Pirates, pools and pretend

The kids slept in until 7am today! But, I was up at 5:45 and couldn't get back to sleep. Still, I had a little quiet time to myself before they got up.

After our morning walk we headed over to the local farmer's market for fresh veggies. I've been looking for okra for four weeks now and they finally had some. Come to mama! I can't wait to fry that stuff up.

Our own little garden is doing pretty well this summer. We have a bumper crop of tomatoes coming in. The only problem is that we also have a bumper crop of stink bugs out there eating them just as fast as they turn light red. Every day I go out there and get disgusted by all the bugs. Then I come in and tell Mike that I really ought to make up some "bug juice" to get rid of them organically. Then I never make it. So yesterday while I was gone, Mike made some for me. And that is why I think I'll keep him. He does stuff like that. Last night I sprayed the heck out of the garden and this morning I didn't see a single stink bug.

After the farmer's market, I took the kids over to the city park. Some days they play together or by themselves and don't really need me much. Some days they want me to swing them and play with them. That's the kind of day today was. Jake called Emma and I over to one of the playscapes and told us to get on his ship. Then we spotted some pirates in the distance and had to deal with them forthwith. (I love that word! They say it on Blue Bloods all the time and I've always wanted to use it.)

Anyway, we had to run back and forth between playscapes for a good twenty minutes fighting pirates off. And I sang "what do you do with a scurvy pirate?" more times than I care to remember. Oh, well. It was fun and I know it won't be long before they will be completely embarrassed of me especially if I'm singing pirate songs so I just tried to enjoy the moment.

I tried to get the house cleaned up before we had to go to FRIEND AIDEN'S! birthday party. Here are the kids playing in the choo choo train they made with our dining room chairs while I was mopping the floor.



Aiden's party was at the swimming pool so we continued our pool marathon. Emma found Jake's hat while we there and put it on.



And now Mike and I are going to curl up on the couch and watch Black Swan while we pretend we're actually in the Carribean not fighting pirates.