Busted. So Busted.

It's all fun and games until you try to drive past a playground with a toddler in the car. Fortunately, I only try to do exactly that TWICE A DAY EVERY DAY OMG ::HEADEXPLODE::

Sooooo ... Alexis goes to a summer camp. The summer camp happens to be located right next to the football field where we spend hours and hours for cheerleading practice in the summer, which happens to be right next to the playground where Mila plays away the hours of cheerleading practice. Mila isn't dumb; she immediately recognized the playground and was very clear about what she thought should happen on Day One.

Day One was super disappointing for her. So was Day Two. The disappointment was containable, though, because I was able to drop Alexis off and pick her up without Mila getting out of the car.

Day Three, though. HOOBOY.

Day Three led to a change in the pickup process. Said change meant that instead of pulling up and having Alexis jump in the car, I had to get out of the car and go fetch her. Thus, Mila had to get out of the car. Do you know what happens when a toddler finds herself in the wild and sees a playground that she loves?

That girl is FAST. That's what I'm saying.

Mila's feet barely touched the ground before she made eye contact with the slide and began flying towards it. I took off in pursuit, but I was wearing work shoes. Tiny people wearing comfy shoes are WAY faster than grown women in heels. A running tackle was involved, you guys.

The logical thing to do, of course, was to let Mila play. So we did. I fetched Alexis (with a screaming Mila thrown over my shoulder because she completely disagreed that we should take Alexis with us to the playground), and we spent half an hour playing.

All was well.

And then came Day Four.

The second I picked Mila up from daycare, she started in. "Playground?" she asked sweetly. Sweet turned into assertive turned into demanding turned into "DAMMIT, WOMAN. I SAID PLAYGROUND. DO MY BIDDING." There's a ten-minute drive that separates Mila's daycare from Alexis' camp and Mila spent every second of that ten minutes reminding me that she wanted to go to the playground so she could slide and swing and all of the things.

I told her "yes" the first time she said it. I swear. I also told her "yes" the next 5000000 times she said it. Apparently, however, that's not enough for Little Miss because she would not stop talking. She was so busy talking about the playground, I think she was forgetting to breathe. I can't be sure, though, because I kinda sorta stopped bothering to pay attention.

Ummmm ... you guys. YOU GUYS. A few minutes after I gave up on trying to make the beast understand that I was going to let her have her way, she suddenly turned silent. The pause gave me pause, so I tuned in mentally.

"You hear me, mom?" Mila asked.

MY TWO-YEAR-OLD CALLED ME OUT FOR NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO HER.

I'm so screwed with this one.

Not My Favorite Game

The first summer that Mila was allowed near a pool, she was all of the unsure about it. She maybe liked it, but then she hated it, and why would anyone want to hang out in THAT water? There are perfectly good bathtubs in the house, so why venture into the giant one out in the yard? She sometimes managed to have fun thanks to the joy that is a big sister, but I wouldn't say the pool was ultimately her favorite.

As the sun woke from its long winter nap, it became pool time again this year. Alexis lives in the pool all summer long, so she was in there swimming long before it seemed like a good idea. Blue lips and chattering teeth are how she shows she's having a good time, I suppose. Mila waited for the water to be a bit warmer, so there's your answer about which one of them has more common sense.

Once it was legit hot outside, it didn't take long for Mila to begin insisting she wanted to go in the pool. It became a nightly occurrence, which was fine except for the fact that her idea of "go in the pool" was "go in the pool and get right back out." It was taking longer to get her changed into a swimsuit than it was for her to be done with the pool itself.

Until we bought her a water cannon.

She can't fill it herself, so the preferred routine is for you to fill it for her, hand it to her, and then let her shoot you in the face. Once she's done blasting you in the face, you're supposed to fill it again.

There is exactly one person who finds this game as fun as Mila does.

Big sisters are superheros, man. They really are.

Grilled Peanut Butter and Apple Sandwiches

Summuh-summuh-summuh-time! That was the theme of our weekend as we spent every possible moment doing outdoor stuff like gardening and swimming and grilling.

HOOBOY, the grilling. There was all of the grilling.

Somewhere between the veggie dogs and corn on the cob, Alexis requested that we do the Grilled Asparagus and Fontina thing, which was a most excellent idea because yep.

Those sandwiches are so good.

I was a little low on cheese, though, so there was some improvising so that I could have enough sandwiches to go around.

The girls and I have been crushing grilled peanut butter sandwiches for the past several months. We have made them with jelly, honey, bananas, Nutella, and basically every single possibility you can imagine. It's our lazy Saturday lunch, but don't tell anyone it's lazy because they don't need to know.

We hadn't tried any of our concoctions on the actual grill, though. We'd been sticking to a skillet.

USING A GRILL MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER, YOU GUYS.

That magic on the right side there is apples. Granny Smith apples, to be exact. They're sliced thin and grilled before they're thrown on some grilled peanut butter bread.

AND THEY ARE AMAZING.

You should try them.

Grilled Peanut Butter and Apple Sandwiches

1. Thick slice a good quality bread. I went with a french bread that had a soft crust, but you do what works for you.

2. Slather peanut butter on the insides of both pieces of bread and slather butter on the opposite sides of the bread. Except, slather the peanut butter a little more generously than the butter. Like, go crazy with peanut butter.

3. Thinly slice your Granny Smith apples and spray them lightly with a nonstick spray or coat them with butter or do something so they don't stick to your grill. I went with melted butter because there's never enough butter.

4. Put the bread butter-side down on the grill and heat until you have most excellent little brown lines.

5. Grill the apples, too. Flip them when they start to lightly brown on the first side.

6. Assemble! You should end up with:

- Grilled butter side of the bread
- Bread
- Peanut butter
- Apple slices
- Peanut butter
- Bread
- Grilled butter side of the bread

Also, happiness. You should end up with happiness.