An apple a day keeps the vet away

Last night Edgar introduced Ella to frog hunting. It was 11pm, dark, they were wandering up and down the street. I had no idea what they were doing. By the time I realized they were ridding the street of frogs it was too late. Ella squished one monster frog in her mouth and spit it out. Absolutely disgusting! I quickly put an end to the killings such mean dogs I rescued. Out of guilt for leaving her in the crate most of yesterday I decided to let her sleep on the floor in our bedroom instead of downstairs in the crate. Then as a thank you I hear her in the middle of the night puking up frog juice all over my beige carpet. So much fun cleaning up dog puke, especially when you are hungover from some blue martini a friend ended your night with.
So this morning as usual Ella is combing the house looking to get into trouble. She finds Sophia's backpack strewn on the floor, of course. I don't think the child understands the concept of hanging up anything. Apparently Sophia had brought home an apple leftover from the yummy school lunch she never seems to finish.
I was editing photos in the office and heard Ella dropping something. By the time I found her she was a few chunks into the apple. So I just let her eat the whole thing. Figured maybe the apple will save us from the vet and all the frog juice. You know an apple a day keeps the vet away right?
Or with my luck she'll be puking up apple sauce tonight. Never a dull moment over here.

Pick Your Battles

Many of you know how excited I am that my girlie girls are playing tennis, the world's greatest sport! I first introduced them to it while my dad was visiting, convenienty planned as I knew he would have much more patience with them than I would. It worked, after a couple afternoons of playing volley in the driveway a.k.a. making grandpa chase the ball down the street they were hooked.
A couple weeks later while visiting my mom in Florida we took their new rackets to the courts. A net was something foreign to them and once again with 2 sleeves of balls we spent 99 % of the time retrieving the damn balls. The senior citizen playing next to us apparently felt our pain and came to our rescue with some more balls and a kid foam practice ball. Even with the extra balls I was still getting nervous, there wasn't enough contact being made. The lesson was going slow with our constant running to get more balls. I knew at that moment that I was risking losing my athletes to a lifetime of art or drama. I had to act fast!
Logann who strangely thinks like me, bored and frustrated then asked if I would buy her a ball hopper. Apparently she had eyed one at dicks while we were buying the rackets. My immediate thought was "seriously kid who gets a ball hopper after playing twice!" I wasn't sure I could commit to a $100 investment, these girls lose interest in everything fast. Plus would I be creating a spoiled,lazy player? Shouldn't she learn to deal with chasing balls as we all did? But on second thought what if the ball hopper kept her interest and gave us the opportunity to spend more time hitting. This ball hopper could lead to a college scholarship or at least just someone for me to hit with in a few years.
So I decided as I always do on a nights sleep that the ball hopper was a brilliant idea. We promptly ordered it up along with 48 balls. There was one condition though, if I ordered the hopper the girls had to hit 100 balls a day." Sure, sure of course Mom" anything to get what they want.
I must say when it arrived it felt like xmas for all of us. Amazingly I quickly assembled the thing without any cursing and we planned our first practice for the next afternoon. In the morning Logann was so excited by the hopper that she dragged it out of the garage and asked to play before school. "Not now" I told her, "put it back." An hour later as I was pulling my car out of the garage I heard an awful crunching noise and looked in the rearview mirror to see 48 balls rolling down the driveway and into the road. I was furious and screamed at Logann to go retrieve the balls. That was quite a sight I must say the two of us crazily chasing all those balls!
Logann was speechless for awhile, I could tell by her face that she was as bummed as I was by the complete crushing of the hopper. On the way to school I lectured her about doing what she was told.
"I did Mom, I put it away."
"Logann you don't put things behind cars"
"Well I remember you told me a story once that when you were six you put your bike behind your grandpa's car and he ran it over."
She was right I had done the same dumb thing at her age. Logann always trying to prove her innocence (not sure where she got that from) added
"Well its half your fault too Mom, don't you know when you back up you're suppose to look to see whats behind you"
I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and remembered the saying "pick your battles". I let it go. And like my grandpa I bought her another one.
We have a new hopper now and unfortunately because its been 98 degrees everyday it is currently housing a bunch of stuffed animals as part of some game the girls made up. I think Logann is afraid to bring it out to the garage. Hopefullly it'll see some action soon.
Tennis anyone?

Yesterday

I am missing yesterday already, a perfect day. John did his usual long run in the morning, I worked, kids played w/o fighting. Then we went and pigged out at our favorite brunch spot, San Remo. If you are local you must go there on Sundays so good and so reasonable! Afterward we headed to Jordan Lake with kids and dogs. We very rarely go to the Lake here, usually just opt for the convenience of the pool. I'm use to the big, beautiful, blue, clear Great Lakes. North Carolina has some very small, brown, murky, lakes. I know this is because of the red clay bottoms but still I will admit it freaks me out a little and gosh they are very warm lakes too.
Anyway we found a little hidden part of the lake where just one other family was hanging. Sophia like her mother was hesitant to jump in but soon did with a little coercing. Logann was typical Logann a fish. The other family didn't mind the dogs so we let them off leash so they could have their first swim lesson. They had fun exploring the shore and tip toeing into the water. We tried getting them to swim but forgot the steak at home. A stick and a sandal was not motivating them out deep.
The girls had a blast jumping off sunken tree logs. Then one of the little boys got a hook in his foot which freaked the girls out so we headed home. Next time I will remember to pack them some water shoes.
On the way home we got some ice cream at McDonald's. Sophia had won a free ice cream for good behavior at school. When we got home John and I read our books and took a nap while the girls played.
Happy hour & dinner for the girls, then I talked them all into going to play tennis. We played all the games their coach had taught them and then John and I played a couple quick games. It doesn't matter who won, but I can tell you John lost : ) We played til it started to rain and then drove back home in our wet convertible, oops we forgot to close the top.
Sadly enough we don't have too many days like yesterday. Simple, family, fun. No electronics, no fighting, no expense. Both John and I were thinking the same thing about the day, it was a great day!