Aiden's friends at Friends

This year Aiden started the 4 day 4 class at Friends School. We weren't sure how it would go since the end of last year was not good. He started hating school and riding the bus for some reason. Not true this year! he loves his teachers, Mrs. Meghan (or "Mrs. Wagon" according to Aiden) and Mrs. Tricia. He has made lots of new friends and is learning so much! We would love him to be able to stay there through elementary school so I may have to take out some kids to move him up on the list. The pictures above are from his first day. He just waved me and Travis out of the room...very bittersweet!

I'm sensing an unplanned theme...

Last night after calming myself from the excitement of the So You Think You Can Dance finale (Go Sabra!) I headed to bed to read a little before I dozed off. Of course Travis was gone and the kids were asleep so it was nice and quiet.

As I reached my hand into the bathroom to turn off the light I noticed the water in the toilet was wiggling. My first reaction was I can't believe I just fixed this toilet and it is broken again...then I noticed a dark gray thing splashing in the water! Scared to death that it was a rat climbing out of the toilet I closed the door and slid my robe in front of the gap under the door to keep the animal from roaming the house.

Frozen, I shuffled down the hall as quietly as possible to not wake up the kids and called Travis from the living room, telling him he needed to get home to get the rat out of the toilet. As he scolded me for not shutting the toilet lid to avoid us getting bit by a rat I crept down the hall closer to the bedroom, breathing very heavily and hearing that creepy scary movie music echoing in my head the whole time. With Travis yelling in my ear I stood outside the bathroom door listening to the creature flop around in there. Finally I mustered up some courage; I opened the door a tiny bit and peeked in to see if the animal was still in there. Sure enough it was and it was no rat...it was a bat! I saw those little creepy pointed wings flapping in the water and slammed that door again and darted back to the living room.

How was I supposed to get that thing out of the toilet? I love animals just as much as the next person but my first instinct was to shut the lid, lay books on top, then flush the body in the morning. Realizing that was not exactly humane, I gave into my next instinct...I want my daddy! I called my parents and dad came over to save the night. The bat hooked his bat claws onto the bat-towel and dad laid the towel in the front yard. He said my uninvited guest was really tired from swimming so he'd fly away after he dried out. Needless to say every teeny creak and crack that night made me a nervous batwreck!

Good news: the bat flew away.
Bad news: the bat flew away and knows where I live!

Halloween in July Part II

Is there something in the air around us? Aiden and I were cleaning his room and in the time it took me to take a sippy cup to the kitchen he had gotten out his kangaroo Halloween costume and was ready to put it on. He was so excited to boing boing boing down to show Travis in the basement. Of course he also had to take Audrey her costume, too. I was so shocked that it still fit! She looked so cute waddling around with her ladybug antennas.

Update on Pop's Pumpkin Patch: Just when he was ready to chop up the leaves, there are two new green pumpkins waiting to ripen!

Halloween in July??

Now I have heard of Christmas in July but not Halloween! Noni found a pumpkin plant in the Target dollar bin so Pop decided that he was going to grow pumpkins for the kids this year. Little did he know that not only were they going to be ready in July but that they would take over the whole yard! Those vines attacked the grass and took over the backyard, reminiscent of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. The picture of the "pumpkin patch" was taken after Pop decided to scale it down considerably. Luckily for their marriage the plant didn't hurt Noni's tomatoes.

The Boy Wonder and Doggiegirl!

Aiden loves his Robin Underoos and I imagine it takes Travis back to his boyhood, too. Did you ever have Underoos? Mine were Supergirl. I had originally planned on cropping his photo before I published it but if you look behind him you can see Audrey eating dog food...her newest pass time. Lately we can get her to give most of the food to Belle but she does enjoy the occasional morsel here and there. Travis can't wait until he can tell that story to her dates...when she is old enough to date...which is when we are dead.

Ever have one of these days

I was rushing to get Aiden to an appointment the other morning, got in the car with him and realized I had done this. Luckily I had a second to run in and grab the other flip flop.

Welcome Sydnie!

Here she is and she is adorable!

Sydnie Alexis was born today, 7/27/07, at 11:15ish. She is 19 inches long and weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces. you should see her blond hair...Edie said it was in a mohawk when she came out! Long fingers and toes. And don't worry...Gigi has already approved of her instep and declared she will be a dancer. Grandma Ruby is ready to take her antiquing! What a wonderful addition to our family.

Congratulations Chris and Edie!