Who gets something on every shopping trip?

On the trip to see Ack-Ack try on her wedding dress, we found some great dresses for the girls.  It was not our plan to buy dresses for the girls on this trip.  The second we saw Abby in the dress, we had to take it home.  Harper refused to try hers on, even though she was more than happy to walk around the store with her clothes off.  Doesn't matter, the dress looks exactly the same, just a little smaller.  Please note that the girls are not going to be flower girls.   Thanks Nana for the dresses!

Because she is two....

We were out watching my sister try on her wedding dress.  Harper wanted to take off her clothes too.  Yes, we were out in public like this.  No, I have no shame.

We love Aunt Ack-Ack

Ack-Ack and David had us over for tree decorating.  We all love Aunt Ack-Ack and Uncle David.

A conversation with all three

Wearing my Big Sister's Boots and Lookin' Cute!

What is going on in this picture...you decide

Option A: Harper loved my glasses so much that she wanted to eat them.
Option B: Harper saw a bug on my face and wanted to eat it.
Option C:  Harper is telling me deep thoughts about her political views regarding the kids song at the kids sing a long.
Option D: Harper is upset that she is wearing an outfit made entirely out of Abby's hand me downs, including a dress that is a 3T and is way to big but one of Abby's favorites so she forces it on Harper.
Option E:  I am getting the sweetest, sloppiest baby kiss from the cutest two year old.  She is smiling.  I am smiling.

So what is wrong with you?

I have not gotten along very well with bugs this year.  Earlier in the year, I was attached by chiggers and had to be put on antibiotics.  I will spare the details on the blog.  For a visual, when I showed my friend Meg who is a medical professional, she responded with "that is pretty gross.  Go get it checked out."

Recently, I got a tick or spider bite.  I will not spare you the details so stop now if you don't want to know the rest.  Here is a picture of the bite. It is about the size of three quarters and it is on my back.  Gross, I know.

Turns out that I have a tick borne illness.  It is not Lyme disease which is good, but I still am bad.  The fever is gone.  The bug bite is almost gone.  The weakness in my legs is not gone.  I am walking around like I am lame.  I stagger.  I am slow.  People at work keep asking what is wrong with me.  I tell them, but then I regret it.  They regret asking.  So now I am telling the world:  Stay away from ticks.

Football For The Perrymans

This year we signed William up for flag football.  Will is a go with the flow little guy so he was lukewarm to the idea.  Even with his tepid acceptance of playing football, Will was thrilled about playing outside with little boys his age.  He could also see that his Daddy (yes, the 32 year old who still wants to play football but has aged out of the rec league) was super excited so it helped Will get in the right spirit.  We bought the mouth guard, cleats, socks, uniform and practice jersey.  We were ready.  Then I learned that practice would be every day of the week until school started.  Wait what?

Yes that is right, every day.
Oh my gosh, what have we signed up for?
This is crazy.
I have learned more than I ever had about rushing.  I get home at 5:30.  We have to leave the house by 5:40.  In that ten minutes, everyone has get out of the car, to go to the bathroom, eat something, change clothes and get re-buckled into car seats.  Needless to say, there is a lots of noise.  Most of the noise is me yelling "GO, GO, GO, GET IN THE CAR!!"

When we get there, the calm sets in.  I put my chair down in the grass, arrange the snacks and the water balls and settle in for the1.5 hours of watching practice.  Practice is the exact opposite of the getting ready time.  It is quiet.  Time passes slowly.  The girls play aimlessly and there is nothing to accomplish.  I am shocked at myself saying this, but I actually look forward to sitting out in the grass next to the football field.

Now that school has started, we only practice twice a week and have games on Saturday morning at 8am.  We are supposed to be there at 7:15, which we never have made it on time, however it is okay.  I think the coaches understand and expect us all to come running up with our kids and chairs and waterbottles at 7:35.

Strange enough, I tear up every time Will's little team takes the field.  I love that little guy running out on the field ready to take on a game challenge.  I think of him as a tiny baby in my arms and the way Matt dreamed of the day when HIS boy could play football.  I think of all the other mommies thinking this exact same thought about their sons and I get all choked up....until I snap back to reality of Harper spilling her drink, Abby loudly requesting bubble gum 400 times in a row until I cave, and the slew of activities that I need to prepare my brain for the rest of the day.  The pride and tears are a fleeting moment but  they are worth it.  I am sure we will sign up for football again next year.

Harper Turns Two!

My little lady turned 2.  I am so excited that my littlest is so grown. She is so full of excitement and words and giggles.  She can sing Happy Birthday but it sounds like "happy Bourth Day to yewww"  I loved it.  Here is she is opening presents.  She got a towel (because she loves towels) and a stroller (because she loves strollers).

Here she is doing her absoulte favorite thing in the whole world:  playing with both Abby and Will.  The best part is that they are playing willingly for a few minutes.  That makes it even better.

Harper's new favorite trick is to take take pictures with her eyes closed.  She smiles a big smile and closes her eyes.  She thinks it is funny and laughs and laughs after the picture.  Here she is with Aunt Ack-Ack and with Matt.

Happy Birthday Harper.  You are awesome even with your eyes closed in every picture.

Happy First Day of 1st Grade!!

Will started the first grade today!  He was all packed and ready to go.  We have had lots and lots of rain so we had first day of school pictures in the kitchen.  Check out the smiles on these faces. 

How do you spend time during a hurricane?

By running and playing in the gutter of course!  There was no thunder, no lightening and the girls wanted to play outside.  Why not?  I want them running and and playing in the puddles.  When they laid down in the gutter full of rain water I was a bit concerned because it was gross, but I didn't stop them.  Nothing says youth like playing in the rain. 

Very proud of their wet clothes.  You can see that Abby is contantly talking.  Nothing new here.

Harper is in full run.  I think she saw one of the cats.

Sparkles

Abby let me know the other day that her name is Sparkles.  Sometimes she goes by Sparkles Abby (Abby is her middle name) and sometimes it is just Sparkles. 

It's cool.  It could be worse.

Cornhole with the Perrymans

Ah, it is summer!  I love summer.  We are enjoying every bit of the warm (okay, super hot) weather.  One of the constant activities for the summer is cornhole.  We play with our neighbors in the back yard and have a great time.  Here we are one random Saturday night.  Please note the baby on the cornhole board.

Harper has the best seat in the yard.  Abby is posing.

At the other end of the yard is the other half of the teams.  Please note that Matt is my partner in this game.  Usually, he ops for Kevin as his Cornhole partner.  Kevin is really good.  Matt is too.  I am...well...getting better. I have had one or two great games but mostly I throw all over the place.  It might be because of the distracting children.  Please note there are no distracting children on Matt's side. 

Matt's boards are the ones with the Carolina Tar Heel on it.

So why do we have custom boards?  

Because it is really fun.  Even I like it and I don't like most games.  I have played in the street on days when the ground is too wet to play in the grass.  I have played past my bed time.  I have let my kids stay up past bed time so that we can play one more game.


So where are the children during all of these events? 
Usually we serve them dinner and let them run around the house and yard to burn off energy.  They have a great time and entertain themselves until they fall into bed exhausted.  Really, a win win situation.

So how serious are we about this game?

We are so serious we have played in corn hole tournament.  My partner and I did...um...just okay in the tournament.  Matt and his partner Kevin did great.  They came in second place and I was so proud.  This was not Matt's first tournament. 
 

An amazing team.

And here is me in the game!

So come over any time, let's drag the boards into the street (not actually drag, because Matt would have a heart attack if someone moved his boards improperly) and throw some cornhole!

Sunscreen and All Three

I have noticed that sun protection is a major duty of motherhood.  It is your duty as a mommy to cover everyone from head to toe in spf 50.  The responses come in varying degrees from the children who are super excited to get to the pool/beach/park/away from me and normally don't want to stand still for anything, including sunscreen.  Their responses fall into the following catergories:

1. The screemer.  It is too cold.  It smells.  It got into my eyes.  This response usually comes with jumping around, running away and loud opposition.

2. The helper.  This one wants to help.  They grab the sunscreen from you and apply it in thick, uneven piles all around their body.  They are proud and will not let you help them smooth it out or apply sunscreen to their back. The astute mother has to be steathy and smooth, cover, and reapply to the face without them knowing.  This usually comes in the form of a hug or an unassuming back rub.   My kids have also sunscreened my car before.  Don't worry, it does not take off the paint.

3. The runner.  This is much more sneaky than the screemer.  This response includes a smile from the child and a darting run in the opposite direction from the sunscreen applier.  The baby likes to run towards the road.  This one gets me particuallay out of breath because of the chase and then the constant arm holding while applying the sunscreen.

4. The negociator.  The baby can't usually handle this one because she doesn't have enough words but the six year old can do it with ease.  They list the reasons they don't need sunscreen.  My favorites have included that it is cloudy, or cold, or we had it yesterday.  This also comes in the form of "just cover Abby first.  I will get my sunscreen next."

5. The grown up.  Yes, this is my husband who is very fair and will burn easy.  He goes to the extremes of all of these. He puts on too much, or not every much because he is not going to be in the sun very long.  I am not responsible for putting sunscreen on the grown up but I do heckle.

Whatcha doin' Harper?

Harper loves towels.  I don't know where her love comes from but she just loves them.  She requests them.  There is more than once that she has asked me (yelled at me) "TOWEL, MOMMY, TO-WEL!!"  I picked Harper up from school one day this summer:

Me: Harper are you excited to go see Will and Abby.
Pause.
Harper: Um, no.  Towel.

She also steals them.  I no longer am able to keep a dish towel on my oven.  She steals them every time.  She also hoards them.  I found 4 towels in her bed one time.
Matt and I are okay with her love for towels.  The calm her down.  Let the little girl enjoy her simple pleasure.

Classic Harper: Two fingers in her mouth and a dish towel.

Who needs two shoes when towels make her this happy?

This is the madness that Harper is chillin' in.  Good thing she has a towel.

Painting Update

We survived painting our dinning room.  http://mommy-am-i-killing-you.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-is-what-crazy-looks-like.html
And I love it!  The color looks good.  The furniture is back in its place. 
The question on all of your minds: "Anna, did you let the kids help?"  No, no I did not.  I let them clean up paint spatters but that was it.  I just couldn't manage three kids with paint brushes.

This is what crazy looks like

Ever think you might want to paint your dining room?  Ever had hard time deciding on paint colors?  Yes, yes, this is a normal grown up dilemma.  It is not too challenging, there are no real consequences in this decision and it should not be a big deal.  Until you add three kids. 

 I want my kids to be helpful, inquisitive and excited to try new things.  Until it comes to painting my dining room.  Still, I was ready for this and purchased plastic sheeting so they could have a chance to paint too.  Then the paint started flying.  And then the paint started dripping.  I couldn't clean it up fast enough.  This is what house cleaning nightmares are made of.  

Here are my little helpers working away.  They are darn cute and having the best time.  However, there is paint everywhere.  There is paint on Will's shoulder.  I found paint on the bottom of Abby's feet (AFTER she walked on the hardwood floors).  There was paint on me.

And yet, I have still not picked a color for my dining room.  I welcome your input.

Why did I try this?

What possessed me to do this? I am sitting on the couch on a normal Wednesday night.  I was falling asleep when I remembered that we were having a fudge competition at work the next day.  I got up, put my glasses back on, and stumbled into the kitchen.  I googled a fudge recipe and got started. 

I woke up as the fudge started to boil. 

I looked back at the recipe and saw that it was labeled as "advanced."  (please note the beverage in the picture). What had I gotten myself into?  It turns out, I got myself into a 4 hour fudge recipe.  4 hours!!! Who does anything in the kitchen for 4 hours!!! 

Since I was already 20 minutes in, I decided to stay with it (and I was out of sugar so I couldn't start over).  I kept with it.  I watched for the boiling.  I waiting to take it off the stove until it started creating soft balls in cold water. I only used a wooden spoon.  I didn't stir when I added the butter even when every part of me wanted to.  Matt came home from work around midnight and I shocked him because I was still awake.  Finally it was time to taste it....and it was...was...

Gross.  Something was wrong.  Very wrong.  It was all granular and sugary, not fudgy.  It tasted bad.  I was hoping it would, I don't know, magically change over night so I didn't throw it away, I put it in the fridge overnight.  The next morning, I could not face the fudge.  On the way into work, I stopped by the grocery store and bought some professionally made fudge.  I put it on a plate and called it my own.  In addition to the store bought fudge, I took my "wrong" fudge in to work.  No one ate it and I would not admit to bringing it in.

The winner of the work fudge competition?  Me.  With my store bought fudge.  And I happily accepted the prize.