Fishing!

No jellyfish yet, so we've been going to the beach a lot...

Now you see him...(note M in the background, wandering off to drown himself)...

Now you don't!  He has finally started dunking his face in the water (and he wanted me to take a picture to prove it)

Friday morning I was making waffles and noticed the children were being unusually quiet.  Oh no!  This can only mean one thing: poop!  But actually, no, they were cooperatively and nicely building a castle together with blocks.  Lest you begin to worry that the Apocalypse is nigh, I will reassure you that 3 seconds after I took this picture, someone smashed this building and the other two started crying...

Brothers fishing...nobody caught anybody else with a hook, so it was a definite success.  L even reeled in his first fish!  We didn't keep anything because they were little sunfish...but nobody stepped in/touched the animal poop that was all around, either!  So hooray!

M and Daddy cast off...

Who needs a fishing pole anyway?

I'm gonna find a turtle in the mud!

PS I wish I had a picture of F facing down the guard-alpaca on this farm.  Hilarious!  Inspirational (the boys picked up their own sticks on the way back to the car in honor of Daddy's bravery)!!!  Yaay for Dads!

A Crocodile, A Soccer Game, A Pizza Banquet, and some Pirates...

It has been hot here, so that means two things: 1. You need water to play in, and, 2. There will be jellyfish at the beach...hence, the crocodile pool...

L in action...running after a huge IHOP breakfast (he said, "I want to go to the place with the acronym" when Daddy asked him where they wanted to go out for breakfast...and it only took me a minute to figure out what he meant), I don't think he was feeling so fresh in the heat...

After the game, the Titans held their Team Party at Chuck-E-Cheez.  Where M fell in love with this thing...and wouldn't get off it...

Go, Titans!

L and Coach Kelly...

"Wow! They gave me a trophy and I didn't even win the game!  I want to play again next year!"  A spent the whole ride home, trying to get to hold the trophy, while L was trying to figure out where to put the trophy where his brother wouldn't get it.  "You might break it!" he shouted to the twins...

Sunday at the Blackbeard Pirate Festival.  It's not really a place for kids.  It's a festival for weird adults who really, really, really wish they were pirates.  Anyhoo...the Birds of Prey were the reason we went.  Here is a Red-Tailed Hawk.  L was pretty stoked to find out that there is a Falconry Club in VA and that you have to be 10 to be an apprentice.  And 14 to be a Master Falconer (if you pass all the requirements).  Guess we'll have a raptor someday...

Pirates Dancing...(L was unimpressed with pirates.  "They were not good guys," he told me later)

On Monday, A helped M fall face first down the front cement steps into the clay flowerpot (bruise/bump on forehead).  On Tuesday, L body-checked M in the hallway (they were acting out what they think the plot to Cars 2 is while I was washing the dinner dishes) and gave him a horrible, gushing bloody nose (Band-Aid)...It's hard to be a 3 year old boy...

Some conversations that made me laugh this week:

"M, put your Pull-Up on" gets you this...

Scene: Kitchen, I'm halfway listening to A because I'm trying to make dinner for the kids and we are running late because we went to the store to buy a gift (I also totally forgot gymnastics) and didn't plan the trip well enough...
A: Mama, can you call me Hannah???
Me: Um...what, honey?
A: Could you call me Hannah?
Me: You're pretending to be Hannah?
A: Yup.  So could you call me that???
Me (barely listening): Yes, sure, I'll do that.  Hi, Hannah, how are you?
A: So, I'm Hannah now.  I'm going to open my birthday presents!!!!  Bye! (trots into the living room to open the birthday presents we bought for Hannah)

Today, after school, we are driving to the Living Museum to see the Butterfly House (which we didn't see last weekend because we went to Hannah's birthday party and it wasn't open yet)
L: Mama, when I grow up, I'm not going to buy a house, I'm going to build one.
Me:  Ok.  That sounds like a great idea.
L: And I'm gonna paint the walls all red and yellow and blue and pink.  Because those colors go together.
A: What about purple, Buzz?  I like purple, it's one of my favorite colors.
L: Oh, yes, I'll paint some walls purple.  But, Mommy, what are Emma's favorite colors???
Me: Umm...I think pink and blue.  But I'd have to ask for an update.
L: Oh, pink and blue, right.
Me: Why? Who is going to live in your house?
L: Well, me and Emma.  And all the kids, of course.  That's what you do when you're married, you live in a house together.  And our pet peregrine falcon. She will be named, Frightful. We're going to live in the Catskills.
** Can you tell I'm reading him "My Side of the Mountain" right now?

Last week, again, picking L up from school.
L: Mommy, I want to get some baby ducks.
Me: Umm...why???
L: I want to tether them to our back porch.
Me: ???? (And starting to feel a little worried)
L: Because then the peregrine falcons will come and I can make friends with one and teach it to hunt for me.  They'll come to eat the ducks and then I'll catch them and we'll be friends.  Waterfowl are their food source, you know, Mommy!

At gymnastics today, A is energetically showing off her jumping-jack skills (again) for my friend, Jen.  Jen's daughter, Mia, is attempting to jump with her, but they are both wearing those silly jeweled shoes (Mia calls hers her "diamond shoes".  A is infinitely impressed.)
A: Mama, I have jewels on my shoes.
Me: Yup, you sure do.
A: I'm gonna call these my "Jews."
**Fortunately, Jen was much quicker-minded and jumped in with the suggestiong that she not call her shoes Jews, but instead call them her "sparkly shoes".  Which was approved.  I was too busy laughing to give any direction.

Yesterday, L dug $0.35 out of the cupholder in the van and handed it to me.
L: Here, Mom.  This money is taxes, like what Daddy pays.

And finally, last weekend, L was playing with a ton of Army men Jen's husband gave us (they were his toys when he was a young lad, but as he had two girls who are totally unimpressed by Army soldiers, he finally gave them to us).  He carefully lined up the men on two different sides with their tanks behind them and then had two walk forward and say:
First Soldier: Hi, I'm French, I'm a good guy.
Second Soldier: Hi, I'm German.  I'm NOT a good guy.  But do you want to be friends???
French Soldier: Sure, let's be friends.  No more fighting, okay?

Weekend Update...

Standard family outing right?  We went to the Living Museum's new Butterfly Exhibit and I tried to get the kids to stand together so I could get a picture of all of them...and A ran away towards me (tripping and falling, scraping her palms a little), M is running away from me and L is standing firm...about a mile from the camera!  We love the caterpillar tunnel!

A in a chrysallis...waiting to turn into a beautiful butterfly...

Peeking out...

"Here I am, Mama!  I want to stay in this green chrysallis forever because green is my favorite color!"  When we got home, he wanted to keep staring a this picture all the time...

So this weekend we had a blast.  I took the kids to the Living Museum and a Butterfly exhibit...which was a MAZE!  I really wished I had a herding dog because M kept stooping under the partitions and wandering off and L and A were fascinated by different parts of it, so they'd not want to leave so I could figure out where M went.  We can't wait to go again when we can spend more time..we had to rush off to a party at a Bounce House again.  It is really hot down here right now....low 90s with a lot of humidity which brings the heat up quite a bit.  I think yesterday it was 95 and the heat index was 100 or more.  Yikes...summer is here until probably October.
Oh, and the video is of A doing the Chicken Dance at the Child Watch at our local Y with her favorite friend/caretaker, Miss Becky (this is what makes that hour in Child Watch happy for her, she has Miss Becky and her friends).  Hope you are all doing well!!!!