The Ozmerican Life

I'm a bit behind, so rewind to a few weeks ago where it rained 10 days straight. Not fun for me or the kids. They were bugging me to go outside...so I let 'em. And no, Quaid is not 17 with a beard...he's 6 and it's mud.Quaid has learned to flash the gang signs from his daddy. It's most irritating and in my opinon totally ruins the picture. Does it make them feel rough and tough? Like any minute they're gonna bust a cap? Get in a police chase and drive 197 mph(or 300 kph if you're bundled up for winter and didn't understand what" mph" stands for). Whatever the reason I don't like it.
But he did. He totally got a kick out of himself, got my rug all dirty, ruined his nice white shirt and laughed histerically for about an hour.

Yesterday was a super catch up day. I had a busy weekend with my parent's party (which went great!), working, and T-ball... So I was buzzing around the house like mad all day. I had sent the kids out to play and like any good mom would, went out with them to watch them every second to make sure they weren't doing anything crazy and life threatening...well not really. As I was whipping past the window doing some chore on my list for the day that was necessary to make all the planets in my world align perfectly, I took a glance outside and saw this:


Did you catch it. There are three kids playing. Jentzen, running on the ground, Quaid trying to climb the tree...and then Ava. Do you see her? Look higher, higher, higher....There!! That little pink dot in the tree? That's my girl as far up in the tree as she could go, or at least as high as she got before I calmly told her to get back down. Really, I was quite calm. I didn't want to scare her and make her fall out! And another thing you can't see is that she was shaking the tree with all her little might...laughing at Quaid who was trying to climb a moving tree. It's not really that big of a tree. I can't believe she didn't break a limb. When I caught her she was trying to figure out how to get up one more branch which I'm SURE would have come cracking down.

I would like to take this moment to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart (that has skipped an entire minute and thankfully restarted again) to RW and DD for so kindly watching our kids last week and showing them that a trees only purpose is to be climbed. Really, we thank you.

When it's time for the weekly manicures and pedicures for the Walkington house...it involves me clipping 100 nails. One Hundred, One Hundo, 1--0--0.

Just a thought.

and I'm getting blog lazy. Turns out summer brings quite the social animal out of me. I know, does that even exist?? Almost every day I've had off work I've gone out with the kids somewhere...last week we went to the beach with some dear friends (coworkers) of mine and their beautiful girls. My poor boys surrounded by girls AGAIN!!! I am in a circle of girls it seems.

I know the slimy green lake in the background is a far cry from the beautiful white sanded ocean that my Aussie relatives AREN'T enjoying because it's winter there...ha ha ha!! All the way down to 68 degrees during the day (brrrr get out the parkas) and 50 at night, rough isn't it??
Below is Keira playing with Delie. These two girls are 2 weeks apart and are going to be best friends whether they like it or not. Jentzen is coming in from the left to pour water over Delie's head, after all, it's what boys to best. And then back in the water are Quaid and Ava roughing up another kid who's crowding their swimming turf.



Keira showing some sassy skin....What mom lets their 18 month old walk around half undressed? I did. Get over it, I have.And my favorite pic...the two little girls again. I decided that I would skip the swim diaper and see how she did with a normal diaper. She went swimming a little more than I expected and well...her bum was bigger than her head :) Okay so I guess they are worth paying $17.32 a piece. Yet again...parents robbed by the kid crap monopoly.
Also last week I was out doing some landscaping reconnaissance and went to Cleary Lake for a little walk/bike ride with all the kids. It'd been awhile since I had been there. I remembered it being a 3.5 mile loop around a lake but the sign entering the trail said 1 mile. Perfect for my little ones on 18" bikes that require 37 peddle rotations for every one step I take. Turns out if you don't turn around when the distance marker sign says .5 miles and follow the little yellow arrows painted on the trail telling you to "TURN BACK NOW"....you acutally end up going that 3.5 miles that I remembered. All the while hearing, "Mom, I'm getting tired, are we almost done?" And me replying with, "Yep, just about done, keep going." All the while knowing that we have about 2 miles left. Repeat that 13 more times and that about covers it. Good thing I didn't give into Jentzen begging me to take his training wheels along. Couldn't you just see that? Me with 2 kids in a stroller toting a bike on my back, with two other kids on their bikes begging me to stop and carry their bikes too! With all that could have gone terribly wrong, it didn't. They all made it and had a blast. Ava is not too keen to get back on the trail so I'll have to be sure to wait long enough for her to forget the pain.

Our garden was planted on June 5th. A little late. We were a little unorganized but it worked. And we even planted a few things that I don't even like, and we won't even eat. How awesome is that??

This week ahead is already packed with friends and family. T-ball is starting tonight. Back in February I thought it sounded like a great idea to put he kids on alternating nights so we get to be committed to watching them attempt to throw and hit a ball every night Mon-Thurs for an entire month. Now that I can actually see how that looks on the calendar...it was NOT a good idea.

We're throwing my Mom and Dad a 40th Anniversary party on Sunday so lots to prepare for with that.

Have a few play dates for the kids. I'm not sure why mom's say that. It's really not about the kids. It's really about the moms. The more kids you get together, the better they play, the more you can ignore them and drift off into the land of adult conversation.

And to top off the week... what I'm excited for the most, A DATE NIGHT!!! It's been....well....who knows how long...so long I can't remember. Not sure what we're doing or where we're going. Nathan planned it....can't wait. I'm sure it involves walking hand in hand down a flower petal paved path to arrive to a perfectly laid out picnic with fresh fruit and coke. I'll be set down on fluffy pillows and he'll stare into my eyes and read off his list of 100 reasons why he loves me followed by love poems that he's written just for me, all while massaging my feet. Yep....I'm sure that's exactly what he has planned!!