Flashback Friday on Tuesday

This was our back yard in Kentucky.  Very small, all cement, had a storage closet, but it was fenced in!  The sand box was a loaner.  Really the only time we spent here was for the sandbox or as you can see - sidewalk chalk.  I could leave the back door open and leave the boys playing there a few minutes while I got something done in the kitchen.  I guess you don't need a lot of space to scoot around when you're not quite two!  If our back yard was small, our front yard was ginormous!  We shared it with all our fellow townhouse dwellers - it must have been bigger than a football field (no exaggeration)!  Yesterday, I asked the boys what their earliest memories were and M's was the front yard in Kentucky.  He must have spent a lot of time there or really liked it!  I look back on it and can't believe I let him play out there by himself!  Well, not quite by himself - there were many older kids out watching and playing, probably a Mom or two and at least a dozen pair of eyes watching out the windows that all faced that big green yard.

M. was either on a bike, or doing something ornery with his best friend, D.  L. spent lots of time pulling kids way bigger than him around in wagons!  It was in that yard that kids were playing when we returned from the library and M. proudly announced to everyone "See, we got Thomas.com!" when referring to the Thomas the Tank Engine books we had gotten.

Every kid loves the box most of all right?  I had to show off L's snazzy Clifford shoes.  It seems both boys wore water shoes around for every day kind of things when they were little.  Now they don't even wear their water shoes to the pool.  Go figure.  I think these shoes were found at a garage sale.   More clothing anecdotes below.  L's pajamas were the kind that the top snapped to the bottom.  I loved those!

This was typical of M. age 3- 4, he's watching a video and drinking "pink" milk (aka strawberry flavored).  For the longest time we couldn't figure out what the pink dots on the lining of the van ceiling were.  After watching closely, we noticed the sippy cups the boys used in the car were the kind with the straw that you flipped a cover over.  Every time they unflipped the cover, the straw popped up a splattered pink milk all over.  Lovely.  Sippy cups were the good 'ole days.  Pink milk made an impression on family too - they were always kind to pick up some of the flavoring before we'd visit.  Their uncle even asked last year before we went to his house if the boys were still drinking pink milk. (They take it plain or chocolate now!)

If L. is watching the video in this picture you can't tell.  It looks like he's just trying to be near his brother.  Likely he was past exhausted and should have already been put in bed!