FHE-apalooza!

So we had the Lollapalooza of FHE's yesterday evening.  And when I say that, I mean we had singing, dancing, people running and hiding, people acting just this side of crazy, and even a poop in the bucket (say what?!)!  Everything you'd see at Lollapalooza right?!  Or so I'd imagine.  Nonetheless, what a very crazy afternoon/evening we had...

It all started off with the random poop in the bucket.  I'm telling you all about this because it's a milestone for our sweet Lauren.  Not the way I pictured it, but it is what it is.  So we had multiple (as in like four-five) flash rain storms yesterday.  Enough to keep you from going to the park, but not enough to keep you from your backyard.  So there we were, playing in the back yard.  The girls were playing with their water table and I was whacking down ivy and tree sprouts about 20 feet from our back door.  It went from a spotty sunny afternoon to a torrential down-pour in no less than 10 seconds.  By the time I literally put down the pruning shears and headed to the back door, approximately 5 feet from the water table where the girls were, I was soaked through to the skin.  Since our kitchen is right off the back door and it's tile, I decided I was going to strip the girls down to avoid a mess and slipping hazards if possible.  I took Lauren's clothes and diaper off first, then went to work on disrobing the howling Olivia.  The flash rain storm had her all out of sorts, which I get.  She's 20 months old and not used to the mood swings of mother nature yet.  At any rate, by the time I got her clothes and diaper off, the rain had lightened a little and Olivia had calmed down.  Just then, Lauren runs up to me and says, "Momma, I went poopy!"  What?!  At this point in time I had a flash of the Lysol wipes commercial on the TV, where the little boy makes the same exclamation to his mother; however, he pooped in the tub and not the toilet.  So where on earth did she poop, or did she even really poop?  So I said to Lauren while panning the patio for poop, "Where did you poop sissy?"  She replies with pride, "In my bucket mom!"  Just then I spot the bucket she's motioning to inside her playhouse, where she was sheltering while I was taking Olivia's clothes off.

Lauren's first sit-down poop

The scene of the pooping

Lauren was so proud of not pooping in her diaper.  If only I could've been equally ecstatic.

Nate got home just in time for me to borrow his iPhone to take pictures of the whole scene before we got flash rained on again.  He asked, "Are you really going to take a picture of the poop in the bucket?"  I said, "It's her first non-diaper, sitting position poop.  Of course I am!"  If only he/everyone knew how hard I've tried to persuade Lauren to use the big girl potty, he/everyone would be very understanding of this picture-worthy "progress", however misplaced it was!  Unfortunately I took too long in taking pictures though, so that when I got to taking care of the poop bucket, the humidity had already gotten to the poop and began wreaking.  Oh well, at least Nate was home to give the naked girls a bath while I got dinner on the table.

I love Olivia's many "cheese" faces!

After dinner, but before we had family home evening (FHE) the girls gave us a music moment.  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  Sure we'll take it as an opening song for FHE!

So for FHE, Nate taught the girls the story about the Miracle of the Gulls that took place in Salt Lake City, 1848.  Story line: swarms of insects (now termed "Mormon crickets") threatened to destroy the crops that would literally sustain life for thousands of pioneers.  However, legions of seagulls appeared to devour the insects, providing a life-saving service for the Mormon pioneers.  That story told, Nate then spread "insects" (teddy grahams, Snicker bits, vanilla puffs) on the floor of the living room and told the girls that they needed to be like the seagulls and eat the insects to help save the pioneers' crops.  It took them a second to get into it; but they did get into it!  Lauren even played through a nose injury sustained while doing a particularly deep and aggressive swoop for a teddy graham.

 

Nose injury just happened

Throbbing nose = sad face

Daddy found his inner seagull too! Much to the girls chagrin!

Olivia let Lauren play the gull role while she played the candy-napper role!



This daddy seagull is so fun to feed!

Sugar rush is kicking in!!!





Then to run the sugar out of the girls before bed time, Nate kicked off a rigorous game of hide-&-seek.  Much to our surprise, Olivia wanted to be "it", and even counted to 10 all by herself!  I was shocked that she could do it without Lauren or one of us talking her through it.  But luckily she did it multiple times, enough for me to actually catch it on video.  So here's Olivia's first time counting to 10, unassisted!  As for understanding how to play hide-&-seek, well, we're going to have to work on it! :0P