I love the library!

I took the kids to the library the other day, and this is what happened within 5 minutes of getting home.

And where is Parker, you ask? No, not reading. I didn't get him his own books because he shares everyone else's. Here he is, cooling off with a cup of ice. Now I have to ask the grandmas, "Know who he gets this from?"=>

Playing Farmer With Dad

Shane has been promising the boys that they could come and drive the tractor with him. Well, the day finally arrived and the boys were bouncing off the ceiling. Parker just kept saying, "I go ride the tracko!"





They were so excited to get in and out that I didn't really get a good picture of them altogether, so these will have to do.

Snuggle Up!

I came downstairs the other morning to find this:

It was a little cold in the house, and Luke was helping the younger two to keep warm. I believe they were also pretending to be baby cats. Luke likes to pretend that he is a baby animal of some sort, and Tanner likes to play it with him. Parker was just lucky that they were in a good mood and allowed him to join the fun.

My Art Gallery and Beautiful Tree

I have been wondering for the whole school year why I wasn't seeing more artwork come home. We have pretty high property taxes here, and I know that the schools use some of that to do some fun stuff in their art classes, but I wasn't seeing any of it. Well, enter the last two days of school, and here comes the art work home. I feel somewhat like an art gallery now.


On another note, I have a tree that is flowering and just beautiful. It didn't flower last year, that I remember, and I am excited to share it's pictures. It's wonderful!

Dissed!

I'm sitting here, trying to blog, and Parker comes up to me, asking for marshmallows. I know, I should be getting him to ask for fruit, but some days you do what you can. Anyway, I pucker my lips and tell him that I'll get him one if he gives me a kiss. His exact word was, "NO!", followed by several more as he walked away. Less than a minute later he comes back, and says, very disgruntled, "All right" and gives me a kiss. How's that for gratitude?

Ali Baba Temple of the Shrine - Circus

Every time I hear the Shriner's name, I think of the Ray Stevens song found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPdlhcyxiyE (I know, I should be able to make this so you can click on it and go there, but I'm not the techno savy yet. You'll just have to cut and paste if you care to see it.) This is just one of the many new things that Shane has introduced me to since we've been married. And if you like this song, you ought to try listening to The Pirate Song or The Mississippi Squirrel song. Funny stuff!

Well anyway, one of our neighbors gave us some tickets, so I took the kids to the Shrine Circus. This was the first time it has been back in our city since 1971. All I can say is this: The kids had fun, and it was Ok for a freebie, but I don't think I'd pay to see it again. It was a little on the cheesy side. They had some trained pigs, (yes, pigs), a balancing act, a clown act, a couple of guys doing slapstick that my boys just loved, (probably becuase it had to do with them slapping, hitting, tripping, tooting, and making fun at each other), an elephant, a hula hooper (who was having a hard time because of the wind), a balancing act, and a couple that did a cool costume changing routine inside fabric tubes. You would have to see it to know what I mean by that, but it was cool. Anyway, here are some pictures:


Like I said at first, I was OK for a freebie, and the kids really enjoyed it, but I don't know if it would be worth buying tickets to next year. Maybe our neighbor will give us more tickets next year. We'll have to wait and see.

Last Day of School

Well, it's that time of year again, and I'm not sure whether to be happy, or like Parker in the picture above. I like having my children home for the summer, but on the other hand, they get on each other's nerves, and therefore mine, all summer. I've got to come up with a winning solution before we all go crazy. The kids are very excited, but also sad, that this day has come.


Tanner's last day of preschool was yesterday, and boy did he have a day! They went to the park, had ice cream sandwiches, went back to school, had more treats, got presents from their teacher, and got to play all day. The other kids got play days as well as assemblies today. And their backpacks came home chuck full of all the stuff that goes with cleaning out your desk or locker. And Mom is usually the one that has to sort it out, throw it away or save it, or put it away. Yeah, Me!!!

We are excited to have a little break, and the kids are excited about sleeping in, especially Kaitlin. This from the girl that used to wake us up at 6 o'clock every morning when she was little. Now she'd sleep til noon if we let her. Now we are just going to swim in the pool, do the summer reading program at the library, weed the garden and have cleaning chores each day, and look forward to seeing our family at family reunions this summer.

I want one, too!!

How fun does that look? That might be easier than lugging my big old bike trailer around. I guess they are giving a couple away this summer, and if you want to enter to win one, just click on the picture.

Officially Binky Free

A few weeks ago, Shane forgot to put Parker to bed with his binky. I don't think he could find it, so he gave Parker a couple of books and some trucks, and Parker eventually fell asleep, sans binky. Well, since he didn't complain that night, I tried it the next day, for nap and bed time. Same result. About a week to week and a half later, he tried climbing under his crib to look for his binky, but came out saying, "I no no where is!" and shrugging his shoulders. I said I didn't know either, and put him to bed. I kept waiting for the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when he didn't get his binky, but it never came. So, today, after several weeks of hiding the binkies in my room, "just in case," they went into the garbage when Parker wasn't looking, never to return. Hallejuah!!!

Fatty McFat-Fat

The days have been getting warmer, and the house hotter and hotter. I have been leaving the windows open at night to cool things off. The other morning it was only 64 degrees in the house, which felt wonderful to me. Josh was a little cold, and this was the result.


He had at least 4 sweaters on, a sweatshirt, and a couple of other shirts. It was all we could do to take them off when he warmed up, which was not until about noon. As you can see, he couldn't quite put his arms to his side, but that didn't stop him from playing, dressed like this, all morning.

Track-kos and chrains

Parker has been in big vehicle heaven lately. He loves the trains, and he loves the tractors that are now out planting. Everywhere he goes, he's on the lookout and yells when he sees one. It goes like this: " chrains, chrains, chrains, chrains!!!!" until you answer, "Yes, Parker, there's a train." Or "track-ko, track-ko, track-ko" until you say, "Yes, Parker, there's a tractor." Dad has promised that as soon as he is able, he will take Parker for a ride on the tractor at work. We went to visit him one day at work, and Tanner and Parker didn't want to leave the tractor. They got to go inside and push buttons, and were in absolute little boy heaven. We were going through clothes that have been in storage to pull out summer clothes, and found this shirt. As you can guess, he loves it.

Guys and Dolls

You may have noticed that Kaitlin hasn't been in any posts lately. That is because she hasn't been home lately. The middle school here does a musical at the end of the year, and between practices for that and for softball, she hasn't been getting home until 7:30 or 8 every night. She has been a very busy lady! The musical this year was Guys and Dolls, and she had a speaking part as part of the mission army. Here it is. You see her move to the middle, but she is blocked by others as she gives her part. I was in the wrong place to be able to see her. She really had a good time, and is looking forward to participating next time.

Diggin' for Worms, and a Baby Bunny

This year we finally got a spot marked off for a garden, and Shane sprayed it last week to kill the grass. It's about dead now, and hopefully we have a friend coming tonight or tomorrow to roto-till for us. If we don't get it planted soon, we won't have time to get the veggies all grown, so this is now starting to have some urgency. There were a couple of spots where pavers were laid down by the old owners in this area, so I spent the morning pulling them up to get ready for the tiller. Parker and Tanner were helping with the shovel, trying to help me pry them up, until they realized what was underneath.


I didn't realize it until later, after I'd pulled up all three areas with pavers, that Parker was carrying his worms around in his little clenched fists. Poor things were probably good and squished by the time he was done with them. Tanner kept wanting to find the "baby" worms. They even showed their catches to our neighbor, who said he didn't like worms because "they are dirty." I was thinking, "Hello, the two boys holding the worms are dirty, can't you see?" They really don't care about touching bugs, worms, dirt; you name it, they touch it. In fact, by the time we got into the house this morning, Parker had to be stripped from the waist down because he was covered in dirt and mud. It was a fun morning.

Before I forget, we also had an unusual visitor last night. As most of you know, we have a cat named Leo. He tends to roam the neighborhood, prefering to be outside now that the weather is good. He is also a pretty good hunter, as evidenced by the dead mice, birds, and even a squirrel that he was left for us to find outside the back door. Well, Luke and Tanner opened the front door last night and this ran in.

The poor little bunny was being chased by Leo, and our opened door provided an escape portal, until Leo followed him in. At first, Luke yelled that a rat had run into the house, and which point I was going to let Leo catch him and kill him. Then Luke said that it had big ears and might be a baby bunny, so I had to pull Leo off and have Luke take him to the garage while Kaitlin came to catch the little thing. She was only there because I was a big chicken, and just in case Luke was wrong, and it was a mouse, she was going to have to catch the vermin that her cat had chased in. How's that for bravery? Call the 12 year old to catch the might-be mouse. I must be getting whimpy in my old age. Anyway, she was able to catch the poor thing and let him go outside, where Leo proceded to catch him again a couple of hours later. He didn't kill it: Shane was there to save the day, but he got a better bite that time because you could hear it screaming. Hopefully the bunny will be smart enough to stay away this time. The third time might be the charm for Leo

Robot Day

Last month Luke was learning about simple machines in school. At the end of April they had a day where an adult came in with their child and they got to build robots. We saved cans and stuff for weeks in order to get all this parts. Here is Luke's robot.



Shane was able to take his lunch break and go and help Luke construct "Five Eyed Mustache" (Luke's name for him). He is now taking up all the space that Luke has left on his dresser, and then some. I keep asking if he really wants to keep him. Of course, the answer is yes. It's not enough that he is immortalized on blogger for all to see.

Puppy Sitting

This morning as we were getting ready to leave for school, Luke was searching for paper and pencil. I didn't really ask why because we were trying to get out the door and in the car. I found out on the way to school why he needed them. He was writing instructions for Tanner on how to take care of his "puppy" while he was at school. Here they are:



Pretty cute, huh?!