The Adventures of a Arkansan May

For those less fortunate of you to NOT be one, that is pronounced "Are Kansan"  Like you are saying somebody from Kansas, only slightly better :)

Turns out May was a pretty exciting month around here! We started the month off in perfectly fantastic style by sharing a wonderful weekend with our dear dear friends the Hutches. We love us some Hutches. And it turns out their days of being Arkansans are numbered (bittersweet feelings here...), so good thing we did this. We enjoyed showing off our new museum, having a lunch picnic, and then after naps and playtime, heading off to the main event:

 DEMOLITION DERBY, baby!!! It was fun to see several of our friends there, too. Man, we love dem derbies. One of these days, guys, it's going to be me...

 Look at these kids!  They are growing up so much.  I could go on about how when we moved to chicago There was 3-yo J, 2 yo Cadence, 1 yo Nico, and Newborn Campbell...

The next May adventure was fishing! Since Campbell wasn't feeling well, Spencer took Cadence and Layla and Campbell and I had a day to ourselves. The girls were excellent sports but were extremely spoiled. Five rainbow trout were ascertained that morning, and the girls think that every cast ends in a fish. Each catch had to be kissed by each girl. 

Above: eeeeeeeeek! they are so cute.  I can hardly stand it. (the kids, not the fish)

After the fishing trip they stopped by the "Buss Stop" for legendarily, unneccessarily large ice cream cones.  Yum!

Spencer was beginning to feel pretty gun-ho about being rugged around these parts, so he ordered a camping trip one Friday morning. Well, it was the friday before Memorial Day and no reservations had been made, so we called our friends and asked if their Missourri property was available, which it was. Then I had the uncomfortable task of inviting my friends to get in the mood for a last minute camping trip. yeah, no luck with that :)

The camp:

The dog.

 The cuteness:

So it was just the Clives vs. the wild, which turned out to be a great night. One of my truly favorite memories of all motherhood was made that night, actually. After a weinie roast and smores (and pink and yellow Peeps, Layla will remind you), we went out into the meadow and tried to catch fireflies. They were everywhere, it was truly magical, and the girls were so in to it! Words are typically my weapon of choice, but I simply can't give words to describe this magical moment...

The next morning we walked down to the stream and fished some more. We caught a little guy and let him go, after kissing him, of course. We chased frogs. We caught polliwogs. We learned about crawdads. We got soaked. In pajamas. We headed back to camp covered with ticks.

Campbell's first fish:

We got back to camp and began taking down the tent and packing up the van. I was very overwhelmed with ticks covering my children so I changed their clothes and buckled them into the van to watch "Spirited Away". Not very rugged, but hey, remember I had Lyme Disease? Not very happy about ticks just now.

We got everything packed and ready to go and then couldn't find the dang dog. In the last hour of our adventure she had finally decided that she liked the wild and had gotten a little over-zealous about it. After two hours of looking for her ( = two hours of picking up ticks), we left. Without her. Spencer sighed and suggested we get a roomba and name it Abby.Isn't she cute?  What a sweet thing to be left in the wild.

When we got home, just as we suspected, we had a voicemail saying our dog was found. Phew! Spencer went back to get her and then we spent the rest of the day trying to get ticks off of everybody and everything. I can't tell you the total number of ticks but if I had to guess I would say about 50, including the dog's.

But it was fun and a great way to make memories, so yes, Spencer, I enjoyed it. :)

The next adventure was our Last Minute Memorial Day Party Boat Day. That was a good one! Sunday after church Mark came up with this plan to rent a 42' pontoon boat on Beaver lake and take several families out all day. So we did. Ah! What fun! Smallwoods, Hatches, Flemings, Thompsons, Clives and Wrights, who brought their ski boat. Holy Canoli, that was a great idea, guys.

There was swimming, tubing, fishing, popsicling, grilling, napping, sunbathing, foot-racing, and romantic-toasting (oh, and it WAS our anniversary, you know that, right?).

 
That night Spencer and I went out to celebrate our anniversary and went to bed at like 10. Ten! that's some anniversary date :). But we were pretty tuckered. Not as tuckered as we were going to be.

The traditional anniversary picture, above.

You see, there is a magical week in the world of Walmart called "Shareholders'". In this week, hundreds of Walmart associates and shareholders descend upon our vast metropolis of Bentonville for the annual Shareholder's meeting. But, since Walmart owns the souls of most performers, via their labels who depend on Walmart for a great deal of their business. It's an exciting week.


This year the free concerts were Carrie Underwood and Cheap Trick opening for Aerosmith. Free, ladies and gents. So of course we went. And had a great time! All the shows were REALLY good.

I couln't help myself from getting a little "dolled up" for Aerosmith.  My shirt says "I [Fender] 80's".  It was perfect for both the concert and the Demo derby.  good stuff.

So, that's exhausting.  Plus my kids weren't sleeping at night.  So yesterday my eyeballs were like a zombie's.  Red and drippy and heavy. And my body was slow and heavy.  And my brain was all but non-responsive.  And we went to bed at 8:45.  And that is how you end the Adventurous month of Arkansan May.

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Stay tuned for more from our series "What Do Irresponsible Parents Do", after these messages....


...because my kids have been really cute lately.  And we've done some fun things lately.  So I wanted to jot a few notes down.  Then I 'll get back to the slide-show-travelogue-of-the-future.

So the other day Layla said to me: "Mommy, can I have knowledge for breakfast?"

ahehe, where did that come from?  I don't know.  But a simple no wouldn't suffice.  We settled on having it for lunch instead, since it was mid-morning and breakfast was past.

  Sometimes she gets reeeeally mad at me, and then she yells, "DIE!!!!!!!".  I truly don't know if she actually is saying "die" or if it is a coincidence, but that's some coincidence, eh? 

As you probably know, Layla is 100% Spencer.  She is a natural-born hoot-n-holler-er.  Seriously.  She will just start screaming and cheering for anything that makes her happy.  If you've ever heard Spencer when he's excited... chuckle, chuckle....

Campbell.... oh, campbell...  here are some quotes from her (with a warning that they are rife with rudeness):
     Listening to a song in the car, "Mom, is that a tuba?" 
Me: "Uh, yes, I think so..." 
Cam: "Mom, I fink a tuba sounds like a buuuutt".  She says it like that kid says "blood" in that old youtube video, remember? like the "u" sound is like a long grunt almost. Oh, and we are NOT allowed to say that word in our house, so you can imagine my shock.

(I got out of the shower one day to see Campbell, who was very proud and excited to show me this.)

     Another time in the car, "Oooops, sorry, Mom.  I 'fowted' (farted) in my buuuuuutt."  Me: "Campbell, where did you learn those words?  We don't ever say those words, they are not polite.  Who taught you to say those words?"   Campbell thinks about it, "Mmm, I fink it was Jejush (Jesus)".  

After suspecting it for a few weeks, I've concluded that Campbell thinks of Jesus like an imaginary friend.  She has been known to blame Him for things, to insist He doesn't get sat upon, etc.  I've decided to be more explanatory about our relationship with Jesus. 

Cadence is growing right up.  Ahh!  I can barely stand it.  I can also barely stand to have to keep her busy all day everyday, now that school is out.  Well, I love it, but it's hard...  She is serious about chore lists, though.  Give that girl a list of chores and she gets in the zone.  She rarely complains about chores and is a hard worker most of the time. 

As you know, she's also serious about her wardrobe.  The pink-punch-in-the-face above was her outfit (and hairdo) this morning.  All her. 

This morning I got an email from soon-to-be-Aunt Fan asking what colors and sizes of traditional Chinese dresses do the girls want.  I asked the girls what colors they wanted and without further guidance received these replies: Cadence: coral, Campbell: turquoise, Layla: "pink".  They were all quite sure and came up with it on their own.  I thought it was fitting for my girls.

Here's a little part of Cadence's prayer the other day, which I thought was cute: "...And please bless us to always have the opportunity to play, and that we won't get sick for 2 years.  Or 1 year if it is your plan...."

 Oh, little Clives.  You drive me crazy.  And you are so cute.  And your little faces make me want to freeze you with a freeze-ray and keep you forever in a little glass case so I can keep you in my purse and you'll never grow up...

Oh, was that a little creepy?  I meant it like a normal person...  yeah...