july twenty-nine: 87 degrees of Perfect

After breaking her fast first with a bit of cereal on the patio, Madeleine led me to the raspberry bush. Berries are few right now, but in about a week we'll have our second crop.
And she took me to the yellow plum tree for a tasty something.
And then to the vegetable garden to check out pumpkins. Which her Mama wouldn't let her pick. And to visit the squash.
And then she pilfered a sweet pepper, and it it was in her mouth in less than two seconds from being picked. You have to love that.

She ate the whole thing, too.

We checked on tomatoes...
and finally went to the front yard to see how the blackberries are doing. We sampled a couple that were soft, but whooee! too sour, still. We'll give them a week, we decided.

Time to
wake up Trev
pour a first glass of iced tea
watch the Peep video of the day (never mind that they can view all of them on youtube... this is still very exciting business around here)
and then play Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
Forgot to tell that he finished it a couple of days ago. Which is pretty nice... that will cut down our (always hard to take) wailing level quite a bit! (He still plays, it's just that since he's accomplished everything, he knows how to do it, and doesn't get so frustrated. phew.)

"Was there water during the Ice Age?"

Plum eating.
Lots and lots of plum eating.
I'm just thrilled someone likes them.

Baby bees.I think peppermint might just have the tiniest flower on the planet.

Cuteness.So much cuteness.
What can I say? I'm a mama in love.

Business.

and stories while lounging on the back patio

and play here.Let me just say that this rope gets so much action. I don't think there is a day that goes by that this rope isn't loved at least a little.
The bottom of the loop is a foot off the ground-- a great height for hineys, tummies, or a foot, and too low to be tempting for little heads. Well, plus for the first month after we hung it up last year all babes (including visitors) were watched verra closely.

More business.

While I watched Madd play with this bucket of sticky foam things I picked up the other day, I started looking at the various shapes and sizes, and had a thought that they would make excellent fodder for a story.
So I wrote a quick story on the fly... you can see the details here.
When it was done, I asked Trev what he thought, as he was quiet and still.
He gave a shy smile, and said, "That was excellent.":) Can't ask for better than that, now can you?`

Puzzelts. A whole stack of 'em, of course.
Evidently the creativity is just flowing today, as Maddie next came out with an icecream cone packed full of sliced banana. Which was sliced by Herself.
One must make do when the freezer is devoid of any sort of icecream, don't you know.
Uh-- must 'a been Good Enough-- because she went back for seconds.The second surprise (and evidence) of Maddie playing today with Me and My Camera...
cheeky monkey.

There was music making on various metals and glass.

And swimmin' pool play.

At which time Maddie comes up with "Mooooom-- Trevy is using violence!"
"He's using violence? And you want him to use his words with you?" Now there's a first. Usually rough-and-tumble is the only thing that works with Little Sister. She blithely ignores pleas and Reasoning.
"Yeah!"
"Well...." said her Mama, "...go tell him!"
And she did.
Wow!, I say. Amazing.
I'm not so twitterpated today that I think it will stick, mind you... but still. Impressive.

"Mom! When are are you coming into the pool with us?""Uh....... count to thirty!".....

Oh my goodness. 7:29? Already???
What's for dinner?

Mama gets a wicked, super-uber, delicious idea....
"Wanna walk over to the library, and then get Wasatch (local pizza) for dinner?"
Which is conveniently Right Next Door.
Now why not?
You know what they said.
So we did.

With whip in hand to fend off rogue dinosaurs,
a wagon to cart books,
and eager feet
we dashed off.
Had to hurry and get there 'afore the library closed.
Maddie evidently thought I had forgotten our last few lost dvd's and the poor state of my teeth from all the grinding, as was evident by her plentiful dvd selection.
With a liberal allowance, we set for next door to order and await our pie.
And eventually made it back home.

Now, honestly.
When given a choice between a clean house, and living a day like today...
what does a damn clean floor matter?

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Er... literally.