Rainy Day

First off, I had no idea how to get a decent photo with it being dark in here and all these crazy lights flashing, so I apologize for blurry pictures.

Now, when you want to have an outdoor playdate with your friends, but the weather isn't going to cooperate what do you do?

Kids Bowl Free is such an awesome deal!  If you haven't, check this out!  This program offers your children 2 free games of bowling everyday from May through August.  Check out the website to see if there is a participating bowling alley near you!

What a blast these kiddos had!  This wasn't their first trip.  But it was the first time Molly was really into it.  She loved pushing the ball down the ramp and watching it knock the pins down.  Jane loves to go bowling.  It's usually something we save for special days, but now we can go all summer!

We will be back!  And we are getting all our other friends to sign up too!!

Weekend

It's birthday time around here!  Molly's birthday this week, Jane's next.  With two outdoor parties coming up, the weekend was consumed with getting the yard ready. 

I saw the Jane differently this weekend.  It was like we fast forwarded 5 years.  We were outside all weekend working.  The other neighborhood kids were out.  They are older, most around 2nd grade and they are all boys.  I guess Jane was bored enough at home that she invited them to come play with her.  It was so funny to watch her initiate this.  From our front yard she yelled to one and waved him over.  She's seen him around but never said more than hi before.  Now she was telling him about herself and inviting him to play on the swingset.  Down the hill they went, out of my sight.  I figured I'd give them their space.  He seemed shy and my presence may scare him away.   They spent more time down there than I thought they would.  And I was happy Jane had a friend.  Later, she was crossing the street by herself to join the boys in a ball game.  For a moment, she didn't seem much like the almost 4 year old she was.  I'm thankful for her outgoing personality and ability to make friends so easily.

Molly is my little dare devil.  Fear doesn't live in that child!  She and Jane were playing on the swingset. I could hear them talking to each other, though my back was turned to them.  I guess I was so engrossed with what I was doing that I didn't notice they had went out the back gate.  There's a tiny little creek beyond the gate.  Most of the time there's not much water in there.  However, it had rained inches just the day before so the creek was pretty darn full.  The next thing I hear is Jane yelling that Molly went in the creek.  I took off down that hill so fast, finding Molly just standing there in that water up to her thighs.  She was quite proud of herself.  Thank God this is a very small creek. But I learned my lesson!   That gate needs to stay latched unless I've got two eyes on them! 

Of course then I needed my camera.  So the pictures below are what followed this little incident.  They were pretty much done wading in the creek by then though.

Sunday was warmer and the girls went swimming.  Molly went in for the first time with her floaty- in the deep end, giggling up a storm every time she felt her body floating.  Jane's been loving the pool and wants to swim everyday.  I'm pretty sure now that Molly's had a taste, she'll be begging to go in too!

It was a productive weekend, but I look forward to some fun next!
 

 (The sticks are magic wands.  They were yelling Bippity Boppity Boo 

and turning each other into toads!)

Pieces of Them

 

I look at these two.  Girls now.  No baby left in them.  (Though they will always be my babies.)  It seriously breaks my heart that they are growing so fast.  I wish I could somehow keep them just as they are right now!

I have 10 Rubbermaid boxes of clothing that they have outgrown.  We pulled them out from the basement so that someone I know could go through them for her infant daughter. Before she came over I rummaged through them, searching for the clothing that could be considered gender neutral.  I was digging for yellow but kept pulling out pinks, thinking, holy cow, they were this tiny not that long ago.  I held on to these little outfits, reminiscing.  Every piece has a memory.  I remember who gave us each piece or where I bought it.  In my mind I was picturing the times they wore these little outfits, like when we brought them home from the hospital, the first time they sat up and walked, or just where we had went that day.

So many emotions.  

The woman came and started searching through the boxes, unfolding the clothes, looking at them without any memory tied to them, then tossing them into her want or leave pile. 

So many emotions.

I wanted her to stop scrutinizing each piece, each piece that had been carefully laundered.  There were no stains.  Each piece had been taken care of with love.  Everything is perfect.  When she tossed it to her "leave" pile, I wanted to say, hey, what's wrong with that piece??  That's what my daughter wore when I took her to the Please Tough Museum for the first time.  It's a very special outfit, how do you not see that?

I wanted to just scream, STOP.  Stop taking the clothes apart, stop throwing them, stop taking them.  I wanted to tell her I changed my mind.  I want to keep them.  All of them.  

But that's just crazy.  

When she was done I helped her bag them up.  In a way I felt like she was taking away my memories and away little pieces of my girls. 

But I am so thankful I've taken so many, many photos over the years.  I don't need to look at clothing to go back to these memories.  I have my pictures.  And I vow to never stop taking pictures, lots and lots of pictures.  Clothes will come and go.  I'll have my pictures forever. 

Life Lately

 

The busy season has officially begun.

I've been so busy that my camera hasn't come out of it's bag in 5 whole days! 

That's unheard of around here!

Here's a little of what's been going on.

- Starting with the biggest deal, we had our 20 week ultrasound last week and found out we are having a boy!  For a few short seconds I didn't know how to respond.  Part of me wanted another girl.  But another part really hoped for a boy.  We are in such girl mode around here, it will be nice to see how our family dynamic changes (it won't be princess 24/7 around here anymore!).  I had a doctors appointment then this morning and found out I have to go back and have another ultrasound done because they said they didn't have very good images of the heart.   I'm praying everything is fine!  Jane took the news of a baby brother very well!  She is really excited to have a baby around, which is a big change for her.  She's never been very interested in babies.  All of a sudden she's tickling my belly and asking to talk to the baby all the time.  It's the sweetest thing ever!  Molly, on the other hand, is really is pretty clueless.  She copies and mimics Jane about the baby but I don't really think she has any idea.  And when the baby is here, I'm pretty sure she's going to be super jealous.  She's such a mama's girl.  If Jane even sits in my lap, Molly's trying to push her out!

-We celebrated the upcoming birth of my sister's baby over the weekend with a shower at my mom's house.  So last week, most of my free time was spent putting decorations and games together.  I'm so disappointed I didn't take any photos.  I was super proud of my homemade decorations!  My sister is having a boy as well.  I'm glad our boys will be so close in age and have each other to do "boy things".  She got a lot of stuff from the shower.  I'm sure she's having fun organizing it all.  I remember that was my favorite part, figuring out where to put everything!

-Swimming!!  Temps had been hot!  Since we had only just opened the pool, the water temperature was in the 60's and it doesn't get full sun all day long. It usually takes until the end of June for the water to be Ashleigh acceptable!  But it wasn't stopping Jane!  However, I would only let her stay in for 10 minutes, or less, at a time.  Just too cold for her skinny little body!  She's been awesome though jumping off the step and swimming around the pool.  She loves to have you throw something in and she'll go swim after it. Jane went to 2 days of camp at her school last week.  One of the days she was there I took Molly to a local community pool. It was much warmer!  I was anxious to see how Molly would like it.  Turns out, she's a little fish!  She was giggling the whole time, going down slides, and getting her face sprayed like a champ!  We also had filled up the baby pool everyday.  I even got in that with the girls!  It was that hot!  One evening we went over to my dad's to help him open his pool.  I can't wait until his is ready.  He has this HUGE pool float that is so much fun!

-There's been lots of gardening and weeding going on around here as well.  Our garden now consists of strawberries (which the girls having been picking and eating like candy on a daily basis!), beans, peas, peppers, cherry tomatoes, and now cucumbers.  Our peas are starting to climb our teepee now.  The beans are growing and I'm hoping the are going to climb!  (I may have gotten the wrong kind??!!  The packet didn't say bush or pole so I kinda guessed!)  Since our hose for watering is out of commission for now because the water in the laundry room is currently turned off for the renovation, I've been having to water by watering can.  Oh my!  Between the front of the house, pots, back, and now all these vegetables- it's quite a task!  Brian's been clearing out our over weeded-over grown other gardens, which also is a very large job!  But things are growing around here!

These crazy girls.  

Well, they are about to have a baby BROTHER!!!!

Dreams

Before I had children I fantasized about what my life would be like as a mother.  In many ways, reality has far exceeded any dream.  Having babies and watching how they change and explore the world around them is simply the most amazing thing.  I swear, if I stare at them long enough I can actually see them growing!  Sometimes I wonder how I got to this point in my life so fast.  But mostly, I'm in awe that this life I've always wanted is happening- right now!

While I was away over the weekend I was thinking about life.  Admittedly, there are some parts that I'm afraid I might look back at and be disappointed. Before I children, I had these dreams for my life as a mother.  Most of them include being outdoors, a lot.  And barefoot in the country.  This part we do well!  But I wanted to be intentional with all that I do.  And I'm not.  I feel like sometimes I'm just dragged down by either tiredness, too many things to do, or just not enough money to accomplish what I want. 

I wanted to make homemade meals, not boxed mac and cheese.  I wanted to live with music as our soundtrack to life, not tv.  I wanted to spend spare time in my garden, not on this dang computer admiring how others are living.  I wanted to live simply and not fill my house with toys from box stores. 

But it's not too late to change, right?  I know that change doesn't happen over night.  And somethings I probably won't be able to change too much.  But if I keep letting this life pass me by I'm afraid I'll have regrets.  And so, here's to being more intentional with the girls, to not letting tiredness drag down what I want to do, and make the things I want in this life happen.

Here's to more of this kind of life.

Weekend Away

Friday evening we took off on a 3+ hour drive to spend Memorial Day weekend at my uncle's house just outside of Washington D.C.  The idea of a mini vacation was very appealing.  Sometimes you just need to get away.  And it was definitely just what this family needed!

It was a gorgeous weekend and though the weather was unseasonably cool, it couldn't have been more perfect. 

We saw some rad old cars, great falls, played in the yard, went to the children's museum, saw the Potomac River from the National Harbor, and just had a lovely time with family.  I wish we could do it more often!

 

Going away can also be great for clearing your head and rethinking your priorities.  More on this another time...