102 Degrees

The sign in front of the bank said it was 102 degrees today. Daniel was down to just a few pull-ups left, so a trip to the store was needed. We were all hot and sweaty by the time we got out of the store and loaded our packages into the mini-van, so I suggested a nice cool drink. The kids saw the ice cream store and asked for ice cream instead. We each had a small child sized serving of ice cream.
Notice how sweaty Megan is. She's so adorable - she gets red and her hair gets all curly as soon as she steps outside.

Lunch date with Grandma

We met Grandma at her office and took her to lunch today. We went to Ethos Vegan Kitchen. It was so tasty!

Another trip to another park

We love finding new parks to play in. Today we went on a walk looking at softball fields and happened upon a really cool park. I especially liked that it was well shaded! Megan and Daniel ran all over the place, while Joshua climbed up the many climbing structures.
They look like cute little movie stars in their shades.
Daniel is yelling, "hey Mom, catch me". Which is basically his warning that he's about to jump into my arms.
Joshua loved looking at the softball fields. We picked up a copy of the schedule and maybe we'll watch a game sometime.

Haircuts

Grandpa and the boys got haircuts yesterday. Megan came along with us to supervise. She brought her baby girl with her. Joshua's haircut came out great!
Even if he looked a little unhappy during the process.
We don't have any pictures of Daniel getting his haircut because he was sitting on my lap during his haircut. He was a little overwhelmed with all the action going on in the salon.

Chilling out at the park!

The kids and I went to the park yesterday. At 9am, there are not many other families in the park. The temperature is nice in the mornings. Joshua is so cool. He's a funny guy. He brings so much imagination into the games they play.
Daniel is yelling, "ready, set, GO!!".
Megan is looking forlorn. The heat makes her wilt. She's more of a cool-weather girl.
Megan and Daniel racing down the slide.

Paved roads and organization!

As silly as it sounds, I'm so thankful to be living on a paved road. I'm so thankful that all of the houses we are considering are on paved roads with sidewalks. It seems like such a small thing, but really, the dirt road/gravel driveway/lack of sidewalk in our former house was a bit of a bummer for the kids. They are having a blast here playing with their sidewalk chalk and riding their bikes. Daniel can't reach the pedals of his big wheel, so he just scoots it along.
Megan brought her carriage outside to take her baby girl, Aurora, out for a walk. Joshua rode his bike up. The pictures aren't the best, since the sun was just coming out and everything was already Florida hazy. We have to play outside around 8am before it gets too hot.
For the past few weeks, the kids' toys have been in a jumbled mess in the corner of my mother-in-law's living room. Poor Grandma, it was really an eyesore. And poor kids, they couldn't find anything and they were doing a terrible job cleaning up by tossing things into the overflowing toy box. This weekend, Grandma and I did some shopping for some storage containers and some other developmentally appropriate toys for the big kids. We are now in hurricane season, and that is the time of year of daily afternoon thunderstorms. We were in desperate need for some of our favorite quiet time activities. Now Grandma is all set with some craft supplies, play-doh, Star Wars figures, baby girl stuff, easy reader books, and a plethora of other activities to encourage indoor play when we can't get out.

Ponderings from the public restroom

Usually, if I am out and about with the kids and someone gives out a distress potty call, I steer everyone into the nearest Ladies' Room. Usually at this time, chaos ensues and everyone else using the restroom gets a pretty good earful of "no momma, don't let the potty flush when I'm on it" to "don't touch anything, get off the floor, no you cannot feel the water in the toilet". In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter if my nearly 6 year old son comes into the ladies' room with the rest of my small crowd. In fact, he's pretty good at entertaining his little brother while I help Megan overcome her fear of automatic-flushing toilets. Seriously, it's not like he's going to actually see any nakedness. The ladies' room has an entirely different set up than the men's room.

However, Joshua has recently declared himself a big boy and has been requesting to use the men's room. We've spent quite a bit of time talking about stranger danger, but even still, something about sending him alone into a public bathroom just makes me nervous. We went out to breakfast this weekend, just Grandma, me and the kids. I had taken Megan to use the restroom and then Joshua announced that he was going to the bathroom. So I asked him if he was going into the ladies' room with me or if he was going to use the men's room. He decided to use the men's room. I asked Joshua to look inside and let me know if anyone was in there. He said it was empty, there wasn't anyone standing in there and the two stall doors were open. So I gave him permission to go on in and told him I'd be right outside the door.

As I'm standing outside the men's room door, doing my mini-secret service/paranoid mom security detail, a 30-ish looking guy walked back to the men's room. He jokingly asked if I was guarding the door, and I told him as a matter of fact, I was. Then I explained that my 5 year old should be out in just a minute. I told him the whole men's room/letting the 5 year old out of my site in a public area thing was pretty new to us. He laughed a pretty hearty laugh and then explained that he has a 2 year old daughter. Then we both had a good laugh about how it is definitely easier on the moms to take their sons into the ladies room than it is for the dads to take their daughters into the men's room. I didn't stop him from entering the men's room, but he graciously said he would wait for Joshua to come out, just in case the little fellow had any problems and I needed to come in. Just then, Joshua emerged from the bathroom proudly announcing he didn't want to touch the gross sink, so he didn't wash his hands.

I haven't quite figured out the public restroom thing with the boys when I am out by myself now that I have a big boy.