& now we are raising dirty, half naked...

...neanderthals? nudists? children? really, all are up for debate most days. take this for example:

yes! amelia eating dirt. i guess it could be worse (think half-frozen chunks of decomposing doggy-turd treats). there is a story of my sister convincing me to eat dirt...while sitting in a circle with her & a neighborhood friend, she told me that all the older kids eat dirt, that it tastes great...then she told me that we're all going to close our eyes & eat the dirt off a stick...then she said to close our eyes...i did & then ate the dirt...her & the neighbor kid bust up laughing...b/c i was the stupid one to fall for this trick.

anyway, no one had to manipulate amelia into eating dirt. she wanted to. see, i'm raising a dirty neanderthal. i guess i should be thankful that she has clothes on...b/c most days, one girl will have only pants on, the other with just a shirt. the other half of the time, both only with undies or a diaper & sometimes socks. do they not get cold?! i dunno, they're nuts if you ask me. it would take a psychotic break for me to be hot enough in this weather to walk around half naked (or it would take me being pregnant, but, by golly, if that happens...just send me away for those months).

so we have been outside constantly for 3 straight days. i didn't realize how much i missed playing outside in sunny (well, ohio-sunny, which isn't too sunny), warm weather until--bam--it's here! & we're all outside in t-shirts, except adeline who suddenly has a fierce need to wear her fury boots & heavy fleece jacket with the hood pulled up (??). the girl who's mostly half-clothed insisted in 60 degree weather that it was of utmost importance to be decked out in winter gear. i talked her out of the gloves...

we worked in the front flower beds a bit & it's been decided that we have to set aside a patch of dirt for the girls to play in. all summer. both girls were totally into sitting in the soil, eating or whatnot. *smile* adeline now knows what it takes for a plant to grow ("water! sun! DIRT!"), it warmed my heart.

this is a picture of the diggers & also a picture description of why the daisies will not be returning this year.

***

there's this dora show that includes a picnic. then there's this storyline that my mom tells adeline constantly about everyone in addy's plot of characters going for a picnic (dora, boots, swiper, isa, tico, diego, jaguar, chloe, zoe, mommy, daddy, amelia, griswold, a grandma or two, a grandpa or two, & sometimes even chloe & zoe's dogs...it makes for a seriously long story. i have condensed the line of characters to this: the clan). so adeline has been hosting these fabulous indoor-fake picnics, complete with checker piece cookies, fake drinks, fake everything, complete with a meticulously spread out blanket on the floor.

friday, i became her most favorite person in the world. i took her & amelia for a picnic...we went as far as our sideyard, but folks, you have never seen a little 3 year old girl so excited to spend time on her side yard. when someone walked by she would shout out to them WE HAVE A PICNIC! LOOK, PICNIC! funny thing is that i felt a bit cheesy about it all, putting on a picnic in our sideyard...then we took a walk to the corner of our street--low & behold--our neighbor & her kids were having a picnic also. now, just picture adeline with the most shocked & happy look on her face when she saw them sitting there on their blanket, eating treats. you know, A NEIGHBOR HAVE A PICNIC TOO, MOMMY! PICNIC! PICNIC! wow, the excitement didn't wear off until she was asleep.

here's addy holding our picnic basket

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okay, so what's up with this time change? who's idea was this anyway? argh, argh, argh. the person or people who thought this up obviously doesn't have young kids. how can this one hour early bed time go over without benedryl? ARGH!