This week...

We're back to school! We had meet the teacher night last Thursday August 19th, and the first day was this Monday August 23rd. Tanner is 3rd grade and Grace is 1st grade. Both of their teachers seem awesome and they like them a lot. They have both had wonderful weeks. Tanner had homework every night but not Grace. I guess hers doesn't start until next week.

Oh, and we have a temporary house guest :-)

CJ caught him last night down at the little lake in our subdivision. He is clearly someone's pet that either escaped or they got tired of taking care of him and let him go. I've sent out a mass e-mail to everyone in our subdivision to see if anyone claims him, but if not Monday I'm hoping he'll have a good home as a part of Weatherford ISD. He's pretty big (I think). His body is about 16" or so and tail and all he's somewhere around 3 feet long. He's pretty friendly. He pretty much just let CJ catch him. As you can see he is living in our dog kennel until he gets a real home. The dog is very confused by the whole situation. haha

Have a great weekend!! We have baseball tryouts on saturday but a pretty slow weekend otherwise. Enjoy!

What happened to May?

Field Day at school: Here is a pic of Tanner doing the obstacle course. In most events the class participates as a whole and which ever class has all the students finish the event first wins. Tanners class did well and I think finished in the top 3 in all 5 events. Tanner did exceptionally well in the 50 yard (or however long it was) dash. He was the #2 boy in his class and he was the best wiffle ball hitter.

Here is Grace winning the 50 yard dash for her class. I felt bad because they take all the #1 finishers from all the classes and put them in a final race. Well, Grace's class was the last one to race so as soon as she won her race she had to go right back to the starting line and race again. She finished last in the final race but I'm blaming it on she had to run two races back to back and all the rest of the girls got to rest! :0)

We finished up spring baseball in May. Tanner's team did very well despite a terrible mid-season slump where they lost 5 in a row. That was awful. But they came back strong and finished third in their division. Way to go Angels. This pic is CJ pitching and Tanner hitting.
Honestly, I'm not sure how Grace's team finished in their division. Middle of the pack I assume. Half way through the season Grace told me she wasn't going to play baseball next year because it was boring. I said, "you mean you aren't having any fun?" she replied "the snacks are the funnest part." hahahaha. She has come back around though and may play again in the fall, we'll see. She will still be T-ball but Tanner will move up to Mustang (first level kid pitch) in the fall.

The kids both earned awards at school this year. I was so proud of them both. Grace got certificates for great handwriting and mastering all kindergarten math skills, a Terrific Kids award, and a ticket to Six Flags for their reading program. Tanner got a certificate for an "A" on every spelling test, the Terrific Kids award, and a ticket to Six Flags for their reading program. Tanner also got a medal for A/B Honor Roll, and they BOTH received the Presidents medal for their class for being outstanding citizens.

Grace's kindergarten music program was right at the end of the school year. It was a jungle theme and she wanted to be a lion....ROAR!
And to top off the month we went on our 2nd annual Memorial Day camping trip. 5 super fun families (10 adults and 10 kids from 3-9yrs), and 3 birthday celebrations: Erin 8, Grace 6, Hayden 6 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

We are so blessed with a small group of GREAT friends. Life is good.

What is up with today's discipline system?

My wonderful, generally well-behaved son has been threatened with ISS twice in two weeks. Mind you, with his class discipline card still on green. Here's how it works: Cards start off white and everytime you do something wrong they change, to green, then yellow, then orange, then red. When you hit red you are sent to the principle's office. Tanner is white/green kind of kid. (and honestly green is only maybe once a week, if that)
Week before last he got in trouble because he was sitting around with two other boys giggling under their breath and singing the words to the "I like big butts and I cannot lie" song. One of the boys had the words written down (and not all the correct words mind you - an 8 year old interpretation). Mrs. Adkins made Tanner copy them and bring them home to me. When confronted he didn't even know most of the words and he certainly didn't understand the undertone of the song. To him it was just a song about big butts and that was funny. Well, of course it's funny! He's 8, it has a catchy tune, and it's a song about big butts. Duh. Appropriate, no. Funny for an 8 year old, yeah. Mrs. Adkins said if he sang it again it would land him in ISS.
Then Tuesday he comes home with a discipinary note (his card was on green for the day still) that said he had been asked several times lately by the teacher supervising recess not to run down the slide. His excuse was just that he couldn't remember (which is a sorry excuse). She said if he did it again maybe a trip to ISS would jog his memory. What? Really? That's an appropriate punishment for that? I realize running down the slide is not acceptable behavior, and that when given instructions by a teacher he should follow them, period. But really, ISS is the right solution for that? What happened to losing your recess for a couple of days, and doing something really sucky like cleaning the chalk boards, or scrubbing the floor, or something?
I just don't get it. Maybe some of my teacher friends can give me some insight. My memory of ISS when I was in school was that only the "really bad" kids went there. I mean you had to be throwing punches or something, and honestly I don't even remember there being ISS in elementary school. A good friend said to me, "if that's what you throw at them for minor stuff, what do you do when they really do something bad? What is there for them to be afraid of?" That's all I'm saying.

Then this morning I saw this posted on a friend from Indiana's FB:
"saw the best thing ever today! There was a middle school-aged child holding a sign on the side of the road that said "I am a THIEF! I stole rings and $130 from my MOTHER!" What looked to be his dad was standing a few feet away. This was on the side of Raceway Rd during rush hour. I thought it was awesome!"

What ever happened to stuff like this? I'm sure that this made much more of an impact on this kid than corporal punishment, or grounding, or taking his favorite things would have. Who knows, those things might have come in conjunction with that, but all I'm saying is that is classic! We need more of stuff like that!

I've been struggling with whether I should call his teacher and let her know that this has really been bothering me or just let it go. It's almost the end of the school year and I know he won't do it again. Hmmm.

Frazzled

Seriously, can't keep up. I feel like I'm about to be in the middle of a complete emotional meltdown but I'm trying to hang on. CJ is equally as frazzled as me. We have GOT to sell our house. The contract with our current realtor was up today. We decided not to relist with him and I'm going to go on a search for a new realtor this week. I have taken several hundred pictures over the last couple of weeks and don't have a minute to upload them. I've been very busy with the mowing business. Switching schedules around. Calling people to confirm. Trying to figure out how exactly to pay a real employee because now we have one. (I have to figure that out by thursday.)
The kids baseball schedule is about to kill me and CJ both. CJ desperately needs to work a normal day but 3 or 4 days a week he has to quit at 4:00 to be at practice or a game. The work load is piling up. People are getting frustrated.
Last week Grace was home Tuesday and Wednesday with a mystery fever. Thursday both kids had practice. Friday I was running errands in Forth Worth and they called wanting to show the house. Can you say, "um, no." Why? Because it's a disaster! I have 3 kids and a very busy life. I can run around like a mad woman and make it presentable in 2 hours, but you can't call me at 11:45 and want to show it at 1:00!! I can't even get back home in that amount of time. And, I don't care what anybody says. There is no way possible I can live my life in such a manner that would demand that my house be spotless 100% of the time before I walk out the door to go do anything. Can't do it. Feel really bad that I had to say no, but I guess they didn't want to see it that bad. I told them they could come after 4:00 or anytime over the weekend but they never called back. We desperately need to move but oh well. It's all I can do.
Friday night Tanner had a game down in Glen Rose. We scored 5 runs in the first inning and then lost 11-6. Can you guess how mad CJ was?!?! Smokin'. Not because we lost. Because we lost because they were playing like 4 year olds. Seriously, some of the kids on Grace's team could field the ball and throw it to first base better than they were doing it. It was ugly. Saturday we spent 5 hours at the ballpark for two games. Tanner's team lost again but they played much better. I have no idea if Grace's team won or lost. Is that sad? It doesn't matter. It's tee-ball. I love tee-ball. They're all so cute.
After Grace's game we headed to Becky and Otis's house to help them build a covered deck area for their pool. Had a sleep over and finished it on sunday. Glad we got started on saturday or it would be incomplete at this point. It's super cute though and I can't wait to help her hold it down this summer!
Did I mention that sometime saturday evening my allergies kicked into high gear? Today I feel exhausted, achy, stuffy, and just plain miserable. Oh, and instead of resting tomorrow I get to go to the Zoo with Grace's kindergarten class and then to Tanner's baseball game tomorrow night. Ugh.
I hate that I feel like this. I am generally an almost annoyingly optimistic, happy person. I just can't find my happy place right now.

Victory!

The cake turned out great. I know you can't tell from the picture but this is a GIANT cake. 16 inches square and two layers tall. Once I got it on the cake board I almost couldn't fit it in the refrigerator. Had to take apart part of the shelf on the door of the refrigerator. Note to self: Can't make cakes any bigger than this. And Grace's team won their game on saturday 20-19. And to top it all off had a wonderful time helping Becky celebrate her birthday. Went to a wonderful Mexican restraunt (fancy mexican not Don Pablos mexican), then went and saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D which was good, but nothing was better than the company!

Grace doesn't have a game now for two weeks, but Tanner has two this week. I'll let ya know how they go. Have a GREAT week!

Whew! Today was a long day!

Had big plans and they got all messed up but still had a decent day. Was supposed to have Stamp Camp today but Tanner woke up with a fever and crying that his throat hurt. An $80 Dr visit and a $40 Rx later we have confirmation of strep throat. Yuck!
Was supposed to pick up some ribbon for a cake on the way to Stamp Camp and that couldn't be put off so drug the sick kid to the store so I could get it.
Picked Grace up from school.
Then the fun really started. Grace's game was from 6pm-7pm. They did not play so well tonight. Lost 20 to 13 and that's only because the coach on the other team let us hit until we got our 5 runs in the last inning. Yah for good sportsmanship and letting the 5 yr olds just play and have a good time.
Then we had Tanner's game from 7:30-9pm. I was going to bring all the kids back home after Grace's game but Tanner begged to stay and watch his team. I made him stay away from his friends (and all other people for that matter) and told him if he would sit by me he could watch the game. The team played really well. They won 14-6. Go Angels! Got home at like 9:40pm, grabbed a bite to eat and put everyone to bed.
Now I'm relaxing, and blogging (are you proud?). I think CJ's asleep on the couch. He's supposed to be watching the NCAA basketball games he recorded today but it didn't last long.
Hopefully tomorrow there will be more. I am putting the finishing touches on a cake, Grace has another game and then I'm going to help a GREAT friend celebrate her birthday. What a great day it will be!

Determined to be a better blogger

I've been telling myself that for months now, but I'm serious. I'm not going to have any idea what happened in 2009 when I go to scrapbook it and I'm not going to let that happen to 2010 too! So, what's up?
Well, Morgan's fully potty trained. WooHoo! For about 3 weeks now. His little buddy Payton started using the toilet and that's all he seemed to need. We had been trying for a couple of weeks and he was doing very well going pee but #2, that was a different story. He knew when he had to go. He just wouldn't. I was getting very frustrated and one day, after Morgan pooped in his underwear, CJ said "That's it. You're done. You know when you have to go and there's no reason for you not to use the toilet." Then he took his blankey away from him and hung it with a thumbtack on the wall outside the bathroom just high enough that Morgan couldn't reach it (sounds cruel I know). He told Morgan he could have it back as soon as he pooped in the potty, and that's all she wrote. He wasn't allowed to nap with it that day and he wasn't allowed to take it to bed that night. And the next morning he pooped in the potty. AMAZING. The day after that he said, "poop in the potty not in my underwear because CJ take my blankey." haha He was so cute, and we've not had an accident since. Whatever works right?
Tanner and Grace have started baseball. CJ is coaching Tanner's team this year. Grace has the same coach she had in the fall. They both had their first games last night and both teams won. Yeah!
We made a trip to the dentist yesterday and got sealants put on Tanner's permanent molars, and Grace got 2 cavities filled. She did really well. They gave her an injection to numb her jaw and the whole left side of her face was droopy for several hours. Kinda freaked me out because they said "her jaw would be numb for a couple of hours". Well, to me "a couple" is 2-3. And her jaw does not mean the whole side of her face. It looked like she had had a stroke. She was complaining that her eye felt funny and her cheek and mouth were just sagging. She had the procedure done at 3:30 and at 7:30 when her baseball game started her face was still droopy. I was a little paranoid. While she was warming up for her baseball game she said "mommy, I have a goofy smile" I said "did someone tell you that?" she said "no I can feel it!" hehe She was right. By the time she got to bed at 9:30 I could tell it was getting better. I was very relieved. This morning her beautiful little face was perfect again :-)
I guess that's all for now. Have a great week. I'm going to have a very busy one! A big cake to do, Stamp Camp, and 3 baseball games all over the next 3 days. Wish me luck!

Annoyed

I just got an update from our realtor and once again the people made an appointment to come out and see the house didn't show up. Why? Because of animal restriction. REALLY?? WHAT KIND OF ANIMALS DO YOU PEOPLE HAVE?
I'm so annoyed. Annoyed because they didn't come and didn't cancel. Annoyed that it is all over animals. And annoyed that I wasted my whole last day that my mom and dad were here visiting cleaning my house! Grrrrrrrrr

Sorry just had to get that off my chest.

Maybe I'll have something happy to say later.

The whole week of Christmas

let's just say there was no lack of sweet treats. I love to bake and this time of year gives me every opportunity to do so. We made lots of cookies, candies, and pies. I started on Tuesday and made Snickerdoodles and Oatmeal raisen cookies. Morgan asked what I was doing and I explained that I was making cookies for CJ and Papa Dave and he said "make cookies for SANTA?" (with the biggest smile on his face) In a couple of days baby. It's too early to make cookies for Santa right now. "Make cookies for ME?" hahahahaha Honey they're all for you, they're all for everyone. These just happen to be CJ and Papa Dave's favorite. :0) My funny boy.


We made more cookies on Wednesday and then on Thursday we made cookies for Santa. My kids love to help me cook and I love that.

It was a good day for cooking and game playing since it was C-O-L-D outside and snowing. The only pitfall was the kids didn't really get to go out and play in it because we had sustained winds of 40 mph and gusts at 50+. I could only take pictures as long as Icould hold my breath. The snow was falling sideways. I'm sure what was coming across our yard finally hit the ground a mile or two down the road. It was crazy. Pretty to watch but hard to go outside and enjoy.

This was the first white Christmas north Texas has had in over 80 yrs. Yeah us! Typically here the wind dies down when the sun goes down so CJ asked the kids to wait and when it was time we all bundled up and went outside. It was still crazy cold but you have to take advantage of it while you can.

Afterwards we came in, warmed up, put on our Christmas Eve jammies and read "Texas Night Before Christmas" which I LOVE - Thanks Aunt Esta! Here's a small excerpt:

Twas the night before Christmas

in the cold wintry fog.

Nary a critter was movin'

nor a lone prairie dog........

There stompin' and snortin'

and pawin' the ground

were eight scroungy longhorns

stampedin' around

In front of a wagon

piled full as could be

with boxes and bundles

as high as a tree.

Then a bellerin' yell

soon set them all straight

From a fat li'l ol ramrod

who put fear in the eight.

Well, they weren't really scairt -

no harm would he cause -

For their longhorn head honcho

was old Santy Claus! .........

He was dressed all in rawhide

with a Stetson on top.

His big Texas boots

hit the floor with a clop.

He shook his great belly

and stomped with each foot,

which knocked off a shower

of mud, ash and soot.

His eyes were both squinty

and his skin was like leather

From too much exposure

to the raw Texas weather.........

He called over the norther

'fore he went out of sight,

Merry Christmas, y'heah?

and y'all have a good night!

Wednesday December 23rd

It might take me a little while to catch up but I want to make sure I start at the beginning. This has been such a wonderful week and holiday. CJ only worked Monday and Tuesday this week and it has been SO nice having him home. He'll have 5 whole days! Wow, I can't even remember the last time that happened. Anyway, Dave and Jan arrived on Tuesday afternoon only to have me warn them that Tanner was throwing up. Yah, yuck. He was better pretty quick though and no one else got it so I guess lucky us.

Wednesday I was minding my own business when Tanner comes in and says "Mom, can I open a present early?" Of course not, we don't do that. "Please if you let me open one I'll let you open one." (Puzzled look on my face) What's going on? "Just come here Mom." So I go out to the living room and there is Dave and CJ and Grace and Tanner with a present for me. Why are you wanting me to open my present early? We don't do that. "Just do it." Hmmm. As I took one swipe of the wrapping paper off tears came streaming down my face. A Canon Rebel XSi. More tears running down my face. CJ says, "I wanted you to have it before we went to the park tonight. I hope you can figure out how to use it before we go." :0) I'm speechless, still bawling my eyes out when I realize that Grace it looking at me mortified because she has no idea why I'm crying. I explain to her "happy tears" and she is better. My sweet girl. I immediately start putting it together and begin to read the instruction manual. Most shots for Christmas are just done on full auto but I did take time on several different occasions to take the same shot on like every setting on the camera just to see what the difference was. I have a lot to learn but I'm excited! I took these shots of the house before we left. For the first shot I think I must need a different lens or I just don't know how to adjust my settings to make it right. I tried it on every setting on my dial and this was the best photo, clearly I'm missing something because....
I really liked this shot from closer in.

We all piled in my truck and went to the park in Granbury just north of the City Hall. It's beautiful this time of year. Well it's beautiful all year long with the river channel running through it, the fountains, trees, bridges and walk paths. Each year at Christmas they wrap every tree and every handrail in the park and put out TONS of christmas lights, figurines, and such. We love to go and take pictures there.

So, from our house to yours we hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday. There will be Christmas Eve and Christmas day pictures coming soon!

Hi Dad and Angel, it's me Staci.

I can't believe it's been almost 3 month since I last blogged. I've had a lot to say just not enough time to say it. I must be better. So sorry.
Well, this past weekend I had a "Christmas Card Completion Day" with friends and it was so much fun! I may have to make it an annual event. I put together a Stampin' Up! kit to make 30 cards for some and others just brought their own stuff and their ideas and created away. We talked and ate and laughed and ate, haha. Thanks to everyone for making it such a wonderful day.
Sunday was a lazy day for CJ and I and we deserved it! Relaxed, watched football, played games with the kids. After they went to bed we got all the presents that I have purchased so far down so we could make a mental inventory of what we still need and I believe that we're done. Except for stocking stuffers of course. Yup, I said it. I'm done. WooHoo!

We have a pretty calm week this week. Nothing planned for the weekend either. Weird huh? What will we do? I'm sure we'll find something.

Tanner was so proud last week - he came home from school with his first chapter book from the library. For those of you who may not know at the beginning of the year they tested him and he only tested at a 1.4 (which means first grade 4th month) so his teacher nominated him for a mentoring program at school. I'm so glad she did. He has come a long way baby in only 3 1/2 months. So to be able to get a chapter book was a really big deal!

Well, I have to get back to work, but I'll try to do more updates soon! Love and hugs!

My busy day

Kids were up at 6:30am, off to school by 7:15. Pick them up from school at 2:45, GymKats from 3:30-5:30pm, baseball practice for Tanner from 6-7:30 and bedtime is supposed to be 8ish. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to squeeze dinner, homework, and showers in there somewhere. Hmmmm.

Well, it's official

if you need me at any time over the next three months I'll be at the baseball field. Tanner practices Mondays and Thursdays, Grace practices Tuesdays and Fridays, and games are scheduled on Saturdays and Mondays. Whew! I'm really not complaining, really. It makes for a very busy life, but I feel like I've been waiting for this my whole life. To be the parent of kids in school. I always had envisoned myself as room mom, president of the PTA, proud booster club parent, working in the conscession stand, and what ever else I could get involved in. It hasn't actually worked out for me that well yet. Honestly, I haven't even gotten to be a room mom yet. Always having little one's at home puts a kink in that, but my day is coming. And I'm looking forward to it.

Also, we've established that even though he reacts very severly to ant bites Morgan is apparently not allergic to bees. At Tanner's baseball practice Tuesday night Morgan was playing in the bleachers and there was a large hornet/wasp (i don't know the difference) nest under the seat and Morgan got stung 4-5 times on the side of his face and around his ear. Poor buddy. It was crazy but he seems to be fine. Nothing that I would consider more than a normal welt from the stings.

And, last but not least, I am offically a new Stampin' Up! demonstrator! Woo Hoo! So if you need any Stampin' Up! stuff or are interested in workshops just let me know!

Check out this fish tale...

CJ and Tanner got to go fishing for about 3-4 hours on saturday morning. They had a great time and caught like 10 or 12 fish including this beauty which CJ says is about a 4 1/2 pounder. Woo Hoo Tanner!

It's only day 3...

and already I'm not allowed to go in with the kids. Tanner says "Mom, can you just drop us off in the front." To which I responded that I still wanted to go in with Grace until she's comfortable with where to meet her teacher and stuff. After a few seconds I hear a tiny little girl voice say, "Mommy, I'm comfortable. I know where to go." Well, OK then.

Here are a few pictures from this past week. Enjoy!

What to do?

Short of duck taping Morgan to the toilet every morning until he goes, I don't know what else to do to make that child poo in the toilet! I have tried everything and I am at a total loss. Aaargh!

By the way, this clearly must be payback for me opening my mouth because just recently I told someone that I never had a problem getting my kids to poo in the toilet and it was hard for me to understand why some people have that issue. This is what I get right?

A whole month really?

I guess it has been that long since I blogged. I'll admit that the immediate gratification from facebook kind of makes me neglect my blog a little bit, but in a couple years when I'm scrapbooking this part of my life I'm going to think "what was going on?" I can't remember and there's nothing written. We have been so busy and yet there's not anything of consequence really. The business is pretty busy right now so that's good. We're finally getting our vehicles to quit breaking down - thank the Lord. My truck is in the shop right now but hopefully this will be the last repair for a while. We just bought a whole bunch of new mowers so hopefully that will save us time and money in the long run - right now I'm just hoping we can afford to make the payments on them! Tanner and Grace are getting excited about going back to school. I'm hoping to finalize our back to school shopping next week. I've decided to try and keep Tanner in GymKats during the fall baseball season. I know - I'm crazy. But he loves it and he's doing so good. All three of the kids are in gymnastics now and I got them enrolled in a class right after school so it won't interfere with baseball practice (I hope) and we won't be out until 8 at night on a school night. I'll cross my fingers it works out. And, we should be putting our house on the market in 6-8 weeks. Whew! I hope it sells quickly. We REALLY need for it to. That's all for now.

On the mend...

after 48 hours and benadryl every 4 hours around the clock (yes, I set my alarm and got up to dose him in the middle of the night - every 4 hours on the nose) the swelling is finally starting to go down. His foot looks so much better than it did just 12 hours ago. His toe isn't purple anymore and his skin doesn't look like it's going to just burst and split everywhere. Can you believe this? From fire ant bites. Really?! Not a whole nest or anything, just 5 or 6. He's got 3 bites on his big toe, two bites between his third and fourth toes, one on the arch of his foot, and one up by his ankle. I'm just so amazed. It's hard for me to believe that he reacts this way. I've got a half dozen bites on my foot too and it's nothing more than an annoying itch. I guess it's no different than someone being allergic to bee stings. For most of us it's just annoying and painful for a little bit, for some it can be life threatening. This is certainly not life threatening, it's never been more than an extreme localized reaction but still. Wow.
And how miserable for me and him to battle over shoes all the time now! I insist he have them on, he yells and screams because he doesn't want them on. *sigh* what a bummer.

I should have known better.

Morgan has reacted badly before, clearly this is now something that has to be watched. This is also why CJ rides my butt about the kids playing outside in flip flops and not "real" shoes. But come on, they were playing on the slip n slide and in the baby pools. You really can't make them do that in tennis shoes or boots. And all the rest of the kids were outside in no shoes or flip flops. Clearly Morgan is not 'the other kids'. The second picture is kind of blurry and doesn't come close to doing it justice but I'm sure you get the picture.
This is 12 hours post (5-6) ant bites.
This is 36 hrs post ant bites: I'm not sure you can clearly see where his skin split on the side of his big toe from the swelling, all the blisters he has where the bites are, and all the nasty oozing gunk. I'm pretty sure he's going to loose almost all skin from his big toe because it is just one giant blister.
Ask me what kind of piece o' crap mom I feel like.

Two posts in less than 12 hours

Don't pass out. Explanations will be short and sweet while I try to catch up but here goes...

Grace's birthday party was a success. We went to Chuck E Cheese. Here's a funny story for ya: I finished Grace's cake (which was decorated according to her specifications "stripes and flowers please", OK) put it in the box, taped the box shut, placed it in the middle of the kitchen table and went to finish the kids goodie bags. I'm almost done, 5 minutes until we leave and I hear screaming from the living room "MOM! MOM! MORGAN'S EATING THE CAKE!"
WHAT?! As I run to the kitchen to find my two year old who had gotten a fork, climbed on top of the kitchen table, ripped open the box and has proceeded to eat the cake with a fork. Now mind you not just a little bit. Apparently the bigger kids did not notice this until he had been at it for several minutes. I freak out, Grace starts crying, I then gather myself and try to assure her it will be OK, everyone will understand, Morgan is only two, yadda yadda yadda. I semi-fixed it (remember it was only 5 minutes until we were supposed to leave) and it's a funny story for the scrapbook. Here's the cake before Morgan got a hold of it:
And Grace enjoying herself at Chuck E Cheese

Just three days later I made this cake for our friend Hayden who is Grace's age, exactly. They have the same birthday. I met Nonya at a Mom's Club playgroup. Grace and Hayden were jumping on a trampoline together and we discovered that they have exactly the same birthday and that we were both pregnant again and due within a week of each other again. We've been bonded ever since. Love you guys!

We have been snake central lately. I actually forgot about this little guy. CJ found him in the yard about two weeks ago. He's actually a nonvenomous checkered garter snake but he was trying really hard to pretend to be ferocious. See how he was trying to flatten out his head....it was all for show. No fangs there. We just scooped him up and took him over to the woods and let him go.

The copperhead we killed outside our back door just two days ago, definately venomous, definately a copperhead. We chopped his head off and buried it and threw his little body away. After CJ inspected it and was amazed and awed by his fangs. Sorry about his luck.

My sweet baby is now a boy. Before the buzz....

after the buzz...

That'll have to do for now. I'll make no promises about when more pics and info will arrive. Now I must go pick green beans before it's 100 degrees.