let the bat saga begin

June 1

Brown's Island

Little baby geese keeping our attention for quite some time.

June 2

St. Matthew's Preschool

It's no joke I have a bad memory so I'm only 90% sure this was the from the play date at Leena's preschool.

June 3

Ashland Strawberry Festival

Leena got in a firetruck, rode a pony, ate a sucker, and got a balloon. Pretty much every two year old's fantasy.

June 4

LGBG

A new installation of Live Art at the garden and all the kids loved this butterfly sculpture.

June 5

Duck Blind

Installing flooring, one small piece at a time.

June 6

7-11

Watching the Bott's is the perfect excuse to walk five kids to the corner convenience store and get a cold treat on a sweltering day.

June 7

Attic

Finding a match for my cousin's new Amelia! It's a fun game to play.

June 8

Otter Cove

When Leena asks Bunker for a toadstool, Bunker stops what he's doing and makes Leena a toadstool.

June 9

Otter Cove

And when Lydia asks Bunker to help her work out a design for a clothing rack, Bunker stops everything he's doing and builds her a prototype. Lucky.

June 10

Schell House

When you go to a birthday party and ask more than one adult for a dessert. This kid has it figured out. Next thing she'll start working on is her sneak factor.

 

June 11

Kitchen Table

The latest craze in toddler activity at our house: "Draw Moana." "Draw Maui." "Draw Hei Hei." "Draw a boat." "Draw the heart." "Draw Gramma." I think you get the idea.

June 12

Boehmer-Heimer Country Club

Making sure Buzz gets enough water. As in, she was lifting his head and telling him to drink.

June 13

Front Yard

Good technique, kids. I'm always proud of a good sharing moment.

June 14

Lowe's

When you have that weird amount of time between nap and dinner and nothing else to do, Lowe's never fails to be an entertaining (and productive!) option.

June 15

Living Room

He got such a kick out of me blowing air on his face through a straw that I packed straws as car toys for our road trip to the beach.

June 16

Hofheimer Building

First date night in quite some time and we went to our buddies, Nick and Lauren's wedding. To prove how long it had been, this was the first time we ever used an Uber. Trying to keep up with the times but it's just so hard.

When you put a bunch of firefighters in a room together:

When mom and dad look nicer than they have since the last wedding and are flying solo:

June 17

On the Road

I drove first because Andy was still a little bit drunk, which is the best way to start a 14 hour drive with two small children. They did great though. Probably better than Andy and I. (Also, warning: vacation has started. There's no way I could pick just one photo for each day.)

 

June 18

Fort Morgan, AL

Waking up on Father's Day, bringing the kids out to the beach in their pj's, and promptly stripping down for an early morning skinny dip. Really can't do much better.

These two (well, three) water babies. It's so much fun watching them love the ocean.

June 19

Fort Morgan

Tropical Cindy changed the weather and trapped us indoors for a bit. But it was the perfect excuse for a cousin's shopping/leggings party for the girls!

And Moana watch party for the boys. I love how excited Edwin is to be sitting with his older cousin-cousins. 

June 20

Fort Morgan

It doesn't take cabin fever long to set in when you are stuck in a house with four kids and six adults. As soon as there was a break in the storm, we suited up and ran outside. Still overcast and still super windy, but the storm created all these tide pools that were perfect splash grounds for the kids.

And we tried not to blow away.

June 21

Fort Morgan

Best nap of the week happening right here.

Still stuck inside for the most part, but at least we were able to get next door and do some tye-dying!

June 22

Fort Morgan

Cindy scared other people away so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, with the occasional cousin sighting.

Obviously we were still able to play hard enough for this to happen. Leena never fell asleep at the table so I'm okay when this happens because it is so dang funny.

June 23

Fort Morgan

Mr. Sun! And wind! And monster waves with a rip current so we couldn't swim!

The annual beach Olympics. Sack race and egg walk pictured. Crab walk, wheel barrow, and limbo not pictured. Everybody wins!

June 24

Fort Morgan

 We stayed an extra day and moved next door to our cousin's house and it's a good thing because a.) the weather was perfect, and b.) Andy's finally getting around to that sand castle.

And I know it's not a great picture, but this was the most relaxing part of the week. Both kids napping, blue skies, shaded porch, cold beer, sitting with my husband.

One last romp in the water. There was a sand bar about 100 yards out so we were all standing ankle deep in the middle of the ocean. And Leena went boogie boarding for the first time!

June 25

Nashville, TN

Happy Valley Dim Sum

We thought, Let's go to Chic Fil-A. They have a play area. Crap, it's Sunday. Then we thought, We'll go to Cracker Barrel. The kids love the rocking chairs. Crap, it's Sunday after church. Then we thought, Let's try one of the Asian places in this Asian strip mall. Have you ever had dim sum? No. Me neither. Let's give it a try. Fast forward to Andy and Leena eating chicken feet and me looking away so I don't yack and the kids not able to sit still more than a few seconds so Andy took them out of the restaurant and I was left to dine alone at a round table for six with four plates of food in front of me. So obviously it was a successful stop.

Then we thought, Let's play it safe and just have Wendy's at the truck stop for dinner. And then let's go explore this abandoned castle looking place that's across the street before we hit the road.

June 26

Front Yard

Everybody is helping with the post-vacation chores. Washing cars and washing tractors.

June 27

Living Room

Let the bat saga begin. Because, of course, something crazy had to happen while we were on vacation. So here I am protecting myself from a flying bat because the last thing I want is a bat flapping in my face or rabies. Why do I think this will happen? Because we are attempting to catch not the first, but the second bat of the night.

And here the little brown bat baby is. The animal control guy was showing us just how small his teeth are and why they worry people won't notice getting bitten in their sleep.

June 28

Kitchen

Let's move on to the next morning when Andy has gone to work. Kids are playing and I'm doing some leftover dishes from the night before. I think to myself, That's funny. We didn't have greens for dinner last night. What's this blob of soggy collards doing in the sink? Oh, it's a bat. I immediately text Andy and he says I have to get it out of the house. I thought it was dead so I thought that was doable. I got my glove on and my bag ready (kids still playing completely unaware of any bat instances thus far), then it moved. I threw the bag and glove, told the kids we were going outside. Leena doesn't have pants on. Like at all. Edwin was in just a diaper. And I was in my pj's, no bra. Neighbor Greg came to the rescue.

June 29

Outside

The bat man came to assess the situation. This poor guy is confused and sleeping on the side of our house in the middle of the day. I really don't mind them. It's just the erratic flying and slim chance of rabies that bothers me.

June 30

Molly's House

Beep-beeping all over the place.