Me and Dad

My Dad asked if the two of us could get our picture taken together.  He handed his camera over to Stephen.  He knows how hard it is for me to relax in front of a camera.  He chuckled a little bit and told me to laugh.  Then Stephen said, "Grandpa, smile."  That made me laugh. 

Thanks for the picture, Dad!  I love you!

Go Fish for Breakfast

It is finally summer here.  The weather isn't summer yet, it's still in spring mode.  But school is out and we are free!  Yes, even me.  I LOVE not having to nag everyone in the mornings to get ready and out the door on time.  Oh yes, I am FREE!!! 

So to celebrate our lovely freedom, we are eating sweet cereal.  We never eat sweet cereal.  Except at Christmas when Santa fills our stockings with the stuff.  I decided that the end of school was deserving of sweet cereal. 

Unfortunately, we were all out of milk this morning. 

I learned that my children really don't care about milk when given the opportunity to eat sweet cereal.  And if there is no milk, we don't need spoons either.  Just bowls, fingers, fists, and the sweet, crunchy cereal. 

Since they were already digging through their cereal, they decided to make a real game of it.  Go Fish! 

"Hey, Little Man, do you have any greens?" 

 I don't know if it was a good thing to do with breakfast or not.  It was unusual for us.  But really I think it was a nice way to start our summer.

Peaceful Lilacs

My lilacs are blooming.  And I am happy. 

Yesterday was nice and warm. Warm enough that our windows were still open after the kids had gone to bed. I sat on the couch just breathing in the heavenly scent of my lilacs.  If a scent can be peaceful, and I think it can, then lilacs are one of the most peaceful scents ever.  Like freshly bathed babies.  I love them. 

Heidi

This is Heidi.  She is beautiful!  The eyes, the smile.  And she's my sister!  I've been feeling the need to write about her lately.

I can remember the day Heidi was born.  I literally jumped for joy.  I was SO excited to finally have a sister! 

I was always happy that she was my sister and always loved and adored her, but it wasn't until we both became adults, and were married and having babies that we got really close to each other.

Now I don't even like to think about what I would do without her.  We live in different states, but we talk on the phone a lot.  Sometimes we don't actually talk on the phone we are just on the phone with each other and are completely comfortable not to talk.  It's just a nice feeling knowing that she is on the other end of the line. 

The other day I called Heidi to tell her about my next door neighbor and how he grew up knowing Bing Crosby.  His dad was friends with Bing.  (Can you imagine???)  I had to tell Heidi about this because she has been a huge Bing Crosby fan since she was born I think. 

As we were ending our conversation I started thinking about how I needed to call my other sister, Dixie, next because she also really loves Bing Crosby.  We all do. 

Anyway, I started to say, "Love you, Heidi" like I always do, but I had Dixie on my mind.  So it sounded like this, "Love you, Dih........." and then I just quit.  I was hoping that Heidi hadn't heard the Dih. 

Oh, but she had.  We laughed and laughed.  She still loved me. 

She is such an amazing sister.  And friend.  She is such a good sister that I was able to steal this picture from her facebook page, and then tell her about it, and she was totally cool with it. 

Thanks, Heidi.  For everything.  I love you!

Cuteness amidst the Craziness

This is a crazy week.  CRAZY WEEK!!!  Oh my goodness!  And last week wasn't much better.  Whew!

So I'm sharing some amazingly cute pictures that Miss Watermelon (formerly Miss Bear, we've had a change of nicknames) took of herself at the local Farmer's Market a little over a week ago. 

My Personal Hair Salon

Miss Monkey is doing my hair while I sit here at the computer.  She came up with a new hairdo and is trying it out in my hair.  She calls it Mermaid Lagoon.  So far it has mostly involved lots of brushing and combing and moving my part around. 

I love it when she does my hair.  I always loved having my Mom do my hair when I was a kid.  And I love that I have someone to do my hair now.  Even though she is only five.  It is so soothing and comforting to me.  My body relaxes and I don't have a care in the world. 

I love that Miss Monkey likes to do hair.  She likes all girly and feminine things.  Bows and dresses and perfume and lip gloss.  She says she likes to make people fancy.  She sets up her little beauty parlor about once a week.

I am not so girly.  I really like feminine things and beautiful things and feeling like a girl, but it doesn't come as naturally to me as it does to Miss Monkey.  I just recently figured out how to properly apply eye liner.  Miss Monkey was right there with me every step of the way.  She was so proud of me that she made a special announcement that night at the dinner table.  "Guess what everyone?  Mom learned how to use her eye liner today!"  I'm hoping I can learn a few things from her. 

Adventures on a Bus

Our town is not real big.  But it is big enough to have public transportation.  Free public transportation, at that!  Oh yes!  There are 2 bus routes to choose from.  Between the two you can get pretty much anywhere you would care to go in this little town of ours.  We love it!

Yesterday Miss Monkey, Little Man, and I needed do to some birthday shopping.  So instead of driving in our van, we took the bus. 

The closest bus stop to our house is just a sign next to the sidewalk.  It works well, but is not the most enjoyable on a rainy day.  So we walked an extra block and a half and were able to sit in a nice covered bus stop. 

Oh, and yes, we were wearing coats.  Spring has been very slow in coming to this neck of the woods. 

The bus came, and we climbed aboard!

We read an old Family Circus comic book during the ride.  They don't always get it, but they usually like the pictures. 

It wasn't long before we arrived downtown.  We started shopping but then had to find a bathroom as quick as possible.  Turned out the closest one was at the bagel shop across the street.  Into the bagel shop we went, used the bathroom, and then bought two pizza bagels.  I just can't walk all the way through a store, use their bathroom, and then leave again without buying anything.  I can't!  Way too much guilt. 

With full tummies we resumed our shopping.  We found just what we had been looking for, plus lots of requests for future birthdays, and made our purchases. 

While waiting for the bus to come to take us home, we hung out around the fountain.

It was so fun!  The kids were great, and were thoroughly worn out when we got home.  Gas was saved and our shopping was done!  Mission accomplished.