Paige is a Big Mess

What follows, is a montage of pictures.  My theme is: Paige is a Mess.  I think that pretty much says it all.

This is Paige where she plays in my potted plants on the porch and ends up covered in potting soil...as does my porch.

This is Paige eating an oreo and making a mess.  A ooey, gooey, sticky, sweet mess.  But still a mess.

This is Paige rinsing off her syrup covered hands in cream soda and wringing them out over her pancakes.  Nice.

This is where Paige poured out most of the salt container and played in it.

This is where Paige thinks she rules the world. :)

This is where Paige got into the foaming handsoap and used it as a hair product.  Picture #4 in this series is where she looks just like her Daddy. :)

This is where she copied her big sister and her cousin and made a mess with pudding.  Thankfully, she was eating butterscotch.

This is where Paige stole my two mini cupcakes and then stole my big cupcake and ate them with a spoon.  And made a mess.  

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this crazy, sweet, mess of a girl!!!

Baby Chicks

My parents have lots of chickens and right now my Dad has 25 baby chicks.  They are so cute and tiny.  We loved getting to hold them.  What is it about a baby animal that is just so adorable?

Rufus and Rusty

One of the things my kids love about my parents' house are their two new dogs, Rufus and Rusty.

This is Rufus.  He has the softest fur and LOVES to be petted.  We all love them.  Elise is so sweet to love on them and play with them and snuggle with them.

I don't know who is happier--the kids or the dogs!!!! :)

To Grandmother's House We Go...

It just worked out with our weekend plans, that we could take Friday off and go see my Grandma and my parents.  We got to Grandma's house mid-afternoon and had a fun time visiting with her.  She is the sweetest gal ever.   After visiting a while, we ordered pizza and my parents and other Grandma came over and we visited some more.  It was a beautiful evening, the humidity was down, there was a nice breeze--it was the perfect evening to sit out in the yard visiting.

What could make an evening with the fam even more fun?  Finding a snake skin in the bushes, of course!!!

Have I mentioned how fearless this kid is when it comes to all things creepy crawly?  This snake skin was the greatest thing she could have found.

After she played with it for a while, she crumbled it up in little pieces and showed it off to Uncle Logan.  He was clearly impressed.  She is his namesake, for sure. :)

And what would Grandma's house be without ice cream cones?  One of my great memories of being a kid was eating popsicles and ice cream at Grandma's.  Believe it or not, this was Paige's first ice cream cone.  I love her "Statue of Liberty" pose.

What a stinker, trying to run away from my camera!!!

I think she's found a new way to eat it. :)  Why bother eating from the top down?  Just start right in the middle!

Although she did seem puzzled when the ice cream started leaking from the side of the cone.

My cute kids and my cute Grandma. :)

Grandma was telling Elise why it was better to say "Money" for the camera, instead of "Cheese."

I know I've said it a hundred times, but I think this lady is the cutest thing ever!!!  I love her to pieces.  Can you believe she'll be 90 next month?  She looks amazing!!!

Elise and Ian found these two shovels and had fun cutting the grass.

Which quickly turned into a shovel fight between my brother and Ian.  What is the deal with boys?!

My cute brother Logan. :)  He's so fun to be around. :)

Merry Grace brought some seashells from home to share with Grammy.  Playing with seashells was one of her favorite parts of the trip.

I love these pictures, because I used to do the same thing when I was a kid.

It was fun watching the kids play where I used to play when I was little and just enjoy a calm, peaceful evening with the family.  Can't wait to go back and do it again! :)

Tape Yahtzee

The title of this post may seem strange and I'll grant you, it is.  But I think you will quickly understand.

We decided to play a round of Yahtzee the other night.  With the exception of Paige, who has the attention span of a gnat, rolling a few dice is something we all can do.   It was a fun family activity.

My brother Adam played with us and got a few good rolls, including a yahtzee.

Cory's a master.  Somehow he always seems to roll Yahtzee every time we play.  I've never seen anyone so lucky at this game.  I, on the other hand, came in dead last.

Now for the tape part.  We never have tape around the house.  If I ever buy tape, I have to hide it if I ever want to use it.  If my kids see a roll of tape, its like Christmas morning.  They love playing with it.  So apparently I didn't hide all the rolls I bought because the kids found this one and just like that, it was gone. :)

The tape just added a degree of difficulty to the game.  I used to play Blind Man's Rook with my Grandma when I was a kid.  Maybe we could call this Blind Man's Yahtzee.  Although, I we never actually used blindfolds....I think it was more symbolic. :)

What funny kids!!!

This just makes me laugh.  I can't imagine how that would feel comfortable at all.

Paige did not really participate in Yahtzee or Tape and spent much of the evening with this expression on her face.  She just makes me laugh.  Even when she's grumpy.

The kids have such different reactions.  I took a couple of pictures of Elise, or tried too, and she kept being pouty and saying, "You'd better not put this on your blog!!!"  We kept telling her to smile and instead she just wrote "Smile" on her tape.  Although that made her laugh and she couldn't stop smiling anyway! :)  Ian, on the other hand would see me with my camera and say, "Put this on your blog!"

It was a fun family night and Elise took us all down by rolling yahtzee twice.  Everyone did really well.  Except me.  I was the only person who did NOT roll Yahtzee.  Even Merry Grace rolled Yahtzee.  I think I see a rematch in the near future. :)