Kids Keep Us Young

Just hanging around!

We took the niece and nephew for the night since their momma had to get up early to be at work. Their daddy is a paramedic firefighter and their mom is a teacher who only subs right now. So I volunteered to keep the kids all night and the next day. (oh they are home schooled by their teacher mom so don't think they were skipping school today, trust me, she will make it up with them and then some.) Since we have just moved back "home" are am trying to do things with family that I have missed out on in the past years. This set of niece and nephew are younger than the others so I try to do things with and for them that I did not get to do with the older ones. And man can they wear you out. Plus yesterday we had our first tragedy at the house and I was going to be used as a distraction. My niece had her baby, baby bunny out and the dog got it. The bunny was only about 12/13 days old and the dog killed it. The kids have just cried and cried, hate the dog, mad at each other, blame blame blame everywhere and the fact is, it is nature. But that does not mend the heart any faster or easier. Oh how I feel so sorry for them and seeing the cruel side of this world. So they both decided to come and stay with Aunt Lisa. So we decided to distract them the best we could. And the kids were so good to me. They said I could take them to the little lake by our house and take their pictures. I even told them they could get in the water just a little. And we would go to the park and play on the toys. So they were starting to feel a little better and the tears dried up for a while.

This first batch of pictures were actually taken last, I just did not want to take the time to rearrange the order of pictures right now. But the kids were playing and having so much fun. And yes we have suckers in our mouths which is dangerous, but we are living on the edge at the moment.
We are testing the limits to see if we can hang up side down, go down a very slick slide, and what ever we can, because mom and dad are not here telling us we can't! I sure hope I get them home safe with out any injuries or I will never get to keep them again.
I like the picture above. I put it on the night time mode, and let me tell you, it was pretty dark out, so I thought the picture turned out cool. I love the clouds and my nephew on the monkey bar thing.
Then of course we talked Uncle Scott into swinging on the swings with us. Notice he has a jacket on, and everyone else is either in shorts or sleeveless shirt/dress. She wanted to wear a dress but I made her put on the sweatpants, but they are still in sandals. I may not win Aunt of the Year Award!!
Here is the night shot at the lake. It was so peaceful and beautiful there. Except for the kids trying to kill each other, time to get them home!

These pictures were taken earlier. The kids by the bridge, and it was scarier than I thought it would be. I am scared of heights and this did not help.
And his momma would probably kill me if she knew I had her son on the ledge of this waterfall taking his picture. But he thought it was really cool. And of course he had his shoes off and loved playing in the water!
Now she was not as excited being close to any edge of anything. But I think it was a lot of show for attention. For she really isn't scared of anything!
They even agreed to have a picture taken together, what is up with all this cooperation? And the other mouth dropping comment....this is fun, we need to get daddy to come here to take his picture too. Yeah, will YOU talk him into that kids? Please?

Here is the little tiny, no big deal waterfall that the kids were having their pictures taken by. I had already figured if they fell in, I would have to drop the camera and jump in with them. Sure glad that didn't happen! They forgot about sad moments for a while!

After we got home the kids played and played. We had to take our baths, and I declined to taking a bath with my niece, no thank you, that's not going to happen. But she is so sweet when she asks and it is hard to resist those beautiful brown innocent eyes. But it only lasted a second. then will you come in the bathroom with me while I take a bath? Ok I can do that. She is so funny. Modest she is not, yet she thought it was so funny when I was more embarrassed then she was. But Rudy CAN NOT COME IN WHILE SHE IS BATHING....HE IS A BOY!!! Ok, I agree with that. (Rudy, my boxer dog!)

Bedtime came (again I will not win that award, because we ate Oreo cookies and milk after 10:00 and stayed up till almost 11:00) where did all that time go???? I could have sworn you just got here. Niece went to bed but wanted Zoe (momma Boxer dog) to sleep with her. So she did. Nephew slept on the sofa, (he was NOT going to sleep with his sister!) and Rudy slept with him and Callie slept on the love seat. Seems everyone is happy here. And I got to sleep with Scott..oh, that is allowed, we are married you know!

Kids will keep you young, but they sure can wear you out pretty fast too. Tomorrow?? Tea party is planned, trips to the gravel plant to get gravel for the drainage ditch, a trip to the post office, beauty supply store and the Big Park! We better get some sleep, I have a feeling it is going to be a long day. (now of course I am posting this after the day has already happened, and I know how it turned out. But I am not going to tell you right now about it. You will have to wait till tomorrow morning to find out what all we did today, besides, I am tired and need to go to bed early!)