Road Warrior

This big, scary guy was walking across the road when we were on our way to school this morning. Bleck!!!



It's hard to tell how big he is without anything in the picture for comparison but I wasn't about to get out of the car to do that!! I did stop in the middle of the road though so the kids could look at him. *giggle* (and NO there was no other traffic) The way he's standing in the picture he's probably about 5 inches front to back. He's bigger than the hamster in that picture down there. At different times of the year we see them on the road a lot. It just gives me the heeby-jeebies.

Some of our 'extended' family

I let the kids have the camera to play with the other day and they took pictures of some of the rest of the family.

Meet Bob



Bob is a robo dwarf hamster (he's in the upper right corner in the picture). He's a little thing but boy is he fast. Bob belongs to Addison and that's his name because it's Addison's favorite name. She's already decided that she's having three children and they'll be named Grace, Bob, and Bunny. Lord help us!!


Next is Patches. He's Abigail's mouse. He's really laid back and mostly wants to sleep. He doesn't even care to play with any of the things we buy and when she puts him in his ball to crawl around the house he just sits there. lol





This is Thin Mint. The kids went through a period where everything got food names. Thin Mint is the sole survivor of the tragedies when we got home from vacation. The bunnies that passed were Chocolate, Caramel, Snow Ball, and Anchovie. I don't even know where they come up with the names they do. When we got our most recent dog Addison wanted to name it Addison, Jr. They're just too funny!!




This is Rainbow. Yes, she's all black, and yes, the kids named her. lol I found her walking on the side of a very busy road when she was just a tiny little kitten so I stopped and picked her up. She's really been a good cat because she put up with the kids carrying her around all the time when they were only about four. The look on her face was always one of 'please, God, let this hurry and be over.' She's put up with a lot!!




And, this is my baby Thunder. He really couldn't much be bothered with the rest of them but he wants to be wherever I am. He's losing his hearing so he doesn't always know if I've left the room so if he can't see me it doesn't take long for him to be wandering through the house looking for me. When I go outside without him he sits in the house and whines. He's a big baby!!

Sleep Over

One of my children had a friend spend the night this weekend. I'll refer to the 'guest child' as G. I'm really used to my own kids (duh) and find many of their friends to be a little odd. G is no exception. I made dinner - hamburger patties & mac-n-cheeese. Don't know what G eats so figured mac-n-cheese was safe. G wasn't hungry so didn't eat when the rest of us ate. 30 minutes later G was hungry. G wants pepsi and chips for dinner. Sorry, not for dinner at my house. G pouts a little then asks one of my kids to make some peanut butter toast. Said child gives G the stuff to make it. G puts the pb on the bread (3 slices) and then asks how to toast it but decides the microwave is fine because the pb has to be warm. The next morning G has 6 more pieces of this pb warmed bread. The other kids had pancakes but G didn't want those. Then at lunch time my kids had left over mac-n-cheese (there was a lot) but G wasn't hungry again. Then when I put everything away G came and asked for some mac-n-cheese. grrr! Then G proceeded to eat 4 bowls of it. (why couldn't G eat it the night before when everyone else did? I don't get it.)(and why can't G eat at the same time as everyone else? - G has spent the night before and we went to Pizza Hut. G didn't eat any pizza until I started boxing up the left-overs to leave) G also ate 2 big bags of chips during the stay. I guess all of this is okay at home, but I don't let my kids eat that way. We eat at dinner time as a family and not junk food instead. They're not allowed to just randomly graze all day either. They get snacks but it's not just constant grazing. G also got a new glass, plate, bowl, etc. with each serving. For mac-n-cheese alone that's four bowls to be washed. When I loaded the dishwasher G's dirty dishes outnumbered the dishes for my family of six!! I feel terrible about it, but I was so ready for this child to go home (a/f's arrival didn't make me feel any more kindly either). I felt like a waitress running back and forth trying to keep this customer happy. I did tell my children last night how wonderful they are and how much I love and appreciate them. I think my kids were actually getting irritated by G's behavior. Needless to say, it will be awhile before G is invited back over. I need time to forget again. lol

Tell me, should a parent with a child that is a very picky eater or has odd eating habits tell the parents of the friend about it if the child is going to be spending the night? I just felt like I could have used a little insight or at least a heads up. kwim? Maybe being able to plan for it could have kept me from getting so irritated by it all......or maybe not. lol I just don't know.

Okay, I feel better now. I just had to get that out. lol

Why?

Why is it that every night when I start to cook dinner, one of our dogs does this?



It drives me crazy!! She lays right in front of the stove the whole time I'm cooking so that I have to step over her. I can't begin to count the number of times she's almost caused me to fall down. And with five other people in the house couldn't she find anyone else to be close to? And it's not like we give her people food. I guess she's just hoping.

Ahh, the trials of life. lol

Pizza Night

Last night I set out all the ingredients and let the kids make their own individual pizzas. It's amazing how much they love doing this. I used pita bread for the crust and let them go from there. It also allows me to get other things done while they're getting dinner ready. If you've never tried this before, you really should. It's great fun for the kids.

Changes

Addison, who usually likes to do this




and Wyatt, who usually likes to do this




have both signed up for this!






They're terribly excited about it. They've been online looking up equipment, rules, and any information they can get their hot little hands on. I hope that it lives up to their expectations since they are so excited. However, it does make me a little nervous because it has the potential of bringing arguments between the kids to a whole new level. LOL!! Although, Wyatt already participates in this




(that's not him in the picture)




so I guess it really should be safe. 80)


Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend. We'll be going to my nieces 18th birthday party. I can't believe she's already 18....it's like she was just born yesterday. Where does the time go?

And they're off....

Today was the first day of school. My gang is in the fourth grade now!! Time goes by so quickly. 8(

They were so excited though. Yesterday I gave them all of their school supplies and they spent quite a bit of time rearranging them in their backpacks. They got right up this morning and were ready in record time. They started telling me it was time to go about 30 minutes before it was actually time to go. I hope they have a great day and can't wait to hear all about it when they get home.

Swimming Fun

I took the kids to my parents' house this weekend. They're staying with them this week and will be doing some back to school shopping and lots of other fun things. I had to take these pictures of the kids in the pool.


Now, could my Mom have bought goggles that looked any dorkier than this? rofl I laughed at them so hard - which of course puts me in the running for Mother of the Year.

I also met a friend of mine (and her family) for lunch at Landry's on the Boardwalk in Kemah. It was only me meeting her because nobody else would go with me. The kids wanted to be in the pool and Dax had to work (or so he claimed ;0) )It was great to get to see her again and spend time with her family. It was a nice time, but then I had to hit the road for the long drive back home.

I decided to take the even longer way home so that I could stop and shop in some of the small towns on my way home. I take full advantage of these times in order to shop at the kind of places I like to go into that the rest of my family hates. lol Well, by going this way I went about 2 hours out of my way and I'll be damned if not one of the shops I wanted to stop at was open. The only stops I made were at two gas stations. Once to get something to drink and visit the lady's room and once to actually get gas. I was pissed to say the least. I'm still trying to convince myself to look on the bright side and think of all the money I didn't spend. Whatever!! I wanted to shop. *pout* I guess I'll leave early when it's time to pick the kids up and see if that works out any better for me. rofl!

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I just love how excited the kids get just to be giving presents. I'm the same way. :0) I just love giving gifts to people and I'm always a little hurt if I feel like they don't like it. kwim? Anyway, it was a good day and the kids did great on the gifts they picked out. And the cards were all so funny too. They've got great senses of humor. I would post pics of the 'party' but I don't know how to get them off of the camera Dax was using. We just did the family thing because somehow as the number goes up it just doesn't seem like as big a deal to celebrate. lol I have to figure out how to get the pics though because you have to see the candles on my cake. The package of candles had melted together so it was all one big glob which created quite the inferno. lol

Skating

I took the kids roller skating yesterday so that Dax could get some work done without the almost constant interruptions. I got a couple of pictures before the battery in my camera died. I'm certain there will be a lot of bruises and sore bodies this morning.


Addison


Wyatt

They beg to go skating, but once we got there and they kept falling, they remembered what they don't like about it. lol

It was a good weekend, though. They've started keeping lists of the chores they do and then at the end of the week we review the lists and decide how much money they've earned. I'm loving all the things that I don't have to do at the moment. I just need to make sure that we come through with enough $$ that they'll want to keep doing it. *giggle*

They are all ready for school to start. I think mostly because they want to go pick out backpacks and they get lockers this year. The girls have already been going through stuff picking out what to hang in their lockers and how to decorate them. It's pretty cute.

In other news, there's a tropical storm/hurricane (don't know where it's at today) that should be coming through our area sometime late tomorrow. I'm actually kind of looking forward to the rain. We need it. :0)