My Kids are Crazy

While cleaning off my camera I found these pictures from a random day in May.  These kids are nuts!

Jameson.  Can you spot him?

Crazy man.

Stinkface.

Stinkface II.

Stinkface III.

I Eat Dirt.

Well, I don't eat dirt, Emmett does.  He loves to eat dirt.  I try my hardest to keep it out of his mouth but he will sneak off and find it...anywhere.  Grandma Lynn's houseplants, sure he'll eat that dirt too.  Ugh.  It is a disgusting phase that I hope passes...soon.  Warning:  Graphic Dirt Eating Photos Below.

Hmm, what's in here?  I hope it's dirt.

Yep, dirt.

Hey, Mom, there is dirt on my tongue!

Does this dirt beard make me look sexy?

How dare you say no.

Hmm, should I eat this dirt off my hand?

YES!

Swiss Chard

Brooklyn has always been our fruit and veggie girl.  She eats at least an apple a day and would eat an entire watermelon if we let her.  Her newest obsession is Swiss Chard.  Thanks to Papa Dennis, who has a flourishing fruit and veggie garden, Brooklyn is hooked on Chard.  I guess it could be worse.  It is actually a bit of a family tradition.  Word on the street is that my Dad's grandparents used to grow Swiss Chard so he decided to plant some too.  I have tried this Swiss Chard and faked a "yummy" for the sake of the kids...but man it's bitter!  Brooklyn is the only one in our family that will eat it and she would prefer it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  So, every night, I steam up a portion of Swiss Chard for our sweet angel.  As she will tell you (even strangers), "It's a SUPERFOOD!"

She is also quite smitten with artichokes.  The other night she sat for one hour peeling and eating almost a whole artichoke until she was biting the ends off the tiniest of leaves.  Artichokes are a family affair.  We all love them!  And, you guessed it, they are another SUPERFOOD!

Brooklyn's marathon artichoke eating.

Crazy artichoke face.

Crazy Swiss Chard face.

YMCA Splash Week

This week was the much anticipated (by the big kids) YMCA Splash Week.  It is a week of really, really basic swim "classes" to determine where you might want to place your kids in swim lessons.  It is $10/child...a steal!  I have really dropped the ball on swim lessons and thought this would be a perfect way to see if the kids would even enjoy them.  Turns out they LOVE swim lessons.  I should have known they would be fish, they love baths and the hot tub.

Jameson missed out on most of his lesson because he was too busy bobbing up and down in the water.  Goofing off...surprise, surprise.

Sitting still for one minute.

Swimmin'!

Bobbing!

Sorta creepy.

There he goes!

SO happy.

Boat training.

A little nervous...

Lovin' it!

Brooklyn was super in to it and her teacher was impressed with her progress in a matter of a week.

Patiently waiting for her turn.

Such a cutie.

Showing her true colors.  :)

Oh Geez.

This comes from her soul.

Anxiously waiting for her teacher.

Splashing her classmates.

So, long story short, I will be signing both of them up for swim lessons in the Fall.  Summer classes are WAY too full.  Oh, did I forget to mention how much these half hour classes tuckered them out?!?  Two hour naps each day and they ate lunch without any nagging.  Sigh.  I love swim lessons.

A few outtakes of the kids not so patiently waiting for their turns:

Sooo tired of waiting.

Yelling in the echo-y pool area.

Mad that it isn't her turn.

Trying to get her to laugh.  Fail.

She photo-bombed our picture.

Double photobomb.

If you are thinking, "poor Emmett," I will gladly take you up on your offer to jump in the pool with him for swim lessons.  I honestly think he might be capable of drowning me.  So, I will wait until he can take the class on his own and is a little more independent.  Poor Emmett.  :)

Proof I've Lost It

The other day, while I was turning the house upside down looking for ONE piece of paper...I determined that I would love to change two things about myself.  Later that evening I was telling Brett about my self discovery and started to list them:  First, I would be more organized.  Second, I would...wait, what was the second one?!?  After a few minutes I started to laugh because the second one was I would have a good memory.  Awesome.  Well, since I am clearly doomed in the memory department I guess I will start working on being more organized because my filing practices are clearly proof that I need some work.  Amen.

Date Day

My parents offered to take the kids overnight last night and we gladly took them up on it!  We had a busy couple of weeks and all I (we) wanted to do was relax and sleep in.  We dropped the kiddos off around lunchtime, dined with them and then took off to go fishing.  We love fishing and really, what is more relaxing than fishing?!?  Oh, did I mention that it was POURING rain?  Hmmm, that made it interesting.  We almost decided to not go but then my Dad offered up some rain gear.  Sold.  We headed home, hooked up the boat and drove up to Chain Lake.  Boat in the water, check.  Rain gear on, check.  Brett's manvention "The Rain Chair" in the boat, check.  Relaxed?  Check.  It was most definitely raining.  Really raining.  But it was warm and under our rain gear we were bone dry.  No complaints.  AND, we limited in two hours.  It was super fun.  So fun that we decided to continue our date by grabbing our rain coats and walking down to dinner in the rain.  I am not sure why we are so afraid of the rain here in Washington when it rains all the time?!?  We had a blast!  We ate at a local eatery, Tuscano's.  Clearly it was local, we walked there.  Duh.  It was really delicious.  After plenty of carbs, we put up the umbrella and headed back up the hill.  A unique and very fun date!  Thanks for watching the kiddos Mimi and Papa!

Me, in the Manvention Chair.

Try not to be jealous of my chair and rain gear.

Date Day!

Mother, Come Quiiiiiick!

Bink and Her Tooth Fairy Pillow.

Brooklyn has had a wiggly tooth (bottom, front right) for a few weeks now and today, as soon as Brett walked in the door, it popped right out.  Now, of course, it did not happen quite that simply because, well, we are the Krache's.  I shit you not (excuse my French), this is how it happened.

This morning Brooklyn woke up the entire house (minus Brett - he was at work) at 6 a.m.  She flung all doors open while exclaiming, "It's suuuuuuuuuuny!"  I was excited too, but didn't quite have her gusto at 6 a.m.  After I could fully wake up we all started to get ready to go to the zoo.  It was a cluster of mass chaos with a side of cranky.  After I had broken up half a dozen toddler vs. baby fights, Brett opened the front door while Brooklyn simultaneously took a digger straight into a blanket in the TV room.  She laid there for a minute and then shot straight up, face ghost white, and yelled, "Mother, come quick, I've lost a tooth!"  A quote straight from the tooth fairy book we have been reading.  I look to congratulate her and then she spies it, the blood on the tooth.  She screams and chucks the tooth in to the air.  Far.  I am pretty sure the fact that she knocked the tooth out instead of letting it come out when it was ready made for a lot more blood.  A lot.  She is terrified of blood.  Once she calmed down, and Brett got the bleeding to stop, it dawned on her that she no longer had the actual tooth to put in her tooth fairy pillow.  So, at this point she was laughing and crying at the same time.  She was so excited that the tooth fell out but devastated that it was GONE.  So, we started in the corner of the room and backed our way out looking for a tiny tooth in tooth colored carpet.  Super fun.  After half and hour we decided that it could wait.  We were late to the zoo and needed to get on the road to meet our friends.


Before we left she wanted to call Mimi to tell her that she finally lost her tooth.  As she was talking to Mimi she started sobbing again.  This time she was crying because her tooth, that she so carefully brushed every day, would not be able to go in the Hall of Perfect Teeth...also from the book we've been reading.  So, we wrapped up the phone call and calmed her down again.

We made it to the zoo and had a blast.  So much so that all the kids fell asleep before we were back on the freeway.  Ah.  Ah, as in deep, relaxing sigh.  It was a warmish day and all the animals were super active.  We also loved seeing Meggy Moo with Baby Sawyer and Dee Dee with Baby Cooper.  Thanks for joining us gals and babies! 


The minute we got home the tooth hunt was back on.  Brooklyn was determined.  Our usual, easily distracted girl was on a mission.  She kept mumbling under her breath, "never give up, never give up."  Then, she jumped up and exclaimed, "I FOUND IT!"  We immediately tucked it in the tooth fairy pillow and put it up on the mantle until bedtime.  Story over, right?  Not so much.


At bedtime she carried the pillow upstairs, put it on her couch and went in to pick out some jammi's.  I went in to help Jameson brush his teeth and when I came back, she looked devastated.  She had lost the tooth again.  No joke.  Apparently she wanted to see it one more time and dropped it, in her long curly pink throw rug.  With some help from Brett we found it faster than the last time it was lost.  We decided then that the tooth fairy would be able to easily find the pillow OUTSIDE Brooklyn's room.  Once the kids were tucked in for the night Brooklyn would shout out a command every few minutes.  "Mommy, make sure to open a window for the tooth fairy!"  "Mommy, you might want to leave the back door open for the tooth fairy!"  "Mommy, has the tooth fairy come yet?"  This lasted for about an hour until it finally sunk in, after I told her for the 100th time, that the tooth fairy would not come unless she was asleep.  Whew.


Who knew losing a front tooth could make for such a long winded story?!?  Me, that's who.  I have coped with the fact that anything that happens in this family will never be simple.  It sure keeps us on our toes!

Trying for a Daddy pic at the zoo...

...the kids were not so in to it...

...as you can see.