What To Do When Auntie Angel Comes To Town

What do you get when you put five small children in one house for a week? A LOT ACTIVITIES (you know, to make sure we keep all five children & don't "accidentally" leave some of them at the park.)

We went to Lake Tahoe on Thursday. And yes, Gretchen is screaming in this picture. It was the end of the day. And I just caught her MID FALL off a huge boulder. Cause I'm an awesome Mom (that puts her small child on large boulders... Poor kid.)



Matia and Gretchen have a love/hate relationship. Especially when Matia decides to "help" Gretchen. I think Gretchen is on time-out #259 for pinching/pulling hair/hitting. Here you see the LOVE part of the love/hate. Check out the sweet blue swim goggles that Gretchen insisted on wearing.



Making sand castles in the sand....



We didn't even need to pull out the Ghetto Pool! Grandma bought this fancy Alligator Pool last year and it only had one hole in it!



We went to Auntie Krista's house some mini-farm fun. What? Gretchen thought riding on a horse 20x her size was fun? How unexpected.






Poor, poor baby chickens. They tried to run, but no one is safe from Matia. Or Gretchen.





Auntie Krista thought it'd be funny to take some naked baby glamour shots. Gretchen thought it'd be funny to crash the party.



We celebrated the Klassier side of Reno by taking the kids out for a photo shoot downtown. We're so proud of our town!












No chickens were harmed in the making of this post.

Snakes and Nursery! Happy Fathers Day!

Auntie Amber took us to the museum a week ago. It was cool. There was a room full of fake sharks (which the girls refused to enter), a shrunken head (you're right Amber. I shouldn't have gone looking for it. SO CREEPY.) and snakes!!!!

Yup, Ella refused to go in the room with a fake shark, but she held a gigantic albino python.

On Snakes, by Ella Stott
I liked the snake when I held it. It was bumpy. And soft. I would not like to have a snake in my room, but I would hold one again.

Here she is learning about snakes from the super nice museum guy:


Touching the pretty wittle snake...


Holding the SUPER HUGE snake... (Sorry these pics are sideways. I need to fix that...)


So brave, my little girl!


And Happy Fathers Day!

Thoughts About My Dad, by Ella Stott
I love to play with my Dad. Puzzles. I like to play with him a lot.

Oh yeah, and today was Gretchen's first day of nursery at church. (When babies turn 18 months you get to ditch them at the baby Sunday School where they play with toys, eat snacks & sing songs. It's pretty fantastic.) I stayed in nursery too. Not because I was worried about her, per say, more worried for the other children. She only made one boy bleed. He was gettin' all up in her puzzles. She did NOT like that. He got a quick "Gretch Special", a cheek pinch with fingernails. Dude. DUDE! There were four other little boys in Nursery. She's the youngest. And she's a girl. And she had them all running in fear. The oldest kid kept running to the Nursery Leader saying, "Save me! Save me!" and at one point barricaded himself in the corner behind a metal folding chair. Sigh.

But she IS afraid of fake sharks.

Crush

I told Ella that we're going to our friends pool on Thursday. We've been going weekly since it got warm, but she was not excited.

Ella: Why do we always have to go to Kimmy's pool?

Me: Cause it's fun!!!

Ella: I don't want to.

Me: Hank, Ken & Kaylie will be there too! (My friend's elementary age kids, who are out of school for summer. Ella is especially enamored with her 13 year old son, Hank...)

Ella: Will Hank not have his shirt on?

Me: !!!!!!!

Me: How would you feel about that?

Ella: I don't know, I don't want to see him without his shirt on. (Giggles)

Me: Good night.

Ella: (Giggles. Shuts door. Giggles.)

!!!!!!!!!