Monday, June 14, 2010

Lessons from the backyard

Oh, little boys. They are a dirt-loving, daddy-helping, mess-making bunch.


Daddy spent the better part of Saturday afternoon sprucing up our backyard, and Robbie has never been one to sit idly by.


Whatcha doin', Daddy? Can I help?


He didn't need instructions... clearly, Daddy was just scooping up mud and throwing it in the lawn bag (!). Robbie followed his lead. With his bare hands, of course.


This is a job that requires safety glasses!
Um, do they make something similar for your mouth?


His tongue got itchy halfway through the yard work, and without a second thought Robbie scratched at it. With his very muddy hand. He immediately started to gag on the mud (both hilarious and disgusting, why did I keep taking pictures!?), so I whisked him off to the deck where we confiscated Daddy's water bottle for irrigation purposes.


A big swig.


Let it flow, buddy.

Again, with the safety glasses.

You never let me get this messy, mom! This is awesome.


A very good reason to have a digital SLR... catching spit mid-stream.


Splashing in his spit-puddle.


You know you want to scoop this wet, muddy little thing up and just eat him.
I do!

(*Sidenote: I think the Livingston genes are winning out... isn't he looking less like me and more like Rob every day!? Try to look past the blond hair...)


A human bubbling brook.



Water bottle: empty. Belly: full (apparently).


If ever there was a proper moment to disrobe and frolic nakies in the backyard, the time was now.

But wait, what is going on in the neighbor's yard!?


{They were making sno-cones!}


They were so impressed with Robbie's arabesque form that they awarded him his very own champagne-cup-sno-cone. Kidding. And I am in big trouble for using Robbie's name and the word 'arabesque' in the same sentence. But the neighbors did in fact share their sno-cones, which happened to be Robbie's first sno-cone experience!

As with all good things, he ran it over to Daddy for a look.
"Robbie have a sno-cone!"
Hey, Robbie, what does it taste like?
"Icecream! Nice and cold..."

We are lucky to have such great neighbors. Not pictured is the BBQ dinner we had with them this weekend. Their 3 kids, age Kindergarten through 3rd grade, loved on Ellie and taught Robbie all about sports while we spent Sunday evening together in their backyard. Lucky for us, they're just a fence-hop away. I need to drum up something to offer this situation... it's very one-sided as it stands! Ha!

Post-sno-cone... wandering in the yard. Again, all the action is over the fence.

Baseball! Robbie helps himself to a better view.

And, the queen of naps (while all this backyard fun was happening)...

Getting ready to turn ONE YEAR OLD! I can't dissuade her from looking and acting more grown up every day.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ashley, your kids are beautiful. I agree Robbie is favoring his daddy more these days, but little miss Ellie is looking a lot like your mom to me!!

I enjoy the blog and fb entries so much. Pls say hi to your mom and dad for me!

the deKorne family said...

Adorable! Love the water bottle pics. Rob is so good about yard work! We hate yardwork and therefore have a no good looking yard. Maybe we should get Ava in on the job! Beautiful, gorgeous kiddos. :) I love them from afar!

Unknown said...

I LOVE these pics!! So funny... and I was JUST thinking that Robbie is looking so much like Rob! He's looking so big.

Lindsey said...

I love watching little boys work alongside their daddy. It reminds me of one of my favorite books--Daddy's Little Boy. I'm so impressed that you let him be all boy! Ellie, is so cute. I wish she and John Parker could play.

Anonymous said...

The picture of Robbie looking over the fence at your neighbors is great!

--Amy M.