The Moments a mom lives for. . .

This is one of those lump-in-your-throat-wish-you-could-freeze-time moments.  So during some down time in the "business" of selling refreshments  from the front yard the boys decided that "battling" with their Pokeman cards was a little more entertaining.  I love it when the boys do this.  It is the perfect combination of playing, imagination, cooperation, reading and math.  I have NO clue how the game is played.  They have made up all the rules themselves and it is very cool to eavesdrop while they play.  Mind you, I still don't get the object or rules but I do love hearing the discussions of what beats what and how many points remain.  I really love how enthusiastic Asher is and how loving and inclusive Aiden is when they play.

So as the boys "battled" our cute neighbor, Jared Green comes by.  He is 10ish years old, so of course, these younger boys are psyched to see him.  Well, it turns out Jared used to be into Pokeman cards and "has a ton of them he doesn't use anymore."  Off Jared goes to get his cards.  He comes back with a bunch of cards and the boys go wild!!!!  Jared is the total Rock Star as he divides up the cards equally among the 5 boys.  He also brought is old Pokeman binder that holds his cards.  The boys' eyes were as big as silver dollars.  Jared offered to sell it for "10 bucks."  Ade and Brock scattered to see if they had adequate funds.  I was smiling, knowing full well Ade was going to fall short.  

Well, next thing I know Ash is right in my face with the hugest grin (complete with red mustache) and this sparkle in his eyes.  It was the teeth clenched/eyes wide open excitement.  Ash. . ."MOM LOOK, LOOK!!!!!"  (He is holding the Pokeman binder) "AIDEN GOT THIS FOR ME!!" As he hugs the binder, "I never had a biner befoouur."  I looked back to see Aiden acting all nonchalant and "no big dealish."  He gives me this little 'awww shucks' wave of his hand and said, "Mom, Jared sold it to me for 3 bucks and Asher doesn't have his own binder, so I thought he should have one."  Then off he went to play with his buddies.  I could feel the dilation of vessels in my nose and eyes. . .must fight emotion and not embarrass kids.  I also had the fight the huge urge to go buy Aiden the entire stock of Star Wars/Indiana Jones toys and games.  you know, I thought that graduating from nursing school was gratifying.  But this sense of accomplishment blew that away.  I LOVE that Ade is learning empathy and generosity.  But I mostly LOVE the bond developing between these two.

Here is Jared helping Ash load the Pokeman cards in his new "biner."  Jared is such a sweet kid!  He was totaling entertaining those kids.

Check out the intensity on Asher's face as he loads his cards.

Here are my sweeties with their new goods!

And now the 'holy grail.'  The "biner" that almost made the mom cry!

Will Work For Boat Gas. . .

In these tough economic times my kids decided to take matters into their own hands. . .I mean someone has got to pay for the gas in dad's boat.  Yep, we did a "refreshment stand" not the normal lemonade stand due to the lack of lemonade.  They had a great time and at the end of the day we had most of the neighborhood hangin with us.  We served up some Crystal Light, an assortment of soda, and some yummy chocolate rice krispy treats.  Yep, I was just about as tired after the "stand" closed as I am at the end of a shift in the E.R.  But hey, can you put a price on some awesome summertime memories?  Here are a few shots from our day. . .

Brock and Aiden "fancying up" the sign.  I love that these kids already understand the importance of marketing.

One of our favorite customers of the day, Ed Gorder and Tyler really pumped the kids with soda and lots of treats purchase.  Ed is such great guy, thanks Ed, you really made the kids' day!

Taking a break, can you see the red mustaches on their faces. . .yep, drinking up all the profit!

Here is a pic of the corporate headquarters. . .notice the sweet sign.

How much do I LOVE this photo, my two babies, joining in mutual admiration.  I hope they will always love each other.

Okay, so maybe the moment was fleeting, but couldn't you just eat little Ash us with a spoon.  The princess is pretty much over it.  
And one last one, my baby growing up way too fast.  HATE it!  She had a great day hangin with bros and their buddies.  This little girl LOVES the outdoors.  We were outside for  about 4 hours and she was soooo low maintenance the whole time.  Yummy baby!
So all said and done, the kids made about 10 bucks (2 bucks each).  So if Ash and Ade combine their earnings they could put almost a whole gallon of gas in dad's boat.  Oh well, they are well on their way to corporate America!

Things a baby girl LOVES. . .

This crazy baby. . .she LOVES ice.  If she hears the clankity clank of ice swirling around in your cup she goes all sorts a postal.  When I looked at her today I saw her reaching into the cooler and grabbing out a big ole' piece of ice.  And I'm pretty sure she does not have temperature sensors in her hands.  She will grip a piece of ice or popsicle until it is gone.  One of these days I'll have to post a pic of her baby birding ice out of Quinn's or my mouth.  This ice infatuation is quite ironic since I craved and chewed ice from 4 months on when I was pregnant with her.  They told me I was anemic but now I'm pretty sure it was this little thing making her demands known.

Another thing she LOVES. . .well, we all love him.  Gus is such a great dog and soooo tolerant of the kids.  When Aiden was almost one he would grab fist fulls of Gus's fur and yank.  Then Ade would pull himself up and with Aiden still holding on Gus would slowly walk.  Yep, our dog taught our first born  to walk.  Another fine example of stellar parenting.

Here are Ava and Gus displaying mutual admiration.  When Ava sees Gus she points at him and goes, "uuuuuuuu."  Love it!

Gus came up and sat next to Ava knowing full well that this was going to happen.  But really, who minds a little tugging. . .

When there is a lot of smooching to follow.  Ava giggles her little head off when Gus showers her with kisses!

And while we are on the topic of obsessions. . .what the crap am I going to do with this little punk?  Yes, he is freakin' cute, but really, this binkie. . .eieieieyyyyiiii.  He is doing better leaving the binkie out during the day, except today. . .busted.  Anyone have any suggestions?

"SOOOOOOOO BUSY. . .

In the words of my crazy friend, Jenn ( I think she was making fun of her mom when using the "sooo busy" term).  We have been crazy busy so I'm going to do a little back bloggin' cause really it's all about the documentation.  Sorry in advance for the ridiculous amount of photos, I may or may not have an addiction!

Watch out Andre Agassi

Summer tennis. . .really just a minor prep for school next year.  Ade had to be up and out the door by 8:55.  We are soooo hosed for school this fall.  Ade made it to tennis on time, ohhh, about 40% of the time.  And school will start an entire hour earlier.  Anyway, despite uncombed hair and unbrushed teeth he had a great time.  His idea for a Family Home Evening activity was to go to the tennis courts.  His buddy, Braxton, was with him each week, along with Bradley and some other kids from school.  So, I think, hangin' with the buddies was the real fun and the tennis was just gravy.

Aiden and his brotha from anotha, Braxton.

This is the official "tennis tee shirt" which Aiden insisted he had to wear everyday (tennis was 4 mornings a week for 4 weeks.) I had to be ultra night time laundry mom.  But lets be honest, he went to tennis a lot of mornings with ketchup and other surprises on his shirt.

Sweet form, dude.  He is a total Ace!
I love this little man, he is such a gift!

Weekend in the Woods

We loaded up the hoodlums and headed north to Island Park.  Quinn's mom and dad have a sweet cabin on the lake and it is dreamy!  We took an extra day on each end of the weekend so it made for a nice and relaxing stay.  I even kicked Dewey's trash during a mean game of Harts.  He always beats the crap outta me so this time luck was on my side.

Quinn got up at the butt cracka on Friday and went with his buddies to set up the "course."  Long gone are the days of slappin on a ski and heading out which ever direction is the smoothest.  Now we have balls, zip ties, pvc pipe, and all sorts a complicated stuff.  I'm so grateful that he has buddies to help him put all that crap together cause I remember a few times putting the course in when I had the divorce attorney on speed dial.

Anyway, we all had a great time skiing, tubing, chillin, and eating.  Joyce and Dewey were with us and the kids loved hangin with them.  Not to mention that Joyce is an awesome cook so we were pretty pimped out.

The big news was Quinn "nailing 28 off" almost everytime he went out to ski.  And he "never skies well at Island Park."  So that was a great confidence builder heading into a couple tournaments in the next couple of weeks.  And Aiden took off the "cheater rope" on his skies.  So now it is all him holding himself up from behind the boat.  My memory card was on the fritz so I don't have photos of him skiing but here are some from tubing the next day.

Asher and dad.  Can you tell how much Quinn is loving this.  When we were kidless he swore we would "never do such a wally thing like pulling a tube behind a sweet comp ski boat."  Alas, how times change!
Ash was trying to get brave enough to pick up speed.  Love this face!

Then there is Mr. Daredevil.  This kid makes me crazy, it was never fast enough.  I thought he was going to get freaked out and let Quinn know he'd had enough. . .not so much.

This is his bored pose, the "I'm so over this."  Quinn saw his cockyness and said "oh no you didn't."  The throttle went from 0 to 60 in about 2.2 and the next thing we saw was this. . .

Ade, your dad will school you when it comes to water sports.  At least for the next couple of years.

Don't you just want to nibble on those yummmy thighs.   I love this little bug!

She's trying to figure out a way to get down to her brothers. . .a work them over!

For these reasons and many more, I love summer.  I hope yours is going well!

Ross Park Extravaganza!

I was so ready to just chill at home and get stuff done when my friend Alysia called and put the little Ross Park bug in my ear.  I tried and tried to fight it off but I knew the kids would have so much fun.  There were 5 of us moms and about a million kids that went.  Alysia's husband, Collin, had the day off so he joined us.  What a good sport.  He looked a little like he may be visiting from Texas, although none of us had the cool swoopy, long, "sister-wife" like hair.  It was a great teasing moment and Collin took it all is stried.  And it was great having our own personal photographer.  As a side note Collin was confronted by the Park staff wondering why he was taking so many photos of all these kids.  It was great, I can totally see me getting my headlights on high beam when some dude is taking pics of kids of lots of little kids.  Another good laugh.  Thanks Collin.

So my kids had a beyond wonderful time.  And I only developed 3 new ulcers.  Next time I will be smart like my other friends who brought three small kids. . .bring a spouse or a babysitter.  I was on high alert keeping a close eye on Ash and not dropping Ava as she squirmed to get out of my arms.  I wasn't crazy worried about Aiden drowning cause that kid has mad skills but I was quite worried about him going off on his own and coming across Chester the Molester. 

 Aiden had a wonderful time with two of his favorite things, buddies and water.  He checked in often and stayed with his friends.  

Ash is getting so brave and starting to develop his own gills.  He was a crazy man in the kiddie pool, going down the slide and dunking his head.  I'm not sure there is anything cuter than these 2 beautiful blue eyes coming out of the water accompanied by the hugest smile cause he is so proud of his new found bravery.  Loved it!

Then there was little Miss Ava. . .so naughty.  EVERY time I put her down at the edge of the pool she was off and crawling like she was on fire.  She went straight for the water.  There is a gentle slope and she would crawl until her hands and knees could no longer touch.  Not caring in the least that she was taking on water.  She coughed and gagged and went right back to crawling into the depths.  I'm pretty sure my kids have been never really transitioned to breathing air, they are still stuck in breathing fluid mode.

We had a wonderful time, despite my irrational fears, no one drowned or was scooped away by Chester.   Just another great summer day.  Next time we'll make dad come and get water logged with us!  Here are a few pics from our day.