Summertime Summertime

Nothing is better than hanging out with your cousins in the summer.

Well.  Nothing except eating watermelons.

Yeah.  That too. 

And playing with the doggies.

Yeah.  That too.

All those things done together is the best!

I suppose playing games on your cellphone inside is equally fun to a teenager.

:)

What Does A Heart Good

Mary Mayken is visiting this week for "Aunt Kem Camp" since Sheldon is in Brevard, NC at Camp Rock Bridge.  One of today's activities is wiffle ball.  I looked out in the front yard and saw Owen helping her learn how to bat.

Once upon a time, he wanted nothing to do with his baby cousin. Now it's a different story. I love to see him helping Mary Mayken and being so kind to her. 

You know what does a heart good?  That does a heart good.  :)

Ensuring The Love

Mary Mayken:  Sheldon's going to love me forever.

Me:  Oh. How do you know that?

Mary Mayken:  Because I bought her a birthday present and she's going to love it!

Me:  Well.  That's one way to ensure someone loves you.

LOL!

Introducing Daisy Duke

Everyone needs a Daisy Duke.  She's such a happy, smiley doggy. 

 

 

She has her favorite toy.  As she should.  :)

 

 

And she has her BFF.  As she should.  :)

 

Oh.  She's naughty too.  As are most doggies.  You probably shouldn't let her kiss your face.  I'm just saying.  :)

 

But everyone needs a Daisy Duke.

Well.  Everyone but us.  I'm quite content to just come and visit the farm and see her.  Owen and Sheldon are on a mission to get Owen a dog.

That campaign may have worked with the guinea pigs but I'm NOT getting a dog. 

You can take that to the bank baby.

We will be happy to visit Daisy Duke and her friends Jack Bo, Maggie Moo and Scooty Pooty whenever the kids want.  :)

Gotta Love That!

Mary Mayken: I brushed my teeth. Twice. And got dressed.

Me: Awesome girl. Good morning!

 Mary Mayken: Oh. And Owen brushed my hair for me because I couldn't reach the bottom of it.

Me:  Awwhhh.   <3 span="">

 

Gotta love that.  Owen use to not even give her the time of day.  I love to see him helping his baby cousin.  :)

A Simple Concept Really

I told my 6 year old niece Mary Mayken to go and get dressed.  I gave her 20 extra "piddle" minutes figuring that it would take me 5 more times of instructing her to do so.  I came out of my bathroom and she was already dressed and had her teeth brushed.  And was cleaning up from where she brushed her teeth.  Now if a 6 year old can follow those instructions, why does it take telling my 10 and 13 year olds 5 times at least to get dressed.  It's a simple concept really.  Ask them to do something and they should do it, right?  I think that the boys need some lessons from the 6 year old!

Aw. Baby Love.

I was uploading a picture to my photobucket account and came across this video. 

Aw.  It's little Mary Mac as a baby.



What a cute little stinker!

Puppy Love

Aw.

Nothing like puppy love. :)

The Poopin Pig

My niece Sheldon has two pet guinea pigs.

The kids love to play with them.  And by "play", I mean terrorize me by chasing me around with them threatening to put them on me.

And it freaks me the hell out.

Cause I don't care what you call them (guinea piggies, pigs, whatever), they are still rats.  But bigger than regular rats.

/shudder

But, they love them.

The only problem is that when they go to Sheldon and Mary Mayken's house, they ignore Mary Mayken to play with the pigs.

But Mary Mayken was having NONE of that.

She stormed into the kitchen, with big crocodile tears in her, and stated in the loudest most indignant voice that a five year old could muster, in true Scarlet O'Hara dramatic fashion:

"They're not playing with me Aunt Kem!  They're playing with those POOPIN PIGS!"

OMG.  I about died laughing.

Which, of course, made her even madder.

But how could you not laugh at that.

The poopin pigs.  LOL!

Mary Maykenisms

Owen:  Where did I leave the camera?  I can't find it.

Mary Mayken:  I don't know.  You left it wherever you left it.

Brilliant!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary Mayken:  Here's my letter to Shane at camp.

Aunt Kem:  AWESOME.  What exactly does it say?

Mary Mayken:  I don't know Aunt Kem.  I can't read.

I mean, duh!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary Mayken:  Pointing at her toes, "Look, Aunt Kem, I don't have anymore color."

Me:  I'll paint them for you later.

Mary Mayken:  No.  That's okay.  I'll just get a pedicure.

diva

Picture of the Day

Such innocence.

Best Friends Forever. 

Even though they just met twenty minutes ago.

<3

Cruisin the Grocery Store in Style

I usually go to the grocery store when the kids are in school because it's easier, cheaper and quicker for me to do so.  And as I zip through the aisles I secretly giggling at the moms struggling to push their kids in the stupid carts that have the cars attached to them.

I never let my kids ride in those car carts. Because I'm mean. And because I just can't push them. Well. I can but it usually ends up with me pushing them into something or someone.

I had to take Owen, Sheldon and Mary Mayken with me to the store the other day.  There was no avoiding it.  And, well, you can see where this is going. I just say couldn't say no to Mary Mayken's "please Aunt Kem" plea to ride in the car.

And then Owen got SO excited and was like "Yeeeessss! (with a fist pump and all) We get to ride in the car cart. " :rolleyes:

And then he proceeded to cram his 8 year old body into the car.

The view from behind.  Just in case you've never been privvy to steering one of these bad boys.  Or trying to as is the case with me.

Laying on the horn in traffic.  Oy vey.  They will both be aggressive drivers if the grocery store driving is any indication of how they will act behind the wheel.  

No trip to the grocery store is complete without cruising through the deli drive through for a slice of cheese.  :p  Owen's already a one handed driver. And someone forgot to tell Mary Mayken to put Annabelle in a car seat.  That's not very safe.  :p

Oh well.  At least they had fun.  :)

And secretly, I am happy that Owen still wants to ride in things like this.  Even if he really doesn't fit.  ;)

Mary Mayken Sings Barry Manilow

Remember the disco era?

If you do, you'll remember this song. 

It's Mary Mayken's favorite.  She plays it over and over and over again.  And she knows every word.

And every musical note where she sings the music too.  (God I love that kid!  She must be *my* niece!)

Enjoy!


If you don't laugh at this, you're not human man!

How A Child REALLY Dresses Themselves

A few days ago, my friend was lamenting the fact that her almost two year old son is not developing as quickly as her other friends kids of the same age.  Apparently one of her friends was bragging that her two year old dressed themselves and her son...does not.

We all tried to comfort our friend that her son was okay and she was not a failure as a parent and he would, in fact, dress himself one day and would graduate from high school and probably college and go onto be a successful adult.

And we also told her that her friend wasn't completely honest in her description of how her child dressed himself.

So, Jen....this blog post is dedicated to you.  This is how real little kids dress themselves.

First, it appears that Mary Mayken  did a great job putting on her clothes.

But, upon further inspection, one will notice that she put her pants on backwards.

Pockets in the front.

Zipper in the back...

Oh wait.  But that's not all.  She also put her shirt on backwards.

 

And the only reason that her Twinkle Toe Shoes are on correct is because Ken put them on her and tied her shoes.

If he had not helped her, those would have been on backwards as well.  She has been known to wear her shoes backwards.

So, Jen, don't worry about your little man.  He's fine.  Your friend is crazy.  This is how a four year old really dresses herself.  You can only imagine how well she did when she was only 2!

And yes, I did take her to lunch with my friends dressed like that.  Because by the time I realized that she had everything on backwards, her shoes and coat were on and we were late.

If she were the first child, she would have been changed.  But she's not so she wasn't.  :p

Yeah.  Aunt Kem rocks like that!

Just A Little Bit...or Not!

Uncle Kem to Mary Mayken:  I have a little bit of gray hair.  See?

Mary Mayken to Uncle Kem:  No Uncle Kem.  ALL of you hair is gray.

Uncle Kem:  Meh.  :-|

Well Hello Wayne!

Well.  Hello Wayne.  Great to see you!

Grab a plunger.  There's work to be done!

Well.  Hello Mary Mayken.

Grab a toy/stuffed animal/blocks or whatever you can.  No need to play with it.

Just go ahead and stuff it down the john.

Wayne will be here soon to fix it.

Well.  Hello Ginny.  Hello Kim.

Nice job interrogating her.  Still don't know what it was.

I just know Wayne needs to plunge.  And plunge some more.  And then he needs to continue plunging.  And then when he thinks he's finished, plunge it some more.  :-|

:p

We never did figure out what she threw in there.  :-|

It's A Secret!

According to my friend Mike, my niece Mary Mayken has more secrets than the CIA.

And yeah.  I totally agree with that!

The only problem is that she leaks them faster than Wikileak.


So yeah.  If you have a secret, and you want it shared, be sure to tell Mary Mayken.  Otherwise, don't tell her anything!

Susan, you better be careful about any snarky comments that you make in front of her.  I'm just saying.  ;)

PS - Sorry it's sideways.  It's Susan's stellar videography at work.

And because it's sideways, you'll need to go to youtube itself to view the video.  It won't fit the whole thing on here because it's sideways.  :/

Don't Wish It Away...Summer Fun!

Remember the summer when everyone was complaining about how hot it was and wishing for the snow and cold?  I do!  And to all you people who wished for it...I hope that you're happy!

So, here's some pictures and a video from summer fun at the pool.  Oh man.  That seems like a snow storm, two school cancellations and a school delay ago!

Oh, wait...it was.  :/

Kids doing what they do best...just being kids.

Nothing better than the froggy slide!

Owen!

 

The big kids.

Weeee!

But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end eventually.  

Time to go.

I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!!!

 

YEAH!  I'M TALKING TO YOU TOO, OWEN!

An Accomplice

My sister has an accomplice.

A Christmas caper accomplice.

When we were growing up, Susan could never wait until Christmas morning to find out what her presents were.  She knew ALL of mom's hiding places for presents.  ALL of them.

She tore our house apart looking for presents.  I'm sure that she went through Carrie and Brenda's houses looking for her stuff too.  And I'm also certain that she would get mom's car key and go and look in the trunk.  (Yeah, mom.  We knew about that hiding spot too.)

She was a master at carefully opening the presents under the tree and retaping them without tearing the paper.  I never quite figured that one out.

And why did she do this?  Because she's nosey.  Nosey.  Nosey.  Nosey.

But, unfortunately for her, one time she was also kind of a stoopid teenager and she decided to wear the Swatch bubble watch that mom had bought her around the house.  It was similar to the ones in this picture.  I'm pretty sure it had an airplane in it.

The problem that that she forgot to take it off.  And when we went to see my mom at her work, Susan was waving her arm around my mom and my mom spotted the watch on her arm and totally busted her.

LOL

But now she's grown with her very own little paybacks.  Well, you would think that they would be paybacks.  But nope.  Instead of getting a payback, she has an accomplice.  She no longer has to sneak around looking for stuff or opening presents and rewrapping them.

Because even though Mary Mayken wants everyone to keep her secrets, she can not keep a secret herself and she told Susan what Sheldon was getting her for Christmas.

But shush.  Don't tell Sheldon that Mary Mayken told Susan.  It's a secret.

LOL

Shush...It's A SECRET!

Even at four, my niece Mary Mayken already knows how to play the game.

She is sure to grow up a politician.

Because she knows how to work the system like no one's business.

At Thanksgiving, I asked her if she was my best friend.  Her response was "totally" and we pinky promised on it.

And then she leaned in, putting her lips to my ears and cupping her hand around her mouth, she whispered, "I am your best friend, Aunt Kem.  But don't tell mommy.  It's our secret.  Okay?"

I said "OK!" and gave her a big wink and then made her pinky promise with me.

Feeling pretty secure in my number one best friend spot (because you know all girls have numbered their best friends in ranking order of importance), I told Susan that MM was my best friend.

Susan responded that she was everyone's best friend.  But I said no she was mine because we pinky promised on it.

Then I noticed her go over to my dad and whisper in his ear.  And then smiled big at him.  As she made her way over to Shane.

Dad whispered to me that she told him that she was his best friend.  But...shush.  Don't tell Aunt Kem.  Because it's a secret.

And she said the same thing to Shane.  But...shush.  Don't tell Poppa.  It's a secret.

Then she made her way to my mom.  And she told her that she had four best friends and Nanny was one of them.

LOL.

So then she continued around the room promising everyone that she was their best friend.

But...shush.  Don't tell anyone.  It's a secret.

And then Ken and I decided to bust her on it.  And we both asked her who her best friend was at the same time.

Without skipping a beat, she said "you are both my number one best friends."  And, with a big wink to me, she stuck out her pinky to pinky promise me.

Stinker.

But she wouldn't pinky promise anyone else.  Unless I said it was okay.  She has her standards, you know!

But my dad finally got her to pinky promise him right before he left to go back to SC.  Because I said it was okay.  ;)

That girl already knows how to work the system!

She's everyone's best friend.  But...shush.  Don't tell.  It's a secret!