Puddles are part of childhood

Early this morning we had a BIG storm with house shaking thunder, room brightening lightening and pelting rain. Our road has a little dip right in front of our house which always fills with water when it rains. This afternoon the road still had water sitting on it, and Corrine being our concoction girl needed to do something with that water. Corrine, Rebecca and our adopted neighbor kiddo Joe decided to play in the puddle with chalk.
It seems that whenever you combine puddles and a 3 year old that no matter how hard you try-THEY ARE GETTING WET! Rebecca slipped in and got her pants and boots wet. Before I knew it Corrine & Joe also had boots on and were jumping in the puddles. Trying to get Rebecca to watch and not join in was futile, so I decided that instead of fighting to keep her out of puddles in the road, I'd grab the camera and stand in the middle of the street so the kids could play and I could watch for cars. (Luckily our road is quiet with only a few cars.)

Ammon wanted to join in on the fun, but he couldn't find another pair of boots to wear. Joe needed to go home, so I offered the boots Joe had on to Ammon. He didn't want to wear them because they were wet inside and out. I told him after one jump that he wouldn't even notice they were wet, because he'd add water to them. He finally decided to put them on and jumped into the puddle. He tried so hard to keep a grouchy look on his face. He got ready to jump-grumpy face, jump in-grouchy face, then he looked up and grinned ear to ear and took off running to another puddle. The grouchy face disappeared and never returned because honestly how can a child jump into a puddle and not smile!!

After filling their boots with water more then a few times, they settled down and starting filled syringes with the water from the different puddles and comparing the cleanliness. One was super dirty and cloudy from the chalk they added to it earlier, one was oily looking and the 3rd was fairly clean for being a puddle in a street! Ammon was making fireworks with his syringe. These syringes came from the hospital. When Simeon had a spinal tap they would have some left over supplies likes blunt end syringes, sponge mouth cleaners and test tubes that we would take home to play with.

For the 45 minutes the kids ran from puddle to puddle, jumping, splashing and laughing. They practiced backward jumps, 360 jumps, super high jumps and biggest splash making puddles.

Today I got to decide which memories I wanted the kids to remember. I wanted those memories to be of jumping in the puddles and the fun and laughter that went with each splash. The load of dirty wet clothes I'd have to wash and messy footprints on the floor I just mopped will just have to wait while other memories are being made. Before I know it the kids will walk past the puddles and not jump in them and I'll look back and wish for the these years.

Being a kid is so much fun! 

Mother's Day

This morning I was awoken by my door being opened. In walked Simeon with a plate of eggs and a glass of orange juice. He handed it to me, gave me a kiss and said "Happy Mother's Day. Don't those eggs smell good!" and walked out.
Later I learned that the eggs smelled so good to him, that he went and made himself some!
Today really was a typical day of church, kids being kids and making dinner. We had Johann's parents and brother over. We also celebrated Simeon birthday, since that is tomorrow.





When Ammon came home from school on Friday I noticed that he made a detour in front of the bushes in the front yard. He came in and told me that I needed to not go over there for a few days because he had something hid there for me. Saturday night I was gone and he told Johann that he needed to go check on his present for me. He came back in crying because his present was ruined. A squirrel had dug out the flowers from the flower pot. They replanted them and gave them some water. This time though Ammon wanted to make sure it was safe, so he put it under his bed for safekeeping. Johann said one of the flowers was pretty sad looking and he wasn't sure if it would survive, but it perked up.



Corrine did the same thing, but she tried to hide her surprise in her room, but realizing that it wouldn't get sun she took it out back. She missed the activity day girls that they made a mother's day craft. One of her leaders lives down the street, so she had Corrine come over after school one day this past week to make her gift.


Our sweet little Rebecca having fun with mom.




I'm so greatful for all my kids. Lately the hugs and kisses have been more plentiful, which I love so much. I'm so grateful that I've been blessed to be their mother to help raise them and learn from them.