Fun Day in the Hood

We had our 3rd annual neighborhood parade this morning. We didn't have a very good showing, but a lot of fun was had by those who were there. Jonah was the only Cub Scout I could round up to carry the flag. All my other Cubs had baseball games or were out of town this weekend.

All lined up and ready to go!

Andrew waved a flag as he walked down the street.

Janessa loves her Baby Micah. He had fun in his first parade.

After the parade, we all gathered in our circle for a yummy potluck breakfast.

Peanut Butter Playdough

It's just me and Andrew this afternoon. Janessa's at her friend's house, Micah's napping, so I whipped up some PB playdough for us. He wasn't too sure what to do with it at first.

So I showed him how to poke little holes in it with the fork.

I couldn't get him to taste it, though. It's probably a side effect of reminding them over and over to NOT eat the regular play dough.

Peanut Butter Face Cutie.

Wheeler Farm

Tom and Seth were gone on a Scout hike last Saturday, so I took the remaining kids to Wheeler Farm for a few hours. They always love going, and watching all the cute animals. Here are a few of my favorite pics from that day.
Andrew in the little school house.

The kids petting a baby goat. He was sooo cute!

Micah enjoyed being pushed in the stroller.
(Please don't notice the dried up icky nose, he's had a cold)
The kids posing in the outhouse. It's a two-seater! LOL
Feeding the ducks

This struck me as funny. It's a sign that's taped under water on some rocks. It's at the side of the duck pond where the ducks swim under the fence to get out of the water. Cassidy asked me why it was there, I figured it was for the ducks so they knew where the exit was. They must be pretty smart ducks.

I've created a monster....

When Cassidy was a baby, I always liked to dress her in those cute pink frilly outfits. With the matching shoes, of course. As she got older, I always made sure that she had shoes to match each outfit. The obligatory black patent leather Mary Janes, the white Easter shoes with optional cut out flowers on the sides, various colors of flip flops and sandals in the summer, and brown or black chunky boots in the winter.

I don't think I went overboard, I was and am very practical. She has had the occasional pair of red sparkly shoes, and the bright neon turquoise plaid Keds, but for the most part, her shoes have been purchased in order to coordinate with several outfits.

In the past couple of months, she has suddenly had a growth spurt, and has grown out of nearly all her shoes. I was at Payless last night, and saw a bunch of cute shoes in a size 6.... on sale even! Cass wasn't with me, so I figured I'd buy them and bring them home for her as a surprise. Seth was with me, so I made him try them on (heeheehee!) because his foot is nearly the same size as Cassidy's. Or so I thought. He was a really good sport about it, and the store was practically empty, so don't go reporting me to CPS. LOL

Well, when we got home, Cass loved all the shoes, but they were all TOO SMALL! She's closer to a 7 or even an 8! Good grief. I wear an 8! So she "shopped" in my closet this morning for shoes to match her outfit. She chose my cute black sandals with double straps over the instep, with a little heel. They were a tad long for her foot, but not too bad. She was way excited as she exclaimed:

"Now I have more than 20 pairs of shoes because we can share!"

It's a Juggling Act

Ack.... my life has been crazy lately.

I started back to school a couple of weeks ago. I was going through the assignments last night, and between my 2 classes, here is my homework list:

104 chapters to read,

with a quiz and a homework assignment for each chapter,

9 exams,

4 news/internet articles to post,

5 concert reports,

1 composer biography,

1 music listening guide,

1 power point presentation,

1 class project,

and 2 final exams.

I have set up a schedule that I can follow so that I can have it all done by the end of July, and so far I'm sticking to it. But this juggling act is already starting to wear me down.

Last night I took my first astronomy exam. It was timed and an open book test, and you can betcha I used every single minute of the 90 that were allowed. I checked and re-checked every answer. Right in the middle of it, Andrew woke up crying, which started Micah on a crying jag, and here I was, tied to the computer trying to concentrate on the differences between emission lines and absorption lines. Tom had to deal with 2 sad little boys while I finished the test.

Three items that I was able to "drop" are speech, preschool, and dance for Janessa. We are all done with those for this year, and it's such a relief to not have to take her anywhere! I feel like I can breathe a little bit easier now, and I have already felt the stress lifting a bit.

How in the world did I think I could do this as easily as before? I was fooling myself. When I was in school BK (before kids), I was able to cruise through with hardly any effort. But that was when I could actually sit down to study and read, and not get interrupted a gazillion times by the kidlets. That has been the hardest thing, by far. The constant needs of the kids are never ending. The deeper I am in concentration, the more urgent their needs are, which then intensifies their screams of

"MAAAWWWMMMM!!!!"

Can I survive the next 2 months???