Fighting Styles

Kid Catastrophe and Danger Boy seem to have very different fighting styles. We were talking about one of Paranoid Dad's brothers fighting the war in Afghanistan. We were explaining to the kids why the Taliban was bad. I was mostly focusing on how the force women to stay in their homes and did not let them out to do anything.

Danger Boy said, "I would just kick them with my shoes on. I would kick them right there!" (pointing to Paranoid Dad's man parts). He then proceeded to demonstrate various kicking and made "fighting breath" noises.

Kid Catastrophe says, "When I grow up I want be a mommy and to fight bad guys with very sharp swords. But, not heavy swords, just fight them all with swords that I pick up off the ground." She pretended to pick swords off the ground at this point and swing them around.

In other news, Miss Mayhem decided she was not causing enough destruction crawling around the house and decided to start walking! She so far gets about 3-4 steps before she falls down, but she seems to be enjoying the learning process. It probably helps that we all clap our hands and cheer like loons every time she does it ;)

A Summer Memory?

Danger Boy brought home one of his first school assignments of the year. The title of the worksheet is "A SUMMER MEMORY". The instructions on the top of the worksheet says, "A memory is something you remember. Think of something special that you did over the summer. In the box, draw a picture of your memory."

Under the picture it says:

In this picture, I am: (Danger Boy wrote) Playing with a potion.

This was special because: (Danger Boy wrote) It turned things into toys.

When I was doing this, I felt: (Danger Boy wrote) Happy.

Funny, I don't remember this at all!

This is a picture of the super cute school shoes Granny picked out. It's funny that Granny picked these out because she was just nagging about how eccentric my kids dress, and then she buys these!

Danger Boy can't get enough of his baby sister! He's been playing with her the minute he gets home from school every day this week. I guess he misses his baby sister while he is in school! Miss Mayhem seems happy so far to have the whole house to herself. She also gives her older sibs big smiles when we pick them up from school though.

All Good Things....

We had so much fun this summer and managed to do so much!

We visited the Watershed Nature Center and hiked around to learn more about nature.

We had a party with the Super Cousins when they came to visit from Virginia. That was a short week, and we were sad to see them go.
Miss Mayhem enjoyed the cousins too and was hamming it up for them at Steak N Shake.

We did the Library Reading Program again. Here's Danger Boy and Kid Catastrophe playing it cute for the camera as we waited for one of the shows the Library put on for the kids.
Miss Mayhem also enjoyed her summer reading!
The crafts the Library Reading Program taught this year were especially awesome. These paper mache puppet heads were just one of the many crafts the kids participated in and loved. They are a princess and a dragon in case you can't tell. We also made shields with crests and other designs, bracelets, and several others.
The theme was a A Midsummer's Knight's Read.
We also had fun visiting friends and going to a summer birthday party (with water games!).Kid Catastrophe is going to start a new adventure this week as she goes to Kindergarten! She learned so much in preschool, and seems excited to join her other 5 year old friends in kindergarten this year. Miss Mayhem will be spending lots of solo time with Tired Mom as the older kids go back to school. I'm sure she will miss her little entertainers, but she may also enjoy the alone time just her and mom. Summer is coming to an end, but now we have so many fond memories to keep us going as the older kids head back to school!

To the ZOO!

After many attempts to schedule zoo trips (foiled by rain, then weeks and weeks of brutal heat) our family finally made it to the St. Louis Zoo this summer! We had tons of fun, and somehow managed to not spend any money while we were there. Unfortunately, we got a parking ticket since Tired Mom hopped the curb to parallel park. It was almost laughable how silly the ticket was, but of course we will still have to pay it. Boo Forest Park Police!

Danger Boy and Kid Catastrophe with Paranoid Dad starting out our trip to the zoo.
The kids were good for the obligatory posed shots.
And, we all enjoyed watching all the various animals. Miss Mayhem (our new moniker for our very busy Super Baby/Toddler) mostly enjoyed watching people. She also managed to grab a big handful of hair when a little girl passed by, but Tired Mom saw it right away and was able to rescue the little girl from the bad bad baby.

Another posed shot outside the insect house.
This was outside the penguin house (toward the end of the trip) and I think Kid Catastrophe was getting tired of the posed shots. Isn't that face priceless though?
KC got a little worn out in the reptile house, but she bounced back soon after that.

Danger Boy kept up the tradition of always taking his pet giraffe, Geoffrey, to the zoo to visit his own kind.

Danger Boy tricked Paranoid Dad by telling him there were real snakes in this tunnel. Ah, PD living up to his name once more told him to get out. Danger Boy fessed up to the snakes not being real so that he could stay in the tunnel a little longer.

Danger Boy was the most enthusiastic person on the trip by far. He was always zooming ahead and telling the rest of the family to "come on! come on!" as we wound our way through the zoo. I kept expecting him to fall over with exhaustion at some point, but he was tireless for over 3 hours. I credit Danger Boy with making this zoo trip extra fun for the rest of the family!


In other news, is there anything cuter than a naked baby?