Other happenings.

We've been up to some stuff lately. I've even taken some pictures. But I've been lazy and it's taken me awhile to upload them.

Abram came over last week and we went to Fernbank, aka the 'dinosaur museum.'



We went on a 'nature hike' at the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, which is only about three miles away from our house. We were the only people there, and we hiked to a creek that had a couple of tires in it. Apparently there is a waterfall in there, but we only got about halfway up that trail before Frankie was ready to turn around and go home. Next time. Luckily it's nice and shady, so it shouldn't be too hot in the summer, but it's the mosquitos that are gonna get ya.




Since preschool is out, we were able to go to kid's gym one time before they shut down for the summer. It was Harper's first time, and she had a nice nap in the mei tai.



The renovation is producing lots and lots of animals! Meet Bandit, the dog that has adopted the house as his new place of residence.


We found a couple of kittens in the sheetrock. Estimated age is four or five weeks old.


We found a new home for them with a woman who had nine other cats - IN HER CAR. She had just picked up a load of cats from a shelter that were due for euthanasia, and two of them were mommy cats that were still producing milk. One of the mommas adopted our kittens right away. They will be taken care of and prepped for adoption. I'm actually pretty impressed that it worked out so well for them.


Kitty in the city.

Pictures of my kids eating.

The title pretty much says it all. Yes, our life has gotten *this* exciting. Is this post the embodiment of all that is wrong with 'mommy blogs'? Does anyone else really care that my kids eat? Okay, maybe Grandma cares, but honestly, I'm not that big of a narcissist that I think anyone else would care. But here I am, posting these pictures anyway. I think it's more guilt about having not posted anything in almost two weeks that is driving me to document the most mundane of daily activities. Without further justification, here are the photographs:


In true 'second child' fashion, we let Harper feed herself. I've got other things to do besides try to feed a seven-month-old baby. I present her with two spoons full of baby mush and she takes turns with them; I refill the one that is not currently in her hands. It results in bigger messes, but we're preparing her early to be an independent woman.

School's out...

...and mom's a-cryin'. Well, not yet - give me a couple of weeks, though. Last Thursday was Frankie's last day of preschool for the year and we all went to his teacher's house for a picnic. She has an awesome backyard will a HUGE garden and lots of...

CHICKENS!


(P.S. That's not Frankie; he wouldn't let me take his picture with them thar birds.)

I spent a good deal of time picking Ms. Dera's brain about 'urban chickens' as we're considering it ourselves, once we move the ramp. With that being said - half-pipe for sale! Cheap! In fact, if you can haul it away, it's yours!

Someone else placed a 'baby doll' next to Harper for snuggles and she was happy to oblige, even though her real goal was to see how much of its head would fit into her mouth.


A very tired group of Cardinal I's with their teachers. We will miss you all! (And I will miss you, dear school days, more than anyone.)


And I guess I should post-script this by saying that I survived last semester of the three classes. Now I have a whole whopping week to prep for summer term!

Going mushy in the brain. It's starting to leak out of my ears, I tell you! At least I'm on the downside of the 450 or so essays I've had to grade and moving on to the 'math part' of my job (big fan of Microsoft Excel, thank you for doing the simple calculations for me and saving me hours of time.) Back to your regularly scheduled blog soon.

My Beast.

She's six months old. I can't believe it. When did she get so big? Tear.

Let it be noted that she was not a fan of mushed up avocado; she gagged a lot and made some pretty amazing faces. Not exactly the way I'd choose to celebrate my half-birthday either.


Welcome to solids! Let the deluge of 'eating infant' pictures begin. Oh wait! Here's more now!


(It's watermelon this time. She was interested for about a minute and then just wanted to eat the feeder's handle.)

Hat Fancy

Our awesome neighbors the McBees had a Kentucky Derby party yesterday, so of course, we had to have hats. I told Frankie we were going to a 'hat party,' and he really got into it. I found some ugly fake flowers in my 'stuff' (aka the crap under my house) and decided that we needed to use them to adorn our rather plain and boring hats. Frankie *insisted* that he have all three white flowers on his hat and he did not take his hat off for the entire almost four hours that we were at the party. Never mind that no other kid there was wearing a hat, much less one covered in fake foliage. It looked especially classy when he was pushing around a digger and collecting mud.


Harper's hat was a bit more subdued. (This one is "posed by Frankie", aka holding hands.)




Sadly, our horses did not win the high-stakes $1 betting. I guess we just aren't cut out for a life of gambling.