going on in flip flops and getting on the stage from the front steps made for a way better story.

guys, i'm happy to announce that this year she made it backstage three dances early,

AND we remembered to take off her flip flops.

dance mom expert extraordinaire over here.

yippy kigh yigh ay!

i was so proud of us.

for last year's escapade click here.

good grief,

last year's story sure made for a great laugh. 

and a way better story than this year.

let us never forget where we came from;)

i knew it wasn't the bread.

friday night: 

max comes in sobbing from the garage saying the bread hit her in the head 

when she was trying to get a popsicle out of the freezer.

i rush out to the fridge, search the ground for the bread only to find that all of the alleged bread was in the freezer.

i tell her we need to be careful because we wouldn't want something to fall out of the fridge that would melt and be gone forever. like popsicles and stuff.

i gave her a hug and was a little bugged that she was crying so much over a little bread falling on her head.

but i thought, hey, maybe a frozen loaf of bread hits a 4 yr old harder than i'm thinking.

we went back inside and the night went on.

saturday afternoon:

as i'm pulling into the driveway sean tells me i'm never gonna believe what he found under the car when i left for the store.

lemme guess, bread. 

that's what i said.

i was feeling so foolish for not checking on the floor better the night before.

nope he said.

and i was all, what then?

chicken.

i KNEW it wasn't the bread.

and then i realized why she was crying so hard.

because frozen bread might not hurt.

but a package of frozen drumsticks.

ouch.

have mercy.

poor max!

if you're bored...

sometimes when max goes potty,

she takes pictures of her toes.

and i find them a week later.

and laugh really really hard. 

happy friday!

on days when we have swimming lessons.

we are all big fans of chase's nap time:)

...

last thursday i sat out 

by the pool and let the kids swim all afternoon.

i was in the hammock with my book,

and dave was power washing the pool deck.

mudding the pool deck.

and painting the pool deck.

which = no available plugs for a baby monitor.

which doesn't really matter bc in chase's two years of life, not including the first 6 months, he has needed a baby monitor during nap time ZERO times.

even when he wakes up early,

he will patiently wait in his bed,

sucking and enjoying his binky until whenever you decide to come and get him.

it's awesome:)

so i sat out by that pool until 5:30 with my book,

and then i decided i'd better go check on my babe.

and do you know what i found?

a babe that was sobbing in the dark staircase to the basement bedroom,

locked behind the basement door.

sobbing.

did i mention he was sobbing?

sobbing.

for who knows how long.

in

the

dark.

i felt so badly.

mostly i was just sad for him to be scared in the dark.

he wasn't ever in any danger,

except of course when dave joked that he'd probably fallen down the stairs three times waiting for me, and crawled back up each time {thanks dave, that's what i said with a squinty eye on my face, with my head jolting out in front of me ever so slightly for effect.}

like i said,

it was very clear that he was perfectly safe and unscathed,

other than having red puffy eyes,

and being all shook up.

i told him not to climb out of his bed anymore,

and he said "oooooohhhhhh-T-T-T-T-taaaayyyyy moooommmmeeeeee,"

and i knew he wouldn't.

and he hasn't since.

{in fact when i come in to get him he says "wait for mommy" very proud.}

i kissed and cuddled that baby for the rest of the night,

until i had to change his diaper.

that's when he stepped out of the car and dropped the airplane on his toe and it sliced it open.

deeply sliced it open.

like i was wondering if we were gonna need stitches.

julie ran out with a bandaid and we conquered that it would not need stitches.

the kids all got to watch a movie on the way home, and chase got carried around like a newborn for the rest of the evening.

last thursday just wasn't chase's night.

his head on my chest never felt so good.

green thumb down for now.

it only took me an extra two weeks to find them.

big yellow puffy marigolds.

for the bugs.

home depot said they never even got them in.

well, thank you lowes.

no thank you for doubling the price.

word on the street is that it was a rough year for the flower growing people.

so not as many went out,

and the price went up.

also,

my jack o lanterns haven't sprouted yet.

they've got me worried.

if they haven't come up by saturday i'm taking matters into my own hands.

green thumb down for now.

double deck me.

being the master of copying things i love from places i love to go to,

you'd think i would have thought of doing this before.

glory be,

the only way i'm doing tacos for the rest of my life.

thank you andrea munford.

god bless you.

9997, 9998, 9999, 1000, a billion.

cade: hi! i like your beard.

and your mustache.

facial hair man: thanks.

cade: it is so awesome. your beard and mustache. i want russian colors.

do you know what Russian colors are?

i think they're blue, white, and red.

can you do blue, white, and red?

facial hair man: yep, sure can. those are american flag colors too ya know?

cade: american colors are red, white, and blue!

i WANT RUSSIAN! russian flag colors. NOT american.

blue

white

and red.

facial hair man: {laughing} ok, russian flag colors it is.

cade: do you know what RSL soccer colors are?

there's uh yellow, and red, and blue. is there white?

facial hair man: here ya go, RUSSIAN flag colors.

cade: yep sir-ee, RUSSIAN:) i like your beard! and your mustache!

{walks away}

this was the day where brennan 

spilled his shave ice,

and then spilled chase's shave ice, 

after i scooped his spilled one up off of the metal chair with holes, and gave it to chase.

it was then that we decided the tables were not made for children eating shave ice.

grass.

grass was made for children eating shave ice:)

then brennan and cade struck up a conversation with a family over what comes after "a thousand."

during which time they yelled back and forth to me to confirm what they were saying.

it was not 1000 and 1.

it was a billion.

and brennan kept yelling at cade that he was interrupting him.

cade kept yelling at brennan that brennan wasn't letting him talk.

which brennan yelled back that he was interrupting him again.

at which point i just told everyone to just get into the car before we could never show our faces at lani's shave ice ever again. 

ohhhh when best friends act more like siblings:)

 

i was just so glad that 2 yr olds don't care about eating spilled shave ice 

that was scooped up off of a metal chair with holes:)

HOT

me- "max, i got some new hot pink polish for us!"

max- "wait, wait, wait, wait. let me peel it {feel it}."

{feels the outside of the polish bottle.}

max- "nope, it's not hot! silly mommy."

{walks off.}

when it lands on you, and flies away.

and then we watched its red wings open up,

and fly away.

while chase pointed and said,

"oh!!! oh!!! oh!!!"

with his little self so amazed at the magic of a lady bug

when it lands on you,

and flies away.