Birthdays, Berries, and Bee Stings

Can another year already have passed?  It seems the other day that the twins had their 5th birthday, and now they are turning six! Crazy times....
So, I wanted to give them their gifts today, and I swung by the house to visit while they were all out at the barn tending to various fix-it projects.  The girls thought their little stuffed animals were cute and were happy to each get a bag of Skittles (can we eat them now?), and all was fun.
Then we munched on a few blackberries that the girls had been picking, and all was fun.
Then it was suggested that we go and pick some more along the trail bordering the pasture.  We picked and munched, picked and munched.  The girls insisted that I take all the berries we were picking so I could make some cobbler for my parents when I went over for dinner.
And all was fun.

Until ....
It all started with Cooper (the dog) getting stung.  Big sis noticed and we were all concerned, but she seemed fine, so we kept on picking.
THEN we noticed it.  A wasp's nest bigger than my head was resting on the ground just to the left of the trail, and a bunch of wasps were crawling all over it.
EEK!
I'm sure my eyes widened, and I imagined the worst - wasps flying and crawling all over us, stinging us eight times each.  We all decided to GET OUT OF THERE QUICK - - - -
But we weren't fast enough.  Poor Sawyer got stung once and Rylee 2 or 3 times, including on her jaw.  Cass and I were fortunate enough not to get stung, but there were tears!  I can still hear Rylee scream when she first got stung. I thought "this is it!" Wasp apocalypse.
We got out of there okay though, and their mom came running, ice packs were administered and Benadryl given, tears were dried and all was well.
Happy birthday, twins!  I love you lots and you are brave, adventurous girls!!  Hugs and kisses and quick healing!

Making a Splash

Yay for summer!  The perfect time to take the kiddos to the beach to throw rocks into the ocean. I'm so glad they wanted to, instead of staying glued to their screens.  Good, old-fashioned fun wins another day!!

The boys and I took part in the timeless joy of picking the biggest rocks to make the biggest splashes, comparing the shapes, sizes and colors of all the rocks around us, and even keeping a few in our pockets.

Take time out to smell the ocean and listen to the seagulls sing!  Happy weekend!!

Back in the saddle

Well, here I go again! Back to work as a nanny, meeting new kids. It's an adventure, I suppose, is the best way to look at it. I have mixed feelings, but my lack of hours at my current job has led me this opportunity. My plan for today is to take some boys for a walk out at Washington Park, and hopefully they'll have fun exploring the beach and climbing the twisty tree. Since they are new in town, I hope this will be their first visit to the park. Maybe we'll get some ice cream after! Wish me luck!

Valentine's day according to the kids

Ah, love is in the air... or is it?
"Ew!" "Cooties!"

You get the picture, and that's pretty much what I expected from the kids. But I had to ask.

"Who is your Valentine?"
-- "mamma, daddy, and my brother. The only girl I like is mamma."

"Who's your Valentine?"
--shrug
"Do you love your mamma?"
--shrug

"Who would you give a Valentine to?"
--"my brother"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"
--"naaaahh!" (Jackson, I was informed by another kiddo)

"What is Valentine's day for?"
--"giving love to everyone even if you don't like them."

--"it's to do notes, nice and happy love notes."

--"it's too embarrassing to give a Valentine to my boyfriend."

"How many people are you giving Valentines to?"
--"I have a ton of Valentines, they're mostly in my class."

--"I have a special Valentine. I have a crush on him and he has a crush on me. Sometimes it's overrated. Too much drama."


My wish for you this year-- spread the love, skip the drama. <3

More things kids say

Ah, those moments! Moments when your little one utters something completely incomprehensible and pleads with you to understand them. Moments when they say something adorable, memorable, or even thought provoking.

These "kiddo quotes" might be somewhere in between, but I hope you enjoy them.

When little ones are just learning to talk and really want to be part of the conversation, they tend to fill in the gaps with whatever they can. Here is my best attempt at phonetically describing one little, adorable girl doing just that.

"Bsa bsa busupa ghost!"
"It's a pony bsa busupa supa."
"What's`at? Bsa bsa bsa busupa supa supa."


Yep, that about sums it up. She's too adorable for words.


Now we move on to the subject of rain. Which it tends to do here quite often.  Or, as one 4-year old girl once told me,

"That's not rain, that's just pbbbb-pbbbb-pbbb."

And one helpful little boy responded,

"You can wear me outside, `cause I'm waterproof."


Sometimes the kids` pronunciations are just plain amusing.

"Cooper was sasing the shickens."


Or you can catch a conversation between two kiddos-

"You're a big kid in here."

"I'm not big."

"Are you little?"

"I'm not little. I'm Dawson."


So much fun! Speaking of fun, why not go to Youtube and look up Kid Snippets? I guarantee you a laugh.

Merry Christmas .... a bit late. I truly hope it was a wonderful one!

I had made an attempt to get some kids perspectives on Christmas, as they can be so cute and eye-opening. It didn't quite come out the way I planned, but I did get some fun stories about Christmas trees!

A three year old told me his story:
"One day we got it from a festival. We drived there, and picked it up and drived it home. And we had lunch first."

Then a 5-year old related his tale:

When they got their tree from a tree farm.... "they chip it up and shakey shake it to get it all ready. (Now that its decorated) it looks so beautiful. My favorite ornament is a spider with silver legs."

One last special thought- I did get one little girl to tell me what she liked best about Christmas-

Singing Christmas songs....

And of course that it is Jesus birthday!