A little dirty fun

On your mark, get set, GO!

Sunny Day Stomping

I caught the instant before she fell to her butt in the muddy, sandy water.

Witness the aftermath of the fall. I could not convince the little kids their big sis slipped on accident. This spurred many staged dives and rolls in the water.

I have no explanation for this. Sometimes I have to ask her "Who are you?" This girl is in her own little bitsy world. You just gotta love her.

Soaked from head to toe in mud, sand, and random dirt. They rode home in their underwear. I could not find the strength to allow them in the car with those filthy, wet clothes and shoes. What I do know, is they had the time of their lives that day and they played together in pleasant harmony.

The boy was unavailable for comment, in fact he adamently stated "NO CHEESE MOMMA!"

Et tu Brute? Momma Monday?

Tag and I am it! My Friend Heather has brought a new and fun dimension via Erin to my little blog universe, the Momma Monday Post.

Rainy days are a mixed blessing in our home. While the adventurous mommy I can be (though it has been awhile) would bundle the kids up and take them out into the weather, this activity is getting a little dicey with three kids. Someone is always cranky. I say stomp through every puddle of muddy, sandy water you can find. Run, be free, yuck it up! Then I have to do the laundry.

One of my favorite things to do with the kids, and I say my favorite because I haven’t asked the kids if they find this as fun as I do, is to give the kids warm, bubbly baths, put on our soft, snuggly pajamas, get our blankets, popcorn and watch movies. The reason I love this so much is that all the kids climb into my lap or sit on either side of me and snuggle. No matter how bad the day is, these kids as Emmakat says “makes my heart bigger”.

Run and scream
Our house has a unique feature of circular path through the living room and hallway. It is simple; I am the assigned the role of tiger, monster, lion, dinosaur (sharp tooth with tail I might add) or any growling figure will do. The kids scream, giggle, hide, and run recklessly through the house. How else am I supposed to exercise? You can amend this activity with a vacuum cleaner. For some odd reason the kids love to play tag with the vacuum cleaner but the same tiring effect occurs, running and screaming equals good nap time. Again how else am I supposed to clean?

Building blocks and giants galore
We have these huge locking type blocks and we will build towers of many colors only to have the kids pretend they are wrecking balls or giants knocking over the towers. It is fun but it is short lived fun because someone is always crabby.

Crayons, play dough, and more
All of these things work great. I have narrowed it down to a bucket of crayons, color pencils and markers. My husband brings home huge pieces of paper, large enough to have the kids lay down so we can trace their bodies, hands, feet. I laugh when they ask me to lie down on the floor, I just tell them “Sweet Pea, there just isn’t a piece of paper that big in the world”.

I love play dough, roll it, squeeze it, and pound it. The little kids for their birthday got this cool play dough set with tools and this wonderful little mommy helper a play dough pig. This little guy has a nose which pigs up play dough anywhere. I L – O – V – E the play dough pig,

Now depending how messy you want to get, you should try mixing corn starch and water. This stuff is cool, it is squishy and wet but when you pull your hands out the stuff is instantly dry and powdery on your hands. It is a nice tactile activity.

Books, books, and more books
The kids love to read, I love to read, so it makes for a nice relationship. We have some book/toys which help my oldest (not my husband as stated in the previous post although I wonder?) learn how to read and write. I also got her a dry erase board to use because we never have enough paper around. So this board cuts down on the amount of paper used and puts the surface in a different position for their little hands. She uses it all the time and the cool thing is you can take tape and mark out lines to practice the sizing of her upper and lowercase letters.

The computer also provides some fun time too. There are some websites, like starfall which work on phonetic activities with pictures and stories. Then there are always the Sprout, Disney, Nick jr. and Noggin to keep the kids busy. It is like the vegetables, I try to sneak in the important stuff with fun when I can. Sometimes the kids are on to me, so it goes back to the running and screaming fun.

Crafts
Well I am not a crafty mom but I once tried to make robots out of paper grocery bags. I cut holes out for the arms and faces. This will last until the bag rips but with three robots chasing each other the odds are considerably higher for destruction.

Anyway, there it is a rainy Momma Monday actually on Monday instead of Wednesday or Thursday.

A Little Literary Poking at ........

People often ask, and it is not those who know me, "are you going to have just one more?" I emphatically answer "NO! I at my parenting limit with the four I have." Four? I can see the wheels clicking, and you are saying to yourself "she has never spoke of four children."

Well folks you have missed the eldest of my group, yes the one who can usually dress himself, shower on his own, and sometimes shave. The Husband.

I was reading this morning a article which sites a University of Michigan study that husbands create 7 hours more housework a week. Is this true? Can it be? I think I may have to put that hypothesis to the test this week.

So folks, I am going to chart every crumpled paper towel I find, the herds of dirty socks I find cowering at the end of the bed under the covers, the increased inches to the pile of laundry in the corner, the shedded damp towels inching their way out and off the bathroom floor, how many days the new toilet paper roll will sit on top of the empty toilet paper roll in the holder, and how long it takes me to locate the multiple remotes required to use the TV. I am sure my chart will be longer, I may have to use legal size paper to fit them all.

My fellow women, wives, girlfriends, I vow to research the claim of additional seven, count them, seven hours of housework provided by male force in the household. I vow to be unbiased in my research, I vow to use statistical data for the good of womanhood, I vow to find some light at the end of the tunnel of laundry! (Fervent fist thrusting in the air, blind intensity in the eyes)

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL! CHARGE!

Happy Birthday Kim!

Come on everybody! Give a big birthday shout out to a wonderful friend of mine!

K to the I to the M and that spells KIM!

One of the coolest things I got to participate in for Kim's birthday is that his wife, partner, & friend, Miss Heather put together a project to collect 43 things from friends and family about what we love about Kim. Awesome idea, thought provoking and a great way to show a person how much they mean to you. I just want to let him know that I am honored to be the "little" Kymn to your "big" Kim. For those of you folks who are scratching your heads let me "esplane".

Not too many times in your life do you get to have a friend with the same name, let alone a male friend with the same name. I met Heather just shortly after she had started dating Kim so you can see when Heather and I started hanging out some people "assumed" when she was speaking of Kim she was speaking of me. Confused yet? From that day on I was dubbed "Little Kymn" and proud to wear that moniker.

So thank you Big Kim, thank you Miss Heather, thank you for letting me be a part of your lives. Thank you for all the laughs, snorts and giggles to be had and I look forward to many more. Thank you for your shoulder to cry on, thank you for stimulating conversations, thank you for the lovely photographs, thank you for opening your heart and sharing your life experiences. Thank you for being you.

¡Feliz cumpleaños!

Kim

A Mamma Monday... just two days late

Hello friends and neighbors,

I get up this morning and check in with my favorite people via the blog scene only to find the gauntlet has been thrown. Started out as a soft and lovely morning, birds singing, squirrels squeaking, coffee hot in the Venti size cup. Now, I have been called out, called out by a buddy, a sister, kin, let me just say Woman I have not even had my coffee yet! So Miss Heather here is my attempt to buddy blog for Mamma Mondays!

So here it goes, reading is a big deal in our home. With three kids it takes on a whole added arena to bed time. Predominantly our reading is at bed time only because we have to work 8 to 5, Monday through Friday but on the weekend we try to get at least a couple of reading moments locked and loaded for the day. Anyway the kids love books and so do I. Like so many parents you introduce to your kids the stories you loved as a child. I am not any different.

Dr Suess is an all time favorite, we too have "Oh, the places you will go" , "Green Eggs and Ham", "Cat in the Hat" to name a few. The kids have more books than I do. I love books and now Emma has discovered the library. She will be getting her own library card for her birthday. She is awestruck you can go to a building and take home any book she wants and come back to get more. I love to read them to the kids but by far the books that the twins and Emma are into is anything dinosaur. Let's see on the list for this year are:

• Dinosaur Roar (Completely memorized, I don't even have to look at the pages)
• How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight (I have this one memorized as well)
• How Does a Dinosaur Gets Well
• How Does a Dinosaur Go to School
• Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (this book is cool, it has little books inside the big book that Velcro into place.)
• Polar Express
• Puff the Magic Dragon
• 5 minute fairy tales (this is fraudulent title, it takes at least 20 minutes to read any of the stories in this book, I think it is to tease the parents)
• Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
• Our Solar System (Emma is big on this one)

So there Vitamin D, how did I do? :o) Hee Hee

A Touch of Country Living

One of the many things I do during the day is drive. In reference to the previous post, yes I have broken a wee bitty law or two in my day. (Before you hit the comment button and give me a little poke in the ribs take a look in the mirror.) In the big picture, not as heinous as the worst possible scenario could be but none the less I need to be a little more careful for the safety of my brood and others. Ok, let’s get off the PSA train and move to another area of my driving, what I actually see on my travels.

I have been reluctant to actually give out the location of where I live, not because I don’t like or feel ashamed, but for safety reasons. As much fun as this blogging adventure is, I wanted to keep some anonymity however my husband blew the top of that jar in his blogging adventure. So now the cat is out of the bag, I thought I would share a visual of the things I see on a daily basis with the kids on our way to work/school.

My definition of country is living on a minimum of 35 acres with a head of cattle, herd of horses or some other livestock, riding the ATV around the fence line with spare barb wire and u-nails checking for holes. The nearest neighbor can be seen with binoculars and the cats are chasing rabbits or gophers for most of the day. Where we live is what I would call quasi-country, and that is because I live in a subdivision in the middle of a walnut orchard. It is just enough country for me and I like being there a lot. I have wonderful neighbors, a great home for my kids, quiet streets, occasional play by play football from my front porch, and an exceptional, talented young man who comes twice a month to help my husband with yard work. I get piece of mind that my kids will be going to a great elementary school, small stores, and friendly smiles. I get the chorus of toads in the evening, mallards roaming the empty lots, Red tailed hawks, owls, bats, cats, howling neighbor dogs, skunks (mostly the smell tells me they are around), and Yellow-billed magpies.

Magpies, let me just tell you about these little, brash birds. My observations lead me to believe they have a club, a club of young, punk birds looking for trouble. They like to dodge cars, hang out in the middle of the road, and cause general driving mayhem. I believe they know when I am driving and send the word out. Not a day has gone by when these brutes are hogging the man made pathways with their silliness. I am human look at me drive, now bird get out of my way! I have many small moments of panic because I think they will not move out from in front of the van. That in itself is another topic.

Back to the point, here are some moving pictures of the sights I see on my travels. There will be more to come as the year progresses, but for now enjoy.

This is great but if only I had the camera the other day.

Kids, please meet the Deputy

Yes, it is true. As you can extrapulate from the title of this segment of my chaotic life I got a ticket. Now most people say I did not deserve the ticket but in this case I own it 100%. Just a little tip for those of you folks who may not know, they radar EVERYBODY! He was on the opposite side of the road coming toward me and he was running the radar the whole way. Pleasant man, polite, a true blue example of what the public would want in a Deputy patrolling our fine streets.

I was merging onto another street and had to push it to get witht he current flow of traffic and before I could resume normal operating speed, BAM, I was hit with radar. I was busted, knew it as soon as I saw the lights, pulled over before he had to blow the horn. The kids however were asking what I was doing so I explained that Mommy broke the law and the deputy was comming to talk to Mommy. So here comes the deputy, poised for action on the passenger side of the car, the kids are yelling hello, who are you, why are we stopped. He checks the kids to make sure they are suited up in the car seats, they don't miss a trick and thank goodness. He says, "you were going a little fast" and I say "Yes, you are absolutely right" why fight? He is the enforcer of the law and I am the breaker of the law, perfect relationship as I see it.

So after asking permission to get my bag for my license, and permission to get into the glove box (always ask permission, they are a gittery folk and who can blame them) he writes the ticket and I ask the usual questions, can I pay online, can I go to traffic school, yes and yes, my wonderful miss E pipes up from the back of the car and says, "Are you my mommy's friend?" He laughs and says isn't she cute, all I can say is "Yes Em, the deputy is mommy's friend, he tells mommy to drive safe".

Folks, show your support for our fine peace officers roaming the streets doing the best that they can, drive safe, and know I just got someone else off the hook for getting a ticket.