Everyday Adventure

This summer my boys have fallen deep in love 

with fishing.

It's all they want to do.

After the lines are all untangled 

and we get through the first 5 minutes of, 

"Hey! You almost poked my eye out!" 

&

"Who hooked my shirt? Get it out!"

Then, they settle in.

No one even cares if they catch the biggest,

or the smallest.

And the sweetest conversations & teamwork happen.

It's magical & peaceful until:

"Mom!!!  My pole is stuck up in tree!"

(the tree that is so tall I couldn't fit it in the picture)

Then, the peacefulness is gone,

 because we are laughing too hard.

Until we cut that baby down.

(the pole, not the tree)

One thing for sure...

when you travel with a pack of boys,

everyday there is an adventure.

Wanted: Activity Director

On Sunday we dropped Annie off at Bible camp.

I miss that girl like crazy!

See Annie is our family activities director.

She keeps the boys busy all day long.

So now...

Guess who is the new activities director by default.

Yep, me.

We've been writing her letters,

jumping puddles,

watching planes,

just lots of busy boy stuff.

But, they still seem to find things to get into.

Yesterday morning, they brought me 

a giant newborn opposum in a jar.

Yes, I screamed,

 when it appeared from behind their backs 

and was thrust into my hands as a gift to me.

Then, later in the day Bo caught a pigeon in his fishing net.

I think I more yelled that time, 

"Bo! Let it go!"

So today I thought the zoo would take up 

a nice big chunk of the day and keep our adventures to a minimum.

Let's just say I sent this text to my sister:

So Laurie the zookeeper got the excitement today, 

all the kids around us yelling and pointing at her, 

"There's a lady in the monkey cage!"

Me, snapping pictures of her as she waded 

through the waist deep water with only knee deep boots on.

And the adventure of climbing the rocks,

 and hiking through the plants,

 to rescue a little boy and find his flip flop.

Rocco was so happy when she reached up and 

handed it to him under the railing.

We thanked her 

(and apologized) 

a hundred times.

Zookeeper Laurie was gracious and sweet,

Our new hero.

So today we gave the Gibbons something to watch,

and tomorrow I'm sure we will have some new animal adventure.

But at least it gives me something to put into my letters to Annie!

Get home girl!  You are missed :)

A Good Deal

Toinght, I dropped Annie off at her cousin's college dorm 

& headed to home to a house filled with boys. 

Bo has a friend sleeping over so I'm outnumbered 7-1.

I heard Kelly shouting out the front door,

"Bo!  Put that saw away! You can't cut off our tree limbs!"

Bo explained he needed firewood to sell.

I told him if he wanted firewood, to gather it from the woods, 

in the BACKyard.  

Kelly took the saw and they scrambled to the woods.

10 minutes later Rocco came in the house to grab 

something out of his drawer in the kitchen.

Rocco:  Bo got some great firewood! He took the bark off  

             and he's washing it so he can sell it.

Me:  You can NOT wash firewood Rocco.  

         And he can NOT sell it!

Rocco:  Yes he can.

Me: No...he can't.

Rocco:  Yes he can, why not?  It's just beautiful.

Kelly:  Rocco why are you taking that dollar outside? 

           (as Rocco is headed back out)

Rocco: I'm gonna buy some firewood.

Oh brother...so it turns out Rocco's tooth fairy money from his first tooth was in his hands less than 12 hours.

Rocco gave Bo the dollar and was quite 

delighted with his wet beautiful firewood.

I have to admit...it was beautiful,

(and much larger than I thought it would be.)

And the rest of the wood made delicious 

s'mores for the good ole' boys club.

 So I am admitting here that I was wrong.

You CAN wash firewood,

And someone will buy it.

I can only imagine what our friends say when they return home.

Sorry Joey.  

Yes, We Are Crazy.

Yesterday, after 3 months of on the job training,

 my niece was sworn in as a police officer.

Just yesterday she was just our little baby girl,  

and now she's a police officer holding my baby!

We are so proud of her!

Since we were headed to the police station 

I thought it might be kind of fun to bring some bad guys.

If you notice Bo & Rocco were not pictured.

They were too afraid they would be arrested in this room full of cops, so they refused to put their masks on.

I would advise you, if you are over 18, 

don't try heading to the police station dressed like this.

'

But as it turns out, the cops wouldn't lock 'em up 

so I had to take them home.

Yes...we are a bunch of crazies~

Good thing today at school was crazy day!

Plenty of those here!

He Will Survive!

When Rocco was just 2 days old,

I set him on the couch for a minute.  

I turned around and Bo was in the middle of the family room holding him as high as he could, by his ankles.

I don't think I ever ran faster in my life.

I'm pretty sure this was taken that very same day.

Today, Kit came in the room carrying Blue.

It was actually kinda cute.

I was like,

"Kit!  You are not suppose to pick up Blue! 

But here, let me take your picture." 

(mom of the year)

So, I helped him set Blue down and I went to get my camera. 

Then when I was all ready I said, 

"Okay Kit, pick him up gently and I'll take you picture."

I was holding the shutter down waiting for an adorable picture, 

and I captured this:

"Oh no! Oh no!

Set him down, Set him down baby."

Opps.

Here, let me help you:

"There....now we got it."

Can you see why I needed a picture? 

"Okay,  now remember Kit,  no more holding Blue."

The Letter

Yesterday, I got a letter in the mail.

Just look who it was from.

My girl.

She mailed it from school.

I was delighted so I opened the letter and started 

reading it as I was walking back to our house.

     Bo was next to me and peeked at it.  He read aloud, 

"Dear Mom," Then he took off like a lightning bolt, booking it back to the house.  I glanced up to watch him run and he was looking back at me angrily.  He yelled to me as he ran, "I'm going to go tell Annie you have another kid!!!!  I saw it said Dear Mom!!!"

As his hand hit the garage door knob I just spoke his name, 

"Bo,"

He stopped to listen.

"This letter is FROM Annie."

You should have seen the relief flood his face and he chuckled and let out a long. "Oooooooohh."

We had a gooooood laugh.

Getting Ready...

     I hate getting ready for the first day of school because it means summer is over & that it's time for me to send them off to school, so I always put it off until the very last week.  I don't buy a single supply or uniform until Monday before school starts.  And by then...it's rough.  The stores are cleaned out and I have to run all over town collecting the goodies we need.

This year my friend Beth sent the HUGEST box of school supplies!

She's an honorary auntie to my kids.  

She loves them & they love her.

She made my job soooooo easy!

All that was left was backpacks & tennis shoes.

Annie had been dreaming of this one all summer:

And I had my heart set on this one for the boys:

Can't you picture it with my boy's names on there?

Cute City!!!

My problem is that the particular boy who 

I picked it out for didn't like it.  

He said it wasn't cool enough.  

He said it wasn't cool like this one:

I'm not even kidding.

He wanted it so bad!

Not happening.

I mean the name of it is "Hairball Backpack".

Every time we'd go to Target he would run to it.

It took me awhile to get him to stop making googoo eyes at the kitties. Then, I finally had to explain to him that between the rainbows, bows, and hearts he might get teased, 

and then he might not want to carry it. 

( I didn't even mention the kitties in the pink glasses cause he loved them so)

So, he showed me his 2nd choice.

No.

Poor Kid.

In the end (after 3 stores) 

we finally had to order one off the internet 

to find one he loved.

(I'm a big believer in love your backpack.)

Even though I'm not crazy about their backpacks, 

they are, and everyone is happy.

School starts tomorrow and although we avoided "Hairball" teasing...I can't promise the same for the folders they picked out.

Bless their hearts.

(Please if you see my boys...don't mention the kitty backpack

...I don't ever want them to be embarrassed by what I post.)