Milestones Galore

Wednesday was certainly a day of milestones for the kids in our family.

1. Cameron reached the big 9, and most of his presents were no surprises--not even the undies!



The bike was no surprise either, though he didn't know the exact type of bike he would be getting (then again, neither did Cindy until she found it at Target that day!)....



...and Cam-bone decided to give his old bike to his friend in our old neighborhood who had had his own bike stolen over a year ago. His friend was, well, thrilled (or whatever that word would be in Spanish--'muchos twitterpatamundo?').


2. Cameron graduated to the Bear scout den . In a world of perfect justice, Cindy would've gotten the badge instead.... (Cindy here...I did get a pin!)




3.Erin attended the city-wide Safety Patrol pizza party to celeberate her entire year of service as a crossing guard. She was somewhat disappointed that she didn't win one of the bikes (along with approx. 120 other disappointed kids), but she got over it soon enough.
(Pictures to follow later??)


4. Makenna lost her first tooth, and what a noticeable tooth it was!



It's a good thing, too, as for a couple days she had often bitten down on hard things and bled a lot--or at least cried and moaned a lot!
However, yesterday we found that she was also somewhat of an Indian-giver. She put one of the 2 dollar bills from the tooth fairy back into the special 'tooth pillow' and slid that and an explanatory letter under her pillow in hopes that the tooth fairy would return her tooth to her as a keepsake. (I don't think it worked....)

5. Allyson just got cuter and cuter! She is talking like crazy, and usually making sense. For example, last night we were out running errands, and after Cindy dropped something off she talked with the lady for quite awhile. As she was talking Allyson hollered out from her carseat, 'Hurry up Mommy!'
What's not to love?!

Memorial Weekend

Well, it has been a productive Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday I put in 4 venetian blinds, one decorative light fixture, and painted 2 of the 3 stairway walls.

On Sunday night I puttered around in the basement, emptying about 8 boxes and neatly rearranging and stacking all the remaining boxes, and ended up with about 3 times the open space than had been there before.

And today I gave myself a haircut, moved the shed onto our property (it had been sitting on a adjoining lot waiting for the sod to get rooted), put the new lawnmower together, did some weed-eating, decluttered the garage, put out a ton of trash, and shop-vac'ed the grill.

Good night!

Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two....

With her 'top-knot' (or as Ally likes to say, 'Oooh--awesome!':



And with the rubber band removed ('It's hideous!'):

Working Girl!

Our neighbor was going away for a couple days this weekend, and they asked if Erin would feed their dog and goldfish for them.

The neighbor dog, Gus.....



...was very good-natured and fun to be around. She and Cameron and Makenna took him on at least three walks around the neighborhood, and they also kept him busy chasing balls, and now she kinda wants a dog.

I thought that sending her out with the pooper-scooper would cure her of that, but such was not the case--as she scooped up her third pile she said 'I don't really mind doing it.'

Rats! Foiled again!

So I have had to resort to the 'Yeah, that'll be the day' snort-laugh.

Has she been reading Tom Sawyer recently?

Kenner had a neighbor friend over on Saturday, and Erin joined in when they went to the basement. After a couple minutes I heard the girls begging Erin to let them play in her room.

'Hey, I know!' Erin gaily suggested, 'Why don't we go up to my room and clean it!'

The younger girls were ecstatic, and about 10 minutes later I heard Erin telling them, 'Doesn't my room look a lot cleaner now!?'

Sizzlin'!!

Cindy was taking Erin to a birthday sleepover with a friend (by way of Target for a present), and, despite it being less than 60 degrees out and overcast, Erin turned on the air full-blast and set it to the coldest setting.

Cindy leaned over and turned it back down, and said 'Erin! What are you doing!?"

"Mom," she replied, "I am sooo HOT!!! In two different ways!"

Spawning Carp

It's past that time of the year, but since it is now OK to walk on the grass, I went ahead and strung the carp up to swim in the breeze.



The kids love it, and Ally is mesmerized--not only is it fun for her to watch, it is also made up of "silky" material!

Daddy's Little Helpers....

Cameron mowed the front lawn at the old house for the very last time last Tuesday, and then he did the same at the new house on Monday of this week.



Erin was also excited to try out the mower at the new house, and she did about half of the back yard.

I am so happy!

Did I mention I was ecstatic!?

However, this lawnmower was included in the deal for the old house, so I will have to buy another one that is also self-propelled so that Cameron, et. al., can continue to make their daddy giddy with glee!

Hmmm... maybe it is finally time to purchase that hammock....

Forget about Pisces, Capricorn, or Sagittarius....

This is definitely our favorite sign...



Here is a picture of our old house 10 years ago when we bought it.


And here it is when we sold it.



As you might expect, there were even MORE changes to the inside!

Father and Son golfing

Cameron, in his winsome way, has been yammering for weeks about going golfing, so today we hit the nearby par-3 course.

As we went along, I tried to teach him golf etiquette (the last kind of etiquette he has not yet learned to flout with impunity).

For example, after I had made a big divot, he asked why I was putting the sod back in place and stamping on it.

'You see, Cameron,' I gently taught, 'A good golfer tries to leave the course as he found it.'

Puzzled, he queried, 'But you're not a good golfer!'

Obviously he doesn't realize that the word 'good' has many different nuances.

Later on, I waxed philosophic, explaining the yin and yang of golf, commenting on how if I made a bad shot something good could still come of it, then I added, 'I usually don't make very good shots.'

'Yeah,' he chimed in, 'You usually suck!'

Edward Scissorhands?

Last night was the Father and Son campout, and, as usual, Cameron played with fire most of the evening and all the next morning.

His face was pale gray with the smoke (he had no idea), and when we got home I tried to get a picture taken of him, but as soon as he walked in the door, Erin exclaimed, "Cameron! What happened to your face?"

He promptly went into a bathroom and cleaned it up.

Or so he thought....

He now looked like he had applied a heavy layer of black mascara around his eyes.

It was kinda creepy!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a picture of this either.

So this reasonable facsimile thereof will have to do....



Of course, we did learn some things:
1) Dutch oven pear cobbler is heavenly, but blueberry stinks (fortunately we did half-and-half!)
2) Sleeping in the back of a van is MUCH quieter and MUCH warmer than in a tent.
3) Little boys sleep much warmer in the middle of the night when they actually get INTO a sleeping bag rather than just heaping it on top of them! (I traded him my toasty warm one for his cold one at 5:30 AM.

Does not compute! Does not compute!

So this week, Cindy is having the family do kind things for each other in secret, and then leave behind a little laminated picture of a teddy bear.

On Tuesday night as the kids were getting ready for bed, Erin got Makenna to help her clean up the sink area in the the kids' bathroom.

As they were busily putting things away, putting things in order, and wiping the sinks down, Erin excitedly commented, 'This will be our special gift for Mom!' She then propped up the teddy bear on the back of the sinktop.

I kept quiet, but in my mind I was thinking, 'This is you kids' bathroom sink. Why is cleaning up your own messes a present for Mom?'

When I mentioned this to Cindy that night, she snorted and said, 'I know exactly what she meant!'

Love the mud!

This is what happens when you try to ride your bikes through a muddy field.
Your shoes get stuck in the mud and come off....the wheels won't turn anymore and your brother has to come "unstick" your bike after he has gotten his out. Then you get to hose them all down....and no you can't put your bathing suits onl....it is only 54 degrees outside!

Up close and personal with nature

This was the view from our morning room this morning. Cameron was eating his breakfast and started hollering that there was a deer. It had walked across the top of the hill in the back yard and then mosied down, grazing all along the way. Beautiful!


Last night the kids found a bird in our window well. They were playing in the basement and saw it struggling to fly out. We have a robin's nest in the backyard and assume this was one of the babies from there. We assume that because momma and pappa robin were extremely distressed watching baby robin be "stuck" in our window well. They were flitting all around and when the kids went outside to peer down the well they got an earful from momma and poppa. Louis eventually helped the baby get out and hopefully the little bird family found a safe place to stay the night.