A few rainbows

I don't have anything super amazing to say but my friend Holly devoted an entire blog post a few weeks ago to the rainbows in her life.  And while I wouldn't classify my life as stormy, and therefore not a lot of super bright rainbows, things are good so I thought I'd share a few.

1. Alice showed up in this outfit the other day.  She seriously thinks she is a 4-year-old boy.  If I ask to go get some clothes, nine times out ten she goes to Rex's room and steals his clothes.  This is her favorite shirt.

2. This tree.  While Rex is a pretty giant pansy and won't climb more than three feet off the ground, even if I'm holding him, I love that we have a climbable tree in our yard and that Rex asks to go climb it frequently and I get to just sit and watch him be a boy and I feel like it's 1950 (when I probably should've been born) and I love it. (The spend limit on our street is 45mph and the tree is in the front yard so I don't let the kids in the front alone--the fully fenced backyard, now that's a different story--I locked them out there for 45 minutes today while I cleaned the living room and playroom and called the insurance company)

3. A few weeks ago, it was warm enough to swim but we hadn't bought a blow up pool yet and I didn't want to go get one (EVERYTHING is 15 minutes away) so I emptied out a large Tupperware for the kids to play in and then I remembered a little idea from Pinterest about playing clothesline and I thought I was such a cute, clever mom and then I took this picture...yeah, we're white trash.  My neighbor then came over exactly when I was thinking "Man, this is pretty white trash" and said, "I like your red neck pool."  I was ashamed of myself.  On a different note, I love the brick fence in the backyard--it reminds me of my grandma Deon and southern California and I look at it pretend like I'm home (on the West coast).

 4. Shortly after the "red neck" incident, we bought this pool.  So much less white trashy.

 5. Alice wanted to finger paint a few days ago, so I let her.  At the same time, Rex was harassing me to play cars with him, so I did.  Then I look over and see this--pretty lipstick Alice.  This girl is quite the trend setter.

 6. Back to the white trash incident, while I kids played in their "pool" I got out all my notes to work on my culminating paper for my Master's.  It was beautiful--my children happily playing together and me sitting at a cafe-style table being academic.  Lovely moment--yes just a moment because then aforementioned neighbor came over and reinforced my observation of how white trash we are and ruined it for me.  Besides, it was time to go in and make dinner anyway.

Was that too sunny for you?  Yesterday Greg gave a talk in church.  He sat with us until he had to get up to speak--so keep in mind the next bit happens in 15 minutes, 15!--at which point Rex started loudly whispering "Daddy, Daddy" and holding out his arms across the bench in front of us.  Then he started sneaking toward the stand, all while loudly whinning/whispering "Daddy."  Alice then proceeds to climb on to the armrest of the bench and balance there.  So I'm holding Alice with one hand and pulling Rex back into our row with the other, when Alice falls face first on to the bench (luckily not the floor) and starts crying.  At this point, I literally drag Rex out while Alice cries.  It was so bad my friend came out to get my kids (good thing because Rex was about to die).  But wait, it gets worse: after church we run into my father-in-law in the hallway and he mentions that not only did he hear about what a great job Greg did (it was a good talk, I read it the night before) but that my children were awful--he wasn't even there! my awful children were a topic of conversation.  Add to this that we were sitting directly across from five children whose mother was home with their new baby sister and their dad was sitting on the stand as a member of the bishopric.  That's right, five unaccompanied children aged 11 to 3 were better behaved for an entire hour than my two accompanied children were for 15 minutes.  Good thing we don't judge at church, or I might not be able to go back.