Red Caboose Park

Today I took the girls and Kathryn and Zoe, who I babysit a little, to Red Caboose Park. I had my camera so we had a little photo shoot. The girls were actually cooperating so I took a lot of pictures. I think I captured a few really good ones but I think I need to get some more ideas of pictures to take other than close-ups of their faces. You can definitely tell by my pictures that I like to photograph faces and eyes! That's where I see their personality though. Anyway, the next post is a slide show of our "photo shoot".

Monkey's Treehouse

I love Monkey's Treehouse! If you haven't been there take a look at their website www.themonkeystreehouse.com. As a mom, it is the best because you can let them play while you sit and read a magazine or book and you don't have to pick up the toys!!!!! It is big enough to keep them entertained but small enough that you can see them wherever they go. It's also fun to play with them sometimes too. Lyla made me play dinosaurs and train table with her today. She killed my dinosaur many times and told me exactly what to do and what to say on the train table. I was laughing because she made me drive the yellow car behind her blue (of course) car and I had to say, "Come On! Go!" over and over. I wonder where she learned that?

Anyway, I've been babysitting a friends' little girls this summer and The Monkey's Treehouse is just a few minutes from their house so it is a great place to go on babysitting days. Today I took my camera and took a few pictures. My sisters and mom were actually there too. I used Joni's camera for a while because I was too lazy to walk to the car for mine. I'll have to post those pictures later. These are just the few that I took with my camera.

Sprinkler Pics

I love to take pictures! If I had it to do over again, I would be a photographer. I have a nice camera now so I'm really addicted to trying to get that perfect picture to capture the moment, the personality, the spark in their eye. I don't really have any technical knowledge at all but I do want to learn. It's definitely a form of art to me. That is why I have so many pictures. I'm so glad we're in the digital age or Eric would have killed me a long time ago with printing bills!

There is only 1 picture of Lyla here because she would not let me take her picture. Grace is definitely easier to catch but sometimes gives that fake smile. Lyla is hit or miss. It depends on what mood she's in whether I get her face or not.

Lyla's jeep

Just a couple cute pictures of Lyla in her jeep. She loves this thing.

Poor Lyla...maybe she'll wear shoes now

Last Friday Lyla stubbed her toe on my neighbor's wooden deck and put a splinter under her toenail! You couldn't even see the end of the splinter it went in so far. She never complained about it though. My neighbor said she doesn't even know when she did it. She never cried or anything. She just happen to look down and see her toe and asked Lyla what she did. You know that had to have hurt! She's a tough little thing! So, I had to take her to a podiatrist today. They had to remove part of her toenail to get the splinter out. He said it could get infected if we left it. They numbed her toe with freezing spray and then gave her shots in her toe to numb it all the way. She sat in my lap the whole time and I had to restrain her. It was not fun! She didn't just cry, she did the screaming cry the entire time. The shots hurt I know but after that she was just scared. The doctor kept telling me what he was doing so I would realize she was crying from fear and not pain. Her scream/cry continued whether he was touching her or not. She even continued the scream/cry into the bathroom after we were done, into the waiting room while I paid my co-pay, and into the car. She finally calmed down in the van when I promised cotton candy and an icee for lunch! I asked her what she wanted and that's what she said, so that's what we got. She was fine after that, even walking normally. The doctor told me to soak it in warm water and vinegar 2x a day and put a new band aid on. When we got to Joni's (Grace was with Joni) Grace and Reesi wanted to soak their feet. After seeing them do it Lyla agreed to soak her toe too. It wasn't hurting but as soon as the band aid came off and she saw the blood on the band aid and the red toe, she lost it. Once a new band aid was on she was fine again. She's been running around and riding her bike this afternoon like nothing is wrong. She was even going to kick her soccer ball but I convinced her that might make her toe hurt. She's a tough little cookie! Sorry for the graphic pictures below but I wanted to record this splinter, it's one for the record books. The doc said it went past her nail bed!
This was in the van after she calmed down. That poor little face was so sad.

This was at Joni's when she decided to soak her toe and get a new band aid.
Gross! I can't stand to look at it. I try to tell her it's not bad I want to gag every time I look at it. I'll keep the close-up shot to myself.

Maybe now this little stinker will wear her shoes. This isn't the first splinter she's had in her feet, just the worse. She refuses to keep shoes on. If anyone knows of a type of shoes that a non-shoe kid will actually wear I'll pay any amount of money for them. I've already tried crocs and that didn't even work.

Fireworks!

We saw fireworks for the first time this season on Sunday night. Every year our church has an ice cream social with patriotic music and a fireworks show. These were the only pictures I got. Last year neither one of them liked the fireworks and we had to leave early but this year they really enjoyed it!

Gutman

Lyla and Grace like to drink from these juice bottles that have different characters on the top. I bought a couple new ones for our drive to the beach last week. I bought the Superman for Lyla because I knew she would like this, she's very "into" boy stuff right now. She loved it, of course. Later in the day she kept asking for her gutman and I had no idea what she was saying. I finally figured it out that she was calling Superman, Gutman. I tried to tell her he was called Superman but she would not believe me. She insisted that it was Gutman because Joni told her so! We had this debate 3 or 4 times during our trip. When we got back home I asked Joni about this and she said she had no idea what Lyla was talking about! She is still calling him Gutman and will not accept any correction from us. How funny! That's Lyla, extremely determined and sure she is right! I wonder where she got those traits?