My highness

She came up behind me after lunch and asks me, "what does your highness say? If your highness is high, will you be sad? If your highness is low, will you be happy?" I, of course, was thoroughly lost. She then says, "look!" and shows me a plastic toy thermometer. It has a happy face for a low temperature and a sad face for a high temperature.

Ohhhhhhhhhh! NOW it makes perfect sense. Pretty good reasoning! "Yes, if it's high, you have a fever, so you're sad. If it's low, you don't have a fever so you're fine."

Gooooo visual aids.

"He was in the air, with a thing, and it was really loud..." -Benny and Joon

Um...?

I picked Care Bear up from preschool and gave her a kiss and told her she smelled like yogurt. She always asks, "what did you do while I was at preschool?" and that starts off our discussion on the way home. I told her Liam and I had Goldfish for snack. I asked her what she had for snack at preschool and she told me the usual, "I don't know." That evolved into:

Carrie: What did you have for snack?
Mama: I told you already. What did YOU have for snack?
Carrie: I don't remember.
Mama: We had Goldfish, remember? What did you have? Crackers?
Carrie, thinking hard: I don't think we had snack. Oh. We had Pop Tarts. That's why I smell like yogurt. Did you know Pop Tarts are made out of (lengthy pause as she tries to figure out what Pop Tarts are made out of) yogurt?

=o I'm confused.

There's a mawket!

I'm still giggling.

Liam likes to wear Carrie's old ballet slippers. They are size 8. His toes are all squinched up so I guess his feet are growing again... anyway, he wanted to wear them this morning and we got one foot in just fine. The second foot didn't go so well. His big toe bent down and we got the whole thing on, but then he exclaims:

There's a mawket in there!

It took me a minute, but he meant his "market piggie" or his big toe was stuck. We took it back off and tried again with better results. This kid makes me laugh every single day!

On our way

We headed to western PA last weekend for some fun and fellowship. Here's Liam in the car with Gus:

And here he is, another Calvin and Hobbes fan in the making:

And here's Carrie, being pitiful. "Are we there yet!?"

Happy 50th birthday, Westminster Highlands!

Last weekend was camp's 50th birthday bash. Care Bear got some facepaint, which is only the first or maybe second time she's submitted to that. Liam sat still long enough to get two eyes and a smile on one cheek. In yellow, of course.

Among lots of other friends, we got to meet Zoie. Here she is with her daddy! It was so good to see so many people enjoying themselves. Dada estimates about 200 people were there. We got lots of hugs and even renewed our wedding vows at Pine Cathedral. Liam complained the whole time. Another couple renewing their vows are friends of ours, (congrats to Bill and Alice on 5 years!) and the third couple had been married for 25 years! What a testament to love and camp and Christ!

Parking patrol

Liam's not actually helping direct traffic. He just wanted to steal this staffer's noodles!

Yes, that would be a Tom Caves driving the tractor for a hay ride.

And here's Dada, Todd and Ames Eckstein singing around a campfire. Just like old times! With some old timers in the background, even.

Here's Benjamin and Dawson at the same fire, hanging out at the pond.

On the way home

On the way back home from the camp weekend, we stopped by Nana and Pap Pap's house. As you can see, the kids worked off some pent up energy from the car ride...

And this one looks like Liam is introducing you. "Here is my Pap Pap! Ta da!" =)

In case you wondered what a Carrie squared looks like... this is it! Nana Carrie and our Carrie... 'nuff said!

And here's Nana getting love from two of her great grandchildren.

Butterfly exhibit 08

Our zoo has been hosting their butterfly exhibit again this summer, so we just had to go visit! It's so fun to be surrounded by such beautiful creatures. It was incredibly humid this time, though. Anyway, the kids really enjoyed it too. Grandmama liked this one best- he was hiding upside down! (Smart, considering how many kids were running through the place...)

Here's PaPa, keeping a watchful eye on our exuberant Liam, who likes to stomp on bugs. Some poor butterflies were looking very tattered, though I'm proud to say he didn't do any of the damage thanks to Papa!

This is one of the guys they were watching... no wonder they get stepped on! I think he was drinking out of the puddles in the cracks.

Three butterflies came to land near Carrie. Can you find them?

Quite a few in this picture, too! Group picture!

We had to be sure to check out all the new butterflies who'd recently hatched. Carrie even found one still working its way out. This one is almost ready to join the rest of his buddies in the exhibit.

PaPa and his "lellow M, McDonald's" shirt and Liam, having lunch at the zoo.

And Care Bear with Grandmama doing likewise...

PaPa reading books to the kids. Liam will snuggle into whatever spot is available to be read to, right Sharon? ;)

First week of August

Yeah, I know. Flowers aren't all that exciting. But my zinnias have been SO pretty I just had to share them. Check out all the cool detail!

Swimmin' with the fishes

This boy totally cracks me up. He and I worked on the chalk art. It's water and fish. Then he lays down on top of the picture and tells me, "I swimming, Mama!"

I guess this is his dead man's float. He said, "I seepy, Mama." Guess all that swimming wore him out!

This is my life, and these are my cuties:

These used to be Winnie the Pooh sunglasses, but Dee lost the lenses a long time ago. Doesn't faze him any! Isn't he the cutest little bug?

Cheesy Carrie

Yes, those are socks on his hands. I found him like that after break one day, and he wore them as mittens all afternoon!

Bonehead alert

Some of you have heard snippets of the following story. Carrie was supposed to watch the Mr. Rogers DVD at break time today and then go to her room to read books. Those were the specific instructions, because quite frankly, I needed a nap. Anyway, part one happened without a hitch. However, I went upstairs to the sound of dancing feet in the hallway. Not only is she dancing in the hallway, a permeating raspberry aroma scents the upstairs. This kid, this incredible blessing from God (that was with gritted teeth, could you tell?) had decorated her bedroom and parts of the hall with raspberry St. Ives lotion.

Lisa, quit laughing. I KNOW we just talked about this! This is my LIFE!

So I took pictures. And made her clean it. All of it. At least an hour later after I'd cooled off. I think the pictures speak mostly for themselves, but I can't resist a few smart captions...

Above, her table. Below, the foot of her bed. Why she thinks furniture needs moisturizing is beyond me!

Alas, Tino and Twiddlebug were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both need a trip through the washing machine. Yet she left the pile of clean laundry unscathed. She even squirted some into her garbage can! She'd fetch a good price on E-bay, I'm sure of it!