real life

a comment today on the blog said "thanks for a real mom post." Well, just so our joint parenting issues are clear here are a few examples.
The first thing that came to my mind was the time we didn't stop Laine from eating dirt so we could take pictures. Obviously this was old - Laine was 1. It was the beginning of what we like to call - alternative parenting. We are certain it will be the wave of the future.














This week when we weren't looking Laine dressed Rom up in a dress so they could dance to some "beautiful music." It wasn't long before he made his way out to his true home - the dirt pile.

we recently changed the top banner on the blog to a picture of our cute kids playing in the flowers on a hike. The reality was that most of the time they looked like this (I think they may have been trying to imitate the Rolling Stones)

oh - or how about the time we went on a camping trip and the car broke and then the replacement car broke and then we had the car so full of STUFF that we could barely see the kids in back and they were scared the whole drive home because they couldn't see each other.

where is this child's mother?

I have it on good authority that this poor child's mother was in the kitchen making dinner. what was she thinking?

in case you're wondering, he is wearing his "running shoes" as he likes to call them, and socks as well. why they needed to go into the bath along with everything else, I may never know, but it gave me a good laugh as I was taking them off and literally dumping water out of them.

I should have been tipped off when he came in and said, "oh, man! My shirt is all wet!" in all honesty, I knew he was in there, and I knew he was trying (again) to get some of his toy boats that were never meant to float to float. AND I was listening - I could hear him talking and playing, so I knew he wasn't drowning. I just didn't expect he'd get in fully clothed.

is this the tame beginning to a crazy life with a boy? at the grocery store today he put 5 bite marks all the way up and down a banana with the skin on and also through the top of the hot dog package AND he mangled a package of hot dog buns beyond recognition. (the nice clerk didn't even make me pay for them. she has a boy too.)

Mexican Circus!

Thanks to the great Kingfish we all went to the Mexican Circus last night!

1st impression - those prices are in pesos right? 35 bucks for an adult to go into that tent and watch some stuff for two hours? wow. okay. Well, we were already committed at this point.

2nd impression - why are there strippers in the circus? I actually took a picture that originally was planned to go right here but once I got it onto my computer and saw it I was so embarrassed to have anything even remotely like that on my computer that I had to delete it. (okay, they weren't really strippers - just imagine Las Vegas style outfits dancing at awkwardly close range....okay stop imagining now.)

3rd impression - we were FOR SURE the only gringos there. There are not a ton of people here as it is but every one of them speaks Spanish except for me, Romney, and Catherine Hansen (aka CJ) (this also assumes Marie, Laine, and Marv can get by on their varying levels of spanish)

4th impression - glad I don't speak Spanish because based on what those clowns are doing this is a pretty crude show. also glad my kids are not any older. for the first time, I'm hoping Laine doesn't really understand anything in Spanish.

5th impression - if there are tigers, they are going to eat us because there is nothing between us and them. (BIG sigh of relief when we came back in after intermission and saw the big cage. not so much relief when we saw up close how SCARY they are and were sure they were going to eat their trainer. we started considering what amount of therapy would be able to help our children after experiencing such a major traumatic experience at a young age. up close and personal.)

6th impression - WOW - that zebra just freaked out and almost kicked that guy in the head!

7th impression - acrobats from Moldova are awesome. no nets. wow. talk about having skin in the game! (movies at the bottom - check them out!)

8th impression - seriously? 10 bucks for that snow cone? PLEASE stop putting those dumb flashing and glowing toys in my kids hands in hopes that they will throw a tantrum and I will have to buy them!

9th impression - funny dogs and popcorn will make Romney sit still for as long as they will last. (mental note - try to figure out how to implement funny dogs and popcorn into sacrament meetings)

10th impression - elephants do not smell good but Laine loves it when they stand on their head.

and then there were two

yes. first there were three sisters road tripping to jackson, but one stayed behind to spend the summer with her mountain bike in a questionable green tent for the benefit of the boy scouts. how cool is she? lucky boy scouts, but we miss her already.

(this is our simultaneous self-portrait. see how we're all looking different directions? the hills behind us were so gorgeous with yellow flowers spilling down them in the sunlight - we didn't take into account that we'd get the ugly brown house as our backdrop instead. but still - not a bad setting for a summer.)

the question is: will she again be the cause of the best accident and best incident as she was at her last summer camp job?