Adventures in Babysitting

My sister, Leslie called with a few days notice asking if I could fly up to CA and watch her kids while she worked her P.M. nursee shifts and slept during the day.  I had about 0 rearranging of my schedule to do, so Ty and I took a last-minute save-the-day trip up!  Luckily, we found cheap flights on Southwest and came on up!  I honestly was a little worried that I would be bored/wouldn't have lots of fun, but I was wrong.  I did learn a thing or two about being "mom" to two 2-year-olds and got some fun comments from others when we took little trips out like, "I hope you're having just 1 this time!" and "Good luck..." We survived just fine.  :)

Ty and Soy playing cars together.  There was definitely a healthy balance of playing together and hitting/pushing/screaming together.

 Piano time!  They all look so happy--and they were for about 3 minutes.  That bench ain't big enough for the 3 of them...

 Soy is so funny in this picture!  After lunch on Friday I told them they could have a popsicle, the ones that we bought at the store as their special treat earlier that day.  I thought we were buying small ones that they could eat quickly before they melted all over.  I was wrong.  Luckily, I made them get into their swimsuits and be outside for their treat: smart move Carolyn.

 See how Carl's almost done with his and Soy and Ty look like they haven't even started?  They both had popsicle-stained hands, arms, toes, and tummies.  :)  Good thing we just went into the pool after that because I don't do sticky messes real well...  I love that this picture looks like "Summer," though! 

 Ty and Soy are both kinda chicken about swimming, which is fine with me because I didn't want to have to jump in and save anyone and get my hair wet.  Thanks to their life-jackets and my keen life guarding eye, nobody even came close to

 Carl is a fish and enjoyed swimming while the little guys were taking naps--fine with me!

 Ty's feet were getting scraped up on the bottom on the pool (I don't know WHAT he does to his poor toes & feet!), so I made him wear socks in the water.  He wasn't too happy about it until he forgot about his unconventional footwear. 

 On Friday night we watched Cars 2 together--movie night! After jammies were on and blankets were snuggled in with, everyone got their own little brown bag of popcorn.  For the first 30 minutes, all 3 were thoroughly engrossed. 

 

 ...Then the little guys (mainly Ty and Sawyer joined him) got restless and they ran around the room taking pauses in their chasing each other to watch the movie.  :)

 On Saturday we had a mini birthday celebration for Carl.  We went to the Nut Tree, a spot I used to visit as a kid.  As a special treat, we rode on the little train that circles the play area a couple of times.

 We also rode on the carousel; Ty was still a little groggy from being waken up from his nap and not too sure about this up-and-down frog thing.  He talks about it now, though, so it must have been fun enough!

 Lel and Soy riding on the rocking horses that we used to ride on.

 Mama and Ty-ty on a red horse.  That thing was UNcomfortable.

 Then as another lucky treat, we went to Fenton's, the delish ice cream cafe and shared a jumbo sundae.  They put candles in our treat and called the attention of all patrons to sing to Carl, who loved it.

 Here's how Ty looks when he eats:

 Here's how Sawyer looks:  (Seriously--he was nasty after every meal!  I have been spoiled by a child who asks me to wipe off his hands when they get dirty.)

 Since we missed our flight (long story, not our fault), we got to stay with Mor-Mor and Far-Far for the night.  Ty stayed up way too late so that he could play with them a little bit and get some good stories from Mor-Mor.