Glenfest & Library Reading Program

Life will be so much easier when Danger Boy gets out of school, I said, life will slow down this summer, I said. Famous last words! We've been busier than I (Tired Mom) could have possibly imagined. This weekend we went to Glenfest with the cousins, and had a ball despite the heat.

Vance rode the alien blaster gun ride with my youngest nephew.

Unfortunately, the batteries went out on the camera, so Glenfest was not Picturefest.

Also this week, our local library started it's summer reading program. We keep track of all the books we read to the kids this summer, and they get prizes at the end of next month in exchange for points they earned from reading books.

Kids also get to see shows like this one (twice a week) where the zoo brought animals for the kids to touch, and they had a story to go along with each of them.

They read "Oh, Theodore"to go along with the guinea pig.

They read "The Salamander in My Room"to go along with the salamander ( a really cool one with black skin and yellow spots).

And, they read "Owl Babies" to go along with the one winged bar owl (injured, they don't know how). Danger Boy loves animals, so he was enthralled the whole time. Kid Catastrophe was laying around during some of the stories, but she was quiet otherwise. We did this last year with the same library and we had a blast!

We're Outside, With Nature and All That Hippie Tree Hugging Stuff

If anyone tries to reach the dynamic trio (Danger Boy, Kid Catastrophe, and Tired Mom) during the day, we are most likely outside. We seem to spend most of our days out there. We have no answering machine, so that stinks, but please know we are fine and just basking in the warm sun or covering ourselves with dirt ;)

We refer to this house as "Quis's House", but they both play in it all the time.

The sand box acquired from the cousins is a HUGE HIT. They've played in there almost exclusively for the month we've had it.

Silly face, no reason

I could not get an outside pic of Nutty, but he joins us outside (and usually stays in the yard like I'm trying to train him to).

Paranoid Dad joins us in the evenings and on weekends and takes advantage of the porch swing for napping.

We're having so much fun this summer! Sorry if you miss us while we are outside!

The Zoo Adventure of Danger Boy & Kid Catastrophe

Tired Mom, Aunt Wheesie, Ethan & Tyler (the cousins), Danger Boy, Kid Catastrophe and a SPARE named Keylie (E & T's cousin on their father's side) all went to the Saint Louis Zoo together. This will most likely be the last time for YEARS that all the cousins will get to go to the zoo together since Aunt Wheesie and her darling hubby are leaving !!! They are moving to the D.C. area because of a JOB (pssshhhhh, who needs money when there is so much fun to be had with me?). Sniff, sigh, and all that. Tired Mom might mope for awhile, but she won't stay down long!!!

I thought this was the cutest outfit on QQ! We had to borrow Vance's old tennis shoes, but they looked so cute anyway.

What is this log thing anyway in the middle of the zoo? They don't really explain it very well, and there's not really another thing like it to connect it to anything.

The cousins looked so cute all lined up (with Wheesie)

They all enjoyed climbing on the fences to see the animals. Danger Boy saw this all about a month ago for a school field trip, but QQ seemed to find all the animals pretty fascinating.

The kids got to pet the sting rays (for $3 piece). Strange luck, someone had an extra pass they gave us so we saved some $$$. Tired Mom enjoyed this almost as much as the kids. Except QQ, she was too afraid to try to pet them and mostly just watched. Slippery, fun, strange sting rays. I could pet them all day, but we had to give everyone a chance!

There was the "bird exhibit" or the birds the kids chased after lunch that hang around the picnic area. They were joined by several other kids (and we saw Renae and her kids here too). Birds!!!

CAROUSEL!!! What kid does not like the carousel?

We will have to include a zoo trip later this summer that includes Paranoid Dad! We missed him while we were having so much fun ;)

Next Stop--KINDERGARTEN!!!

Vance had his last day of preschool on Wednesday, which was just a FUN DAY for kids and parents. His actual last day was last Friday with a little graduation hat and everything. Tired Mom had a blast (with a little nostalgia) as Vance cavorted all over Washington Preschool on his last day.

There was a bouncy house (looks like a bouncy kid cage here)

There was an inflatable slide

Which was lots of fun for Vance

There was water fun

Vance got his face painted (you can see his speech therapy teacher Ms. Michelle in the background with the glasses on). After two years, Vance is gonna miss her!

Vance got a balloon dinosaur made for him

No fun day is complete without a giant bee! Hello!

We did a quick tour of the preschool to say goodbye to all preschool fun. Here's the cubbies where Vance and his classmates kept there stuff.

Here's the playing rug

And the reading center.

Bye bye preschool Vance! Hello kindergarten!!!

Tired Mom Goes on Vacation

While I (Tired Mom) was on vacation the shed blew apart (I fixed that), Paranoid Dad's car broke down (I fixed that) and Paranoid Dad turned on the bath in the upstairs bathroom, and then left the house for 6 hours. It's been two days of cleaning up (12 hour day on Wednesday). Plus, we had to hire an outside company (with our insurance) to pull out a ceiling and use super strength fans to dry out all the floors. Just this part of the clean up is going to cost about $5,000, not including replacing the ceiling.

Who knew water could cause so much damage and be such hard work to clean up? Who knew how much stuff could happen in 5 days while Tired Mom was on vacation?

The kids seemed impressed with all the damage done to their playroom and all the water in the basement (deemed "yucky" by Tired Mom) was also a point of interest. Here are Danger Boy's dinosaurs gettting a bath after getting sprayed down with yucky water (helped by the ceiling fan).
Paranoid Dad also watched Aunt Wheesie's dog while she went with Tired Mom to Minneapolis. Here are some cute pics of the dog, Paradise, with QQ. He looks so cute and protective in the first picture!

Gosh Dang It & Wild Animals

Danger Boy & his younger cousin Tyler had to stay in Granny's yard today while Aunt Wheesie and Tired Mom ran across to Granny's neighbor's yard. Why? Because Granny's mild mannered sweet dog was fighting like crazy with a HUMONGOUS groundhog. Everyone (me, Wheesie, several neighbors) were totally freaking out, and we kept the kids in Granny's yard because this groundhog was freaking scary. It was like something out of Monty Python. Missy (the dog) kept chasing after it and TM & Wheesie could not get her to leave it alone!

Papaw walks with a cane, so he could not get to this woodsy part where Missy had chased this thing, and Granny was taking a nap in the basement with Kid Catastrophe and we did not have a chance to wake her before we ran across these yards to try and stop the dog. She killed the thing, but scared the crud out of about 5 neighbors. Jean (the neighbor's whose yard Missy was in) went to get another neighbor down the street who knows lots about wild animals.

Jerry (the animal knowledgeable neighbor) came to help and he had one of those poles with a loop on the end and he was trying to shoo Missy away as she was trying to kill an animal that looked almost as big as her and was getting herself really hurt in the process. Missy is only 40 lbs but did end up killing this huge thing! I grabbed her the second the neighbor (Jerry) got Missy away from it, and ran her back to the yard. Blood covered her whole muzzle and, unfortunately two wide eyed little boys (4 & 5 yrs old) got to see all the blood when I brought Missy back to Granny's yard. (good thing KC was taking a nap!). Granny & Papaw had to take Missy (the dog) to the animal hospital because she was bleeding from several deep gashes on her nose and mouth.

Long story, but afterward Danger Boy had some funny reactions. We cleaned all the groundhog & wound blood off of Missy's mouth, but she was still bleeding from some deep gashes. He saw the blood dripping from one gash in Missy's mouth when Granny & Papaw were getting ready to take her to the vet, and he said "I hate blood! I hate it when it comes out and drips. I just hate it!" Granny said something like "Yes, sweetie we all hate blood". I was really glad that Papaw's youngest daughter was there (nurse in training) to clean the wounds and see what was what in Missy's mouth.

Then, in the car, DB had about a million questions about "wild animals" because I told him never to go near a wild animal like Missy did because they can bite and make you bleed (and they have rabies, but I did NOT say that). I think he named every animal he could think of and asked "Is that a wild animal?". I should have just said "all animals except cats, dogs, and a few other things are wild animals!" He was also telling me all the animals "that they can bite you and make you bleed!"

In other less bloody news, Tired Mom says "gosh dang it" alot. It is her favorite expletive. Especially this week as she had some labor intensive yard projects that involved hitting herself with a hammer, repeatedly.

I told QQ to show "Aunt Wheesie" her boo boo and she did (on her knee where she tripped walking brother home from the bus stop). Then she looks down at her knee and shakes her head and says "gosh dang it". Tired Mom laughed, of course (bad! bad mom! gosh dang it! ......oh wait).

Cherub Children & Dance at the Preschool

Does anyone else think their children kind of "glow" like those pictures of the fat cherub/angel babies? Do you just want to eat them up with a spoon? Does every curve of their cheek or gesture of their hand just send you over the moon? I mean, I love my friends children, and my nephews, but with my kids it's like I can hardly contain it, I'm about to burst with love sometimes!


Take for instance a recent dance Danger Boy had at his preschool. Danger Boy refused to dance with any of the other girls (and was asked several times) pretty much the whole dance, and instead opted to dance with his little sister.

How cute is that????!!!!

The above pic shows the only time Danger Boy let another girl in on he and QQ's dance time.

The little girl in the above picture in the white t-shirt stayed with us for almost the whole dance (though V never danced with her). She was a cutie too, so I tried to get V to dance with her. Her parents were not there (it looked like about half the parents were there), and it seemed like they actually forgot about the whole dance since she was one of the few girls not "dressed up" like the flyer they sent home said to do.

After some hard dancing, Danger Boy & Kid Catastophe sat down for some hard earned refreshments (twice actually). I was not sure QQ was supposed to have any, but nobody smacked my hand when I gave them to her so.... ;)