The Black Widow

Junior discovered that we had a lovely visitor in one of our window wells this week. The boys wanted to keep it for a pet. I said no, in case you wondered.

I hope you can hear the conversation between the boys on this video--it was whispered to avoid frightening the spider.

Digging That Ice Cream and Frosting

I love this video of Junior.

There's No Business Like Monkey Business

Sunday was Eggs on Toast's birthday so on Saturday we had a party complete with a cake made by the Silly Grandma. (Cake images altered to protect identity, as usual.)

We played a game of "hide the keys." The kids acted like loud, crazy monkeys when the person looking for the keys got close, and quiet monkeys when they weren't so close. I'm sure you will be grateful for the volume control on your computer while viewing these videos!



We also played freeze tag,



and spear the balloon to get the candy out.



Yes, and getting the candy into the balloons was a neat trick which we won't discuss right now.

On Eggs' birthday Brandon recited this poem to him that Brandon had learned from his mother:

When I was one I was just begun.
When I was two I was nearly new.
When I was three I was hardly me.
When I was four I was not much more.
When I was five I was just alive.
But now I'm six and I think I'm clever as clever,
I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

Eggs' comment was, "That's weird."

In my expert opinion, six is an awesome age to be. And Eggs is an awesome boy, lucky to be six!

Yo Baby(s)!

This summer Junior was lifting up stepping stones and found this spider with babies covering it's back. We were fascinated, never having seen such a thing before. (I was also excited to use my macro setting, of course.) That hole is about as big as the tip of my thumb, to give you some perspective.

Dam

The sandbox in our back yard is one of the most popular places to play at our house.

I love it when the entire neighborhood is packed into our sandbox, so busy that they barely look up when I take pictures of them.

I also love it when they go home covered in mud because I can envision the looks on their mother's faces.

It fills me with glee.

If they try to come in to go to the bathroom while in this condition, I say, "Sorry, you have to go home to go to the bathroom."

Just kidding! I'm not that mean! I just tell them to go in the neighbor's yard.

Of course, I'm still kidding. What I think really happens is that they don't tell me at all and they go behind the snowball bush. Yes, I'm sure that's it.

Oh well. It's better than mud tracked through the house.

A Tuesday Just After Noon

Would you like a glimpse of our lives on a Tuesday just after noon while the older boys are still in school?

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Would you like a glimpse into our lives on a lazy Sunday afternoon? Here is what the kitchen and living room look like. Pretty much every other part of the house looks similar. Even though we cleaned it on Friday.

Are we slobs? Do we lack discipline? Please don't answer. Just come clean my house.

These two were conquering in the back yard.

And just hanging out.

These two were deeply involved in "Gregor the Overlander" sequels and had been ensconced like this for hours.

And this is what I made for Sunday dinner. If it looks good to you, here is the recipe: http://prudencepennywise.blogspot.com/2008/09/corn-and-black-bean-salad-with-cumin.html. If you think it looks gross, then you think like the young boys in this house. The young boys in this house are not the good little kind of boys who willingly eat their vegetables. They wouldn't touch something like this with a five hundred and three foot stick.

They had pancakes left over from breakfast for dinner.

The Entomologist

Warning: The following post contains images that may be considered gruesome. Continue at your own risk.

Early in the summer, Buttermilk Sky came up to me and asked, "Do we have any pins?" I said, "I don't know. (I knew we did.) Why?" He said, "I want to start a bug collection and I need pins to pin them to a board." I said, "No, I don't think we do. Sorry."

He wasn't to be deterred. A day or so later he came up to me and asked, "Mom, do we have any foam pieces?" I said, "Any what?" He explained and I realized he meant a sheet of foam core which he wanted to pin the bugs to. I said, "No, I don't think we do." (I knew we did.)

A day or so later he got smart and asked his dad for these things. Brandon said, "If we don't, we can get them for you." So after Buttermilk and Brandon did some research online to figure out how to kill the bugs and create a bug collection, I reluctantly procurred the requested items and Buttermilk got to work.

He caught quite a few bugs--I mean arthropods--

in this little jar which contained a cotton ball saturated with rubbing alcohol to kill the critters.

Buttermilk Sky even created this ingenious bee protection suit so that he could go after the bees.

They were pretty hard to catch.

Check out his skewered corpses!

In spite of my initial uncooperative attitude towards this project, I must admit that I am proud of Buttermilk Sky's determination and resourcefullness in creating his bug collection even in the face of his mother's efforts at sabatoge.

I think it will make a pretty good show-and-tell this year.