Beach Babes

Of course we went to the beach to hang on Friday and play in the sand.  Lake Erie is still a little too cold to swim in at this time of the year, but there is always time for sandcastles!



Honestly, this face!

Then look at him jumping in the hole they were trying to dig.  Ruthie isn't annoyed at all.

How about a nap time?

Cousin Love

My sister came to visit last weekend.  The best part about moving to Ohio is that my sister is only 2 hours away.  We see her and her family alot more, (but not as much as we would like!) now that we live in Ohio.  Her son Harper (I call him Pingu)  has to be the cutest kid on the planet.  His voice is a voice that upon hearing it could melt your heart, and could stop traffic.  Picture the little rascals and then put it on the cutest face in the world.  well, you get my drift.  Not as raspy as alfalfa but honestly, the cutest.

Ruthie was really sad that Lucy and I got to spend Friday morning while she was at school with Harper and pouted the entire morning that we get more time with Harper.  Harper and I took Lucy to school at lunch and had a few tricks up our sleeve for when we picked up the girls from school.

We went to the balloon store and Pingu spent about 15 minutes hand picking every balloon that he wanted filled up. The tiger one to match his JJs .(pjs people - he has pjs that are tigers with tiger slipper feet that he sleeps in... I die!)  The black and red ones because of the buckeyes.  The yellow ones because Lulu likes yellow.  There was a method to his madness.  We got 14 balloons in all.  We only carried 8 to school as he was stressed enough carrying just the 8.  I swear, if it is possible to get arm cramps he got them, since he focused on keeping his arms up and not tangling the strings!

Judging from the pictures I would say the balloons were somewhat of a hit!

Soccer

Nothing made me feel more like I had finally arrived and become a full-time resident of my home town like spending the day at the soccer fields!  There are 16 fields at the park and literally every field is numbered and there are games being played from 8:30am till 1:30 pm every Saturday.

Lucy has decided to play this year and we are so happy!  It is wonderful to see her running around chasing the ball and enjoying herself.  She understands the game after watching Ruthie for how many years, and is having fun.  That is all we ask for. 

(check out the lefty boot!)

Ruthie is still quite the sight on the field.  It is fun to watch her play as well, in a much different way. This is her 5th season playing Soccer and the girl just gets it.  It is fun to watch her, she knows where to position herself on the field, score a bunch of goals and see her use her aggression in a positive way.  The league is a Rec League and they play only girls the same age.  She unfortunately spends alot of time sitting out because when she is in the game she dominates.  Many games she is the only one to score for either team and usually it is about 4 goals!  They play 5 on 5 and they have 7 players on the team so it is hard to explain to her when she has to sit out alot or play defense.

Travel Soccer tryouts are in a few weeks and we are super excited that this is something she will embrace and find some friends that enjoy the same activities as her and she will play with kids closer to her skill level.

Opposites

These two ladies could not be any more different.  This picture was taken on a typical day after school.  Lucy decked out and Ruthie in her skater gear. 

As a mother there are plenty of battles you fight everyday.  One of the battles that I have chosen to never fight is clothing.  Now of course, the rule is you must wear it!  But I don't care what it is.  I take each child out to the store.  Tell them what their budget is, and what they need to accomplish, how many shorts, tshirts, jeans, etc.  they need to pick out and I let them get and try on and buy whatever they are going to wear.  I am sick of buying stuff that ends up in their closet, they don't like it and won't wear it.  In the morning, I tell them to go upstairs and get dressed and maybe they want shorts, or pants, and that is the ONLY direction I give them.  I have done this since they could dress themselves, at the age of 2 or 3.  (My friend Kris can attest to this.  I thought there was something wrong with Lucy when she was 3 and she wasn't getting herself completely dressed, and I had a serious conversation with her confiding in her that I thought something was wrong wit Lucy as Ruthie had been getting herself dressed with shoes on since she was about 2.5.  Kris just looked at me, very kindly and said....  Um, you do realize that Ruthie doing that at that age was not normal my son who is 5 still doesn't do that!). 

Ruthie has always had her own style of comfort, alternative gear.  Her reasoning is very serious. (Which I whole heartily agree). She says I don't want my clothes to be to short and tight!  Amen sister!  Last time I went to the store she bought EVERYTHING from the boys side.  Not one item of clothing came from the girls section.  Now, put away that finger, and stop with your judging.  Within reason, she doesn't look bad and I really like her style.  And if she wants to shop from the boys section then so be it.  Sometimes sales people can be obnoxious about it.  But I am giving her freedom of expression.

Lucy, still rocks the tutu's and leggings every day.  Prefers dresses to anything else and is always concerned about fashion.  She always matches, and most of the time her outfits make me smile and laugh, just at the cuteness of it all and that she is so polar opposite of her sister!

I can't help but think how many of us have horror stories about what our parents made us wear. I know that won't be Ruthie's situation, but I am sure she will have some horror story about me, it is after all the circle of life.

I  love them both just the way they are. 

computer problems.

computer problems make me so angry!  part of the reason I have not blogged all year is that our computer is a sometimes works kind of a thing.  I don't know about you but I hate blogging on the ipad.  useless.  I like the old school computer.  So Simon got it up and running hopefully for good the other night, so now...  No more, I promise to start blogging then disappear for a couple of weeks!!