No work... just play

We had another great weekend - filled with lots of fun outdoors for the kids, a spa session for me, and a golf outing for Brad. The housework is definitely falling behind, but we are most certainly enjoying ourselves. :) This week will be tougher with preparations for our vacation and catching up from a weekend of play.

We had a cookout at Mamaw Kathy's on Saturday evening, where the kids were able to see their Uncle Ryan, Aunt Jennifer, and Rianna. They played outside most of the evening, enjoying a few short minutes in the baby pool before a storm came through. Even through the rain, they enjoyed playing on the covered porch and eating tons of good food, thanks to Daddy on the grill. Both were asleep within minutes of getting in the car. I'm sure Rianna was exhausted, too. Now that she's getting older, I can see her growing tired of playing the same thing 1,000 times over and over with Bailey. While I understand what she's going through, I can't help but think it's funny. She used to lock us in her room at her house when we visited so that she could have our undivided attention. Paybacks are terrible. :)

Today (Sunday), we enjoyed swimming in Mimi and Poppa's pool with Eian, Braden, and Gage. Bailey found a baby frog that was on the verge of death from the chlorine in the pool and spent a lot of time showing it off. My brother, Cory, told her that she should kiss it and it would become a prince. After a few seconds of thought, she looked at Cory and said, "I think this is a girl frog."

Both of the kids really enjoyed playing with the boys. Bailey was so happy to have friends that she could pretend with. They use a full size adult float as their ship, complete with foam noodles as their oars. The boys will be on vacation with us next week - so it was nice to see that they are going to have a great time playing together. Jake was just impressed by everything they did. He even gave Braden a hug for no reason.

I think I had as much fun as Bailey and Jake playing with the boys today. It was the first real time that I've spent with them when we haven't been in a hurry or distracted. All three of them are sweethearts, each in his own little way. Eian is more reserved around me (other than when he was hitting me with sponge balls from the pool). Gage would be my little baby if I'd let him. He hugged on me all day... and even gave me a big kiss before he left. But... today, Braden was my buddy. He is so much like my brother, it's almost scary. His tales of catching fish that are ten feet long and seeing sea monsters in the lake just had me rolling. From what I understand, he's not typically the affectionate type, so I was very pleased when he hopped up on my lap at the end of the day and let me hug on him. I've thought about all three of the boys all evening... I can't imagine how crazy I'm going to be about them by the end of our vacation.

Sorry there aren't any pictures this time. I forgot to pack my camera in our packing frenzy on Saturday. I also forgot to get our pressure washer to clean the boat with, which was a huge reason that we were planning to go to Ashland this weekend. So much for getting work done!