The morning

After a crazy week last week, this morning was wonderfully calm. Grant did a little



And Emma did a little


And then we all headed out for a casual playdate with a friend that included a carousel ride and Jamba Juice.

Pain in my heart

Grant got stung by a bee today. First bee sting for either kid. It landed on his ear, and just as I was running over to him yelling "NO STOP!" he swatted at it, it stuck to his hand, he rubbed his hand on his shirt, it stung him on his palm. I got to him just as he started screaming and shaking. Hubs ran over to see what the commotion was just as I grabbed Grant's hand, flipped it over, and saw the HUGE stinger poking out of it. Hubs yanked the stinger out and I clamped my icy water bottle on Grant's palm. He was shaking and screaming and crying. All this hysteria from a normally not hysterical child really showed how painful it was and I just bear hugged him until the pain subsided and he stopped shaking.

After everyone had calmed down and was happily swimming in the pool (this all happened in my mother in law's front yard), I realized that's the first time one of my children has been really really hurt. We've been blessed with health and no major accidents. I also realized just how much it hurts my heart to see one of my children hurting so badly.

So the plan is for bee stings to be as bad as it gets from here on out.

Have you seen my kids?

It appears that sometime Friday night or Saturday morning someone took my kids and replaced them with EXACT replicas that insist on swimming completely under the water, holding their breathes, kicking furiously, and swimming under the water to an adult or from one side of the pool to the other.

If you see my kids, you can keep them. These replicas are way more fun in the pool.

The week - in bullet points

• It was VBS week this week. It was super fun and super exhausting. Fun times were had, fun songs were sung, fun dance moves were danced, fun stories about God were told. I'm glad it's over.

• Emma finished up swim lessons by jumping off the diving board and sliding down the water slide. Both were firsts for her. She now loves to go under the water. I never thought this day would come.

• My right eye has been twitching since Monday.

• Yesterday I drank more coffee than water from 7am-1pm.

• Tonight is date night - dinner and a movie. Hubs picked the movie (the Hangover) so I'm picking dinner. We're likely getting Japanese food. Yummo.

• One of our neighbors with a pink house (yes we have more than one neighbor with a pink house, how lucky are we? Emma thinks pretty lucky, me not so much.) repainted their house this week. I was pretty excited until I realized the burnt orange with brown trim wasn't just colored primer. Now I miss the pink.

• Grant spent his time during my shower this morning transferring a large piece of fuzz from his excavator toy to his dump truck toy, then driving the dump truck over a bit, dumping the fuzz load, and starting all over again. It was hilariously precious.

Letting go of cleanliness

We took the kids camping for the first time this weekend.

Jeff and I left on Friday morning for the campsite with several apprehensions. Would the children sleep in a tent? Would we sleep with our children sleeping (or not) in a tent? Did I pack enough clothes? Were the kid's sleeping bags warm enough? Would our campsites hold all 3 tents? Would the overstuffed Thule burst open on the freeway, spreading our possessions across all 4 lanes?

While we came home exhausted, we also came home with the realization that while camping with kids is a LOT of work, it was also really fun. We're looking to go again next month before school start, in fact. The kids all really enjoyed it, they were so worn out they slept great at night, and let's face it, camping is a dirty little slice of heaven for Grant. That boy wears dirt quite nicely.

So while it rained on Saturday afternoon and our rainfly leaked into our tent, and while Emma tripped and fell over every last rock in our campsite, and while Grant is still brown from dirt, and while one of the families had to head home early to preserve the dad's sanity, it was a greatly memorable trip full of more good times than bad times.

Swim Lessons

Well after last year's lesson that basically involved lots of dry hair, Emma has turned a corner and has decided she loves to swim! We decided to buck up the money and do semi private lessons with another little girlfriend, and the two girls are really excelling! Yesterday's lesson involved lots of bobbing underwater for toys on the bottom of the pool and kicking on a kickboard without the teacher holding on. Emma is beaming with pride after every lesson, and talks about it non stop the whole drive home.

Grant has pool jealousy, and spends a good amount of time trying to break away from me and get to the pool. Luckily both my friend and I are smarter than him and we've managed to outwit his escape plan every time. I told him he better get used to getting dragged to all Emma's activities, him being the second kid and all. He wasn't real thrilled.

On a completely different note, I've spent the week getting ready for our first camping trip with the kids this weekend. We're going up with two other families who have kids the same age, which should be either really great or really horrific. We did a great job of getting our camping stuff fairly organized before the kids were ever born, so most of what I've been doing to just purchasing what we need for the kids - like sleeping bags and a bigger tent. We leave tomorrow late morning, and we're gone until Sunday. I'm expecting lots of chaos, lots of drama, and LOTS of dirt. Should be interesting.

Not Me Monday!

Like the cool new logo? Me too! MckMama changed her logo but not the reason behind Mondays. Read ahead for my weekly confessions....

While at an indoor playground last week I did not lose Grant, only to find him when another mom pointed him out to me. Playing driving video games.

Speaking of Grant, I certainly did not cut his hair in a faux hawk even though Hubs rolled his eyes dramatically every time I mentioned it. And we certainly don't have church directory pictures scheduled in 2 weeks. And I'm totally not thinking about dying the tips of his hair either.

On July 4th, I didn't even think of threatening Emma with no fireworks if she didn't nap, even though I had zero intention of actually following through with that threat. Not me, I always follow through with my threats.

I absolutely do NOT hide the fudgesicles in the very back of the freezer, on a high shelf, behind three things so the kids can't find them. Not me. I practice what I preach and share with everyone.