What a day

What a day,
Oh what a day.
My baby brother ran away,
And now my tuba will not play.
I'm eight years old
And turning grey, Oh what a day, Oh what a day.
Broken sprinkler line and subsequent flooding of neighbor's yard...

....check

Four inch tree roots from the most malevolent oak in the world...

....check

Clay soil so hard that a gas powered auger can't dent it...

....check

Poison ivy...

....check

Another Conaway home improvement story chock-full of FAIL...

....check

So our fence did not get built this weekend.

But the day didn't stop there...

For the past couple months, Addie has not been taking naps. Instead, she goes to her room and has "quiet time." She stays in her room the entire time Charlotte is taking a nap, but her room is a pretty big disaster at the end of the two hours.

After the sprinkler incident we took a break. We all took naps... except Addie. When naps were over I was shocked that Addie didn't come running out of her room (which she usually does the second she hears Charlotte). I figured she probably fell asleep on her floor. About 10 minutes later I could hear her playing, so I peeked my head in to see what was going on.

Her room reeked of baby powder.

She had found a bottle of baby lotion and slathered herself, the carpet, and her dresser in half the bottle. "Mom! I used some lotion!!"

I can see that...

Thankfully, though...

We have some wonderful friends who watched the girls all morning while we fought with the auger. When we returned to pick up the kiddos they let us stay and chat with them for a couple hours. They even fed us lunch. Thank you!! It was a nice little break before we had to return to the newly created lake in our neighbor's yard.

The evening ended on a positive note as well.

Sean found a frog and the girls had a great time following it around the backyard. Addie named him Boomblay. He was a good frog. I think he might have been in shock because he was rather slow and wouldn't hop unless someone touched him. The girls would pet his back and make him hop... Addie said she was teaching him how to hop.

Addie also had a few opinions about Boomblay. He lives on the freeway. As slow as he is, I'm not sure how he survives living there, but he does. There is a patch of grass on the freeway that he lives in. And he doesn't work. Frogs don't work.

A fun week with Dad

Sean had one week off before summer school started and the girls had a great time playing with Dad. Unfortunatly, we were all a bit sick... but not sick enough that they couldn't go outside and play a little soccer. Near the end of the week we were feeling a bit better so we decided to take a trip down to Galveston.

Charlotte didn't care too much for the water. She tolerated it for a few seconds until a small wave hit her. I think it only got her ankles wet, but it was enough for her. She spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the sand...
... but she would only touch it with one finger.
She also liked chasing the birds. But they made her upset because they were too close to the water.

Addie also liked the sand... and would also only touch it with one finger...
But she preferred the water. She had a little song that went, "Ocean, ocean. Happy, happy, happy, happy!!" and she would sing it everytime she ran into the water.
Charlotte's other favorite part of the beach was the "fish." There were several of these jellyfish washed up onto the beach. She loved finding them and saying, "ish, ish!" We didn't let her touch them.

Patience

Last night as I was getting Addie ready for bed she decided that one of the books she wanted to read was the "Baby Book." The Baby Book is about 150 pages long and it doesn't really have a story, it is just a collection of pictures. We finished getting on pajamas and sat down to read.

Addie turns to me and says, "Mommy, are you going to skip some pages?"

To which I respond, "Yes, probably. It is a very long book, so we will just read some of it."

"But Mommy," she says, "you just have to be patient and read each page. Does that sound like a plan?"