In Other News

Phase III of our boulder wall is in the works. This is what we built on Saturday:

Our neighbor (bless him and his family) showed up Saturday morning in our yard with a huge crowbar and work gloves. This was unsolicited help...and he stayed for 3 hours...on a Saturday! Who has neighbors like that?!?!?!? He gets the "neighbor of the year" award. Maybe even the Nobel Peace Prize.

So, not only did we move and stack all the rocks for the face of the wall, but we had to back fill the wall with more boulders so it wouldn't fall over. We did all this and only had two smashed fingers...one on my hand, one on Christian's. You learn pretty quick to keep your fingers out of the way after getting them squished between two boulders.

We are about half way done I think. I'm sure no one is interested in our backyard rock wall, but I'm so proud of it. Our little muscles are moving those huge things!

In other happenings, I feel like I am at war with the creatures trying to invade my house. Right now I'm battling groundhogs and spiders.

I feel really bad, but I stuck poison down the 6 groundhog holes in our yard. Just so you know, I feel bad squishing an ant, so it about killed me to poison Punxsutawney, but he and his posse were making craters on the castle grounds. I guess we will not know if winter will be six weeks longer this year...but come on, we live in Massachusetts...of coarse it will be longer. Plus, weather.com has got Punxsutawney beat any day, not just February 2.

My second battle is in the basement. I decided to evict the Halloween decorating committee after I got bit by a BLACK WIDOW Saturday night. Yet another trip to the poison aisle at Lowes will solve that problem, and no I don't feel bad killing them. A mama duck has to protect her ducklings.

And finally in other news, my bribe bag is empty:

That's a lot of bribes.

Pop

We took a can of soda from Christian's office the other day.
Soda is not something my kids have often.

James cried after every sip...
but he kept drinking.

Daniel called it "spicy"

You Can't Trust Giggles

I would guess that showering is a daily challenge for most parents with young kids. I'm sure everyone can relate to some degree with locking all the doors and taking the key into the bathroom with you, making sure each child is occupied with something, and then racing as soon as you shut the bathroom door. It is as if you are trying to set a world speed showering record.

Inevitably, as soon as you are indecent and just wet, you hear a squabble going on or a knock on the door with some request. You get pretty good at brushing things off. Then throughout your 3 minute shower and dressing, you hear a range of noises from delightful giggles to insistent commands. Sometimes you hear tears.

Well, Tuesday's shower started out normal, but I heard no squabbles. In fact, I only heard laughter and screams of delight as little feet pitter pattered back and forth in front of the bathroom which connects our two bedrooms. So I stood in the warm shower a little longer than normal.

In case you were wondering, I had 6 rolls of toilet paper in the hallway linen closet before my shower.

There were 0 rolls in the linen closet after.

Phase II

The progress is slow, but it is coming along. Hopefully we will not have to rent anymore heavy machinery for this job. Now we have to rely on our muscles to move them rocks.

Daniel Turns 4

Querido Vaquero,

Your cumpleanos was on Wednesday. But I didn't tell you it was your cumpleanos. You think your cumpleanos was on Friday...when we celebrated it. I didn't want you to be confundido.

During the dia, we did all your favorite cosas...we went for a ride on our bicicletas and we swam.

That night, we had a real fiesta, complete with tacos, melancia, jicama,

ice-chilled refrescos,

a pinata (which you helped make...you wanted to paint in the tree),

and globos.

The hardest part of the day was keeping you and James (the chupacabras) out of the refridgerator where the crocodilo was resting. You two chupacabras were hungry for some azucar all day!

El crocodilo cupcakes
It was worth the wait.

Feliz Cumpleanos!

Con Amor,

Mama

A Dog Chasing His Tail

I set out 12 paper cupcake liners and our muffin tin. I told James to put one liner in each cup. It took a while, but he did succeed to put one liner in each cup except for one. He did not realize there was one more paper liner on the floor behind him. After placing 11 liners in, he noticed one cup was empty. So, he picked up an already-placed liner and put it in the empty cup. Well, now there was another empty cup. So, he picked up another already-placed liner and put in in the empty cup. I think he moved around 8 liners before he gave up. It reminded me of a dog chasing his tail.

I Think the Curls are Coming

James has them too....the curls. I'm so delighted. If they come in anything like his brother's, he will have mullet curls for a while. Then he will have mo hawk and mullet curls, and then everything else will grow in.

All Clean

We have been back from vacation for three weeks now. Since being home I have cleaned almost every inch of my house. Water damage was the culprit to most of my cleaning. My kids were the other major culprit.

Well, just when I thought everything was done, I went to the garage to get the drill to hang a rack. When I stuck my hand into the tool box, it was wet...two inches of water wet. So I scrubbed that clean too. Now our toolbox is finally organized and smells like clorox.

So, is a clean, organized toolbox unmanly? Would Christian be ashamed to open it in front of his friends? Is that like sending your third grade boy to school with a Strawberry Shortcake tin lunch box and a napkin with the message "I love you" resting on top?

One of those Days

Labor Day took us to Rockport, MA (our favorite little coastal town). It was a "pause to smell the ocean and feel the sunshine" type of day. We spent the evening conversing with friends, eating fresh seafood, climbing on the rocks, and licking hand whipped fudge off our fingers.

"Mom, the fish was this big."

Summer Bounty

Their bags were filled with peaches found here.

James ate 2 softball sized peaches that afternoon/evening. I wasn't sure if the size 4 diaper I had him in was going to contain the evidence of our sweet, juicy adventure.

Daddy's Homecoming

6pm is a magic time around here. The two kiddos and I sit on our front step to wait for Dad to come home. It is so fun to sit there in anticipation of his arrival. We check every car that drives by. When Dad finally drives up the welcoming party erupts (waving, screaming, pointing, dancing, giggling). I don't know if the arrival party happens because of the little show Christian puts on as he drives up or if it is in anticipation of the tickling and wrestling that is moments away.

One day I would love to have a wrap around front porch with a swing. By then, my kids will probably not want to swing and wait for Dad to get home. I guess our crumbly cement step will be in our memories forever.