O Sun, Where Art Thou?

3 Years, 2 Weeks.


It's been raining straight for the past 2 days, with another 2 more days of the same weather forecast.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the rain:  The garden is grateful.  The lawn is grateful. Our water bill will be lower this month so that makes me grateful.

It is however, quite a bit of a challenge to keep 3 young kids cooped up and entertained inside the house while the rain clouds slosh on.  And don't get me started on the lightning and thunder; Madelyn has been adamant to falling asleep in our bed or with Braelyn.

But I guess things could be worse.  At least the rain isn't accompanied by a hurricane.

Knock on wood.

The views during our commute through town on Thursday.

We had another busy week!  Please enjoy the pictures!

Beginning of the weekend was glorious.  Pool season is here!

Madelyn working on her backstroke.  We hope to officially begin swimming classes this summer!

Mommy enjoying cuddle time with her girls.

Enjoying a homemade strawberry/banana/chocolate breakfast smoothie!

Visiting a blueberry farm, right here in Ocoee!

This is one blueberry bush.  Look at all them berries!

Making sure he doesn't miss any.

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Enjoyed picking them with their own buckets.

Maddy trying to get Mommy's attention at the park after lunch.

He loves to fly on the swings.

Picked 4 lbs of blueberries!

We attended our neighbor Gabriella Ottati's birthday party.

Maddy trying to decide if she wants to jump into the pool or not.

She ended up jumping in.

Our bathing beauty.

Kohl doing the slip 'n slide.

The Ottati's, with Gabriella turning 3.

Found Braelyn asleep on the floor like this.

Sharing secrets on the stairs.

Coloring time!

We did swing by the Science Center one day.

Got ourselves a new pet owl.

I originally got it for watching the garden but it also did a good job watching the children.

And then the skies grew dark...

Madelyn scared of the thunder and big sister all too eager to invite her into bed with her!

I installed the owl atop the pergola during a brief respite with the rain.

Girls being silly during supper.

Going to head out, despite the precipitation!  Hooray!

Having fun jumping into puddles.

The girls being shy at Costco.

Garden Update:

This after only 4 short weeks!

She pulled her first radish!

"The Guardian", we're calling it Hooters, because it's an owl...

I even have a spotlight on it at night, in case the rabbits and night creatures can't see very well.

And apparently the owl is ineffective, as I've discovered and witnessed mockingbirds still feeding on our ripening blueberries!  In the end, I used a dismantled loofa to cover the plants with the netting for protection.
Take THAT mockingbirds!

Randoms:

That does not look at all comfortable!

Size comparison of the blueberries we picked.

The poor backyard is so saturated!  And still a couple more days of rain to go!

Instead of separating them for time out when they fight about a toy, I've resorted to making them hug tightly for any particular period of time I deem fit.  You can see Kohlden wasn't too agreeable with my new method.

Quotes:

• On her way to school one morning,  Brae heard a "bad" word on the radio:

          Brae:  "They said a bad word."

          Mommy:  "What was it?"

          Brae:  "I can't say it...promise I won't get in trouble?"

          Mommy:  "Ok."

          Brae:  "Stupid.  They said stupid."

• We were listening to Taylor Swift's song 22 on the radio, in which she mentions the word "stranger":

           Maddy:  "What is a stranger mean?"

           Me:  "Strangers are people we don't know.  And we don't talk to them or

                    go anywhere with them."

           Brae:  [to Madelyn] "Yeah, if a stranger grabs you, you need to bite them and

                      kick them in the privates...and make them bleed."

           Me:  "Oh my!  And who told you to do all that?"
           Brae:  "Mommy."

           Nice.

• It was a tad too quiet in the Isidro household so I went looking for trouble and found Kohlden in the office, as he was using white out to paint the wood on our desk:

          Me:  [shaking my head and muttering under my breath] "I knew something 

                  was going on..."

          Brae:  "Where's the container?"

          Me:  "I put it away already."

          Brae:  "Well, that's what you get for having kids!"

          Really.  I hadn't noticed!

• Tangie and Brae had had several conversations on why she doesn't ride a bus to school, and why she goes to a church school instead.  So, driving to school one morning:

          Brae:  "That's the republic bus, right?"

          Mommy:  "What?  You mean a public school bus?"

          Brae:  "Yes.  Why do they not like praising God?"

          Mommy:  "Um...it's not like they don't like to.  It's just that they don't do it
                           there."

          Brae:  "But we like praising God!!"

• And that same afternoon, driving home on Silver Star and were stopped alongside a school bus at a red light:

           Brae:  [pointing at the bus] "Hey, that's a school bus for a public school."

           Me:  "That's right!  Do you go to a public school?"

           Brae:  "No, I go to a praising God school."

Enjoying frozen blueberries!

Have a great weekend!