Insta-Friday In The Hood

We've just been chillin'.

Riding Mother Nature's joyride of

spring/winter/spring again/just kidding, winter.

Lovin' this little guys eternally happy disposition through it all.

Flip flops and sun block one day, snow boots/hats/scarves the next.

I caught our little chip bandit red handed the other day.

The little man gets the step stool, opens the pantry, gets in the refrigerator, climbs up on tables...pretty much just helps himself to anything he wants.

No one has told him he's only 19 months old.

He thinks he's all grown up and rules the world.

I love it when he says, "Ab-BAY" when he's looking for her.

And how he swings his little prayer hands back and forth as we pray and

claps when we say Amen.

Lovin' Imagine Dragons lately.

I'd never heard of them till I heard the song Radioactive on The Host.

Now I rock them on Pandora daily.

Seriously.

For the love of all things good.

Why do they take their shoes and socks off every.single.time we drive somewhere?

It takes me 3 minutes to drive to their school.

It takes me longer than that to get everyone ready to get out of the van when we arrive.

It.drives.me.nuts.

Totally bonkers.

It doesn't matter what I say or yell or threaten.

They.still.do.it.

I love that Brody thinks he is one tough dude when he walks along side his brother and sister on his plastic bike. I love it even more that he won't get on it without his helmet on.

Grits.

In college once when I came out to visit Andy, his dad made us grits for breakfast. When he left the room, I switched my full bowl with Andy's empty bowl. His dad walked backed in & commented on how I must really like grits...as he filled my bowl up again.

Andy ate 3 heaping bowls of grits that morning.

I do not like them.

I do not make them.

That's just how it is.

So the other day when AJ requested them for breakfast the next morning...

Andy got up early, made the kids grits on the stove, and put them in a crock pot before he left for work.

You should have seen Abby and AJ's excitement when they got up and discovered their dad made them grits for breakfast.

Best.dad.ever.

We love playing on the playground before we pick AJ up from school.

Highlight of this kid's day I tell ya.

They make necklaces out of Fruit Loops and stuff like that all the time at school and/or enrichment...

So I just assumed the 3 pipe cleaners looped together with Cheerios was another piece of cereal jewelry.

Wrong.

Oh the drama.

First, I hear CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

Then I hear AJ totally freaking out, screaming like someone had just died,

"MOM, Brody is EATING MY BIRD FEEDER!"

My response, "Ah, so that's what that thing is."

They really should help a mom out and label these things.

Abby. Oh Abby.

Let me tell you about Abby.

The kids had their spring concert at church the other day.

As I dropped them off, I told them to sing out so we could hear them.

I did not say scream sing at the top of your lungs so we can't hear any of the other kids.

But apparently that's what Abby heard.

Girlfriend was so into it, I thought she was going to take the girl next to her out with her excited arm movements. And to say you could hear her over everyone else is an understatement.

At one point she even stepped forward at a moment when the entire church was silent and sang, "LAAA!!!"

The poor high school music coordinator quietly got her back in place.

People all around were asking who the little girl up in front was.

There was no question they were asking about Abby.

But I was laughing too hard to claim her as my own.

I'm serious, I had tears running down my face I was laughing so hard.

And then for the grand finale.

Ab took a dramatic, arms out bow...

Knocking the girl beside her over...who knocked the kid beside her over...and half the row went down.

It was a spectacular concert.

Girlfriend loves Jesus so hard.

And it showed.

We have new neighbors directly behind us.

We haven't met them yet.

This is what they saw last weekend...

as AJ conducted his science fair experiment on the rate of gravity in relation to the size of stuffed animals.

I'm pretty sure they think we are nuts.

I loved Book Fairs as a kid.

And I love Book Fairs as an adult.

I love all the new shiny bright books and fun pens/pencils/bookmarks/erasers up by the cash register.

I love seeing the kids take it all in...

going from book to book so excited and wanting them all.

I love seeing their final selections and how perfectly they reflect their little personalities.

AJ is so into Legos and science experiments right now & Abby can't resist anything pink/purple/sparkly/princess or Barbie.

So their selections were exactly what I would have guessed they would find amongst hundreds of books.

Book Fair day is a happy day.

Ab has been asking to get her hair cut every since AJ's last hair cut.

Not because she actually wanted her hair cut.

But because she wanted to experience the magic of getting a hair cut at Sharkey's.

It is pretty magical.

They pull out all the stops...

cool Barbie jeeps to sit in, kid movies to watch, video games to play, temp tattoos, plastic rings, painted finger nails, suckers, and balloons.

I mean it's like going to a party.

And you pay a hefty chunk of change for all that magic.

The problem is once they get a taste of the magic,

all other hair places suck in comparison.

The upside is that fixing Girlfriend's hair in the mornings is super fast and easy.

Have a great weekend!

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