Hose Down

This afternoon the kids and I went outside to enjoy some red, white, and blue sno-cones and some more water balloons.  Unfortunately, the driveway was sooooo hot, you could only stand on it for a few seconds before sprinting for the grass, and the backyard has no shade at this time of day, so that was out.  I grabbed the hose and sprayed down the driveway to cool it off, then after the sno-cones and water balloons had been depleted, I turned the hose on the kids.  :)

Let me tell you, it was difficult trying to take pictures and actually hit the kids with water at the same time! (and yes, Jayden is still in his jammies.  don't judge! :) )

Over the Weekend

The 4th of July is just one of those holidays that it sucks to be away from family and traditions.  My parents have had a house on a lake since I was a kid and the 4th of July always meant people and food and swimming even if it was raining, games of graveyard ghost,  people throwing their "used up" fireworks into their firepit only to have them explode again towards our firepit, pajama's getting lit on fire with sparklers, Willie driving out on the seadoo to drop a huge bomb in the middle of the lake, dad almost getting struck by lightning, the bottom of your shoes melting because the campfire was too hot, but needing to be really close to it because it's just not so warm outside, HUGE fireworks displays...

The 4th was always so much fun and I guess it's just a bit of a let down every year when we spend it here, with no lake, staying inside most of the day because it's so hot and humid out, sitting in our driveway literally alone - it seems everyone on our street was somewhere else or just inside - to watch fireworks, and making s'mores in the microwave (is that even legal?????).  Don't get me wrong, we did have fun.  We got invited and went to a party on the 3rd that was so much fun to get to be a part of, and watching Jayden this year and how excited he was about blowing things up and lighting them off was pretty awesome to watch. It is just hard to try and start new traditions and be excited about them, when the ones I've had for the past 33 years are so great in my mind.

We started the weekend with some indoor painting.  Which so happens to be one of Royal's least favorite activities, but I said it was either this or play-doh and it turns out Royal hates play-doh much more than painting!

I also tried to make some patriotic food.  Rocket dogs, Blue chips with white cheese and red salsa, and red strawberries with white chocolate and a blueberry.

Royal filled and the kids popped a good couple hundred more water balloons!

Jayden was our pyro-tech for the evening.

Willow was a bit more skittish this year about the noise, but she did pretty good when we put in some earplugs.  If it was still too noisy, then she just watched from inside the house.

So, we didn't even bother keeping her up late to watch the fireworks since we knew she'd just have issues with all the booms going off.  Maybe next year she'll get to run around with sparklers with Jayden and maybe somebody's pajamas will catch on fire like mine seemed to when Willie had a sparkler in his hand.  Or maybe next year, I'll just make sure I'm in Washington over the 4th!  :)

Water Balloons

We got the kids to play outside yesterday evening, but we had to bribe them with water balloons.  It's so hot now that even the kids would rather stay inside.  :)

Willow the ever social one, gave up being in the shade with water balloons to check out what our neighbors were doing.

 

Kansas Aviation Museum

It is so freaking hot outside, that when my friend, Katie, suggested we meet up at the Aviation Museum, I thought it would be a great idea!  Something air conditioned, that wasn't my basement and had things for the kids to play with...perfect!!!

We got there, and it was 105 outside, so we quickly unbuckled and bolted for the door, stepped inside to pure relief!  A/C!!!!!  We paid our admission, and headed up the stairs to check out some exhibits.  Hmmmm....strange....all of the doors are closed.....  We open one of the doors and are blasted with a heat wave.  Turns out the A/C was only working on the first floor and the rest of the museum's A/C was broken....fabulous.  Another couple hours with sweat running down my back....I'm just not sure why I shower here.  But the kids didn't seem to mind!

The flight simulator

that the boys spent all their time figuring out how to crash the airplane into things....trees, buildings, air control towers, and also who could get their plane stuck into the ground at the funniest angle.

Then there were lots of cockpits to play in and small airplanes to climb in and out of

We climbed up into the old control tower, which just so happens to be one of the highest points of elevation in Wichita....it's like 3 stories up.  The land is flat and pretty much so are the buildings.
Here's a view from the control tower of the airplanes on the museum ramp that we went outside to check out.

And then in the far distance, you can see downtown Wichita (see?  nothing but flatness here!)

Once outside on the museum ramp, the kids wanted pictures taken next to just about every plane, tire, missile, rock, etc...

One thing about going outside, was that once you stepped back into the non air-conditioned building, it felt cool!

Boxing

Jayden rediscovered my old boxing gloves this morning.

Once the rules got set that you couldn't punch in the face and could only gently punch anywhere else, Jayden decided he needed something else to box other than Willow...

like the garage door...

...and our crab apple tree...

Once Jayden stopped boxing with Willow, she got a little bored...

...and decided to do push-ups instead...

Happy Birthday to me!

Today was my 33rd birthday, and as birthdays go, when you are a mom, they are pretty much just like any other day, with a few extras thrown in.  :)  Here are a few highlights

• Royal got me an iPad2!  I'm a total gadget lover, and Royal is exactly the opposite.  Jayden can run my iPod, the DVD player, the Wii, etc... better than Royal can.  So, the fact that he got me something that he's going to hate me having is big!
• Today I told Jayden that since it was my birthday, he had to do everything I asked and couldn't tell me no once today.  He looked at me funny and then said, 'You're just kidding, right mom?'  Then when he and Willow made a big ole mess with their lunch and then with their experiment to see if they could use appetizer knives to cut up crayons, and I told him someone was going to have to clean that up and it wasn't going to be me, I found him doing this : 

NICE!

•  During Willow's swimming lessons, the past couple of days Jayden has wanted to run with me around the track.  Yesterday and today, he has ended up running a whole mile!  Today though was extra special, I'd just jog along at a pace he could keep up with, and Jayden would run like kids do: fast-slow-fast-slow-etc, and each time he'd come up to pass me, he'd swat me on the rear and say, 'See ya later, old lady!!!'
• Jayden told a couple complete strangers today, "Hey you!  My mom is turning 12 today!!!"
• We are working on potty training Willow and she made it the whole day in undies with no accidents!  This included a work out in the stroller at the zoo and swimming lessons (although she may have pee'd in the pool and I'd never know, but she told me she didn't!)  Well, the whole day, until dinner, at a restaurant, where I was hesitant to let the kids get lemonade because juice makes Willow have to pee in like 5 seconds, but since it was my birthday, I let them have lemonade instead of water, just sure Willow would let me know when she had to go, just like she has been the past couple of days.  And after she had her lemonade for like 5 minutes, I got a, "Mom, I go potty" and then as I stood up to grab her and take her to the bathroom, she pee'd. All over the floor.  Nice.
• When we were trying to find candles for my birthday cake, Jayden found some old Cars birthday hats and insisted we wear those while eating cake.

 

• Jayden also insisted that after I dish everyone up, I had to take the first bite and as the food entered my mouth, he shouted loudly, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!' and then when nobody else yelled with him, I had to redo it, so Royal and Willow could join in too.

• And probably my most favorite thing was all the birthday hugs I got from Jayden and Willow through out the day, as well as, the impromptu Happy Birthday being sung at random times, one time Willow saying "dear Mommy Royal" and then cracking up because she called me Royal.

Blueberries

I found some blueberries in our garden today!  I wasn't really expecting any since we just got our blueberry bushes this year, so this was a treat!

I picked them and put them in a little bowl.  Willow got really excited that she was going to get a snack!

Then she ate one and said, "I no like this"  And got down out of her chair and demanded a REAL snack.

Well, maybe next year...