My brother came for a quick visit

My brother, Dean, and his family were in town for vacatoin and came to our house the other night for dinner. The kids LOVED playing with each other. They only get to see each other once a year if they are lucky.
My brother, being a photographer as well, couldn't help but try out my camera too. He took the pics of the sparklers, the picture of the kids on the front porch isn't great, but it shows the pure joy on Lee's face when my sister-in-law lit the sparklers.

One more of the jump below

I love the nice, quiet weekends

The kids have had some true play time and rest this weekend. Eva went to a sleep over last night and then swimming today and we played at the park this afternoon. Lee and Ellis have played together a lot. I think it would be great if all weekends were three day weekends.
Hide and Go Seek is the game my kids most enjoy with each other now. I remember having so much fun playing hide and seek with my brothers and sisters when we were young. We would get crazy and run everywhere and play until it was almost dark outside, just hiding and waiting and strategizing about how to get back to base without getting caught. I am happy to see they enjoy this game together, Eva is such a good big sister to encourage them to play it. It is really fun for them when we get the neighborhood kids involved.
In one of these pictures Lee looks like a lemer jumping to a tree. He was trying to see how high he could push himself off of that post while jumping. I have a few more pictures I will try to post above this.

Ellis in the mornings

Ellis is not a morning gal. I am right there with her. But on school mornings we all have to get up anyway to get lunches ready and the kids out the door. So it is not at all uncommon for Ellis to walk downstairs, half asleep and put her hands up for me or Trip to hold her. These days won't last forever, so I can usually never resist picking her up for a few minutes. On this morning my camera just happened to be on the kitchen counter, so Eva snapped a couple.

The other photos are just of Ellis playing around on one of her days home from school.

Hands, feet and penguins

Swimming at neighbors house

The kids love to take advantage of the neighbors pool. Now that the weather is getting super hot it is a nice break for them after school.

Mother's Day weekend

Of course I am a week behind. We had a casual weekend and Mother's Day and a Kyle did a surprise drop by. The kids are pumped about school being out soon. I should just say that Eva is pumped, Lee would go to school every day, year round if he had to. I has only asked to stay home from school once this year, turned out that was because of nerves from the Kindergarten play.

Ellis will be out of school as well this summer. I am taking her out since there is no need for her to go when the other two are home. Everyone needs a break.

Gabby is coming tomorrow. Yeah! Ellis woke me up this morning asking me if Gabby was coming today and if she could play the Batman Wii game.

We went to breakfast this morning at a local breakfast dive. I love the standard breakfast foods, grits, hash browns, eggs and toast. The kids were happy and Lee asked me if I would take him out every morning to eat there. No.

I have a few more to post of the kids swimming.

Sunday with kids

Eva's friend who spent the night is a true camera hog. She begs to use my camera every time she is here. She wants to watch my every move when I use it. She sat and watched me edit last night for quit a while. I told her when she is 14 I will hire her as my part time worker. She is thrilled, I hope she sticks to it because some days I could use the help of a litte 14 year old helper to take care of the small stuff. So, today I let her experiment with my camera. I told her she could take pictures of me with the kids and she made me promise to post them on my blog. Here they are, after a bit of heavy handed editing and creative liberties, I did the best with what I had. I must say though, the bottom picture of me with the kids is pretty much a day in the life. Eva is reading, Lee is showing off his newest Lego masterpiece, Ellis is climbing or hanging for something and I am returning emails and texts. The top picture of Ellis I took, because I just couldn't resist the sweet expression on her face. I have more photos, some of me with Eva and some of me with Lee, but I will try to post those another day.

No new pictures

These are pictures from last month but I feel the need to post something. I really need take some good photos of them soon. I need to get one of Ellis up on my website. She has noticed that I don't have one of her up there now!
So, today was one of those days that I tore apart the girls room and cleaned out clothes that don't fit them, got rid of toys and stuffed animals. I stood at the entrance of their closet trying to figure out ways to make better use of the space, I pulled out there beds and found the standard stray socks, dust bunnies and books underneath.
Next is Lee's room. It seems just when I finish one it is time to go back to the other.

Eva has a friend spending the night tonight. I am in my room listening to Lee trying to sing along to the American Idol wii game. It is pretty funny because he doesn't sing, he just groans and moans along with the tune of the song. Not even really with the tune. Right now he is trying to sing "She's a Man Eater"

I am taking a few days break from work. Very nice. I am assuming I will get the call any day that one of my clients of mine have just had a baby. I know the Mother is past her due date.

My friend, Dianne, is leaving for Austraila this Wed. with her son, Ben. Her husband is there for work, so they are joining him. It is so hard to believe that it has almost been a year since their sweet Delaney died. I think they both feel that being away for the year anniversay may help a bit. My heart aches for them, but day by day they are making it.

I need to go get these children in bed!