Smiling at the Park...

Layton loves the park. He really, really loves the park!! He likes to go to the park before we pick up the girls from school. I try to take him at least once a week. Here he is with a piece of bread that he was feeding the ducks...

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Yes, I decided to let the curls go free! I did get his hair trimmed a little this weekend. I had an inch taken off, but only because his hair was starting to get in his eyes and bother him! He still has a fro though!! I'll post some pictures as soon as I remember!

D-Rama...

Don't get me wrong; I adore my girls. BUT, they are so much drama!!! Especially my middle child, Ella...

She is full of emotions and flaunts them all the time. She poses for pictures and models clothing. She cries and screams. She is a complete drama queen!!! If she gets a new dress, she wants shoes, a hair bow, and a purse to match. Dirt? Forget it. She wants to stay clean and girly! Girls are so much work!!!!
Layton was different from the day he was born. He is fine in last year's nasty t-shirt and blue jeans three sizes too small. He gets incredibly dirty every day! Sometimes when I put him in the tub at night, I expect the water to turn brown! He doesn't fall out crying when I tell him that I am not buying him the shoes to match an outfit. He never begs for expensive Vera Bradley bags. He doesn't care if his hair is combed or not.
Girls are Drama!

Sleepy Time on the Floor...

Layton was playing in the kitchen with a sticker book when the urge to sleep was to strong to resist...

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I don't know how, but he managed to sleep on the kitchen floor for several minutes. I had to grab my phone and take a picture because it was so cute!

Hadley's Gift...

Hadley went shopping with her grandmother and felt compelled to buy a present for me.

Yep. She bought me a set of hilarious napkins.

Pro Choice...Pro Life...Who Cares?...

Starting a War of Words. That's what happened earlier this week when a popular Mom Blogger announced that she would no longer allow Susan G. Komen ads on her blog because the organization gave grants to Planned Parenthood. She's devoutly pro-life, and called SGK an organization that "supports abortion." Her words, not mine. Her tweets explaining all of this really got my feathers ruffled.

SGK is the world's largest organization that provides breast cancer research and support. The organization has raised more than $1.5 Billion for breast cancer. I think we'd all agree that is impressive.

And now, one mom blogger is suggesting that an organization that has granted an immaterial amount to Planned Parenthood is not to be supported because PP is the largest provider of abortions in the United States. PP provides so many other services though, and it is being suggested that if you don't believe in all of an organization's policies, you can't support the organization at all.

To me, this is the same as homophobes boycotting Sharp. That's right. If you don't like homosexuals or believe in their rights and freedoms, throw your Sharp appliances in the ditch. George Takei is one of their spokespeople, and he's gay.

I have friends with very different opinions to my own. We don't believe the same things about God, creation, abortion, etc., but we are still friends and can see beyond our differences.

You don't have to believe in 100% of an organizations policies and procedures to still believe in the good that is being done. Why sacrifice awareness and life saving research to start a war of words?

Furthermore, who cares?

Infidelity...

Infidelity. The word sounds dirty. Why do people cheat? I've been thinking about this topic A LOT lately.

I have a couple of friends who have had to deal with infidelity. I have to be honest. I don't know if I could be that strong.

My grandfather had an affair and my grandparents went through an epic divorce battle as a result. Epic may be an understatement. They had been married for decades when they divorced. In fact, both of their children were married, and my mother was pregnant with my brother at the time. Their divorce colored every holiday, birthday, graduation, wedding, and special occasion.

I honestly don't understand it. Why cheat?

The thing I really don't understand is how anyone has enough time to perpetrate an affair. I'm being serious. I don't know how I could possibly squeeze an affair into my already hectic schedule. I don't know how my husband could spare the time for a mistress. Apparently though, when someone really wants to have an affair, they will find a way to make the time for it.

So, why cheat?

Tug of War...

I failed to include a picture of Ella during the tug of war on field day.

She was absolutely adorable! Her class won the tug of war!!!

Scoot Over...

...for fun.

The river isn't quite ready for summer...but we are...

The Morning After...

I love camping! It is so much fun.

Even the next morning....

...sitting in robes around the fire...

...smiling about burnt marsh mallows from the night before...

...cuddling to stay warm while waking up...

I love camping!

Field Day Fun With Ella...

Field day was something my elementary school put on toward the end of the year every year. I'm sure other schools call it different things, but it was field day for us. The day always started with relays. Here's my little Ella in her relay line...

She ran so hard!!! She did her absolute best!!

The hurdle event was not her favorite event. She actually ran around the hurdle!! It was so precious!! She knew that the hurdle was too tall for her, so she just went around it!!

My favorite relay that she participated in was the water balloon pop. The children ran from one end of the field to the other, grabbed a water balloon, put it in a chair, and sat on it to pop it. Ella tried to sit on it once. She very quickly realized that she did not have enough mass to pop the small balloon, so she picked it up and threw it on the ground to pop it!! My pictures were blurry though, so I haven't posted any of those!

I'll Have S'More....

Seriously, would anyone go camping and not take the makings for smores?!!?!??!?!!

This was Layton's first smore ever! He seemed to like it pretty well...he ate several! I am not a smore lover. I guess you could call me a purist. I like my chocolate straight! :) Even though I don't like smores, I don't camp without making them for everyone else...

Camping...

The first camping trip of the year has taken place for us!! We drove to the farm, set up camp, and started having fun!!

We have two tents. One is large, and one is small. The children sleep in the large one since there are three of them. Jay and I sleep in the small one.

The fire pit started out small and got progressively larger as the temperature dropped....

This is my dutch oven. We were heating up some chili that had been cooked earlier. No one likes cold chili! HA!

I took a ton of pictures and will have to do more than one post about our time in the woods. It was a blast!! The children cannot wait to go again!!

Wanna Know How Much Money I Make?....

Jenna recently tweeted about http://www.spokeo.com/. I went to the website and did a search for myself. All kinds of information came up....

...my address...phone number...email address...zodiac sign...whether or not my house has a fireplace...and how many people live in the house...approximate household income...my age...education status...

It was almost all incorrect though! If you're going to violate my privacy, at least be accurate about it! Right?!!???! Where did they get this junk? Certainly not from my blog; the information would have been accurate had they read my blog. I'm not on Facebook. Have I really tweeted too much about myself? Should I check the bushes outside my computer room? Maybe the spokeo spy is watching me type this!!

I followed the steps to delete my profile and then thought to search under my maiden name. Boom! There it was. All kinds of inaccurate info under my maiden name with the address listed as my mother's house. It even provided a middle initial...not my middle initial but one that's close.The really strange thing is that I have never slept a single night in my mother's house she lives in now. She moved there a year after my father died, and I was already married and had two children when she took up her current address. Who in the heck runs this spokeo website????? At some point, a litigious personality is going to see this site and get ticked off by the wrong information being given out.


So, I deleted the profile for my maiden name too. Time to search for the hubs. Jay is not my husband's name...it's just what his family calls him. There was nothing on him under his real name, but boat loads of  incorrect information under his nickname. However, his actual twitter profile picture was shown. His education was listed as "some college." I laughed out loud at that one; the man has multiple degrees in math and electrical engineering. The biggest mistake was that he was listed as living in another city. With another wife. With other children. With a totally wrong age but correct zodiac sign.

You can see how I got a little nervous at first. :) I emailed the link to the profile to him and asked if he needed to tell me anything. Ha!!

Seriously though, shouldn't this site be monitored a little more closely??? Or have to ask your permission before telling the world whether or not you have a fireplace???? Incidentally, we do have a fireplace, but spokeo says we don't. Maybe that thing on the far wall that has fire in it isn't really a fireplace...spokeo says it's not.

In a nutshell, I am thinking about making the blog private. Please let me know if you think I should go private or stay public. If I do go private, you will still be able to read the blog if you send me an email. :)

A Group of Girls...And Layton...

He's already reeling in the girls! HA! Those curls and dimples do the trick on me every time!! :)

Chop...Chop....

Judo Chop!

Julie & Julia...& Ella...

That's right. My child who is obsessed with all things culinary was caught last night. She was caught watching Julie & Julia. I had placed it in the Netflix cue thinking I would get around to watching it. Ella beat me to it!! I hadn't even screened it yet for ugly language and inappropriate scenes!!

Somebody get this girl some cooking classes!

They Don't Know I Am Behind Them...

Hadley sat and visited with Layton after her play. I stood behind them watching for a while. They didn't know I was behind them, and it was so cute to hear the things they talked about!! Layton was telling Hadley that he liked her play and that she sang "real good." It was so sweet!!

Hanging Around Waiting for Hadley...

Layton gets out of preschool at 12:00. Ella gets out of school at 2:30. Hadley doesn't get out until right at 3:00, so that gives the two little ones and myself a nice chunk of time to spend waiting in the parking lot. They love for me to open the moon roof, so they can stick their heads out in the sun.

The schools have dismissed at different times for as long as I can remember. Both of my parents were teachers and had to wait until all the children were on their applicable buses before leaving, so my grandfather would pick us up at school. While we would wait on my older brother to get out of school, Dewey (my grandfather) would make banana sandwiches for KK and me. His version wasn't quite what you would normally think of as a sandwich. He would take a banana and peel it and then stick it in a hot dog bun that had been slathered with mayonnaise on the inside. He'd also let us eat and entire box of Little Debbie snacks.

After the Play...

My mother snapped a picture on her phone after Hadley's play the other day. Please ignore my crazy, frizzy hair. I didn't use the flat iron on it, so it was pretty wild!

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Like Mother...Not Like Daughter...

Hadley doesn't like school. At all. She never writes down her assignments. She doesn't remember her homework. Her backpack is jammed full of old papers and receipts. I try to work with her every day. I ask her about assignments and beg her to bring home her books. She forgets.

I bought planners. I bought post it notes. I bought assignment books. She didn't use them. Instead, I found the pages torn out and used for hamster bedding.

This is something I am having a particularly difficult time dealing with. I always loved school. I was good at school. I was never an athlete or homecoming attendant. I wasn't an artist or on the yearbook staff. I did, however, letter in academics. I realize that tells you far too much about me and the kind of girl I was in high school. It's true though. In my thirty plus years on this planet, there haven't been many things that I have been really good at. I was good at being a student though. I could memorize facts and figures and regurgitate them on a test like nobody's business. I loved school.

When asked what her favorite part of school is, Hadley quickly states, "Going home." My child is the anti-me. Ha!

I keep telling myself that a few bad marks in fifth grade will not impede her ability to be a productive member of society. Then again, I also told myself that the striped shirt I am wearing didn't make me look 20 pounds overweight. Wait. I am 20 pounds overweight; it's not the shirt! At least I solved one riddle today!!

Does anyone have any ideas for getting a child to put forth an effort at school?