What the.... winged assailant

Readers,

I was in a hardware store the other day and most days(yet I am not all that handy) and I saw this rather large bird(pigeon) waddling down the aisle like he was a customer, going back and forth check out things on each side of the aisle. I considered this bird slightly comical with his incarnate qualities.  So naturally…like the nut I am… I froze right where I was. I cautiously reached into my purse and grabbed my handy camera phone checking all the while that my little friend wasn't startled and leaving. I then slowwwly crept forward and down much like a mime going down stairs and when I was appropriately crouched and FAR closer to the bird than this picture makes it seem, I snapped a photo.

 See???

Immediately after the bird all but attacked me, flying in a bee line towards me while wildly flapping it's wings in my face. I did not scream. I did however run and not so gracefully. I untangled my crouching tiger pose (there may have been a wavy arm balancing myself movement involved) and ran back down the aisle to hide behind paint cans. With just my eye poked out I saw him fly up up up into the rafters above. I can only assume he was waiting for me to walk under so he could finish the job with an air strike poo.  Of course I’m no dodo so I walked in the opposite direction being sure to check that no one had seen or was rolling over laughing at my stand off with a bird….  

First day of school!

First day of school here! We have not so patiently been waiting for a minimum of 9 months for this day to arrive. Hallelujah its here! We were all excited....

Except for Cash...who was definitely distraught over the process
and was adamant that he was NOT going to preschool

We had time to plan for this day of course, so I woke up bright and early as we prepared for the day I asked her what she wanted me to make her for breakfast. 

She said "Just give me a bag with cereal in it and I will eat it on the way. Let's go!"

I assured her that we had plenty of time before school started (almost an hour and a half)  and asked her again. "Just cereal in a bag, I want to go!" 

After much assuring that we would NOT be late she finally agreed to french toast and eggs, a fantastic choice. :)

After eating it was only 7:25 and school does not start until 8:10....but as ever she was unyeilding with her requests to go to school. 

So we did.

Her dad, grandmother and myself were able to walk her to school bright and early.

We made it there by 7:40 and had time to sit in the cafeteria before they opened the doors to classes. This meant a lot of fidgeting and checking and double checking of things. 

Lunch in there?
Check

Gifts for my teacher?
Check

Branch I saw on the way home :)

Too excited not to smile

She insisted that we put her teachers gift in the picture...
See behind us??

Finally they released us to classes where she immediately found her name and sat down.

After a few minutes she started to realize...we were not going to be staying with her and suddenly she could not let go of me.

Mom you are staying right...

After school she enjoyed a little only child time with me while I looked over the mountain of paper work they send home on the first day.   But soon enough it was time to pick up Cash from preschool.

 Once we had him along side us we finished the night honoring our first day of school with iced and sprinkled donuts for dinner.

Still brooding a tiny bit.

Summer Bucket List

For some reason I am unable to get this thing to flip 

Summer is over, we say good bye! and here is our final tally from the summer bucket list. This is what we were able to accomplish in 3 sweet (hot) summer months this year.  

And how much fun it was!

We were able to walk away with only a handful of items left to accomplish for the rest of the year :)  And many stories and memories to last us until next summer. Thank you to all that helped us make our summer as magical as possible.

P.S.

We did not see a single Ice Cream truck all summer....is this a thing of the past? 

If you can not read it, we were able to cross off

Nature walk

run in sprinklers

donuts for breakfast

splash pad

play at park

bubble blowing

go to the movies

write a story

bake granola bars

face paint

hide and seek

smores

watch fireworks

write a letter and mail it

go bowling

roll down a hill(many times)

paint rocks with crayons

photo shoot

movie marathon in pajamas

go to an Astros game

museum

zoo

make smoothies

plant plants

breakfast for dinner

farmers market

go to the beach

ride bikes

flash cards

bake cookies with friends

croquet

playground

play with animals at CAPS

play soccer

board games

Blue Bell Tour

Kids plan dinner

fly kites

library

puzzles

dress up

eat watermelon

make a collage

have an unbirthday party

arboretum

walk Soldier

write a haiku

yoga

discovery green

Dynamo game

Tubing

What the

Can you guess what this is?

How about a closer look

Apparently a bird ran into the window at work and left a completely perfect imprint, beak and all. There was no bird in sight so I can only assume he got up, shook it off and walked away. I can only imagine how confused he must have been...

And dusty...

Happy Friday!

Hawaii care package

I came home to a box today....I love mail, even more than that, unexpected mail! This box had a little hole in the bottom as if our gifts were trying to sneak their way out and surprise us already.  I quickly assessed that it was from Mimi and Papa Dean...but what could it be?

An awesome care package from their recent vacation to Hawaii!  

I love sending and receiving care packages especially for no other reason than love.

And we definitely loved all of it. 

The children love the colorful books and my careful slow reading of the Hawaiian names of the animals in them. We munched on our treats as soon as they made it out of the box. And were pleased to add new exotic teas to our broad selection of teas.

What a great surprise this was.

Thank you!

What the

Things that make you exclaim....What the Frank.

A few weeks ago I was on the phone with Keith as I was gazing at my beautiful Turks Cap Bush in the atrium and  I actually said "Oh I can't wait for you to get home and look at the Turks Cap, it did something completely bizzarre....A very thick stalk has formed before each flower."

And as I tilt in for a better view I realize its bugs!! Blegh and my skin is instantly crawling watching these bleghy bugs sitting there destroying my bright happy Turks Cap...just munching away.

Those my friends would be mealybugs.....I had never seen one before and then bam they infested a single turks cap plant one day. They spared every other plant in the atrium and yard, why, how? Where did they come from? Most importantly....get rid of them!!!

They were killing the beautiful humming bird bush!

Something had to be done!

So I immediately researched and shopped  and used sprays and hoses. Two spray bottles lost their lives in the process.

It was messy..

But in the end we were able to rid our atrium of these very unwelcome intruders and all was right in the world again...rest assured.

Final Days

We took these photos in the final days before my sister's family moved into their new flipped house. Something we loved about this house was the massive yard, it was great for lawn games...even the ones we made up. On our final visit Keith and the kids made up a game of croquet where you had to hit the ball around each tree and make your way back to the house the fastest...all running at the same time! The first few times Keith won. I resolved that the kids needed a little inspiration. So we determined that whoever won would get to draw whatever they wanted on the losers face.

She drew an L for LOSER!

The second best thing we used the lawn for that day was to throw freshly cut grass at Keith...Check out Katie laying in the grass, making grass angels(only in Texas) before she rises with inspiration to take down Keith wish as much grass as she can hold. Protect the fort!

Determination

She got him!

(NOTE: Katie is in a bathing suit, not because we swam that day...but simply because she chose to stay outfitted in this all summer)

Dress up/photo shoot

Yuliya just loves to dress out in garb and make a moment out of it. But usually she is on her own unless she can sneak a hat onto her brother's head without him noticing. Occasionally though the boys do decide to join in with her.  This dress up session in particular made me giggle.

Cash going for it

Sam as a serious serious monkey Dr.

Check out Jack howling it out

He really gets into it

What the Frank

So I am considering starting a new installment titled.....

What the Frank is that....

That would be Alex the Cat, AKA Alejandro.

This is how Alex and I sit at night when I am trying to get the kids to sleep. I sit on one side of the door telling the kids "It's bedtime!!" and he...well he does what most cats do. He sits on the other side staring at me with his glowy eyes.... paws stretched out under the door.....waiting... and watching...

Creepy huh.

Last day of Summer

We celebrated the last day of summer a little early so Jack and Sam could be there for it as well. I brought home cupcakes and the children dug in and shared their favorite memories from the summer.

Jack:Hula Hooping(He's a natural!)

Yuliya: Blue Bell and the beach

Sam:Star Wars movie marathon

Cash: Mimi and Papa Dean's house and Ice Cream

Momma: San Antonio trip, Dynamo game

Keith: Tubing in the river, Dynamo game