Kids Will Be Kids (with embarrassing pictures)

Last weekend I volunteered with Chicago Cares and helped paint this mural at the McGraw YMCA! It was so much fun! While we were painting this, the kids in the nursery lined up on the little wall that separated the different play rooms and watched us. It brought me back to the things I did as a kid...

(These are all true stories, as accurately as I remember them, and pretty embarrassing, so enjoy!)

When my parents would go to the gym to work out, I would go to the kids center with my brother. I remember bringing my barbie with me as often as I was allowed to because Angelica in The Rugrats always brought her doll names Cynthia with her wherever she went. (I thought I was cool...)

When I would swim in the pool in my grandpa's back yard, I swear every time I would "swim like a mermaid" and pretend I was straight out of The Little Mermaid. Please don't tell me I was the only one who did this.

My brother and I always loved music. I was a singer and he is actually a real life drummer now (playing the guitar in this pic tho!) Click here for his band's (Nodaway) Facebook page! Anyway, we would put on concerts for all of our stuffed animals and sometimes our parents. This is us totally rockin' out! (Don't I look like a young Hayley Williams?)

This was our tree set growing up. Let me tell you, I absolutely wanted to live in this tree house! I think I actually slept in it once ha, wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Right behind the tree house pictured above was "The Forest." This is my brother and I being totally bad ass, toughing it out in the forest behind our house. Let me inform you by saying this forest is one line of trees and bushes separating our back yard from the house behind ours. We felt we were truly in the wild.

This just proves I was always a dog lover. Here I am smothering my Aunt's dog with love. I remember playing tug a war with this crazy pup. She was so strong she would literally pull me across the floor! I'm sure we have a video of it somewhere...

Let me explain two things. First of all, I love fishing (I just don't like touching the fish). Second of all, I love Wisconsin! I think all of my trips to Wisconsin involved me getting one of those hair wraps that I am donning in this picture. I swear I wouldn't go to Wisconsin unless I could get a hair wrap!

So first of all, who doesn't love my fish sweatshirt? If I recall correctly, this was another trip to Wisconsin we took as a family. We were fishing, my brother, Ryan, thought he caught a huge fish and tried ti reel it in. But then he fell into the lake because he actually caught the bottom. Once we recovered him from the lake (within seconds, don't worry) it was actually quite funny.

This is my dad, my two sisters, my brother and I. Seeing this picture reminded me of the Christmas the tree fell on Ryan. (This picture may have preceded that Christmas) (Also, Ryan, sorry many of these stories are revolved around you) We were all relaxing and we heard a crash. I don't remember what he was doing but luckily he wasn't hurt!

My brother and I loved sleep overs! I remember that even though we each had our own rooms, we both slept in my room (I had bunk beds in my room). I would sleep on the top bunk and I remember when I would have nightmares, I would jump from the top bunk to the bottom bunk, most likely landing on Ryan, and run into my parents room screaming. (Those nightmares mostly involved creepy crawling things)

Now this picture does not help me recall any memories. Actually I saw it and I laughed out loud because I am such an animal lover, yet I don't remember holding that bunny, or where we even got that bunny? What the heck.

I think it is so much fun to think back on the games we used to make up and the fun we used to make out of nothing. If only we kept that creativity as we grew older!