The Options Are Endless....

for the captions I could make for this photo.  But, here's a couple I've come up with--

'My worm is hiding my worm.'

'Don't worry worm, this worms gotcher back.'

'From one worm to another, we need a little space.'

'This ain't your momma's inchworm.'

 

What's your best caption?

Our House, Is a Very, Very, Very, Fine House.....

Steve and I had whimsical dreams of buying an older house and 'fixing it up.'  We had watched the shows (and thought we had learned from their mistakes!) and thought it would be a fun adventure.  We had no idea the money and time it would take to turn our outdated, dusty house into the dream we pictured. Here we are, three years (and a lot more money than we ever thought) later and our house is almost perfect.  I say 'almost' because I've come to realize, being the owner of an older home, your house is never completely finished.  There is always something that you need to do.  Items never get crossed off the list, they just move to the bottom, knowing one day they'll be at the top again. 

I endlessly worked on this video slide show at the bottom of this post.  Not because it's this amazing video that will get thousands of hits on you tube.  No, no, I worked on it endlessly because I'm totally in the dark when it comes to computers.   So, watch the video, and then watch it again!  I worked hard on it!! 

 Some pictures in case the video doesn't work. 

'Ol McGavin Had a Farm

We had a belated birthday party for Gavin.  With a mad dash to the finish line the house is finally finished. working on those pictures now, promise!  A big thank you to my brothers, Dixie, and Mom for helping pull the party and house together.  One of these days I'll master this whole party thing!  Until then, I will continue to count on friends and family to pull me through.  It was a memorable party that Steve and I are still talking about. 

I had great intentions to make amazing cupcakes from my 'Hello Cupcake' cook book.  I hugely settled for some grass and dirt cupcakes with animals on top. It was kindly pointed out to me that I was mixing farm and exotic animals.....but really, I don't have time for such details.

Who doesn't love a good pinata?  This horse was tough, it took Steve going at it to give up the goods.

 

Oh, my Geedge and his animals!  This is what made me want to have this party.  This child loves bugs and animals.  And I love seeing him smile. 

Really, her name is Tina Turner.

 

My friend, ShirLee, and her husband, Mike, brought horses for us to ride. "No need to be scared", said Mike, "horses are really nothing more than a thousand pound dog." The kids loved the horses and seemed to really enjoy Mike in his full cowboy get-up. Harrison walked up to Mike in awe asking in his little voice, "are you a cowboy?"  Like someone he had heard and read about in books but never actually had met.  Mike said, "well, I ride horses, not cows, but I 'pose Ima cowboy."

 Gavin would have preferred this horse was just for him and everyone else take turns on the other one. Sharing is not his strong suit.

Alex, and his childhood friend, Cody. The kids loved the snakes (the adults could have lived without them, but the kids oohed and aahed) The finale of the party was getting to watch this beauty eat her dinner...a nice, large mouse. 

 

I realize odds are likely Gavin won't remember this party.  But I will. I will remember his excitement riding the horses and petting the animals. The gigantic smile on his face while lots of people sang him happy birthday. I loved watching him sing along and clap with everyone else after he blew the candles out.

Not One To Stifle An Imagination.....

I lovingly allowed Gavin to dress this way to pick Harrison up from preschool.  I didn't even stop him when he went onto the playground in full Batman character (although, to Gavin, full Batman character means extending his arms like Spiderman when he throws his webs)  Gavin absolutely thrived on all the attention, the more 'oohs' and 'aahs' the more intense he became.  He wouldn't take this mask off for anything, he even drank from the water fountain with the mask donned! 

Gavin loves Batman.

 

  Whenever he's pretending to talk on the phone it's always to Batman.

 Whenever he's playing with anything, no matter what it actually is, it's Batman.  Now, this could be because it's one of the few words he knows.  Regardless, the boy loves him some Batman.

Now, I'm not really sure what the Indy boots did for the costume.  But, G's get-up is all his own.

I Heart Spring

I love spring.  Mild weather, flowers blooming after a long winter,  pale arms and legs getting some much needed vitamin D.  For play group this week we went to a park, had a perfect picnic of McDonalds drive-thru, then went on a nature walk through the woods.  I'm not much of an outdoors-y person, but it was such a fun morning!  Grammy gave Gavin a perfect birthday gift--a bug container (the boy loves bugs and can spot them a mile away) The kids loved looking for buggies to catch!  And catch we did!  We ended up with quite the collection. 

The kids were a little upset when all the bugs were released back into the wild.  But no Mom was willing to volunteer to take these little treasures home.

What's The Big, Hairy Deal?

So, we found a huge, ugly, tarantula in our garage.  What's the big deal?

And, so what, that he was inches away from entering our house.

No biggie that he looked as though he could take down one of our children.

It was totally worth risking my life to capture him alive to show him to the kids in the morning!

**Steve, who is absolutely NOT afraid of spiders, made me tape the container shut AND put Spidey outside for the night.  He said no way was that thing knowingly spending the night in his house.  But, really, he's sooo not afraid**

Boys Vs. Girls

My friend, Katie, has three adorable girls.  We love sharing our girl vs. boy stories.  I got this email from her yesterday..

The X men movie was on TV last night and out of curiosity I asked the 
 girls if they knew who Wolverine from the X men was.

Mia "A wolf?"
Ali "what's an x men?"
Me: "wolverine is a scary super hero guy, but I think he's a good guy, 
not a bad one. He has really long sharp claws."
Ali "like snow whites stepmother. She has really long sharp nails."
Mia "yeah, That bad lady in sleeping beauty has long nails too!"
Ali "when can we get manicures?"

Nope. Don't know Wolverine....

I then wondered if Harrison would know what Ali was asking for.
So, I asked Harrison, "what's a manicure?"

Harrison "a man who fixes things"
I belly laughed once I made his connection to his idea of a manicure. 
"A man-i-cure, okay, a man who cures or a man who fixes things." 

Nope. Don't know about manicures.