Murphy's Law For Moms, #26

If you leave town for the weekend and plan to work on the resulting mountain of laundry come Monday morning, you'd better factor in the two hours in which your electricity will be off for no apparent reason (and which will mockingly turn off as you are sorting the above-mentioned mountain).

No Babies Were Harmed In The Making Of This Video

 I was unable to upload this video yesterday, so here it is.  Only 42 seconds long.  I still laugh every time I see it, but of course, I'm the mom.

Driver's Ed

Just the other day...

...I was checking out my new ride...

...and having a good ole time.

My big sister came to check it out...

 

 

...but I didn't want to give her a ride.  Maybe when I get to drive Dad's truck.

When Life Hands You A Flat Tire...

...make a tire swing!



Pull, pull, pull!




Whee!




We didn't have any trees with suitable branches, so Dan hung the tire in the stalls on the side of the shed.




Two at a time!



Field Trip!

In our first month of school, we studied Mammals, Birds, Fish, and Habitats in Science class, so a couple of weeks ago, we took a field trip to the zoo.  We did not meet up with anyone, so that the kids and I would be able to talk about the topics we had learned in class (instead of me talking to the other mommies!) 



We got to see the baby chimp.




Joseph posed near the wallaroo, which was hopping about the Australian exhibit at will.




A beautiful and graceful swan.




We got to see the anteater in action.




The lions were out sunning on a large rock.




Then it was time for lunch and playtime at the playground.




Anthony rode in the stroller happily for a long time, then he fell asleep.  We used our free popcorn coupon, which got the kids all excited.  There is something about eating popcorn out of a box, I guess.




The zoo is full of these railings which attract little kids like magnets, as evidenced by Dominic in front of the leopard exhibit.




Doesn't that grizzly bear look all cuddly and cute?




Every time we go to the zoo, the kids turn into these ravenous little eating machines, so we stopped a lot for a snack.




We were at the zoo for about 4 hours, and for the last hour and a half or so, this was Anthony's mode of travel.  He liked it very much, but boy, did he get heavy!



Our last stop was the penguins, where one of them was really putting on a show, swimming along and diving in and out of the water.  I was amazed at how much the kids remembered from class and I was surprised at how much more I knew from teaching them!

Little Clara

Anthony was happy to see his cousin, Clara, who is 2 weeks younger than he is.



Anthony and Clara. 



Anne loves babies, and was thrilled to get to hold Clara.




Evidently there was something funny happening because those babies were cracking up.



Fun In KC

A few weeks ago, we went up to visit my parents near Kansas City.  While there, we went down to the big shopping area near their house, ate dinner, and walked around.  This fountain is at the big outdoor mall.   





Joseph just got squirted in the face with the water jet in this picture.





Anne was waiting for the water to shoot out again.




They could have stayed there all evening, playing with the water.





Catherine, Joseph, Anthony, Anne, and Dominic



This Is Some Serious Work

Joseph's comment:  "I wish I had one that could really cut stuff!"  

All in good time, young man.

Dinner On The Deck!

Once the weather cooled off a bit, we started to eat dinner outside occasionally.  We couldn't do it this summer since the temperature would still be 90-100+ degrees at dinner time.



Here we are getting ready to eat a fried chicken dinner (fried in peanut oil in the turkey fryer, by Daddy).



Stuffed Peppers

A Yummy Fall Dinner

A Sad Story

Here is a picture of Sunny, the cat,  from a couple of months ago.  We got him as a kitten in the spring, along with his brother, Cloudy.

 

This past Sunday, on the way home from Mass, we saw Sunny's body on the side of the road somewhat near our house.  The poor cat had been run over.  Catherine, especially, was very sad.  This is a picture of Dan and the kids riding over to get Sunny.

This is Cloudy, who kept meowing mournfully that day.

Daddy dug a hole out under a tree on our property and buried Sunny, while the kids watched.

Cloudy on top of Sunny's grave.

Giddy For Gourds!

 The bugs were really starting to chew things up, so one day Dan picked all of the gourds and pumpkins and got a big wagonload:

The kids thought all of those funny shaped gourds were pretty neat:

They make a nice fall centerpiece for the dining table:

Another basket of gourds graces the living room coffee table:

More gourds and the lone two pumpkins of this year's harvest sat for a while on the front porch:

Then a fall display was set up in the yard, much to the kids' delight:

Happy Fall!

Whodunit?

 A while back, some friends of ours gave us some pears from their pear tree and one day I came out into the kitchen and found this:

Was it a mouse?



Nope!  It was the "Champion of the World," pictured below.  I finally figured out that he didn't think I would notice if he only took a few bites out of each one.  Funny boy!  He could have had a pear anytime if he had just asked.

Coincidence

As we were listening to the audiotape of "Mr. Popper's Penguins" this morning before lunch, I was astonished to hear the reader read right out of the book that it was Wednesday, September 29th!

Happy Birthday, Dan!