Summer Hire

You know how some companies have special categories of employees for certain seasons. Like toy stores need more help at Christmas and pools need lifeguards for the summer and H & R Block need help at tax time?? Our Jessa has become quite the hiring (and firing) queen around here.

I had one of my famous Scavenger Hunts in order to give them some fun summertime play items. It was a grand hunt. Mimi and Poppy were visiting for the week and I even made Mimi a clue! She was sitting on the front porch. I took her picture:

And then when the kids got to a certain clue, they turned it over and knew that Mimi had the next picture! It was pretty fun and I think that Mimi LOVED being such an integral part of the hunt.

The last clue sent them to the backyard to find a cornucopia of fun for the summer. I bought them jump ropes, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, hula hoops, water guns, new crayons and markers, you know a bunch of cool stuff to play with as we begin this awesome summer break. They were thrilled with the goodies, and I was pretty proud because most of them were not even that expensive!

Anywho, we ended up out in the front yard playing with all their loot. We were outside ALL DAY long. We were all hot and sweaty and we smelled brassy, but I guess that is what outside summer fun about, right?

Jessa's favorite item was the jump rope. She had asked me for one several times, so I knew she would love it. They worked on jumping rope in PE. (I only said "jumping rope" for Momma, I always say "jump roping" and she makes fun of me. . .)

At first she was not real good at it. The rope was a little different, and she was not used to it. And I swear it was at least 200 degrees (or 86, you know, whatever). So she decided that she needed 2 people to (as Mimi calls it) "throw it" for her. So Mimi and I were her first choice. We stand up and start "throwing it," and she gets tripped up. After a few failed attempts, my sweet child looks me right in the eye and says, "Mommy, you're fired." Watch out Donald Trump! This Ice Princess can fire her mother without even flinching. And then she turns to Poppy, who was minding his own business and says, "Poppy, you're hired." So what does her devoted great grandfather do? Yep, he quickly took my place.

Now in the meantime, Spencer is playing with the water guns and blowing bubbles and just doing his own thing. He was not even paying us much attention. So after Jess decided that Poppy was doing an even worse job "throwing" the rope than I did, she promptly fired him and rehired me. Spencer looked up and realized that now Poppy was back on the front porch in the chair. And I got so tickled when I heard Spencer say to Pop so matter-of-factly, "What happened Poppy? She fire you?" And Poppy said, "Yep." Luckily for her, we never take it personally.

Throughout the day, more potential employees stopped by. David was given a trial run as a "rope thrower." Thankfully, he did not quit his day job because his tour of duty was short lived. Bay was deemed a good rope thrower. And at one point, I was jumping and saying a rhyme and silly Bay tried to jump in. We are not quite ready for that, I don't think! But it got a great laugh anyway.

But what a fun day playing outside. May and Bay were there toward the end of the day. Mimi, Poppy, both kiddos, David, and I were all there. We even had a good friend from David's work stop by. There were neighborhood kids who played off and on, too. It was the perfect summer evening. All of us sitting outside, enjoying the weather, having cool drinks and laughing until we cried. I sure do love spending time with all my family and making fun memories. I hope to have countless other evenings just like that as my babies grow up. Well, that is if Jessa does not fire any of us permanently. . .