Summertime and the Livin' is Easy????

So does anybody's life resemble this song? Or the one by Nat King Cole - "Lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer"? I feel lazy, but that doesn't mean I can take it easy. Fortunately, I live in a dry climate, so the days aren't hazy. Crazy is the only word in this song that really applies to my life. As I said on Facebook recently (with apologies to those who have already read this), in the math of summer, 2x2 is exponentially much more than 4!

My other slogan for the summer is "terrible twos times two!" They are absolutely adorable, and are so much fun, but they are definitely more of a handful than they were last summer. Kate and Emma went to the doctor recently and they are in perfect health - weighing 22 and 23 pounds. It seems that either Emma is catching up with her sissie, or that Kate has slowed down a bit - don't know which. They are still conversing in their own little language, but they are letting us in on their conversations more often now. That part makes it easier, for sure. The doctor no longer mentioned speech therapy - thankfully. These little rascals don't believe in napping, at least at my house. In fact, their favorite two mini sentences are "No Nap" and "No Nigh-Night." (They do end up sleeping at home after they go home around 2:00 - lucky Kristen!) I do enforce a bit of quiet time, for my sanity, and this is how they occupied themselves the other day --

"Shhhhh - don't tell Grandpa!"

"Emma did it, Grandma!"

Grandpa took it much better than I expected - it took him 1.5 hours to put his files back together. We put Emma's bed in front of the file drawer (which has no lock, unfortunately), but somehow she managed to do it again yesterday, not quite so much. Grandpa wasn't so blase about it this time! After he put the files back together again, he put the kabosh on any further shenanigans in those drawers!

And he's looking ahead to the day they learn to climb out by themselves and help themselves to the other drawers --

Do they ever love being outside! And Grandpa is their best buddy and most fun playmate.

They can discuss anything with him!

Playing nigh-night is much more fun than the real thing.

Playing with a floatie is just as much fun on grass as in the pool!




What is she thinking??

The big girls get to go to Bible camp this summer - Care Bear has been already and Feisty will go to a three-day in two weeks. Care Bear chose to go to Camp Itch-ow-ee this year instead of staying in the cabins. Here are the lovely accommodations:




We picked up the kids at the end of the week - I have to say, I wasn't favorably impressed when we went down to have a look before we went back home. Care Bear, on the other hand, loved every minute - she called it "Home Sweet Home!" They sleep in the tee-pees, use porta-potties, no showers, meals outside on picnic tables (not in pristine condition!), and all of their chapels and fun times around the campfire. The only reason they go across the road to the rest of the camp is for swimming, archery, and all the other recreational activities. Little bitty Care Bear was the smallest in the group, from what I could tell. When we got there, this is the condition we found her in:



Turns out she went horseback riding and came in contact with a tree branch. I never did get a good explanation for how it happened and nobody else was hit. It could have been so much worse - we are so thankful for the angel that was on the back of that horse with her and kept her from falling off! Her glasses went flying, and thankfully somebody found them before a horse stepped on them. She says she didn't even cry. That was the "owie" part of the week --

Here's the "itchie" part --



The day after she got home, she went swimming and the scabs came off. She had me take a picture so she could send it to her two favorite counselors, along with letters and drawings.

Well, I hope this one publishes okay - it's the second time I've written it. It was a good day for a re-write - it's a gray, rainy day.