A Week Gone By

How is it Thursday again? How did I go another full week without blogging? Y I started four or five post, but yeah ... uh ... sheesh! So now I'll just sit here in my yucky, just-mowed-the-lawn sweat and flip through my phone photos and blab on and on about how wonderful and adorable my kids are.

1. It finally rained! It rained and rained all day Friday, and it didn't even stop us from playing outside. 

It rained most of the day Monday as well (and we played in it Monday as well). It's so nice to finally have a green lawn and a reason to mow it. Our garden and our orchard are doing well also. I just love the free watering sent straight from Heaven. 

2. Ben was loving these snuggles on Monday night:

Mine weren't so bad either: 

Baby attack!

3. I did the dumbest thing last Saturday. I biked six miles while hauling an extra 95 pounds. 

 Thought I was going to die.

Thankfully, I didn't. Because the rest of our day was fabulous. 

4. We drove down to Madison to visit a Butterfly exhibit at the Botanical gardens and then we met some long standing VA friends at the Zoo. 

Can you find the Zebra butterfly?

I love how often they just gravitate their hands toward one another. I'm savoring it.

5. We've had a busy week filled with lots of fun activities. Tuesday we went to a Children's concert at the local Opera House. Just going inside the building was my favorite part. I'm so thankful people of the past valued the arts and created grand (ha! Grand is the actual name of the Opera House) buildings full of beautiful craftsmanship and art. 

Wednesday we took a lot of swings and came up with some misses. I hired a babysitter to come watch Coraline so I could take the two big kids on a special outing to the movie Theater. We ran to Staples for some candy (and ink cartridges) and arrived about 7 minutes early ... to a sold out show. My kids were in tears. Big huge tears. 

We took our candy (that's a lie, we ate most of it in the parking lot while I was wiping away tears) and went to Reid's favorite park -- the pirate park. We played there for a good hour and then headed to a local Educational Toy store to play for a bit. I had to make that babysitter money worth it. Back at home I got on Amazon and rented the movie (Home) we were going to see in the theater. The whole incident was a great lesson on life's little disappointments and our reactions to them. 

Reid was pretty cute while expressing his feelings, I had to message it to Ben. "

Later that night, at the farmer's market, Reid and I scoped out all the food trucks and quickly decided he'd have a hot dog. Right as we got in line the owner shouted "last two dogs!" (which I'm convinced was a lie because I saw him selling more as we left, fifteen minutes later). I checked to make sure I understood correctly (because most people stayed in line, which was odd because all they sale is hot dogs) and the guy insisted they only had two more for the night. Once again, huge tears. 

And once again, things worked out in the end. He ate Egg Rolls instead and had plenty of time to play at the Splash Pad. 

Today we had some friends over for a play date. So overall the world is a wonderful place and my kids have THE PERFECT LIFE. But some bumps can be particularly rough on little four-year-olds. 

6. This thing! Gosh, I love her. 

 7. Now, about all those posts I started and never finished. Well, they were about toys. Yes, toys. And maybe one day I'll polish them up and pass on all my wisdom ... about toys ... and kids. But for now, I leave you with this picture. The face of a proud boy who worked really hard to save and save for a deeply coveted garbage truck shark tank.