Laundry Lady

The Last Day of Summer Vacation

My kids are heading back to school tomorrow morning so today is the official last day of summer vacation for my kids.

Mother Nature decided to help us prepare for the seasons ahead by providing this scenario:

(I'm not going to complain about the rain because my yard desperately needs it.)

For reasons I can't quite put my finger on, this has been a really weird summer.  We did all of the usual stuff that we do in the summer but still, something just seemed abnormal about it.  So I'm definitely looking forward to the start of the school year and going back to work myself.

Today is the first day in a really long time in which we don't have any serious commitments.  No appointments, no events, nothing!  So I made the kids breakfast...

French toast...

and bacon.

We're just going to hang out at the house today.

I've got about five loads of laundry to catch up on!

 

Puppy Love

Bob's been trying to convince me that we need a dog even though he knows I'm totally against it.

(It's not that I don't want a dog. I just don't need one more thing to take care of. The kids always say that they'll do all the work but past experiences have taught me otherwise.)

Bob has a long list of reasons for why we need a dog. He says the boys need a dog. (He even has Eli telling me that he needs a dog.) He says a dog will discourage strangers thieves from walking off with our stuff. (We've had a few things mysteriously disappear.) He says a dog will keep the deer out of our garden. He says the kids will take care of the dog.

I'm not buying any of it.

Meet Abby:

Apparently, I have no say about anything around here.

But she is so cute.

And she is so sweet.

And since Bob and the kids promised that they will do everything, the only thing I have to do is adore her.

Wildlife Shenanigans

Okay, it all started yesterday morning when I spotted this deer in my backyard, dangerously close to the strawberries I have growing in a whiskey barrel near my deck.  I'm tired of them eating my strawberries!

Please understand that I don't harbor any bad feelings towards deer.  They're beautiful creatures and I enjoy watching them. But we have almost three acres of natural vegetation that they can graze on, as well as the forest that surrounds our land. They don't really need to eat anything planted by us!

So after that deer hurried along, hopped the fence, and started grazing in our neighbors meadow, I saw another deer down the hill in my backyard.  He better not be thinking about dining on my new plants!

 

Then I heard some rustling in the trees and looked to see one of our sweet little kittens nervously hiding under some trees.

 

I kept looking to see what was making the rustling noise though and then I spotted this little bandit and one of his friends sneaking down the hill.  

 

He even had enough nerve to stop and look back at me!

 

Later on, my oldest son and I spotted another deer on the back lawn again.  Jacob got a little fired up because he thought they might snack on the bell peppers that we're growing.  

I watched it walk down the hill to find another place to graze when all of a sudden, something in the bushes startled it, and caused it to jump to another location.  And since I was desperatly in need of some serious procrastination, I decided to summon my driver and have him take me to see what was going on down there.

 

(I love this kid!  He was so busy doing nothing and he dropped everything to take me for a ride.)

We got down to the bottom and found a couple of deer.  No big deal, more of the same, we can go home now.  

And then we saw the baby and I had to get a closer look.  First I tried standing on the hood of the Polaris but Mama wasn't about to let me see her little one.  So I got out and quietly walked up the other side of the hill hoping I could get a look from a different angle.  But no, Mama was able to shield her baby again.  

Since I wasn't about to give up, I had Jake go around the long way and drive me back up the road.  Finally, we got a better look at the baby.  They stayed very still for a long time. 

 

Eventually, the baby took a step away from Mama and looked up at me.  

 

 "Mama, who is that crazy lady?"

"That's just the crazy lady that won't let us eat her strawberries."

Then Mama decided it was time to go so the sweet little baby hopped over the brush and obediently followed her Mama.  

 
 

"You all just make yourselves at home while you're here.  Eat as much as you like.  Just stay out of the strawberries.  And everything else we've planted, thank you very much!"

 

State Mascot

If the state of Washington had a mascot, this should be it:

 

The slug.  Or gastropod mollusc for those of you needing a scientific classification.

 

They're everywhere, evidence of the moist environment in which we Washingtonians live.  

 

I would start a petition requesting the slug be our state mascot but I'm afraid they would qualify for some kind of protective measure.  And honestly, I'm tired of finding them eating my flowers!

 
 
 

What a Blast!

Today the students in Eli's Highly Capable class launched their rockets!  

(Are you wondering what Highly Capable is?  Well, I think that's our school's politically correct label for "academically gifted" kids.  Maybe they're afraid that if some kids find out that other kids have gifts that they didn't get, then they might stage a coup and takeover the school until they get gifts too.  Or something.  If it was up to me, I'd just call them the Nerd Herd.)

He spent weeks learning about rockets and then he made his own.  He made it from a kit which I was thankful for because if he didn't have that, I'm sure he would want to try to make something with Mt. Dew, Sweet Tarts, bubblegum and Lego's.  And I'm sure it would involve me staying up until 3 o'clock in the morning trying to help him finish it.

Here's our gang.  They wouldn't miss this for anything!  

 

It's was finally his group's turn to get their rockets set up.

 

Don't they look great?  And when you launch your rocket, you really hope that it doesn't land on the other side of that fence because no one really knows how to get around to the other side.

 

Whoa, not so fast Mr. Man!  Wait for directions!  We don't want you launching anything at Russia.  That wouldn't be good politics.

 

And finally, three, two, one...BLAST OFF!

 

I completely lost sight of it as soon as it launched but I finally found it drifting back to earth.

    
 Pretty cool, huh?  Eli said his launch was a success because it didn't fall apart.  
 

 

I Love Me Some Freckles

If I had to spend every day of the rest of my life looking at these freckles, that would be fine with me.

 

Seriously, isn't he adorable?

Look at those freckles.  I dare you to count 'em.

  

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wrestle-Mania

My boys are wrestling this year.  This is my 7 year old's second year but this is his very first tournament. Here he is, all 52.6 lbs. of him!

 

Meet the Hornets.  More specifically, the White River Hornets.  Not to be confused with the Enumclaw Hornets.  (Or the hornets that used to live under our back deck until B got stung last month.  Boy, he was mad.  Mad as a hornet!)  

 

If you get confused, just remember that the White River Hornets are maroon and gold and the Enumclaw Hornets are burgundy and gold.  Actually, it gets better.  Enumclaw decided to call their junior wrestlers "Yellowjackets" and I think they went with black and gold as their colors.  But since this particular event is in their high school gym, it gets a little confusing.

Here's my other wrestler, but since his season hadn't started yet we thought he could help out the judges with timekeeping.  If you can't tell, he was happy to help out.

 

Here's where the wrestlers wait until it's time to go to the mat. I'm not sure what E was thinking about here.  Maybe he has butterflies in his tummy.  Or he might be thinking about what he's going to get for lunch.  Who knows.

 

Next thing you know, they're going at it.

 

 

He did alright for his first round.  He got pinned but everyone gets pinned the first time.  Or so I'm told.

 

This time he's waiting with J. 

 

A, who spent the previous night at her friend's house, finally arrived and jumped right in to take over J's job.  She was delighted to help out.  

 

There he goes again!

 

He didn't win this round but he didn't get pinned either!

 

Here he is getting a few encouraging words from the coach.

 

Then it's on to the last round.  One moment they're shaking hands...

 

The next moment they're on the mat trying to tear each other apart limb by limb.

 

He had some shining moments but unfortunately, he didn't win any of his rounds.  I'm still proud of him though.  It was his first time and it can be pretty emotional for these little guys.  And these tournaments make for a long day!  Especially when one of these knuckleheads pulls a fire alarm and the whole building has to be evacuated. 

 

Flag Football: Touchdown Edition

Yesterday, the Wildcats played their first game.  Don't ask me if they won because supposedly no one keeps score.  It's all about the fun.  And it is fun.  

(But I'm sure if you ask any dad on either team, they will tell you that their child's team won.)

This was B's coaching debut.  He's done some assistant coaching for J's team in the past but his heavy travel schedule always prevented him from taking the lead coaching position.

He loves coaching and he really enjoys the kids.  

He takes coaching very seriously,too.  He made play books and passed them out at the first practice.  

He also wants to be fair, making sure the kids all have a chance to play every position.  He's going to be an awesome coach! 

Then we've got this little tough guy.  He LOVES football.  (He also loves making his dad happy by playing football.)

 

He's not about to let anyone get past him.  

 

And he's not just good at defense.  

 

Just watch him go!  

 

All the way for a touchdown, baby!  ALL THE WAY!

 

Now he's thinking about his Touchdown McFlurry that he'll be getting at McDonald's later.

 

"GO FLAMES!"  (That's the other team.  We won.  Just ask all the dads on our team.   No way did we lose to the Flames!)

 

Oh, the sweet taste of victory.

 

Way to go Wildcats!

Sick Day

Don't let his smile fool you.  He's sick.  He's got a fever, stuffy nose, croupy cough, etc.  He's all hopped up on Tylenol right now.

And if being sick was not enough, our cable went out for a couple of hours.  TV, internet, and the phone. *scream*  Thank goodness the power didn't go out.  I was able to occupy him with a DVD.  

But now that the cable is up and running again, he's back to multi-tasking.

In other words, he's watching TV while watching Star Wars themed stuff on You Tube.

I'm so grateful for Tylenol.  Hope he's better soon!