Shooting Flies

Okay, so our three-year-old has never technically hunted or fished, no guns or poles or weapons...  But he does have a fly swatter.  And he is getting pretty decent at "shootin' flies."  

This was his first kill.  Can you tell he was a little excited?

And enthralled?

"I get him!  I get him!"

Too bad we can't stuff a fly.  Mini-taxidermy, anyone?

Now, on to some big game.

Current Facts : Will

Color : Blue, maybe?  Regardless, you know ALL your colors.  Even the weird ones.

Toy/s : Still Matchbox cars, ball + tee, soccer ball, big plastic zoo animals

Food/s : You are finally eating just about everything!  Very slowly, mind you, but I'll take it.  You love chips, pizza, spinach salad, Teddy Grahams, and cookies, of course.

Words : "Holy 'mokes!"  "Hey, friends!  How you doin'?"  "Poop is not muddy.  No.  It's goss.  Only dirt muddy.  We don't play with poop.  No.  That's naughty."

TV : The Cars movies, The Lion King sequels

Outfit : athletic shorts, a tee shirt and dirty crocs

Accomplishments : You pee AND poop in the potty!  You also put your dishes away, put your shoes on and take care of Charlie.  You can hit a ball when Daddy pitches sometimes, too!

Game : Beat boxing and dancing with Daddy.  You love to play rice and in other sensory tubs.  "Want to play baseball wit me?"  You like to play catch with your baseball glove and ball in the house.

Animal/s : You are obsessed with birds.  Robins are nice and Black Birds are mean, according to you.

Song/s : Shout Your Name + Strong Love.  "Jon moosik..."

Funnies : Some of my laundry must have made its way into your room.  We found you sound asleep with my underwear around your neck.  Also, you refuse to kiss me on the cheek.  You will take both your hands and hold my head, hard, until you can plant a sloppy on right on my lips.

Book/s : Usborne Zoo book (you read this in the bathroom every time you poop), Trucks book that makes noises...

Best Friend : Cubey.  Always Cubey.

Fascinations : Flies.  You love to help Daddy "soot flies" (shoot flies, swat flies), and then love to pick up their dead bodies and gloat, like you've really accomplished something cool.  You LOVE to watch them fly around and get really quiet to watch and sneak up on them.

Favorite Outside Activity : Play with the kids!, playing on the dirt pile in the back corner of our yard.

Drink : Water, smoothies

In Bed at Night : Cubey, and you throw all your sheets, bedding and pillows on the floor.

Family Pictures + Outtakes

This is the best family picture we could get. 

Nice pictures are tough these days for several reasons.

1) Charlotte NEVER.HOLDS.STILL.  For every 300 good pictures I have of Will, Charlotte has one.  And even the one is a little blurry.  She is always on the move, always making a funny face or on to the next thing.  We have a mover and a shaker on our hands, people.

2) Both Will AND Charlotte are too little to manage smiling nicely, holding still, looking at the camera, AND not picking their nose at the same time.  Think about it.  That is a LOT for a little kid to handle.

3) We never wear nice clothes.  I stay at home with the kids and we tend to be homebodies, so most days, there's really no reason to dress nicely, let alone wear a full set of clothes.  30% of the time, my kids are half naked (ask the neighbors).  Another 30% of the time, they are wearing their dinner or snack or magic marker or play-dough remains.  Yet another 30% of the time, they are in ill-fitting, clothes that don't even match because WHY would I dress them in anything else given the thing I mentioned earlier about wearing their dinner...  The other 10% of the time, we are either at church and dressed appropriately (and barely made it, so who has time to take a picture?), or ONE of us is dressed nicely and the others are grubbing out.  (Mark is the worst "grubbing out" offender, for the record.)

4) I don't try very hard.  I know professional photographers exist.  I know I have that option.  But to be totally honest, I kind of like the messy photos of our everyday life.  I even love the outtakes.  Our crazy, un-frameable pictures reflect what life really looks like for us, the crap we really wear, how we really smile at each other and interact in this season.  Although I think professional photography is a worthy investment and when I see your professional photos online I sometimes get jealous, I just don't care enough to spend the money right now.  Maybe in another season?

For now, this one picture (out of at least 452 I already deleted) will do.  It represents the 4.8% of the time we're actually dressed nicely at the same time.  I will rely on my 20,467 low-quality iPhone pics to remind me of the rest of our crazy, messy, beautiful lives.

Rainbow Play-Dough Kit

Dinosaur Play-Dough + Sensory Kit

I have been making little play-dough and/or sensory kits for Will and Charlotte every season or so, but recently made one for a gift.  

Instead of buying more toys, wouldn't it be fun to gift these sets for birthdays and holidays for little ones?  My nephew, Lewis, will be getting a few each year, I think.  :)

I am loving the inexpensive IKEA containers Jen from the Mama.Papa.Bubba blog recommends.  (Order them here.)  I bought a handful to rotate through seasons and to have on hand for gifts. 

This Dino Kit contained plastic toy dinosaurs, an army Easter egg for hatching dinos, some matching cupcake liners, large rocks, plastic trees, three mini play-doughs, and some beans for some sensory fun.  You can buy everything but the container at Wal-Mart!

I have also made my own play-dough for these sorts of sets, but in a time crunch, store-bought Play-Dough is the way to go!

Currently: Charlotte

Charlotte is ALL about sand these days.  Last summer, Grammy's sand box took quite a beating, so this year, a friend gave us their hand-me-down sand table.  Our next door neighbors also put in a big, traditional sand box.  It's only the end of May, and between the two destinations, she's logged 40 hours+...  I'm sure of it.

We have a random dirt pile in our backyard, which also gets plenty of attention.  Because, you know, dirt and children are magnetic.  Charlie will beg for help to get to the top of the pile, "Hep! Hep, Mamaaa!"  And then slide down on her stomach (I hope you are imagining the stains of dirt that accompany this) and announce proudly, "I diddit!  I diddit!"  

High fives, Charlie Sue, you did it.

Currently: Will

Will is all about soccer.  We went to our neighbor's soccer game a few weeks ago, and they gave us a smaller-sized soccer ball they'd outgrown.  Ever since then, Will kicks and kicks and kicks that ball around the yard, and makes chats about his endeavors the entire next day or two, "I a good sah-cah playa, am I?!"  (I'm a good soccer player, aren't I?)  

Yes, buddy, you are.  You really are.

Tulip Festival 2016

The Tulip Festival in Orange City was this past weekend.  We were going to go as a family, but it had been such a long week (scratch that, such a long THREE MONTHS), that we decided to stay home.  Grandma Bev and Papa Dave asked, last minute, if they could just take the kids while Mark attended a couple of grad parties.  I wasn't sure how Will would fare, seeing as how he cried and screamed his way through the last Summer Celebration parade, but I guess a year does a lot. 

He was RAVING about it when he got home.  "I gonna pay in the BAND, Mama!  I pay the DRUMS!"  He told us all about "Dose wood shoes" the band was wearing and how loud they were.  

"If you're going to be in the band and play the drums when you get big, what's Charlie going to do in the parade when she's big?"

"She gonna be da QUEEN."

I think Grandma Bev, who was on the Tulip Court in her day, planted that notion... :)