Never a Dull Moment

There is never a dull moment at our house. The following photos were taken yesterday...it was an interesting day.Upon walking into the living room, I found a snake charmer! Nice! I bet I was the only person in town, possible in the state or maybe the country, who had a little kid charming a rubber cobra in their living room yesterday.

At our house, kids can be found watching movies on a couch that's on a couch. Also, the girls like to lay in the front window on top of the couch to watch shows. Okay then!

Ainsley always has a baby with her. She has invented a baby carrier-dress. She wore it most of the day. She has another dress that she can stretch the top enough to carry two babies at once! We're working on a patent.

The Fair!

Bennett, Ainsley and Cousin M. took in the fair this week. I have to say, it was a great time. Here are some highlights... First stop...livestock! The Girls LOVED seeing all the animals!
This visit to the fair offered several opportunities to actually pet livestock. The girls got to pet a pig, a sheep and a rabbit. When asked what a pig feels like, Bennett's response was "a beard." Interesting comparison, Bennett!

They also jumped at the opportunity to hold a live snake!

We got to see a performance by some trained pigs. It was quite a show!

The above pig was Ainsley's favorite...the mama and baby pigs.

Blue snowcones! Wonderful! Bring on the stain remover...Actually, no shirts were harmed during the consumption of bright, blue snowcones. Amazing.

The Girls broadened their experiences by trying some buffalo jerky. It was tasty and I ended up having to buy them each their own serving.

We took in a ventriloquist's show. It was pretty funny...

...especially when he had a crazy baby puppet. Ainsley laughed herself silly!

Bennett volunteered to be part of the show. She was a chicken and she did a great job!

Prize Winning Painting and The Prize

Bennett won a painting contest at the library! Below is her painting... The prize for winning the contest was a crispy ten dollar bill, which I believe is the largest bill Bennett has ever possessed. She possesses it no longer though, because it was burning a hole in her pocket. What did she choose to buy with her earnings? A hideous little skunk, as can be seen below. Her new favorite thing is a line of small, plush creatures called Aurora Yoo-Hoos. They are kind of frightening, but mostly cute, and it was her money to do with as pleased, so I must relinquish control. Anyway, congratulations Bennett!

$9 for this ridiculous creature!

Ainsley's Book of the Month

We went to the library the other day. Bennett chose a few books to check out, and Ainsley was furiously looking for a single book to check out. She has no real method to book selection, she just randomly and impulsively chooses the books she wants. On this particular day, she only wanted to choose one book. Now, the library offers children thousands of wonderful, quality literature choices. I showed her many of her options, and she turned down each of my suggestions. Finally, she whipped the book pictured below off the shelf and immediately exclaimed that she had found just the book she wanted....Santa and the Christ Child! Seriously? Yes, very seriously. This is a crazy book. It is written for small children but contains vocabulary such as "endeared" and "dejected" and "chaise lounge" and "remarkable conveyance." It does, however, end with a good message about how Christmas is really about Jesus being born, rather than Santa and toys. I'm pretty sure I know why this book was "the one" for Ainsley...Baby Jesus, featured on the cover, of course!

Ainsley and Her Cousins

Ainsley and I took a little roadtrip to visit a new baby cousin. Ainsley had a wonderful time because there is nothing she loves more than a newborn baby! Ainsley enjoyed holding Baby L. many, many times!
Ainsley talked to baby L. and watched over her like a little mama.

Ainsley and Cousin A. enjoyed stoller ride around the neighborhood.

Ainsley and A. played in the back of Grandma's SUV, of course! This activity is always a given.

Holding hands while out on the town...

Hugging while out on the town...

Magnadoodling it up while out on the town...

Fourth of July...What a Blast!

We headed north to visit some great friends for the Fourth of July weekend, and we could not have had a better time! Here are some highlights from our action-packed weekend! We kept nine little children up very late for fireworks! Above, Ainsley and C. are waiting patiently for the show to begin, playing with their glow in the dark necklaces.

What's a party without a pinata? The kids had a blast working to get this one open. Notice Ainsley's expression as she watches T. preparing to take another swing.

Bennett and L. did some crafting together...decorating their patriotic sun visors.

Oh man...our friend, Dave, rented this gigantic inflatable for the day. He is a genius, because this was an extremely popular activity. The kids and many of the adults got a good workout!

We went to a really big parade in a teeny, tiny town over the weekend. There was a wee bit of rain, but it did not keep any parade goers away. We were glad we endured the wet, because it was a great event...lots of candy!

More parading.....

While waiting for the parade to begin, Bennett got some fireworks painted on her face.

We stayed with some friends, and the children had the joy of hearing a hilarious tale before bed. They heard a story about King Soggybottom, and they just thought it was a hoot! I think Bennett and Ainsley's dad enjoyed it as well!

Our friends live in a very unique house. One of the features is a huge spa tub that is elevated with carpet covered steps leading up to it. Now, this may not be every homeowners dream, but if you are a little kid, nothing could be better! Five kids and two dads piled in to wash their feet after some outdoor play. Did the dads really think they would only be wetting their feet? Probably. But the moms knew that this foot bath would not end without a kid or two being soaked all over! Oh well...we're making memories!

Crazy Ainsley

We all know that Bennett is a crazy kid. Well, Ainsley is coming along nicely in the area of craziness.... It's about 9:30 p.m. in the above picture. Shouldn't we be wearing pajamas and brushing teeth? No, no! We should be generously buttering our bread while wrapped up in some scarf-type thing. Right!!!

Bennett is playing a computer game here. Apparently Ainsley was not happy with the appearance of the screen at tabletop level. Hey, why not put a really flimsy child-size chair on the regular chair for a much improved view? Yes!!!

My, what big feet you have! All the better to take a baby on a walk with, my dear. Ainsley loves fancy shoes, whether they fit her or not. However, after watching in terror as she cartwheeled down our entire flight of stairs in high heels, we have a "no fancy shoes while going up or down stairs" rule at our house.

Weekend Wackiness

What a lovely weekend we're having! We kicked it off with a garage sale Friday evening. What did Bennett and Ainsley do while the sale was in progress? They hauled about a half million vintage Cabbage Patch Kids out to Grandma's SUV. I think that they were playing something that had to do with Baby Jesus (the doll Ainsley is holding was Jesus). But honestly, every time I got close to the vehicle the girls started yelling for me to leave. They do not like me interfering with their "Grandma Time." Where is Grandma in the photo? She's sitting up in the driver's seat with the air conditioning on full blast because it is hot out! We also were pleased to receive a surprise visit from some great cousins. Here are a whole lot of cousins, piled onto a teeny, tiny teeter-totter. The tiniest cousin, a mere four months old, is looking a bit alarmed. Bennett and Ainsley and alarmed babies go hand-in-hand.

We rounded out the evening by grilling and hanging out with some friends. We whipped out the Fun Foam and played a bit of Floamball. Here is Bennett, fresh out of her first T-ball season, taking a pitch from Renee. Of course it was a living room homerun!!!

Tooth on the Loose!

Exciting news! Bennett lost her first loose tooth today! She had wiggled it quite a bit and it was bleeding. She asked me to pull it...imagine that! I was quite surprised that she would let me, but she did. Pop, out it came, and she couldn't have been more thrilled. She exclaimed, "You don't know how long I've been waiting to be able to stick my milk straw (from school lunch) through a tooth hole!" Too bad school is out for the summer...no milk straws. Oh well. Hopefully the monetary compensation she receives from "The Tooth Fairy" will make up for this slight disappointment.

Fathers, Motorcycles, and Chocolate

Ah, Father's Day weekend! We had a lovely one. It started with some shopping for the special dads in our family. While we were out shopping, we parked next to this Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Bennett looked out the window and said, "Oh, this is JUST the motorcycle of my dreams! I want to leave for my honeymoon on a motorcycle just like that someday!" Really?!?! I asked her when she thought she might marry. She replied, "When I'm 70." Really?!?! Never a dull conversation with that girl!

Father's Day partying occurred with cousins. Here they are, downing some

tasty food from the grill and garden.

The cousins also spent some time cooling off in M's whale-shaped sprinkler/pool.


Bennett's on the non-dairy diet. It is no fun. Auntie made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with non-dairy chocolate chips, and my, oh my, was Bennett pleased. Here she is, savoring one.

The cousin party pooped Ainsley out. By the time we arrived at Grandpa and

Grandma's to celebrate Father's Day with them, she was pretty much worthless. Above,

you can see her "celebrating" with Grandpa. He looks just as wiped as she does. We were eventually able to wake her and squeeze a little more party out of her that evening.