Baby Elephant Playdate and Sleepover

A few nights before we left Cleveland, we took the kids to a local park. Tralee ran up to the triangle dome apparatus (do you know what playground equipment I'm talking about?) and said something to the effect of,

"Oh look! Mommy and baby elephant! Oh, Mommy elephant goes bye bye. I get baby elephant." The thing is, as Tralee said this I watched her eyes follow the mommy elephant (that was privy to Tralee's eyes only) out of the park before she went to rescue the baby pachyderm.

We watched as our pig-tailed daughter climbed inside the triangle dome apparatus, pet the air where the (invisible-to-her-parents'-eyes) baby elephant was, and then scoop him up in her arms. She carried Baby Elephant (we asked what his name was and we were told "Baby Elephant") over to the swings and sat down with the baby in one arm, while holding onto the chain with the other. Baby Elephant and Tralee swung together for a few minutes. Tralee said sweet nothings in his ear while Jim and I watched with smirks on our faces. Hunter was oblivious to it all, and happily picked up rocks, sand, sticks, and other boy things while running around our legs.

Jim and I waited a few minutes more before we decided to see how real this Baby Elephant was to our three-year-old. I told Jim to go take Baby Elephant away from Tralee to see what would happen. Jim went over and said, "Let me see Baby Elephant." He mimed taking our daughter's new friend out of her arms, and then tossed it into the air. Tralee screamed, ran over to Jim while keeping her eyes in the sky, and promptly caught her big-eared baby.

I also attempted to remove Baby Elephant from Tralee's grasp, and put him in a swing by himself. Tralee aloud it for a minute, but felt better if Baby Elephant was securely in her grasp.

We watched Tralee, Hunter, and Baby Elephant play for a bit more before announcing it was time to leave. I asked, "Tralee, is Baby Elephant going to stay here, or come home with us?"

"Come home wif us."

And he did. Tralee held Baby Elephant close to her chest all the way back to my parents' house. She played with him the rest of the night. She tucked Baby Elephant in next to her at bedtime. She fed him breakfast, and then took him in the car when she rode along with her Daddy to drop Grammy Char Char off at work.

I wasn't there when it happened, but Jim said on the way home from their morning car drive, Tralee said goodbye to Baby Elephant while throwing him out the car window. I guess he could fly like Dumbo, because Tralee waved goodbye to the sky as her little friend flew away.

We haven't heard from him since, but we hope he's back with his Mommy.

Playing on the Green

You're not aloud on the golf green during peak golfing hours. This was quite the conflict since this was the place my kids most wanted to play outside their grandparents' house. Everyday we waited for dusk to arrive so we could go play on the sixteenth green as a family. Even then we would keep our eye out for a late-night golfer to play through. Tralee even knew when to get off. She'd say, "Oh, here comes a golfer. Got to get off." So we waited till the golfer played through, then hopped right back on. Most nights our activities on the green involved the following:

Jim and Tralee playing their game of rolling a golf ball into the hole. Hunter would get involved too sometimes, much to the chagrin of Tralee.

Tralee rolling down the hills surrounding the green

Hunter running up and down the hills. He loved running down and often squealed with excitement.

Jim finding a snake in the wooded area and showing the kids

Walking barefoot on the green, I swear it feels better than carpet

Waiting for the lightening bugs to come out so we could catch them

Just being together as a family.

I never knew playing on a golf coarse could be so much fun, and I never once picked up a club!

Happy Fourth

Here are some photos from our Fourth of July. We spent the evening running around the sixteenth green, Tralee decked out in her red, white, and blue tutu, running around with sparklers (hawkwers), and trying to keep up with the lightening bugs.





When our sparklers were used up, we headed inside for popcorn and Sprechers root beer (the BEST root beer in the world). The evening ended with our little family watching the fireworks from our room, snuggled up on the bed. There's a nice big window in the room we're staying in, and there was a fantastic firework show right outside it at a local park. The fireworks lasted a LONG time. So long that both kids fell asleep before it was done. So long that I wished it was done by the time I went to bed.

After the kids fell asleep, the grown-ups watched The Proposal and finished off the popcorn and root beer.

It was a great fourth. Very low-key, very perfect.

A Few Froggy Pool Pictures

These pics were taken before Daddy came back. My mom and I planned on taking the kids swimming after dinner, but when we got to the club's pool it was already closed for the evening. BUMMER! So, since we already told the kids we were going swimming, we came home, pulled out the froggy pool, and let the kids have at it.

Tralee had fun. She mostly had fun splashing her little brother. Hunter wasn't too fond of this activity. I told Tralee to lay off Hunter, but she would still get a few splashes in while I wasn't looking. Check out the second picture of her. . . totally innocent! Hunter warmed up to the water after a while, and they both enjoyed their time in the froggy pool.
The spots all over Hunter's tummy are from markers. We're at the stage where coloring on yourself is far more entertaining than coloring on paper.

Astro Boy. . .

CUTE (and blond) Astro Boy.

That's all.

Fireflies

Almost every night Jim and Tralee have gone on a firefly catching hunt. Tralee has her net in hand, Jim carries the jar, and off they go hand-in-hand. See all the twinkling fireflies in the photo below? The picture doesn't do it justice, but at dusk these little bugs come out and light up the world. It's quite magical. . .

. . . especially for my little three-year-old.

I played around with the camera settings, and I would either get a blurry photo that showed the fireflies, or a crisp photo with the flash that blinded out the fireflies' glowing bums. You get the gist though.

Feel free to come our way and catch some fireflies tonight. We'll be out there.

Oh. . . and Happy Fourth of July!

Welcome Back Daddy!

This last Monday Tralee, Hunter, and I made our way to the Cleveland airport to pick up Jim. We couldn't wait to see him. It had been a LOOOOOOONG month without our Daddy around, and we never want to be apart with him that long again.

I promised Tralee we would get balloons to welcome back Daddy. She was as pleased as punch to go pick them out at the dollar store. We also snagged some poster board and markers to make the awesome sign pictured below.

Tralee is showing Jim the sign we made for him. Tralee ran right up to Jim and shouted, "Daddy! Daddy!" when she saw him. I handed Hunter over to Jim and he just looked at his daddy like, "Hey. . . I remember you!!!" It was really cute.

I'm so glad Jim is here. Since he's been back we've ran around on the golf coarse, gone to the zoo, played outside at night catching fireflies, built sand castles and swam at the beach, had tea parties, went to a swim party/BBQ, visited a kiddie carnival where Tralee went on several of her first rides, Jim went golfing with my dad, Jim and my dad also started painting the outside of my folk's house, my mom and I went to Eclipse while Jim watched the kid-os, and Jim and I even went on a date while my mom watched the babies. Yes, it's been non-stop around here, and we're lovin' it!!

WELCOME BACK JIM!!