Kids like dirt

Awhile back we got rid of our old play set, bought a new one and moved it to the other side of the yard.  So we were left with a big mulched area that I used for my garden earlier this spring.  Now we want to clean up, seed and turn it all into grass (moving my garden next spring to a spot with a little more sun).....anywho, that work should be done later this week but in the meantime the kids have had a field day 'gardening' and throwing dirt at each other.  Yesterday they (along with their neighbor friends) played outside for a good 2-3 hours....making rolly-polly farms, erecting a shrine to the good ole USA (obviously) and general good dirt fun.   Remind me again why we're getting rid of this?

We're still here!

Barely, in blogging terms, but we're still here.  I blame it on the 'good' camera.  I really should start busting it out more often, like I did today and hence this post.   Which we'll call 'Emerson and a tire swing'.    Reese and Emerson spent probably 30 minutes playing together on this thing today.....

And when my super slow laptop is done, I'll follow up with a post we'll call 'a bunch of kids and a big pile of dirt = hours of happy playtime so mom can cook and watch football'......stay tuned.

Outside

I guess it's been awhile......I finally got out the 'good' camera, recharged the battery and took it out in the yard last night.   The ladies got a new swing set about a month ago after the one we inherited with our house was becoming a death trap.   I've now discovered that we basically just purchased a new death trap.  But the girls love it nonetheless....

 Never missing a moment to make a fashion statement...

 Emerson loves being outside.  From the time she rises, to the minute she goes to bed, she stands by the door, points and yells 'out' - she'll bring me her shoes and she'll throw amazing tantrums when you try and bring her inside.  Yet, she is still unsure of grass.

 But one thing she does love is her tire swing.  This is the first summer the girl gets to enjoy it - she and Ryan make crazy cute riding partners....

 Speaking of Ryan, she has officially turned 16.  Where did my baby go?

 The legit baby in the house also loves, loves, loves the swing.

 All my babies:)

 So....we were really behind the ball with teaching Ryan how to ride a bike.  We should have tackled it last summer, but we didn't and she showed zero interest in learning.  This year, the hell if we were going to have her turn six and still not know how to ride without training wheels....Grant worked with her and with a little peer pressure help from our next door neighbor Amelia, Ryan mastered the bike a couple of weeks ago.   On Sunday we decided to take off Reese's training wheels for the hell of it.  She had been doing awesome on her glider bike and we figured she would take to riding a bike pretty easily.  Little did we know it took about two minutes.  Off she went and hasn't stopped since.

 Apparently wearing as many colors as humanly possible is appropriate biker gear this season....

 Multi-tasking:  bike riding while belting out Katy Perry

 Double trouble...

 Perhaps I'll do better with the blog posting this summer.  And perhaps I won't.  Time will tell:)