Lemons. Lots of Lemons.

The kids have been something else lately and there have been several moments where I wasn't sure whether to cry or laugh hysterically.

I took the time this morning to get dressed. I put on one of my favorite shirts and a skirt. As soon as I walked into the kitchen, I was greeted with a handful of flour thrown directly at my chest. Thanks, Oren!

The kids are control freaks when it comes to music in our house. I turn something on and someone comes running to change the song or the volume. Sure enough, when I turned on a song to distract me from the fighting kids, Oren came running and turned it up. I scooped him up and we danced. It was torture for Oren because he was almost within arm's reach of the fish food and I may have been taunting him just a bit.

Maeve has a toad, Toadee, that she holds everyday. Oren also likes the toad and is very gentle with it. Unfortunately, Maeve hates sharing her amphibians so she often times will come up with something "better" for Oren to do. Today she told Oren that I was going to let him play with rice. I obliged. All was well until Maeve and Finn started playing with the rice too and decided to dump all 10 lbs onto the floor, roll in it, throw it and kick it all over the kitchen.

Oren can climb onto the counters now without a stool.

Oren's favorite thing to do, if I haven't already shared this, is to climb onto the kitchen counter, turn on the faucet and turn on the sprayer. Yesterday he decided to do this and spray the stove, diaper bag and all of the electronics in the living room.

Our wood burning stove is a fun climbing toy. I think Oren might think twice when it's 500 degrees in a couple of months. And the nice fan that sits on top of the stove? That is great to grab and use to chase/threaten your sister.

The couch that I just deep cleaned was the perfect place to pick all of the elderberries off their stems.

I bought Maeve new shoes this week. She immediately went outside, went into the chicken coop and stepped in poop. Then she came in and told me that her shoes didn't fit. I tried to fix them and it didn't work so we went to buy new shoes. While we were there, Oren got out of the stroller and sprinted. Then he played in the drinking fountain. Finn entertained himself by jumping on all of the chairs and throwing all of the display shoes onto a high shelf. Oren was banished, once again, to the stroller where he screamed until we got to the van.

Unfortunately, all of our recent shopping trips include Oren sprinting off. A guy at the hardware store told me that I should be in the Olympics. Yes and thanks for noticing.

And bedtimes! Oh how I just love bedtime. The kids were so terrible that I put them to bed at 5:30. Finn and Oren were asleep by 6 so Maeve and I went downstairs for a bit. Finn started screaming because he had to pee and just as he was settling back to sleep, Maeve started yelling and complaining about how she wanted to go back downstairs. Um, I said she could and never asked her to come up with me to check on Finn in the first place. Her yelling woke up both of the boys, who were absolutely refreshed after such a terrific nap. They were up for another three hours.

Tonight's bedtime was better, but it started with Finn screaming for 45 minutes about being videotaped. I got out the video camera after dinner because all of the kids were being funny. Finn was being especially goofy, but smacked the side of Oren's head when he thought Oren was blocking the camera. The camera was turned off and Finn started screaming about needing to be videotaped more. I may have started singing "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'll tape you tomorrow! It's only a day away. The tape will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomoooorrroooow, you'll be taped...." Sometimes I just can't help myself.