Pool Fun

Since the very first sign of warm weather, my kids have been begging Granny and Dadabe to put up their swimming pool! We live in Texas and if you are familiar with Texas, it gets hot pretty early in the year. I think the first warm day we had was in March, shortly after that, Dadabe gave into the kids pleads and put the pool up. Of course, the water was cold, but that didn't stop them from getting in! Despite the chattering teeth, purple lips, and shivering bodies, they still tried to stay in the water. Now with it being April and the temperatures continuing to climb higher and higher, the kids are able to stay in the pool longer. 

One of their favorite things to do is make a whirlpool! Then they pick up their feet and let the current that they created carry them.

Piper really makes me laugh! Do you see her? Yes, she is in the pool, on a floatie, with her clothes on!

We had gone inside to eat dinner and Piper was finished. I watched her walk out the door and climb onto the floatie. Fully dressed. She was certain she wasn't going to get wet. I'm sure she was right, after all, she is the amazing Piper! 


Seven had his birthday a couple of weeks ago. My big boy is now 4! I will make a whole separate post for that, but since one of his presents involves a pool, I put it here. He told Granny he wanted a stingray for the pool. Granny and I wondered where in the world are we gonna find a stingray floatie? Granny saved the day and found one AND it even has a squirt gun on it!

Seven, Piper, and Finn all were so excited to try it out! It may be hard to see the squirting action, but it can squirt really far! Check out Seven in action...

Being the loving brother that Seven is, he shared with Finn.

And Piper.

Warmer days are sure to come. Maybe I will have another pool post. If not, just know that my kids are like fish and will be living in a swimming pool this summer!

Rilian Loves...

What is Rilian into these days? What are his two loves? Well, he still loves baby dolls. And he has discovered Little Bear. If you have kids, you need to introduce them to Little Bear. I like Little Bear. He is a young bear that has quite the imagination and likes to go on adventures. It is a very calm show and has pretty music that is also calming. Little Bear is like a tranquilizer for kids. It is amazing how my children will sit there and watch it...very calmly. Each of my four children have their own personal DVD players, thanks to Granny Joyce one Christmas. This not only comes in handy on road trips, but when you have four children, they don't always agree on what movie they want to watch. Sometimes they will watch a movie on their DVD player in the house. Rilian has become quite fond of his DVD player. He almost prefers to watch a movie on his DVD player rather than the big tv. 

I started noticing how much Rilian likes to watch Little Bear...and how much he likes to watch it on his DVD player. I decided I could make a blog post on the different positions that he watches Little Bear in. Here is one...notice the smile on his face? He was watching Little Bear :D

That same day, after dinner...and a different position.

This one must have been taken close to bedtime, that same day. He looks pretty tired. Don't worry, the kid has plenty of clothes. He gets lots of hand-me-downs, with two older brothers. This IS the same day, that's why he is wearing the same outfit.

I'm not sure how many days later this picture was, but I thought it was funny that he had two DVD players, with two different movies playing. I guess he couldn't decide what movie to watch that time, so he decided he could watch both. With more than one DVD player in the house, why not? 

We always check on the kids before we go to bed. Rilian has lots of baby dolls! He has collected them from around the house and from Granny's house. He has claimed them all as his! Beware if you bring a baby doll to our house...you may have a hard time leaving with it! You can read more about his love of baby dolls here.


I had to get the camera when I found Rilian had carefully placed these two baby dolls beside him before drifting off to sleep. This is not how I left him when I tucked him into bed that night.

Another night, I had to get the camera again! I really laughed at him and his baby dolls that night! Once again, I did not leave him like that when I tucked him in. 

One morning when I went to wake up Rilian, he was awake and just laying in his bed. He climbed out of bed and this is what he left behind...

Three of his baby dolls covered up. It is so cute how he treats them. He is so sweet to them. They are not the prettiest baby dolls and some have seen better days, but he still loves them.

Sometimes Rilian's baby dolls and stuffed animals that he sleeps with are left in the chair in his room when he gets tucked in bed. It is funny to see how they end up in his bed when I check on him later. These are the moments that are great to capture on camera! For one, it is cute how much he loves his baby dolls. Does this mean he will be a good dad? That thought has run through my mind, but I doubt his love for baby dolls will have anything to do with that. The other reason it is great to capture these moments on camera is you never know when these pictures will come in "handy" in his future! Are there any other parents out there who are like me and enjoy taking certain pictures of there children knowing that it may "embarrass" your child when they are older?

Pippi Longstocking

I receive emails from The Paramount letting me know what productions they have coming up in the near future. I got an email informing me that Pippi Longstocking was going to be performed by The Children's Performing Arts Series. That meant it was going to be a live production. My kids have watched Pippi Longstocking movies at my mom's house and I remember watching her on tv some when I was a kid. So, I briefly thought about taking Piper to see Pippi Longstocking at The Paramount. I kind of tossed the idea to the side, but then Piper brought home a free ticket from school, so I decided we had to go. Jeremy, Piper, Finn, Seven, and I all went to see Pippi Longstocking. It was very enjoyable. Anytime we get to go to The Paramount, is a good time. If you live in Abilene or visit Abilene, and you haven't been to The Paramount before, I recommend going sometime.

Before we went inside to find our seats, there was a pirate outside. Piper, Finn, and Seven got their picture taken with him. I think they were kind of leery of him and didn't want to get too close. I had to tell them to scoot closer so I could take a picture. I am disappointed that I accidentally cut half of Seven out of the picture, but it's ok, it's still a good picture. It looks like Seven is leaning on something, but he isn't. He just didn't want to get too close to the pirate. He also gave them each a piece of his treasure!

If you've never heard of or seen Pippi Longstocking or don't know anything about her, her dad is a pirate. So, this was her dad. It was a good story. You should check her out.

Dinner Time Entertainment

With our four crazy kids, you never know what will go down at the dinner table...

One evening, Finn enlightened us with the fact that he knows how to cross his eyes.

If you have kids, you've probably seen Yo Gabba Gabba and have probably heard there song, "Party in My Tummy." I will keep my opinions of Yo Gabba Gabba to myself, and let you form your own opinions. But Rilian wasn't really eating his dinner, so we thought this song would help him to eat. Believe it or not, it did!

If you can't tell what he was saying as he raised his hands, he was saying, "So yummy, so yummy."

What kind of things happen around your dinner table?

Talk About Accessorizing!

Something was discovered in our backyard this afternoon. I bet none of you have ever seen one of these! It is a bird who can accessorize! 

Every Thursday, Finn has to get allergy shots...poor kid! My mom is great about being able to watch my three other angels while I take Finn on our weekly date to get his allergy shot. I tried taking all four once...well, let's just say I don't EVER want to do that again! 

When Finn and I came home, my mom told me there was something in my backyard that she thought I was unaware of. I was wondering if I should be worried. Piper took me and showed me. Do you see it, up in the tree? There is a dove on a nest.

The nest looks pretty small for the dove, but maybe it isn't done building it. Or maybe this kind of dove just makes a small nest. I don't know if the dove is a mom or a dad. I would think it is the mom, but since I don't know, I will talk about "it" instead of he or she. I had to stare at it for awhile to make sure it was real. It just didn't look real. It was "frozen". And then it finally blinked, so I knew it was real and no one was trying to spy on me with some sort of camera that looked like a dove. Did you notice anything else in the picture? Look again. Look above the dove. There is one of Piper's purple Dora the Explorer gardening gloves. Haha! I cracked up when I saw this! I laughed so hard. Maybe it isn't funny to anyone else that there is a Dora the Explorer glove in the tree. I asked each of my four kids if they put it up there. After making sure it was none of them, (they would have had to throw pretty high) I laughed again! This dove carried the glove up there! Is it funny to you now? I can't not laugh when I think about it! The glove used to lay on the ground below where the nest is now build. My kids are pretty good about taking things out into the backyard and not bringing them back inside. Well, I guess that Dora the Explorer glove has a new home. I wondered why the dove left the glove there and not in its nest. My mom said maybe the dove thought the glove would make a soft nest. Perhaps, the dove was wrong. Or perhaps, it was accessorizing!

Poems for Granny

The other day, we were over at Granny's house. Piper has developed a love for printing things off the computer. We've had to tell her to ask before she prints. Otherwise, she will end up using up all the paper in the printer. 

Piper decided to get poetic and write a poem for Granny.

Very creative, if you ask me. There isn't any rhyming, but who says a poem has to rhyme. She is still learning the difference between writing "know" and "now". But she sure does know her math! She might need to work on spelling some ;) She sounded out the word subtraction. At least she spelled it the same way both times. Hey, give her a break...she's only in First Grade. 


And of course, Finn had to give it a shot...

He is still learning to spell, too. He's only in Kindergarten. But he sounded out the word "dead" and wrote it. Yes, he wrote, "The 9 is dead." I don't know why. He is a boy! And it is his poem. I guess it can be left up for interpretation. 


So, maybe in your opinion, my little poets aren't good enough for an Open Mic Night, but give them some time...who knows what they will come up with next?

Seven Got Hit by a Car!!!

What?!? Seven got hit by a car?!? Yes, my precious 3 year old, got hit by a car! Brace yourself, readers...I have posted pictures of this tragedy. I feel like I need to post a disclaimer for those who have weak stomaches or for those of you who can be a little squeamish at the sight of a tragic accident. You have been warned. Please view the pictures at your discretion. 

We were out in the backyard one day and I started to wonder where Seven was. When I started to look for him, this is what I saw...

I couldn't help but laugh! Seven did this all on his own. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was cold. That didn't quite make sense to me, but I guess if you've been pinned between a car and a tree in the shade, you might feel a little cold. I love Seven! He is such a funny, creative, imaginative child! My husband dedicated his blog post the other day to Seven. You can have a little more insight into who Seven is by going to his post. If you have been a regular reader of my blog, you probably can recall some of the funny things that Seven has done that I have blogged about. If you aren't a regular reader, feel free to go back through my posts and discover for yourself how funny Seven is. 

After I took the above picture, Rilian climbed on the car and wanted me to take his picture. So, I thought I would include it. Notice, Seven didn't really move. And no, Rilian was nowhere near Seven when the tragic accident happened.

Where does Seven come up with these things?