to my hand for the first few minutes. After we took a brief potty break, she was ready to get going and stay in the preschool class with her big brother while I went elsewhere in the building to work on the project! When I returned, the teachers said she had a great time and even participated in show and tell and snack time. She didn't want to leave!

The cutest part of the morning was Allison's outfit. We were in a hurry to get to the school on time today so I allowed her to just put her cinderella princess dress on over her green princess PJ bottoms and top. She then added her purple faux fur wrap around her shoulders, her purple princess dress up shoes and a big red bow in her messy hair! Needless to say, we got many comments on her outfit.