Swinging in the Summer

The new tire swing is a hit. With my children. Avery had a friend over who was too fearful to ride on it. And most of the babies' friends are still in baby seats or experimenting with regular swings. I'm not worried about anyone falling off but Finley did get clocked by it the other day and it knocked her to the ground before she even knew what happened. Avery likes to stand up and close her eyes. She feels like she is flying.

I love this photo of Logan. He is so patient about pushing everyone on the swing.

Keep your volume low. Finley is hammering in the background. Meryl can do this all day.

Feed The Children

She truly does get at least one solid meal a day along with a bath. But she fights wipe ups, detests shoes, loves dirt and stares at *everyone* who passes by. Sometimes I'm so embarrassed by her ragamuffin appearance.

30 Minutes

It is going to be quiet around here. Logan complained that I get more than 30 minutes on the computer and that is *just* not* fair! If they only get 30 minutes of screen time (ds, tv, computer) a day then so should I. So I'm trying to do all my screen time in 30 minutes. I spent at least 20 minutes signing Logan up for his basketball league. I think it should come out of his minutes, not mine.

Yesterday our family learned a lot. 7 miles can be really long on the way home. Slugs have great mouth feel if you are Finley. Rabbit poop does not. The lego store doesn't have as large of a selection as toys r us. Logan ate 4 different fruits and two servings of vegetable in one day and lived to tell. Now he is all set for the month. Meryl was stung by a bee and I didn't believe her for about 20 minutes until we could see the sting and her finger swelled up. Hey, she uses the word bee for every insect! Sometimes the quiet, no-plans-days are the best.

I still want to show pictures from City Museum but that will have to wait. I want to check the weather forecast and the minutes are ticking.......

Lyme, again

I'm not sure what else I can do to prevent this. The girls even poke through one another's hair playing "tick check." This is Meryl's belly. She last had Lyme in April. Logan only has 6 more pills to take and I'm sure he will continue to complain each time. Maybe I'll buy that dang wii he wants and lock my kids up in the house until the first hearty frost. Until then, I'll keep supporting our local independent pharmacy!

Random

-I’m not sure that Finley and Meryl have ever seen a baby being bottle feed. But we acquired a toy bottle. Meryl loves it but isn’t quite clear on the whole concept. She still unbuttons her shirt, puts the doll to her chest and then adds the bottle to the whole mix. I’m sort of glad she doesn’t know how it works and I’m not about to teach her.

-Remember the camping trip of green foamy poop? And the 3 hour flight that included 8 poopy diaper changes? Yesterday Meryl pooped a butterfly wing that was once attached to Avery’s toy. And Finley’s diaper included multiple foam stickers. Today I asked Finley what was in her mouth. After a big fight she eventually spit out about 16 beads of various shapes and sizes. I figure that a few will come through tomorrow. Gee, I wonder why they have upset bellies!

-We’ve had a zillion trees taken down in the past 3 days. Sadly a few came down that we had hoped to keep. One tree that holds up our swings had to come down. We've had many hours of fun on these 3 swings and they will be missed.

And we lost the tree that holds up one end our hammock. This tree was healthy but in the way of the trucks getting past. Personally, I prefer to lie on the hammock alone but I can't say I've ever done that. Usually I have a kid (or 3) for company.
But we have a new rope swing that is about 37 feet high and will be great fun once we clear out some of the small shrubs in the way.

-Finley doesn't need pockets.

The Flight

These photos are for Larry who I thought might be interested in cockpit photos from the flight to St. Louis.


Avery and the resident pigeon under the captain's foot pedals.

Logan trying out the fo's seat. As you can tell maintenance has fallen behind a bit.

Just kidding!

This is the Embry Air that Cathy's flies, but not the plane that took us to stl.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity, Jig

Great trip, but very busy. The highlight of the trip was City Museum. More later after a few loads of laundry and a night's sleep!