Outside Playtime

I'm going to be really honest- sometimes the days are really long and yes, even boring. I typically get up around 5:30am. I start with 45 mins- 1 hour to myself- I walk for about 30 minutes and also read my Book of Mormon and a chapter from whatever book I feel like. I also stretch and meditate a little. It's kind of my own personal time to reconnect and gather myself for the day. Then it's off and running, breakfast, dishes, dressing, shower, school-time with Amy, more cleaning... and that's all before 8am. So by noon- I'm exhausted. And by 3pm- I'm out of ideas and B.O.R.E.D.

The weather is still a little hot for true outdoors enjoyment, but I do try to take the kids out to play. We have a nice, fenced yard and they can pretty much wander around and do what they like.

We have bucket of pieces of chalk. The kids love this. Today it even had an inch of water in it from a rainstorm. Score!!

Amy usually has me draw a hopscotch board. I tried to get a picture of her running it, but she was too quick. Will sat on it instead. (he has a candy cane in his mouth, yes we still have some of those!!)

The other day Amy started screaming that an ant was biting her. I was on the phone with Lee and quickly hung up. I went to investigate and she kept screaming that it was still in her shorts and was still biting her. I lifted her shorts, only to see black legs, so of course, I started screaming, which made her scream more. We got her shorts off but never saw whatever it was. And yes, she did have a nice bite on her leg... or a sting.... not sure which.

Today she said, "Mom! That's the bug that was in my shorts! We need to kill it so it doesn't get me again."

Goodbye poor little beetle. If there are any PETA readers out there, know that his little wing was stuck outside his shell and he was walking crooked. Probably from the result of being up Amy's shorts. We just put him out of his misery.

Also outside.... Will usually finds a ball.....

And Amy walks around blowing this whistle (it's actually the hose part of the pump to my exercise ball)

And today Amy found a bug (apparently this one is nicer that the previously mentioned one).

The spot....                                                   the catch....

The tears when it flew away.....

No amount of convincing that it needed to go home to it's Mama made the tears fade away. This girl and her attachment to bugs! (except for ones that bite her!)

And this is where Will realized that I wasn't on the porch with him.

So see? Even a trip outside is exhausting. Maybe they are still too young to fully enjoy the outdoors on their own. Oh well, they are now in the bath and that means an earlier bedtime.

What did mothers do before blogging??