Rain!

Hooray - we finally got some rain today. Only 3/4 of an inch, but hopefully more to come tonight and tomorrow. The whole family ended up on the porch to enjoy it. Grace pulled out her umbrella, which hasn't seen much use lately, because she couldn't wait for the rain to stop before she hit the puddles. Alex soon followed. The break in the heat was wonderful. Tomorrow is supposed to have a high in the low 90s. How sad that I get excited about that.

Not too long after this photo was taken, Alex decided to sit on his butt in the puddle. 

Grace looking sassy in the rain. 

Alex was happy to finally get his hands on Grace's umbrella. Guess I need to get him one of his own so he has one a little more manly than Care Bears. 

Alex and Buddy Lee...separated at birth? 

Classic Sesame Street

I loved this as a kid, and now my kids do too (watching it over and over again on the computer - click the "play" arrow on the bottom to have it play here in the blog).

Another conversation

One of Grace's favorite books we have from the library right now is Lilly's Big Day. It's a book about a mouse named Lilly and how her teacher announces he is about to marry the school nurse. Lilly gets excited because she decides she is going to be the flower girl. Of course, turns out Mr. Slinger has a niece who is going to be his flower girl. Lilly has to deal with it but ends up getting the opportunity to save the wedding (if you want to know how you just need to get to the library and find out yourself).

G: Mommy, I hope I can be a flower girl.
J: Grace, you have been a flower girl. For Aunt Kim, but you were only 2 so you probably don't remember.
G: Well I hope I can be one again.
J: I'm sorry but I don't think we know anyone else who is going to get married while you are still young enough to be a flower girl. Everyone we know is already married.
G: There's Grandma Lu.
J: Yes, I bet if Grandma Lu gets married again she will let you be the flower girl.

So Grandma Lu, you're on notice. If you get married again Grace wants to be first in line for that flower girl position.

Growing up???

So here is the conversation Grace and I had while pulling into the parking lot as I was taking her to school yesterday:

G: Mom, can I wear REAL makeup?
J: What?
G: Real makeup, Mom. Will I get to wear real makeup?
J: What? I don't know what you are talking about. What do you mean?
G: (Getting very frustrated and angry that I can't instantly understand her). REAL makeup, Mom. For the makeup day - real makeup.

Apparently we've never had a make-up day at school before, and I'd been telling her how she was going to school on Friday this week because of the "makeup day". So I felt a little bad having to dash her dreams (she loves wearing makeup) and telling her that it actually was just an extra day of school because we'd be missing one at the end of the summer.

Maybe I'll let her put on a little eyeshadow tomorrow. That will make her makeup day a truly exciting event - at least in the mind of a 4-year old.

Superman

No matter how many times I watch it, I still tear up at the end.

Our weekday trip

Kathy admonished me for not posting more often. Funny how skewed you can get looking at your own blog. Unless it has been a REALLY long time, I usually don't notice I haven't posted, but I notice every day when someone on my favorites list hasn't updated yet (BT - this means you!).

My excuse for the past few days is that I took the kids down to Austin for a fun three-day visit with Kathy and family. I had the laptop and was hopping on various neighbors' WiFi connections, but when I finally sat up late one night to post I discovered that I could no longer connect to them.

But we had a great time. Dragged the kids to the capitol, the children's museum, and a funky little farm in east Austin. Plus lots of hanging out and playing time. My dear friend Shelly joined us for dinner one night, and she didn't freak out at the chaos created by five kids and three adults under the same roof. In fact, she gamely let Joey kiss her goodbye on the cheek, at which point we discovered he was bragging to his siblings that he got to "kiss a girl" (who was not a relative I guess). I think the fact that she is probably 5 feet tall and doesn't look at all as old as the rest of us helped keep him in the dark that his "girl" was almost as old as his mom.

Grace got to come home with a new-found love of Polly Pocket since her awesome big cousin Emma gave her one to keep. Alex came home with a few scratches from Gabby the cat thanks to him testing out if he REALLY isn't supposed to pull the cat's tail, though that didn't diminish his excitement every time the cat showed up at the house ("Hi Gabby! Hi Gabby! Hi Gabby! Hi Gabby!"). We missed Jim terribly and were glad to be back home in our own beds Thursday night, but it was a fun way to finish out the summer.

Grace drew me this picture at Mom and Dad's house the other day. It's our family playing with a ball outside next to a tree in a rainstorm. She always draws Alex really teeny. 

This is Alex's masterpiece. It's of his newest favorite show - Bear in the Big Blue House. This is Bear, the mouse Tutter, otters Pip and Pop, Treelo the lemur, Ojo the teddy bear, Luna the moon and Shadow the shadow. He drew each one at a time and would bring the picture over to me and say "Surprise!". I would keep him busy by telling him to add the next one.