Friday, September 14, 2007

Photo Hunters



This weeks photo hunt theme is plastic.

I saw all sorts of plastic at the homecoming parade they had this week for one of the local schools. I saw some cool and colorful plastic masks on along with lots of plastic flowers on some floats.



I also saw some very big inflatable plastic looking pink flamingos.



But by far my favorite shot of something plastic was when my youngest found a plastic tub and began playing with it.


I really don't know why we bother buying toys when it's the everyday normal stuff that keeps them so entertained.

For other participants pictures just visit TNCHICK.com or click this link

Grandparents Day

It is Grandparents Day at my son's school today. And by some very fortunate timing my parents were actually planning to visit. As a result they were lucky enough to go buy my son a special lunch and go meet him in his classroom for lunch. Z. was very excited about this and understandably so. My dad had been very sick over the summer and no one was sure he would even pull through, including the doctors. But here we are two months later and he is well enough to travel here for a visit and attend Grandparents Day.

Once they arrived at the school they were directed to the right room. And every child in my son's class had at least one grandparent by them except for one. He was a new boy to the area since he just moved here from Albuquerque and so didn't have any real close friends to sit with so off he went and sat down by himself. Now with a room full of grandparents doting on their grandchildren I am sure he felt left out and was wishing he had his own grandparents with him. But since there was a room full of grandparents you can bet that little boy didn't sit there on his own for long. I heard he had offers from around five sets of grandparents to join them which he happily did. Only a few minutes later he ditched the new "adoptive" grandparents in favor of his very own grandmother who was just late. So everyone was very happy at how the situation turned out.

But this gets me to thinking of all the children who can't have grandparents there on these days. My son has only had grandparents there twice, so many times he is the one left alone only to be "adopted" by someone else's grandparents. Some of his previous teacher's have invited their own retired parents to act as "adoptive" grandparents and then no one is left out. While I love the fact that Grandparents Day is being celebrated I know it has to be hard for some of the children who have lost their grandparents or who live to far from them to be able to attend. I guess in the future I will have to take it a bit more seriously for my children instead of just thinking they'll get over it. It just gives them one more special memory to have with their grandparents.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

It's Not Easy Being Green

Sometimes it's just not easy being green. Just ask Kermit the frog, he'll tell you all about it. But really I have encountered a lot of green creatures this week and it's because of their bright colors that I spotted them right away.

This green thing is... I don't know a green leaf bug I guess. It appeared in our garage the other night and showed up quite well against the white background. It really needs to work on it's camouflaging skills I think. He seemed pretty freaked out to see me and my camera getting so close but when your this pretty shade what can you expect.




The other green thing that's crossed my path this week is this huge Slider turtle. At least that is what I was told it was. He had a pretty green shell (not as pretty as the green leaf bug, but don't tell him that). Unfortunately it looked like he had been run over by a lawn mower, but his shell was beginning to heal. The kids and I packed him into a box and released him back in the pond at the park.



The ungrateful thing didn't even give us a simple thanks for freeing him from the neighborhood kids attention. Nope not for him he just hissed and snapped at us. Some turtles are all about attitude I guess. I mean I completely understand it not being easy being green and all but if you were a bit nicer than maybe you'd feel better.

I guess it's a good thing the mean green turtle, who was having a bad day, didn't see the pretty green leaf bug. If he had, he just may have eaten him for dinner.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Marshmellows?

Sometimes even I am confused by what it is my kids are telling me. Let's see if you can figure this one out.

Hoss: Mom, come quick and see all the marshmellows we have growing in our backyard.

Me: Marshmellows?

Hoss: Yes, marshmellows. Come quick and see them. I squished them all over.

So what do I find when I get out to the backyard? Instead of a bunch of squished marshmellows I find a bunch of squished mushrooms. Marshmellows, mushrooms it's all the same thing isn't it.

In Rememberance

Stopping to Pick the Flowers

Some days are just meant to pick flowers. For A. this is obviously one of those days. She was just fascinated by the flowers that she has seen a hundred times already and decided that today was the day to examine them a bit more closely. She stood screaming at the door until I let her out. She starts off innocently enough just looking but before long the desire to touch is to much. You can just hear her thinking " I really must learn more about this little flower."



Soon she is touching and feeling and learning all she can about this little yellow flower. Her intense observation of the flower is obvious, she won't be distracted. Even the silly dog jumping all around isn't distracting her from her study of this flower. Maybe these study habits will carry on into her high school years and she will be a straight A student. I can hope right.



When she is finally done with her little flower study, she seemed quite happy to finally agree to come on back inside. Almost as if she is saying "There now, I have learned all I can from this little flower and it's time to move on."

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Photo Hunters




I found a new thing to do with all these photos I have been taking. I am going to start posting pictures to go along with that weeks theme. It should be fun.

This weeks theme is Music:

I love the sound of Fall, it is music to my ears. And to me nothing says fall like football. So here are some pictures of my oldest son playing football.



Just imagine the sounds of the pads smashing against each other along with the whistle blowing. This is music to my ears.