Let's Go Fly A Kite

When my children were younger and I was home with them all day, I used to beat myself about about how poorly I kept my house.  The fact is I am not a very good housekeeper and probably never will be.  It is not a skill I have, nor one I have been able to attain over the years.  I will admit a huge part of that is priorities.  I would rather be playing with my kids than picking up after them.  That is still true.  This Spring Break, part of me wants to work with my kids on really cleaning up their rooms, making them fun, making them manageable again.  But most of me just wants to get out there and play, especially on a day like today.

When my children are all grown and gone, they may not be able to say they had a clean and orderly home growing up, but they will know their mom was there for them.  And even though I am in very few pictures, the fact that I was behind the camera taking them--millions of pictures over the years--will hopefully be a reminder to them that I was here with them.

Today, the girls and I went to the park to fly kites:

Here's Rachel, playing with the string to get the kite to do tricks:

Watch it dance:

Liv tries to watch, but the sun is too bright.

Tyler joins her in the grass, as they both cover their eyes. 

Another maneuver, lying down to fly the kite ? ? ? 

 The girls like chasing the streamers

My filter did funky things on this picture, but I decided to save it anyway.

Tyler flies the kite

The other two girls chase it down

Her face?  She is just being dramatic.  She was having a ball!

Chasing the streamers

Watching for the kite to drop

 Showing off her missing tooth

And her latest dance

 Playing in the park

 Teeter

Totter

And then later that afternoon, Garrett and I went up to the high school tennis courts to practice playing tennis.  I have no pictures of that, obviously, since I was in the middle of it.  When Garrett told me he didn't want to run track this year, I suggested he try tennis.  He went out for the team last week.  He told me the other day we needed to get him a racket so he could practice over the break.  It was fun for me to get out and play with him, even though we are both mostly still figuring it out.  I hope he will enjoy being on the tennis team.  The coach told us her biggest goal is just to have fun, although I know she is pretty good at putting together some winning players on her teams.

I did not go motorcycle riding with Cole, but luckily he found someone else to go with him.  That is actually something I did do for him about a week ago.  I took him to a friend's track just outside of town and took pictures while he did some jumps.


My dishes still are not clean.  My living room is a disaster area.  I do believe there is value in teaching children to be responsible for cleaning and chores and such.  But today, this week, we are going to enjoy each other and have a good time.  Maybe some rooms will get cleaned; maybe not.  Either way, I hope my kids know that I love them.