B-day Pics

Formal Group Photos:

Off to a good start.

Some variance from the planned poses.

All heck breaks loose.

Snapshots:

M and the barren, spinster hens.

Down the hill.

Up the hill.

Still. Going. Up. The. Hill. (Rest period was shortly after this.)

"Hey--Why aren't I in the wheelbarrow?"

M--Just prior to learning the difficulty of propelling oneself forward in a wheelbarrow.

[Photo removed for violent content.]

Auntie gives M a wheelbarrow ride.

Inside, Charlie was given a puzzle. You can see how he truly "enjoys" sharing his bed with miscellaneous junk placed there by tiny children.

Cake.

Like I really need more cake.

"All I got was this darn puzzle."

Things I did the day of my Birthday Celebration:

1. Dropped off treats at church. Slightly late.
2. Left church early due to misbehavior on part of accompanying minor children.
3. Got an iced coffee and breakfast burrito on way home. Got nothing for naughty, naughty youngsters.
4. Beautiful sunny day. Worked in yard. Played outside. Ran after happy children.
5. Sat briefly in garden swing. Ran after happy children some more.
6. Broke up fight over pink chalk.
7. Happy children became tired children who stood at door and stared longingly inside.
8. Nap time for children! Free time for Me!
9. Prepared tomatoes for fresh garden salsa.
10. Children woke up. Left my Mother to slave over rest of salsa and went outside and played with fairly well-behaved children.
11. Sat briefly in garden swing.
12. Found baby bunnies!
13. Fought urge to capture bunnies and keep as pets.
14. Taught children to respect and admire wildlife. (i.e--said over and over, "No, don't touch the bunnies. Of course we can't keep them. Stop poking them with the leaves. No, don't touch the bunnies..."
15. Had Leinenkugel's Oktoberfest--Thank you F!
16. Convinced children to go inside and eat chips and salsa.
17. Outside again. F grillin'.
18. Found toad!
19. Peed on by toad!
20. Taught children to respect and admire wildlife. (i.e.--said over and over, "No, don't squeeze the toad. Of course we can't keep him, he'd die in captivity. Trust me. Mommy knows. No, don't squeeze the toad."
21. Made mistake of telling nephew that toads would bite viciously if given the chance.
22. Went and soothed nephew.
23. Another Oktoberfest!--Thank you F!
24. Reassembled kaput garden swing. Still, to this day, no one knows what happened to it.
25. Wheelbarrow rides down the hill for the boys. Rest periods in between trips!
26. Went and soothed daughter who was throwing plastic wheelbarrow around and kicking and screaming face down on the ground.
27. Held daughter in wheelbarrow while Auntie pushed up and down hill.
28. Pork chops. Biscuits--2 kinds. Cauliflower and broccoli. Fancy salad.--Thank you F!
29. Ice cream cake with fudge!--Thank you F!
30. Bath, bed, nighttime, sleep. 30 yrs old and too tired to watch a movie.
Pretty basic day. Pretty much perfect.

T and the doll

T loves this doll.
He patiently nurses her. He totes her around with him. He gives her rides on the tricycle.

But like all good parents who encourage independence and cultivate responsibility in the young ones that they raise, he knows when it is time for them to spread their wings and fly.

So, he violently tosses her out of the protective shell that is the gated playroom and shouts,
"Time for you to go to work!"

It appears that she has fallen in a most ungracious manner. But he knows. He knows he has done his job well and she will pick herself up and land on her feet.

**Try not to be jealous of our wood paneling...Not just one, but two styles of wood paneling.
We are very lucky folks.

The Harvest

So, I had a woman come over and lemon oil all our woodwork in the house. She was very nice and I thought she did a super job.

When she arrived to give me an estimate, I had to show her all around the house--because there is woodwork all around the house. In. Every. Room.
Every Room is always a bit slovenly. Ahem, I mean, just slovenly right now.

In one particularly frightful room, I looked at this woman, this stranger. I looked her right in her face and said in the most huffy and overwrought voice that I could muster, "I'm sorry about the mess right now. It's just that we are so very busy with the harvest."

She looked around at the masses of laundry, the dog hair, the scattered and abused toys and then over at the very neat, but tiny set-up where I had the water bath canner and my most recent production of 7 pint jars...She didn't bat an eye. She didn't grimace or giggle or derisively snort. She simply said, "I understand."

So, for the record, the "harvest" thus far (and I think the gardening season is ending) is 19 pint jars of tomatoes and 4 gallon bags of freezer tomatoes. Not too bad a "yield" for my first year of "harvesting".

F

J

T school--First day was Aug. 26th

T has started preschool 5 days a week. The days are full days. This is a big change, because he has always been home with F two days a week.

I'll always get second-hand information, because F will be picking him up every day. F will get the scoop about the day first, and by the time I see T, he'll be onto something new and getting accurate information will be difficult.
However, the first day, before bed, he did manage to tell me that he cried at preschool. "I cried at preschool today Mommy." he said.
"I cried like this, waaaah, waaaah, waaaah. Like a baby."
That's all he said and then he laughed like a nut and went to bed.

On Monday I asked him what he had for lunch at preschool. He always tells about the same lunch no matter where he eats. It's wishful thinking.
"I had chips and crackers and dip."
MmHm.
To further my questioning, I asked him if he used a lunch tray at school. They supposedly have the preschoolers go through the cafeteria line just like the big kids.
"Yeah, I did use a tray. Sure I did Mommy."
MmHm.
I believed this about as much as I believed that he had "chips and crackers and dip" for lunch.
I asked him what color his lunch tray was.
"Ummm. It was kind of a golden brown color."

Well, that might be accurate then. It sounds like a pretty standard lunch tray color.

Yesterday was already some kind of teacher workshop day. For fun, I took the day off to spend with T. He got up in the morning and told me he was going to get his backpack.
I told him he wasn't going to preschool, that he was going to stay home with me for fun.
He still ran full speed ahead toward his hanging backpack--shouting back at me as he ran.
"OKAY MOMMY. THAT'S OKAY. I JUST HAVE SOMETHING IN THERE. I JUST HAVE SOMETHING INSIDE MY BACKPACK!"
He clambered up the little step stool and got his backpack down and proceeded to unzip all the pockets until he pulled out an apparently homemade chocolate chip cookie in a ziploc baggie.
MmHm.
"Where did you get that?" I said.
He ran downstairs to the kitchen table-again shouting back at me as he ran.
"UMMMM. I THINK MRS. ******* GAVE IT TO ME. I THINK SHE GAVE IT TO ME. I WAS CRYING AND THERE WAS A CAR AND THEN THE COOKIE. MY COOKIE."

What the heck does that even mean? I have so many questions and no answers. He "thinks" that the teacher gave him the cookie? Does she know she gave him the cookie or did he somehow stealthily take the cookie from her or from someone? Did she give him the cookie because he was crying? Did he cry to get the cookie? What does this all have to do with a car? How did he wait to eat the cookie all that long time? A whole night? Is he related to me?

Did I let him eat the cookie of unknown origin?

You bet I did.

M's crib

About 3 weeks ago M's crib "broke". This was a previously-loved crib which F and I had purchased on the cheap from some folks that had used it for 3 kids already. We used it with T and now with M. This was one very, sturdy crib. It didn't bust into smithereens (even after all those kids!) but two of the screws on the side rail kept coming loose and falling into the crib, which was an ingestion hazard and also crib structure hazard. We already had a toddler bed in the closet waiting for use, so F dismantled the crib and put her into the toddler bed.
These pictures were taken on the morning of her last day in the crib.

Evenflo brand! Crazy sturdy.

The toddler bed is a little white plastic thing that F and I purchased on the cheap (notice a pattern here?)
T has been in a twin bed for quite some time and the toddler bed has been stored in his closet. For some reason he keeps asking where his "other little white bed" is.