The upside of rainy days.

Mondo puddles!

After the many days cooped up inside, weathering the storms that have ravaged the South this week, tonight we decided to make the most out of the perpetual sogginess. We went over to a nearby park that has wide open fields, hoping for some serious mud and puddle action. We were not disappointed. As per usual, my expectations were reversed...instead of freaking about a drop of water on her shirt (her norm), Elizabeth was beside herself with the prospect of getting dirty ("Getting dirty is fun!"). Judah's excitement, on the other hand, waned at the thought of actually stepping in a puddle. He did catch on eventually, though I'm sad to say my visions of mud-covered children were were never realized. They were both content to make pretty polite splashes, which was kind of sad. I'm hoping to make this a Memphis storm tradition, so maybe the more we do it the more they'll warm up to it.

Elizabeth's Before/Clean Picture:

 The After-She-Fell-Down-in-a-Puddle Pictures:



That was the anticlimactic extent of the damage.

And here's Judah right when we first got out there, saying "Ewww!"

 Warming up to it....

Or maybe not. Here he's saying "Noooooo" because I asked him to jump.

Now he's saying "Hold you!" [which means "Hold me!"]

I really, really like this kid.

And this one.

I told you she was excited.

We took a walk around a pond and found some dirt piles, which I have to assume were left there just for toddlers (and daddies) to play on.

Hooray! A successful scaling of the dirt mountain!

Big muscles. Love how Judah is looking at his sister for a how-to.

 Dancing...or something.

 I discovered a little too late that the flash might not have been a terrible thing to use at that time of night.



Fun evening capitalizing on saturated Memphis!