Sumertime Splashing

My two oldest are in their room right now talking up a storm. Every five minutes or so, I yell "Hey! Stop talking, already!"

So far, they're not listening.

They should be tired...they spent all day playing and swimming with some of our nearest and dearest. We spent the day with my friends Tina and Shelley. Our kids have literally known each other since near-birth, when we created our own little playgroup that day on the beach at Frenchie's when our kids were just a couple of months old. As Shelley said today, we've come a long way since we were at a 1:1 mom:baby ratio!

I think Ava and her friend Petey look like long lost relatives. Their hair, eyes, and skin tone are identical and I love that he is the only boy I know who is exactly Ava's age who she's not taller than! 

We are now completely out numbered by children, and getting them all together is always a very entertaining lesson in chaos. Today the kids spent all day trading Pokemon cards (which Ava had never seen before, but now says she has to have, naturally), playing some intricate pretend game that had a headquarters in the shower, swimming, eating an insane amount of food, and otherwise ransacking Tina's lovely home.

Ava has recently graduated to swimming independently and she's thrilled about it. I have a feeling Jace won't be long behind her...he wants to be just like his big sister. The kids spent hours going down the slide into the pool over and over and even Seth, who is normally a huge chicken around the water, decided to take one courageous run down the slide. He looked super surprised when he hit the water and although he never cried, he did insist on Jace towing him to the side of the pool right away and he gave the slide a really wide berth from then on, choosing to spend his time on more toddler appropriate pursuits like splashing in the jacuzzi.

He was kind of the cutest kid ever, though. He was pretty insistent on wanting to go in the pool with the other kids, and so I told him "Honey, you can't go into the water with your ears on; they'll get wet." He looked at me, raised his eyebrows, then had his CI's off and in my hands within seconds.

Yeah, I think he's better at understanding those complex sentences than I usually give him credit for.

Ava and Petey again...they resemble each other to a ridiculous degree, I think! We must have some long lost Italian in our genes somewhere!

After several hours of playing with their friends, we loaded up and headed home. The kids were a little tired out, to say the least. 

They did manage to rally when we got home and we ate dinner and spent about an hour getting through one measly chapter of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The kids had random questions every few lines, (What's that? Who's he supposed to be? Do we have any chocolate milk?) but we'll keep plugging along. Ava has requested Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as the next book we read...she's apparently "very into owls" now. (Her words). Seth insisted on having his very own book to flip along in, and even then, he was grabbing mine out of my hands ever two minutes.

Basically, it had all the things I love about summer...lazing around, swimming, eating, and reading!

Tired kids are definitely a bonus, too.

What are you favorite summer activites?