Magic Sprinklers from the Sky

The other day I was overcome with nice-mommy syndrome, and I decided we could go outside to let the kids run around with boots and umbrellas in the rain.

To start, I should explain that this idea came earlier in the day when I picked the kids up from a friends house, and Maddox promptly ran away from me IN THE RAIN and hid around the other side of the van.  I put Kennedy in the car, and then went to find Maddox, who was lying down and rolling around in a puddle in their driveway, grinning from ear to ear.  My response?  I just rolled my eyes heavenward, picked him up, and put him in his car seat.  Of course, the entire drive home involved me reassuring Kennedy that Maddox was fine, and was in fact very happy!  She did not seem to think that was possible, and it basically upset her entire space-time-continuum that a soaking wet kid (IN HIS CLOTHES!) could be grinning so happily.  Kennedy screams like she's on fire if she's washing her hands and the water drips down and gets her sleeves wet.

So after naps and homework time, I decided that since the kids had helped me cook dinner (which made the kitchen a complete mess), and we hadn't cleaned up anything in about 2 days (so cleaning couldn't possibly get done in the 45 minutes it would take for dinner to cook), that we would just go outside and play in the rain and pretend the inside of our house was clean and pretty.

While getting the girls boots on, Maddox ran outside ahead of us (before we could give him his umbrella), and by the time I got out there he was rolling around in a puddle and DRINKING the water from it, which I'm sure could give him any number of diseases (for the record I did tell him to stop.)  He was just dripping wet, yet I don't think I've seen him happier than at that moment very often in his life.  I'm pretty sure that he thinks that when it's warm and it rains, that it is because there are magic sprinklers that come down from the sky.  Who wouldn't love that?

After taking a few pictures of Maddox, I turned to the side and saw Kennedy looking at him with this expression on her face, so I snapped a picture quickly to capture it (that's his umbrella that she's holding, because she was trying to give it to him so he wouldn't get wet, before she was struck dumb by his crazy behavior).  I LOVE her lips all pursed in disapproval!  Classic Kennedy! 

In fact, this next picture pretty much paints exactly what she looked like for most of our fun time outside, because she was not happy that her legs were getting rained on.  She looks all cold, but it was probably 78 degrees outside, and even a little muggy.  She just was not happy about getting sprinkled on.

McKinley, of course, was more like Maddox in her love of the rain.  The two of them had the time of their lives out there.  The only difference between them was that McKinley just has to make everything into a musical that she is the star of, and then she's good to go.  She spent the whole time outside dancing around singing her heart out, while posing for the camera every few seconds and begging me to record her performance.  (Don't worry, I won't post the 4+ minutes I got of her made-up rendition of singing in the rain, but she loves to watch it.) 

But I will post this little 30 second clip I got that perfectly shows how different Kennedy and Maddox are from each other.  It shows Kennedy's first try in actually trying to "splash" in a puddle, and it's great. It totally sums up the two of them and their relationship with one another! 

I also should note that I played around with the pictures a bit and colorized them a little, so that's why the colors are different in the video and the pics. I'm telling you, taking that one Photo class on improving snapshots has messed with my mind, and now I want to play with photo stuff all the time (and covet a new camera, of course...because I am an excellent covet-er. ;)  Aaah, I'll just have to play with the pictures on the computer to fix them after they are taken with my mediocre little camera, I guess.  At least I have software to play with, right?