from sun up to sun down {the cade and brennan show}

brennan: if i see a black widow i will put shoes on and turn it over. cade doesn't have shoes on. should he scream for you if he sees one?
cade: can black widows climb?
brennan: will we die if we get bit by a black widow? 
me: kids can die from a black widow bite yes.
brennan: do grown ups? would a grown up die? or would they just pass out?
cade: what is passing out?
brennan: it's when you go to sleep for a bit and you don't move.
cade: oh, my mom does that every day.
me: no, that's called napping.
brennan: no, it's NOT napping. napping is SWEEEPING. passing out is when you sleep like you have no bones.
cade: emily, when did you say the black widows come in the house?
brennan: WHEN IT RAINS CADE!!! they come IN when it rains!
me: i said i found a little ORANGE spider that was dead. there are NO black widows in the house.
cade: ohhhhhh, so can black widows dig through walls?
brennan: they can cade THEY CAN!!!
cade: how high can they climb?
me: there are NO black widows in the house.
cade: OHHH MYYYY GOOOOSSSSHHHHH. if you tell me more stuff i'm eating faster so i can get out of this house with the black widows in it!!!
brennan: CADE!!! they only come inside when it rains!
me: there are nooooo black widows coming in the house. i have never seen one in my house. {siiiiiigggghhhhhh}

...

inseparable just doesn't 

quite describe it.

from sun up to sun down.

now that's more of what it's like.

siblings.

it's more like siblings.

there's no other kid on the planet that feels more like family than cade.

sometimes i want to pinch myself because i love it so much.

because a friendship like that is once in a lifetime.

and for some people, it doesn't even happen that once.

i'm so glad brennan got to have his once too.

{ballet west nutcracker. at the sugar plum fairy party. 

1989?? stacie was my cade:) luckiest girls ever!}

just to be safe

teaching her the art which i love.

also, i didn't want the blueberries to go bad in the fridge.

she is my shadow.

and my best kitchen helper.

sometimes i would just rather cook alone,

in fact, most of the time i prefer it.

but this day was the best.

chase was napping, and brennan was at camp.

and max and i just settled into our afternoon in the kitchen.

and i knew it was going to be one of those days we would both remember forever.

the blueberry muffin day.

just me and my Goldilocks.

the first time we forgot the sugar.

at least,

it tasted like we forgot the sugar.

but maybe we didn't forget the sugar.

maybe it just didn't have enough.

so just to be safe, 

we made them again the next day,

and added a heaping 1/4 cup of sugar.

like i said,

just to be safe;)

oh boy OH BOY oh boy,

we couldn't keep our paws off of them.

...

 {note: added 1/4 cup sugar instead of 4 tabls}

...

breakfast anyone?!

dear max {bonus time back scratching}

dear max,

today you were super naughty.
like every time i turned around you were pulling someone's hair.
slamming a door.
spitting in someone's face.
or turning off the treadmill to get my attention.
we played princesses, balls, read books.
i mean, i don't think you and i have spent so much one on one time together in one day in a long time.
and still, by 7:15pm i was shooing you off to the bath to go to bed early after you threw muddy sand water in chase's face.
then you cried yourself to sleep screaming at dad and i, 
after i read you two books,
sang the ariel song twice,
gave you a cold drink of water,
AND let you bonus time back scratching.
man, it was good to spend so much time with you today.
but woman, puh-leazzzze don't turn off my treadmill in the middle of my workout again.
my OCD with numbers just can't handle restarting after i've already been going for 5 minutes.
also, i'm sure chase would appreciate not having his hair pulled tomorrow as well.
we love you bunches.
and man, i love it when you ask me to do your hair "just like" mine.
dream
come
true!

love,
mama

p.s.
a gigantic fly has landed on my head three times during the time it took me to write this letter.

p.s.s.
it's slow, and i think i might try to catch it in my hand next. except then i would probably just panic and let it go anyway.
the end.

lady and the tramp.

smooching the baby man on the tramp.

these are the kind of summer nights i love.

when you're not thinking about school starting soon,

and you're so fresh into summer that you don't have a care in the world.

full of energy to do whatever.

where you don't mind your kids ever going to bed at a certain time.

because you're just so new to summer.

and you're just so done with any sort of bedtime from the grind of the school days.

the kind of summer nights i don't love are at the end of the summer,

when you're just ready for your kids to have a decent bedtime,

like say before 10pm,

because you just want to have some time to yourself.

except there's one problem.

because you've {ehem "us"} have let your children stay up until 11pm every night since the beginning of june,

and now you're children can't go to bed before 10pm.

and you're just not in the mood for 10pm anymore.

so basically bedtime is rough rough rough around here right now.

rough.

lots of can i have a drink.

wait, i'm hungry.

i'm not tired.

will you scratch my back?

how about just ooooone more song?

please?

please?

will they please just all go to bed?

wah!

WILSON.

that one night,

when wilson showed up looking like my twin.

hey neighbor,

don't ever move.

now let's put in a gate already!!!

fair and square in love and war.

he bit her in the arm,

so she bit him on the cheek.

fair and square.

in love and war.

buns

that one day when max asked me to do her hair just like mine.

dream come true:)

once upon a time, it was the 4th of july.

this fourth of july will forever be the year i will remember as the one where chase went around burying his head in our shoulders so he couldn't see the fireworks.

but when each firework would pop off,

you'd see his little eyes curve over to the side of his head to watch,

just out of the corner of his eye.

with utter trepidation on his face.

it was my favorite thing of the entire day.

just so so SOOOO cute.

this year's menu:

baby back smoked ribs

homemade french fries

bacon wrapped cheese stuffed hot dogs

soft serve ice cream cones

snow cones {with or without ice cream, however you fancy}

homemade corn dogs {i will never eat a frozen on EVER again. WOW.}

grilled corn

broccoli salad

avocado dips #1 and #2

chicken skewers

watermelon

desserts a'plenty

...

basically, we pulled out ALLLLL the stops in the food department this 4th of july.

ladies and gentlemen,

without further delay...i give you,

The 4TH Of JULY

FAMILY YARD FEAST!

EXTRA SALT.

i swear to you, you've never tasted any combination as good as this.

not even peanut butter and chocolate could top this.

which is saying a lot coming from me.

word to the wise: don't try to drink the melted ice cream after.

basically like drinking the ocean, but worse.

had to get myself a 5th bowl of ice cream and fries just to recover.

totally worth it.

{note: it's days like these where i really appreciate my 90/60 blood pressure.}

{mmm mmm mmm. i promise, they're supposed to look that way.

if you don't light them on fire, they won't taste right. delish! 

when they're popping on the grill, you KNOW they're done.}

{above: the corn dogs i CAN'T stop thinking about.}

i

will

never

have

a

frozen

corn dog

EVER

again.

UHHHH--MAZE--ZING GRAAAAACE.

{aka: homemade corn dog.}

{note: somewhere between above 

and below he lost something...}

{i was in love with max's 4th of july nails.}

{above: when you try to grab a sparkler 

from the wrong end one too many times.

you're BANNED. so rough to be 2.}

 then one of the fireworks blew out of its side, fell over, 

and shot at keaton one way, and grandma gigi the other,

and that pretty much wrapped up the night in a jiffy!

no one's fault, even though keaton thought it was his at first,

just a bad egg so ta speak.

the firework, not keaton;)

we couldn't find brennan for 20 minutes because he was hiding in the big yellow slide,

and max and chase ran inside to grandma carol's house.

good times in the land of the free.

i just love america's birthday.

it never gets old:)

the end.