Water Weekend

While the week has been rainy and kind of gross (unfortunate for Dexter, as his camp had lots of water play planned and they didn't do as much as they had hoped), last weekend was pretty perfect.  And the forecast for this weekend is looking stellar as well.

We were late putting up our pool this summer, because it honestly just has not felt like pool weather.  So we finally got it up over the weekend.  And I got out the water table and the baby pool to play with as well.  And our kite made another appearance - it made its maiden voyage on Friday evening with very little wind, and returned on a breezier Sunday afternoon to fly higher than the house.  Dexter was very excited.

Dexter figured out how to turn the sprinkler on and off.  You know, for when he needed a drink.

Giving the penguin a shower

Big brother in your way when trying to reach your watering can?  No worries.  Just climb over him.

Giving Dexter a shower

Blowing bubbles

Cuteness

Trying to get a photo of these two, close to each other, looking at the camera, with their eyes open is damn near impossible.  So I suggested splashing, to at least get some smiles on their faces.  Dexter was perhaps a bit too enthusiastic.

While the children were playing in the baby pool, Daddy was spreading more sand on our big pool pad. Dex helped for a while, too.  And then the boys needed to stop for a beer break.  Root beer, that is.

We put the pool up Saturday night and Sunday, and by Sunday afternoon Dex was ready to swim.  The pool temp?  A balmy 73 degrees.

This one wanted to get in, too.  There was NO WAY I was getting in the water when it was 73 degrees, so I made Daddy stop shoveling mulch so he could get in.

First dip in the cold cold coldness

He seems happy enough about the coldness.

Quick change of clothes and Erin was ready to swim.

She was not psyched about the temperature.  One foot in the water, and then this is where she stayed.

Dexter "helped" Daddy get all the way under the water.

Post-swimming kite flying

This is from when it was getting ready to land.  Most of the time it was a very very VERY high kite - higher than the house.

Here's video from the initial kite flying on Friday.  Click here for link.

Amused

We thought we had the timing just right last June with our first Dutch Wonderland trip, so we wanted to go again this June before school let out and things got more crowded.  Today was bright and sunny and not terribly hot and it was a PERFECT day to play hooky from school and work and go to an amusement park.

I thought the daredevil baby would be FAR more bold than she was today.  She tried some things, but mostly only once.  And the fast rides she was not ok with at all.  You know.  The fast rides.  Like the carousel.

Dex, however, tried almost every ride in the park.  Not the log flume, because he didn't want to get wet.  And not the big roller coaster.  But I think he did everything else.  I asked him what his favorite ride was and he said "all of them."  And when John was putting him to bed tonight he asked "Why do days go so fast?"

John tried explaining to him the whole "time flies when you're having fun" thing, and that days go by faster when you are having a good time.  Dexter's response?  "How does the earth know to spin faster when I am having fun?"

Man, I love that kid.

Here's a link to the picture album from today.  I'll do a video some time.  Not tonight.  Tired.

Friday Ice Cream

Friday afternoon seemed like a good time for ice cream.  The weather was nice.  The kids were hungry.  We didn't have anything else to do.  And Grandma and Grandpa needed a snack before they hit the road to drive home after their very very short stay with us.  So off to the corner we went.

Dex chose Blue Raspberry water ice.  His lips were STILL BLUE on Saturday.

Erin chose Cookies n Cream and ate the entire cup all by herself, mostly because she screamed if I tried to help her.

And we followed up our ice cream eating with a good romp up and down the porch and some Mahna-Mahna.  The blue lips running down the porch are awesome.

I love the corner ice cream store.  I hope it stays put and doesn't move to the fancy shopping center.  It's not nearly as much fun to sit inside a store to eat ice cream.  We much prefer sitting on the porch watching the traffic at the 4 way stop sign.

Here's a couple in the driveway while we were waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to get packed up and ready to leave.  Dexter loves his blue horse and the very similar blue dog (I bought both for Fair Hill and I hope I can sneak them out of the house in October).  Please don't tell him he is totally squishing the poor blue horse.

Erin showed me her teeth.

We really thought we deserved the ice cream because we worked hard during Erin's nap (Erin didn't work hard at all, that slacker) planting the annual flower garden.  We transformed it from a pretty ugly patch of weeds and some kind of plant that survived the winter to a fairly respectable flower garden.  It looks even better today with some mulch on it.

Before

Flowers.  My only rule was "No sweet potato vine."  Because it almost ate our pool last summer and we had to chop it down.

Had to do some weeding first

I found a worm for Dex.  He gave it a bath in a puddle and then put it back in the dirt and we had a discussion about how worms dig - by eating dirt and then pooping it out.

Somehow Grandpa convinced Dex to throw the weeds away

Dex placed the flowers, I planted them

I like the cool black petunias right in the middle.  Erin picked those.

Grandma came out partway through to supervise.

And then Dex gave the flowers a drink

Not all the watering was of the flowers...

Because, really, what fun would that be?

The final un-mulched product.  It always looks slightly unimpressive in June, and then pretty awesome in August.

Grumpelstiltskin

Behold, the grumpy baby at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Memorial Day.  There is pretty much nothing festive or celebratory about the child, save for her very cool flag shirt and shorts.  This, mind you, is the look on Erin's face while being held.  BY ME.  With NOBODY ELSE CLOSE TO HER OR LOOKING AT HER.  Heaven help us if Mama was not holding her, or someone tried to come close to her or look at her while she was eating or (GASP!) touch her.

Now, mind you, it was not entirely her fault.  She had been sick since Thursday night.  A nasty virus that gave her a whopper of a fever that finally broke in the wee hours of Monday morning.  So while she had some moments of chipper, and a few minutes of petting the kitty and playing with Grandpa, mostly she was just a grumpy pain in the ass all weekend who took lots of naps and woke up multiple times each night.  It was great fun.

Especially fun because Memorial Day weekend was the weekend of two weddings.  One was Aunt Jeanne's wedding, which both kids went to.  Erin left right after pictures, and John dropped her butt in bed before reception festivities began.  The other was a friend's wedding on Lake Ontario.  The kids were not invited, but it was supposed to be a fun night for John and I, and the kids were going to spend the night with Grandma.  Poor John, Super Dad, didn't end up going to that wedding.  He spent his Sunday doing some more of this:

We did our best to muddle through.  John was great.  Maria came to help after Jeanne's wedding.  Jeanne and Dom let me off the hook on helping with some things, and braved the cooties living in their house (so far not one other person has gotten sick.  Knock on wood.)  Grandma and Grandpa cooked for us and kept Dex entertained and held the kitty for Erin to pet and kept her entertained in her bouts of happiness with lots of fun toys.  So we survived.  But we all were awfully happy to make it home on Monday night and put the kids down in their own beds.  Erin seems to be on the mend - she had more moments of cheerfulness today, and she made a trip to the pediatrician who declared her totally fine, and after a shower tonight she happily ran naked and screaming around the house.  It was a good sight to see.

Pre-wedding grumpiness

More pre-wedding grumpiness

Not to be outdone, Dex displays his own grumpiness.  He declared Aunt Jeanne's wedding "too long."  Dude.  It was TEN MINUTES.  Your READ A BOOK through the whole thing.

Unhappy

Happy!  Jumping stones with her brother.

Erin survived some photos.

But not all photos.

And Dex made it through the night with several breaks to go outside, jump on rocks, and dance.

It also helped to not have to have ALL the photos be perfect.

Congrats, Jeanne and Dom!  Thanks for sharing your special weekend with us and all our germs.