Thanksgiving in July

One time, when Jeff was away "looking at deer in the woods," Dyleva made him full-on Thanksgiving dinner.  It was like a week prior to the actual event. 


Out of nowhere, in the middle of July, these crazy niños decide they want to do it again, but this time for family.


OK.  I guess I'm on board...

So Eva shucked the corn.


















Dylan peeled the potatoes.














Eva arranged the serving utensils.
















Dylan enlisted in the help of a small green friend to SMASH the potatoes.

Eva peeled and chopped the cucumbers.








They honestly did 75% of the work needed for a successful
Thanksgiving dinner. 

I picked up the slack. 

But they did awesome.  Nice job niños!

Carnival fun and 94 suckers

 
Summer means rides that spin yourself crazy until you might lose all the fried food you just ate.









Well, kind of.  Dyleva may not have inherited that gene.  But they do enjoy "mildly thrilling" rides like the carousel, super slide, and ferris wheel.





To their Dad's disappointment, this may not be their year for giant roller coasters, they certainly got their moneys worth tonight at Old Home Days.








We met up with family and the niños rode all night. 



 

 

 

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Previously, we had celebrated Grandma Grandma's 94th birthday!

 

She is so much fun. 

 

She remembers nothing.  I can only wish to suffer the same fate at 94, but that's beside the point. 

 

Dyleva loves talking to her.

 

94 Years old!  That is amazing!  Happy Birthday!

 

 

 

Dyleva made Grandma Grandma a 100 chart of sorts....they tallied every year with a piece of candy- her guilty pleasure.  

 

Come on now, the woman is 94!  If she wants candy, she gets candy!





Dylanisms 4

We are getting ready to leave the house.  I told Dylan, "Go get Mimi!"

Our dog who was froliching outside.

Dylan returns distressed.  "I can't lift him.  I can't even whistle him."

****
I see peluches lined up outside Dylan's bedroom door.  I asked him, "What's up?"

He said, "Mommy, they are there to keep the bad guys out of my room."  Then he thought for a bit and said, "But Mommy my room is nice and clean so if the bad guys did get in, they wouldn't take anything."

"Oh," I commented.  "Because you were a good boy and cleaned up your toys."

He thought about it for a while, and then said.  " Oh, but I don't know about Eva..."

*********
I was examining Dylan's body that was covered in insect bites.  "Geez Dyl, they got you everywhere.  Even on your butt."

He started laughing.  "Mommy, if spiders crawl up my butt I'm going to toot, and then the spider is going to be like, 'Man Dylan, Why did you do that?' "

^^^^^^^^ 

I ask Dyl.  "So, are you excited about starting kindergarten?"

He is quiet.  "I am a little terrified."


****

One day, Dylan woke up and was complaining about mosquito bites. 

We had watched a movie outside, the night before.

In spite of bug spray, he got bit anyway. 

He starts showing me the bites all over his hands.

"Oh Dylan, look they got your neck too,"  I said.

"No, Mommy,"  He responded.  "Those are just leftovers."

The Birds and the Bees

Yes, as romantic as it sounds, our backyard has been ruled so far this summer by the birds and the bees.






We have been lucky enough to host another family of baby birds.  This year they have nested in our rose bushes. 

Looking back at last year, it took over a month from egg to flying the coop.

I swear this year, it was less than two weeks. 


Must be the growth hormones in the wáter.

Dyleva and I camped out in the backyard for three nights last week.  We woke up to a chorus of bird's singing, calling and chirping bright and early each morning. 

~~~~~~~                               ~~~~~~                          ~~~~~

On the flip side, the bees have invaded our backyard.  We have clover through our grass, which equals bees. 

bee

Dyleva came to me last week crying that they had gotten stung.  I looked at their feet.  I saw a tiny dot.  Cleaned it.  Kissed it.  Sent them on there way.  They were fine ten minutes later.



bee

I told them a bee sting was a small price to pay for the freedom of walking barefoot in our backyard.

How very Mother Earth of me.

Well this week, Eva came to me screaming her head off.  She showed me her foot.  Sure enough, there was a stinger.  I pulled it out, treated her foot, gave her a popsicle. 

Holy cow, her foot has been red and swollen for days!

Benadryl.  Ibuprofen.  Hydrocortisone.  You name it. 

So I began squishing bees. 

Not two hours later, Dylan comes to me screaming.  This time, a finger.  I inspect, and pull out the stinger.  I treat.  The pain continues. 

So I ask Dylan.  "What honey?  Were you playing in the grass?"

He explained.  "No Mommy.  I squished a bee like you and then I picked it up to make sure it was really dead."

Apparently it was not.  Silly boy.

We still bask in the semi-peaceful-" GO PUT YOUR SHOES ON!!!"- environment of our backyard. 

Library Drama

I love the library.


But I really dislike my local library.


The only people that work there are old, cranky, former DMV employees.


It doesn't help that I have funded the library through late fees.

Regardless, we're off.  It's summer, and we haven't read much (so far).  And Dyleva loves to read. 

I make sure everyone has used the potty before we head out.  We get there, not 5 minutes later, and Eva needs to use the potty.

Seriously?

So the bathrooms in the library are single, and exterior.  So I need to leave one child unattended while helping the other.  Outside of the library. 


There is a ridiculously large key that needs to be attained at the librarían desk, (the pleasant librarian) and then taken outside the library to use. 

Eva gets it.  I help her exit the library, only to set off the alarm of course because I am hurrying and still have an unchecked out book in my hand. 
I help her open the bathroom door with the clumsy key.  I ask if shes ok, and I return to Dylan who is inside the library still. 

Moments later she returns. 

That was fast.

"No, Mommy the toilet is plugged.  I can't use that one."  So we go back out, and sure enough pleasant librarían comes out and puts an 'out of order' sign on the door, and mumbles something about the custodian's day off.

So that leaves us bathroom #2.  Which has been occupied since this whole incident began. 

I knock on the door.  No response.  Secret excreter.

Along the way we somehow picked up a good samaritan/man that is also waiting for the bathroom. 

He comes up and pounds on the door.  Jeesh!  But elicits a response.  The secret excreter lives!  ...and needs more time.

I make an unfortunate comment about the ridiculousness of the bathroom situation.  

Big mistake.

Well the good samaritan turns out to be a homophobe and begins to explain how he is a library volunteer and these accommodations are necessary to ensure the privacy because there are some people that cannot respect bathroom laws and inhibit others rights.....blah blah

I completely (and rudely) cut him off before I hear the word transexual and said that the majority of public restrooms have multiple bathrooms in a common área without problem.

We walk away. 

The secret excreter is taking way too long and I am ready to leave. 

Meanwhile,  Dylan is inside dancing on library tables.....

Actually he was very well behaved.  Looking at his tormenta book. 

"Mommy, look at this tormenta!  There is no house left!  And this tormenta knocked the house down and only left the potty."

I looked at him and said, "That's more than we have right now."

Art in the Park

Today we made the journey to Artpark.  There was so much to see.   
When we arrived there were four tables of crafts.  Eva immediately was drawn to a table creating windsocks.  She got to decorate and spray paint it.

Next, Dyleva created an aquarium.  They decorated an open box with tissue paper, cut out marine animals, and then strung them from the top using fishing line.  Cute!

But the highlight, (at least for me), was the NURT performance. 

NURT stands for a local group of tuition-gouged performing arts university students.  Well, they were fantastic.  They had better be because they are going to be in debt for the rest of their lives. 

There was about 10 of them.  Minimal props.  Highly talented-singing between little episodes of acting.  Some of the episodes were adapted from books, some were original.

After we picnicked and explored a bit, we returned home.  Fun, but very far drive for us. 
 
 

 
 

Sparkly clean

One of the hottest days yet, I asked Dyleva what they wanted to do.

They insisted that they wanted to clean my car. 

Mimi grabbing some shade.

Really?  Because that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. 


So be it.  We dragged out the big, heavy, shop vac.  Eva went to town on the inside of the car. 

Dylan meanwhile took to scrubbing the floor mats in the backyard where it was shady. 

Then they met together for the actual washing.  They had SO MUCH fun cleaning Mommy's car.  They were spraying each other with the hose and running around on the lawn like crazy. 













And I got a spiffy, clean car...for a change.


Naturally, I had to say thank you.  We went out later for frozen yogurt with nothing healthy on top.

!Gracias niños!