mr. hollow legs and the poor man's playground

we've taken part in a couple of fun family activities recently that, until today, just hadn't made it to the blog.  i've had photoshop tied up with some recent sessions, but now that those are all loaded into their respective galleries, i want to toss these goodies in here while i can. 

my sweet, sweet grandmother (abigail's namesake) and almost all the rest of my mom's side of the family live in the same town (on the same street to be exact) just over an hour from here.  it's just far enough away that we don't get to visit with them as often as we'd like, but it's close enough that we're able to steal away from birmingham for a few hours when we've got a free day to head to "relative road".  i mentioned to my mom a couple of weeks ago that we might run to meme's the next day, and we were thrilled when she made her weekly trip down there a day early so that she could join us.

if you'll notice in the picture above, meme is cracking up at jack holding all the tangerines that his little arms can handle.  well, there's a story behind that giggle...

for ages now, my mom has made muffins for the kids each and every time she's seen them.  coming to birmingham for a visit?  she arrives with a bag of muffins.  meeting in trussville for a quick bite?  she's got muffins.  having us up to her and my dad's house in gadsden?  you got it -- muffins.  i'm worried for my mom's sake that it's actually gotten a bit out of control, though, because not only does she continually make those yummy goodies, but now she's taking orders.  there's currently a rotating schedule of chocolate, pumpkin, and banana muffins -- or something like that.  actually, i'm the wrong one to ask about the arrangement.  jack, on the other hand, could explain the process in great detail.

when nanny gave him the muffins for this trip, he carried them around the house like a newborn baby.  he held them, cradled them, and i'm pretty sure i heard him whisper "i love you so much" a time or two. 

then he went all cannibalistic and he ate 34 of them.

lunch was a sight to be seen with his consuming every bite on his plate in addition to half of what was on other people's plates and a good portion of what was left on the table.  seriously people, the boy can eat his whole body weight in food in one sitting. izzy did manage to rescue one cup of pudding from his feeding frenzy, but she was happy to give it a home in her belly.

the event that is known as "jack at mealtime" has far-reaching influence.  my dad even drove in from gadsden to see the spectacle.  (ok, that really had nothing to do with it.  he just couldn't stand the thought of missing out on seeing the grandbabies.)

with all that eating going on, there's got to be some balance with good exercise.  bethany and bailey come over for lunch each sunday after church with their little ones, and now that the weather is hinting at warming up a bit, the kids love to play outside.

well............................

that gets really interesting when you've got one swingset torn down (wal-mart doesn't build 'em like they used to)...

...one swingset that has yet to be put together (that we bummed from some friends)...

...and four large trees down across the whole yard.

 

but do not fear, my faithful blog readers.  the crouch girls are a couple of really smart cookies when we put our heads together.  the original swingset might have been lying in a mangled heap on the other side of the yard, but the ladder and slide were as good as new.  all we needed was a little elevation.  hmmmm?  how about a tree?  i happen to know where you can find a couple of those...

 

the little ones each waited in line for a turn...  

...and then slid down happily on the other side.  the whole setup worked like a well-oiled machine.

  

bethany has some sort of weird twisty-slide adoration disorder, and she couldn't stand the idea of not taking advantage of the perfectly good twisty slide that laid just twenty feet away (never mind that it wasn't actually attached to anything).

 

so after some really creative maneuvering, we had a second slide up and running.  now think through the physics of this situation with me.  when the slide is screwed into a playset several feet into the air, a child would theoretically make a gentle descent downward and out of the mouth of the slide.  unfortunately, we didn't have the luxury of such elevation, so the kids had to climb up the first curve of the slide...

...and then they were kind of vomited out at the bottom. 

 

ahhhh, it's never dull around here.  oh, and by the way, if you're thinking that all of this old-fallen-trees-across-the-yard business doesn't sound very safe, we had the fire marshal here to inspect.

she approved us, but josh and bailey cleared the yard the next weekend just in case.  now we're the proud owners of permanent tree impressions in the grass (guess that's what happens when you leave the trees down for around three months or so).