Bike Saga: The money issue

Sweet wanted a new bike.

He's riding a bike that makes him look like a circus sideshow.  It is small.  He is large.

Nana and Papa gave him $75 towards his goal for his birthday.

That crazy toothfairy has been coughing up $5 per tooth.  (Yes, jokes were made about knocking out a few more to pay for the bike....)

Grandpa paid him a little cash to pick up all the bailing twine in the bale lot.

Daddy paid him $20 to pick up all the sticks in the yard this spring (rip off.... it took him almost 3 days to get it all done....)

Grandma put change (quarters, not pennies) in some plastic eggs for an egg hunt.

He's been doing odd jobs for me for green money***.  Also.... I sometimes pay bribes to kids who do fantastic tricks at the swimming pool. 

***sidenote:  how to you handle the difference between paid chores and "the things we do because we are part of the family" chores? 

So he's carefully been hoarding his cash.

I love the lesson this is teaching him.... Grandpa Kenny will be so proud.  I also love that he is saving for something that is active and not passive.  Because we all know he wants a video game.

So, finally, we realize summer is almost over and we better get shopping.

I'm catching my breath.....

Do you know how expensive a good kid-bike is these days???

I mean.  A good one.

Like a GIANT.

Here Kitty Kitty

My father-in-law saw a big mountain lion (not a cute little bobcat) in his yard.

I hope he stays there and doesn't come to our house.

I'm guessing the horses will let us know if he is in the neighborhood.

SMURFS

Friday was a day off from the office for me. 

I had visions of porch post painting and checking off projects right and left.

We did check something off.... something off our summer "bucket" list.

We went to a movie. 

A matinee.

In 3-D.

Smurfs.

With Large Bucket of Popcorn.  $6.75 but worth every penny.  My kids ate it down to the old maids and I didn't get a single kernel.  We called it dinner.

My ticket was $8.75.  It was $8.25 per kid for the movie.  Bugsy was free because the ticket lady could see she was drooping and about to nap.  We fooled her.  That girl sat on my lap for the whole movie with her little glasses in place.  Priceless was how she jumped the first time Gargamel (sp?) came out of the screen at her.  Every time he came on screen she said, "Nau-ee.  Nau-ee Bad Guy.

School Status

T minus two weeks and counting until school starts. Aug 30 for Sweet and Aug 31 for Tuff.

How are we doing?

Tuff is excited and a bit nervous. Me too.

I found out our gymnastics place is moving.... to a "suburb" town a long ways from my house. We could barely keep it together when gymnastics was at 5:00 once a week for both kids and located between daycare and our house. I wasn't planning to do the fall session anyway. Sweet will be in football and Tuff will be a tired mess by 3:15. But now we need to re-think our options for winter.

I got the hand sanitizer and found baby wipes.

We know where the classrooms are and who the teachers are....

We labeled supplies and lunch boxes.

We threw away toothbrushes and got new ones. What? You don't do that? Everyone gets two toothbrushes when school starts and we toss the old. Same deal at Christmas and when school lets out. And we stock up on toothpaste. My kids use a lot of toothpaste.

We got school clothes. Well, ok. let me qualify that. Sweet got new socks. Child outgrew the socks I bought him in June. Seriously. He has shoes we bought in July and I got him a new pair of jeans so he's set for a while. He will need another pair of jeans later this fall. Tuff got a first-day-of-school t-shirt. (with an owl on it... from Target..... $8) She also go a pair of slip on low-top style sparkly tennis shoes. They were $12 at Ross. They satisfy her requirement of being cool and my requirement of being easy to put on and covering her toes for recess. Yes.... I am that mom. Recess is for play. Not for mincing around in high-heeled flip-flops.

Bugsy didn't get anything. She's going to be very sad when the bigs go to school and she is all alone at daycare. But I plan to bribe her by chaning the daycare bag from the giant orange bag to a cute Tinkerbelle backpack. She loves a "pack-pack" and Belle.
 

Rookie 6/7

Going to the Fair

We are taking off to go to the State Fair on Friday.

Yes, I feel it is a requirement to vacuum the car before we go.

I have lists.  I have plans.  We are going to have FUN.

the busy art of relaxing and slowing down

July was, um, spectacular.  And busy.  And I somehow spent a lot of time being busy at trying to do nothing.  Does this happen to you? 

It happens to me in one of two ways usually:

1.  I intend to plan relaxing activities.  Fun summer stuff.  Like  playing by the creek.  But relaxing takes a lot of effort.  There is sunscreen and bug dope.  Snacks.  Water bottles.  Sandals for bare feet.  Jars & nets for catching bugs.  Fishing rods.  Wheelie strollers with flat tires.  Bear bells.  More snacks.  Long discussions of how to pan for gold.  Slimy seaweed skin treatments.  Mucky smelly mud.  Sandy silty mud.  Protecting the camera from mud.  Hauling boards to make structures.  Buckets to pick chokecherries.  Screwdrivers and mallets to experiment on the chokecherries.  Discussion of a rope swing.  Plans for an asparagus patch. 

2.  I intend to do nothing.  I sit on the back porch (sidebar:  I call it the back porch but, technically, it is the side that faces the road so it is the front porch.. but we come in the other side so I consider that the front.... anyway... I guess I should call it the west porch).  I have a cool drink, a magazine, some quiet tunes on the ipod and kids playing in the yard.  I see something that needs fixing.  I fixate.  Then I fix.  Pretty soon I have the entire contents of the gardening bucket strewn across the yard, I'm sweaty, I've made a list 3 pages long for the hardware store and it starts with "quickcrete"  and there is a two-foot hole trenched in the grass and I'm thinking, "How am I going to explain THIS ONE to Hot?" 

A quick lilac update

I finally picked up a couple little bitty plants..... a tomato, some cilantro & a lemon balm.  I plugged the tomato and cilantro into the barrel on the decklast year the darn deer came up the front steps, across the porch, down the steps onto the enclosed porch and ate my salad garden.  Sigh.  I have NO IDEA what else is in this barrel..... some seeds got scattered at some point.  Or maybe it is weeds.... wait and see.....

Here's my sad lilac slash whatever-it-is tree......  still not blooming.... t-minus 10 days until July....

Here's a shot from the other side.  Hot got crazy with the chain saw and cleared things out.... makes a great little fort for the kids.  And, yes, that IS my internet cable there at the bottom of the photo.... what?

My big grown-up boy with his FAVORITE present.  His dad rocks.  They tested it out on Sunday.... you can see the results... poor paper gopher.

I don't want you to think we are JUST rednecks..... behold.... a game of strategy....

Kids and Cats

The cats really like the kids.  You can't even SEE the cat in the second picture.  And poor Bug... she wakes up in the middle of the night saying, "Noooo.  Git.  Off.  Kee."

June 10 Flooding

This is an insane amout of water.

Emily.... we named her Emily.

Cute Barn Shot:  Also.... Chokecherry bushes. 

Stupid Weeds:

June 5 Flooding