SKUNKED!

Yup! You guessed it - Anni got sprayed last night! Ugh! We were letting her out before heading to bed, and I noticed her sneeze when she came inside (yes, INSIDE!). Then the stench hit like a brick. Luckily, she didn't make it onto any carpeting before I sent her right back outside, but the smell is still lingering despite multiple floor washings, disposal of area rugs, and open windows throughout the house. We bathed her last night, but the boys and I are going to bathe her a few more times today. Fun, fun, fun....

Problem Solving

My husband cracks me up. I find his quirky sense of humor funny in general, but I also find some of the things he does extremely amusing. He is by nature a problem-solver. Some of you know. The house was too small - add 800 square feet! He was tripping over the shoes in the entryway - add on to the front of the house to make a shoe closet! Not enough pantry space? Build another one! You get the idea. So... the cherry problem. We have several, BIG, TALL, beautiful cherry trees that are always loaded with delicious cherries that he longs to pick. Every year, he pulls down the bottom branches and picks as many as he can reach. This year, he came up with a better solution - the cherry-picker van!

Problem Solved!

(However, I think that he's really just picking the same branches that he picked a few years ago!)

Summer Reading

Another perk of homeschooling is extra "osmosis" learning. Neil-Te has been learning to read all year - practicing sight words, phonics... About a month ago, KiKi started begging to learn a letter every day. He learns his letter, practices writing it, then begs for a new one. The other day, He picked up this library book, What I See, and started to read it. It is one of those early reader books - highly repetitive; and I figured that he had just memorized it. You can just imagine my shock when he actually stopped here and there to sound out the words! Guess I had underestimated the power of osmosis!

Science Mishap

CoCo has been an avid rock collector for a few years, and my gardens are full of some really interesting and beautiful rocks. As he has gotten older, he has started to try to identify and experiment with some of his rocks. So when he picked up an igneous rock that was loaded with yellow and asked if he could boil it in some water to see what would happen, I said, "Sure!" Well, we boiled, the rock disintegrated into a million pieces, and the yellow was left behind in my pot and on my spoon. Unfortunately, this yellow stuff has adhered itself to my pot and spoon and refuses to budge. I tried reboiling, soap, vinegar, scraping... So, important lesson learned - stone soup needs a special pot reserved strictly for science experiments. It looks like I have one now if anyone needs a loan!(Wish I had taken a picture of the rock. It was too bright for sulfur, and we can't identify it despite lots of research. I'd be thrilled if anyone had any ideas.)

Elegant? Excited? Elated? Eighteen!

Though she plans to pretend that she is "sweet sixteen" this year, SS really turned eighteen today. She was a little disappointed that I don't let her have the day off of school on her birthday like the boys do, but such are the disadvantages of traditional school - the whole school just doesn't close for your birthday! However, she was pleasantly surprised to find that some of her friends had brought in a cake and a balloon, and her ESL teachers had given her cards and candy.

Here are the kids horsing around after SS opened her gifts.
SS decided that she wanted to go out for Chinese food for her birthday dinner. Rather than go to a traditional restaurant, she wanted to try a buffet. Oma and Opa and Grandma and Grandpa joined us for dinner, and we all had fun figuring out which animal we were. SS wasn't so thrilled to discover that she was a monkey, so she tried to trick her brothers into thinking that she was one of the more interesting animals - the tiger. (Actually my animal!)

The Dragon (the boys were soooo jealous!) and the Rabbit.

The Rat and the Boar. (Too funny!)

Here is our birthday girl with some cake. (I forgot to bring candles.) She was so stuffed that she couldn't eat any of it. Don't worry, there were lots of people to help her out!

Conversations with God

KiKi and I had the following conversation a few minutes ago after he had been sitting on the "throne"for a while.
KiKi: Mommy, I was just talking to God for a long time.
Me: Oh, did you have a lot of things to tell him?
KiKi: Yes. I told him that Satan is not my friend. Everyone else is my good friend, but not Satan. Now, stop listening and wipe my butt.

I guess that was back to basics of life after a brief spiritual moment.

Relaxed

Hubby was cuddling with the little two after dinner, taking a look at their new library books when I overheard the following conversation.
Daddy to Neil-Te: So, do you think you want to be a doctor or a lawyer when you grow up?
Neil-Te: (without any hesitation) No. I want to be just like you.
(Me: washing dishes, thinking, "Well, Neil-Te really does like computers.")
Daddy: What do you mean?
Neil-Te: I want to be a dad like you.
(Me: thinking, " how sweet is that?!")
Neil-Te: (continuing) You know, like that dad book I read. Where I can lay in a hammock and be laxed. A laxed dad. (relaxed)
(Me: thinking, "yep... laxed-until your kids flip you over or point the hose at you!)