Muddy Water Day

April 6, 2020

Muddy Water Day

We are a crazy outdoor family. After one 6am epic three-player (connected our little old computers together with LAN – the girls’ new love) Age of Empires (old school from like the 90s) game, we are technologically pooped.

As we are winning our Age of Empires, Louis made amazing waffles with homemade whipped cream (yummmmmmmmy).

Next step: Monopoly.

I’m having a bummer of a start… all the properties are gone except two and I have two railroads, one red, and electric company. I bought the last yellow. Louis quickly offered both railroads for the yellow (he had the other two) and I figured, sure, why not help him up on my way out.

WELL… turns out having three other people landing on my $200 a pop spaces continually led to me winning the first monopoly game in years!

Lunch was bean and rice burritos. (Louis cooked, I cleaned)

Next was outside. Waterslide (plastic sheet with a hose), mud, and gymnastics routines to whole songs pumping from one bass speaker that Louis DJ queued up. Thea took a nap, I typed up blogs, bread dough (for pizza dinner) was rising, and we spent the afternoon playing outside.

Thea had a little cup for her soda, but decided to learn how to pour her sister’s soda into her cup, then her cup back into sister’s soda can, and leave soda footprints on the carport:

Lucas left the waterslide to play in the mud pools:

The girls practiced their gymnastics routines. They did both the Show Routines to real floor music and did the ones they made up for each of the really popular songs they hear at Parents’ Nights Out because they want to do them with their friends during free time one night. The Speechless song from Aladin is by far the favorite. Jaquline’s “routine” is more interpretive dance than Kimberly’s focused skill-by-skill connected with dance moves gymnastics routine, but both were quite entertaining!

Just a little glimpse into our fun, crazy life.

Louis just left to go start the pizza. Thea and I are enjoying listening to Tron Legacy music as I finish this last blog for the week on my borrowed computer, then we’ll head inside… turns out they want to watch “Cheaper By the Dozen” with Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb and we’ll do “Yours Mine and Ours” with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda (Lucy is their favorite!) while we eat.

Slow, relaxing day with our crew. Hope everyone is faring well through this trying time. Slow down and enjoy what you have.

Thank you for Reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Cousin Visits!

Cousin visits to our “mini-farm” aka place to get messy, play with animals, discover eggs hidden outside, and enjoy togetherness!

January 18, 2019

Cousin Visits!

My sister, brother, and their three little ones (Sister-Cousin and Brother-Cousins!) have moved back from Kansas!

They came out to our mini-farm (muddy spot with a pond, outside tank with tadpoles, indoor goldfish, foraging chickens, playful Guinea Pigs, cute fluffy bunny, and jumpy adult dogs who think they are 4 months old) over the weekend and the kids were totally excited!

This time, we had very few photographers snapping pictures because they were too busy playing with their cousins!

Lucas was so excited to share his green car (motorized car his Grandma Joanne bought him for his 2nd birthday) but the battery ran out too quickly – so he shared his Christmas bicycle and his train tracks.  For him, those items are his dearest things in the world; train tracks, cars, his bicycle, and his green car.

“Baby JJ” – who isn’t a baby anymore! – and Lucas played train tracks for a bit.  JJ liked the bicycle too.  Outside JJ and Mandy wanted to see all the fluffy animals.

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Anastasia helped show off Minuit, Kimberly’s little black Dwarf Holland Lop Bunny.

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Little Minuit loves to eat carrot bits!

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Mandy found Jaquline’s “hidden spot” in her bunkbed!  (With big paper on the “wall.”)

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Taylor and TobyMac did their popcorn jumps after the girls loaded them with Spanish Needles greens (chickens, bunnies, and Guinea Pigs love them before they turn to seed aka the needle part).

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Above is the wildflower called Spanish Needle, a favorite food of many small animals.

Jillian showed off her Uncle Buddy knowledge by telling them that people can eat the wildflowers and leaves too.  (Yes, but they are bitter unless cooked, and I hoped her younger cousins were distracted by the cuteness of the piggies and missed the “you can eat this weed” tidbit.)

We love cousin visits!  It is always fun with family shares their time with each other.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Matanzas Inlet

May 19, 2018

Matanzas Inlet

I thought I had visited all of the beaches in the Saint Augustine area.  Vilano Beach Pier, Vilano at the Crossover, Saint Augustine Beach, Anastasia State Park Beach, Crescent Beach, and Butler Beach.  (At least, I think I’m not leaving any names out.)  But then we went to Matanzas Inlet.

Oh my goodness!  This place is so beautiful!  We were able to walk the inlet onto several sand bars with our rolled up pants.  Okay, so the adults and wanna-be-adults rolled up their pants and waded carefully, but the children just jumped into the water and got every strand of hair on their body soaking wet.

In the inlet we observed turtles in the sand, crabs and fish in the water, birds overhead and in the dense bushes on the other side of the inlet, and humans floating on boats and a giant duck float in the inlet.

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Lucas is running from the water to Daddy, who is building a sand castle in the middle of a sand bar.  Beautiful place, isn’t it?

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Blue water is slightly deeper than the muddy-looking water.  Louis is on the far sand bar, that big yellow blob is the duck float, and the figures headed to Daddy are Jillian, Jaquline,  Kimberly, and Lucas.

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This picture reminded me of me and one of my little brothers, Charley, as kids!  It’s  Kimberly helping  Lucas get to Daddy.

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Our wanna-be-adults carefully wading like Louis and I were.  (Christina and Rebeccah, the lovely young ladies who suddenly appeared in our house – where did the toddlers go?)

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Another sand bar, another picture of my completely wet fun-loving crew and Daddy guarding the far side (actually, he’s  either taking a picture or dispatching to Papi).

Matanzas Inlet has become a favorite place for lazy-day water fun.  It’s not the ocean with fun waves for the thrill of surfing, but for lazy, wander-through-the-water days or days when the ocean is still a little too cold for Daddy’s liking, this will be our go-to!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

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