If you give a boy a bucket...

If you give a boy a bucket,

He's going to ask for it to be filled with water.

When you fill it up with water, he'll probably ask you for some toys.

When he has the toys, he'll probably want to wash them.

Then he will want to duck his head into the water.

When he ducks his head in the water, he'll decide he wants to get in and wash himself.

When he wants to get in the water, he'll want to blow some big bubbles.

He'll get out of the water to sing & dance around and when he does, he'll realize there's a bucket full of water!

And chances are if he sees the bucket full of water, he won't be able to resist getting back in.

Twins

When I think of my childhood best friend, Beth, I think of the word TWINS for many different reasons.

In the summer of 1985 (I think) she moved across the street from me. I was thrilled when I heard that a girl my exact age had moved in and I just couldn't wait to meet her. The first time we met (in our driveways) we had on the exact same zip-up, white, one-piece shorts jumpsuit with a paint-splatter design. I knew right away with our matching outfits and similar style (or lack thereof!) that we were destined to be great friends!

Having trouble picturing this "gem" of an outfit? Think...

Combined with the fabric design of...

Beautiful, huh? Ha! We were certainly children of the 1980's!

We became joined at the hip in our younger days, and even dressed like Siamese twins one Halloween with an outfit my grandmother made us out of a bed sheet! Ha! We loved to read books together (Sweet Valley Twins / High) and even played Barbies for hours upon end in my basement where two of the characters in our ongoing Barbie soap opera were twins!

Anyway, Beth and I were still friends in Junior High and High School, but not as close as we were when we were younger. We had different hobbies (she = band & academics, me = boys) but I still considered her to know so much more about me than many people. 

Beth went to Appalachian where she got a masters in Speech Pathology, married a guy she met up there named Dan, and they moved to St. Louis. We've kept up along the way with emails, Facebook, and the occasional visit when she was in town visiting her parents. She's been away from home now for about 14 years and has just recently moved back in town.

While she lived in St. Louis, she had twin boys, Asher & Alex, just three months before Whit was born. Now that they've moved back this summer, we've gotten the boys together a few times for ice cream and toddler time and movie day at the local public library.

We hadn't really gotten a chance to catch up one-on-one until this past week, where we had a girls only dinner planned at Restaurant 101. Low and behold, as I spotted Beth across the parking lot, we both quickly realized that, you guessed it, we were dressed exactly alike!! It was like it was the summer of 1985 again! We couldn't quit laughing about the irony of our matching outfits even after so many years! We had a great time catching up and filling in each other about the past 14 years. We had dinner and chatted for over 3 hours.

I'm so glad to have her back in town and hope that our boys can be friends just like their Mamas were!

Young Love

Once Upon a Time...

There was a little boy and a little girl. They were born just two days apart and their Mamas were great friends. Ever since it was "appropriate" to take a newborn out of the house, their Mamas have been getting them together for play dates about every week for the past three years.

At first, the playdates were more for their Mamas - they would just sit quietly in their carriers, staring at each other and occasionally needing a bottle or diaper change. As the years went by, their personalities, interests, and ages have started to dictate the playdates to include things like ice cream outings, pool time fun, playing outside, and fast food meals.

One day this summer, their Mamas were craving a nice breakfast at one of their favorite restaurants, Midtown Cafe. Not exactly the most kid-friendly place, but the Mamas decided to chance it and give it a shot. The little girl acted like an angel, sitting quietly in her booster seat, while the little boy rambunctiously gallivanted around the circular booth, trying to climb into the windowsill and across the little girl's lap. He crawled around the table, flying Buzz and Woody just inches from our faces. He barely ate a bite and his Mama was not a happy camper.

Afterwards, he redeemed himself by being sweet to the little girl outside of the fountain of the restaurant, holding her hands and sharing a penny with her to throw into the fountain.

Shortly after this photo was taken, he was back to his old boyish ways, but for just one moment captured in time in a photo, these two young lovebirds were calm, sweet and completely captivated with one another.

Build-a-Horse

As a birthday present, Whit's Uncle Blake, Aunt Erica, and cousins Emily, Jack & Addie got him a Build-A-Bear gift card (what a great gift idea!). Before summer was up, I wanted to take him over there to have some air-conditioned fun! Ha!

We took Amy and Blake along and the boys made Scooby the Dog and Henry the Horse.

Afterwards we went to eat at the mall food court and then shopped around a bit. Whit chose to have a sound put in his horse's hoof and he insists on sleeping with it (along with about 10 other "babies"). In the morning, we oftentimes hear the "neigh" of the horse before we hear Whit hollar, "Mommy/Daddy, come get meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"