You know how you try to make plans to do something fun with the kids and then one of them has a total meltdown right in the middle of said fun activity and ruins it for everyone? Yeah, felt like we had a lot of that going around this weekend. Toddlers!
The bad part about this weekend's meltdowns is that Joel and I are not hardened to the tantrums after having been on vacation. Two parents with short patience and a tantruming kiddo is a bad combination.
Friday night, we went for some frozen custard. Let's see, that outing it was Tyler's turn to be a little (big) stink. This tantrum mostly affected Joel because the offending behavior was Tyler pitching a fit because he wanted Daddy's malt shake instead of his own ice cream. Poor Daddy only got about 1/3 of his treat.
On Saturday, we were invited one of Joel's high school friends' house. Lily and I made an angel food cake to take over there. She has really been in to helping me cook these days. Sometimes she really is a help, but most of the time, it takes 8 times longer and is 10 times messier. Oh well, hopefully some of the things I'm teaching her will stick and she'll know how to cook when she grows up and moves out.....15 years from now....
Lance and Andi and their two kids: Nolan (7) and Ella (3, 2 weeks younger than Lily) live out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. They have a lot of land with lots of toys so the kids had a blast.
Being as they were the same age, Lily and Ella were pretty much in to all the exact same things. Doc, Dora, every single Disney princess. Not eating their hot dogs. Not listening to their mamas. At least I felt a little bit better about my relationship with my 3 year old. I'm clearly NOT ALONE in the battle of Strong-willed-mother vs Strong-willed-daughter!
Lance and Andi have 2 dogs and cat and Tyler was in heaven. He chased after those doggies and that kitty cat all night long. He'd pet them and they'd lick his face and he'd giggle. The cat wasn't much in to being messed with but Tyler wasn't going to give up. He chased that cat all around and would crawl under tables and vehicles to try to pet it. If there was ever a thing that would sway me to getting a pet, it would be how sweet it is to watch Tyler with them. But then my sense kicks in and I realize that other people's pets are probably like other's kid's toys. It's always so fun to play with other kids toys but your own toys are never fun for more than 10 minutes.
Lily was burning up all the toys. She was riding Ella's princess bike all over the place. I was planning to hold off getting Lily a two wheeled bike for one more summer. I was thinking we'd get one more summer out of her trike and then next summer she'd be big enough for a bike that would last her for a couple summers. But she was having so much fun on this bike and her legs really are too long for her trike, so I might be reconsidering....
There were only a few minor bickerings over who got to drive the four wheeler when. But the beauty of two kids who don't know each other very well, is that they both pretty readily complied with whatever the nearest adult told them to do. Wouldn't it be nice if they always did that?!
Lance works as a pilot for a living. And has a hangar attached to his house. With a couple planes in it. And has a runway at his house. It was a beautiful night so Lance gave Joel and I each an airplane ride!
Joel and Lance played basketball together. Lance is 6'8" and Joel is 6'5". Lance makes Joel look short. It's insane. Anyway, that's probably the most legs that will ever be crammed in to a plane that size. Ever.
Joel went first and gave me his phone to take a couple pictures of him taking off. So all the pictures you see of the plane itself are ones I took from the ground. Then when it was my turn, Joel said, you have to take the camera up there and get some pics..... BUT DON'T DROP IT! (I was pretty much scared sh*tless that I was going to drop it so all the pics are taken with me practically holding the phone up against my chest.)
The plane is a World War II training plane. The student would sit in the back and the trainer would sit in the front. It was a little bitty two-seater airplane and it was open on the side.
We flew over the Brown County house! Which we no longer own! It's the one in the middle of that clearing of trees.
We were probably in the air a good 10 minutes before I even noticed the gauges right in front of my nose. We were going about 65 mph and were about 300 ft off the ground when I took this photo. Lance said the highest we got was about 800 ft and the fastest was about 100 mph.
I particularly enjoyed this label.
When I looked out the front window, I of course couldn't see the propeller turning but when you take a picture it shows up. So cool. That's the runway in front of us.
After we were done flying around, the kids took a turn sitting in it. Lily was very concerned about leaving the ground. "We're not going to go up in the sky, right? I don't want to go high in the sky."
After Lily got out, Tyler scrambled around the side of the seat so he could be up front.
And if those toys aren't enough, they also have a nice size pond at their house complete with lots of fish! The kids were going nuts feeding them and watching them jump up out of the water. Tyler grabbed a hold of a fishing pole and was "fishing" - otherwise known as making his mama a nervous wreck that he and/or the fishing pole were going to wind up in the pond.
We stayed until after 9pm which is waaaaaaaay past bedtime. Needless to say, the kiddos were exhausted and melting down. Tyler conked out almost immediately, but Lily fought it (although quietly) for most of the 35 minute drive home.
Sunday morning we went to Lowes to pick out a few things we needed for the yard. It was Lily's turn to be a total sh*t. I have no idea what set her off but she decided she was going to be stubborn and honked off at everything and everybody. She was mad about how her hair was done but she wouldn't let me touch it to fix it. She didn't want to shop in the garden center. Then she didn't want to shop back in the main part. On and on. She literally screamed at the top of her lungs the the whole way through the store, hanging back about 30 feet behind us the whole time. Which we were actually somewhat grateful for...... we could just look around and act all shocked and bewildered at this strange girl's behavior. You know, mutter to each like, "Where are this girl's parents?!"
Sunday afternoon, we went for a bike ride over to a nearby playground. The kids played for about 30 minutes and when it was time to leave, Lily melted down again because she didn't want to ride in the bike trailer. She screamed and cried the whole ride home. At least while we were at the playground she was good. All I can figure about her behavior today is that she was tired after such a late night last night.
We have a nest of newborn baby birds up on the drainpipe in our backyard. It's so neat to watch the mama feeding them...we try to grab the kids and show them when we see it happening.
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