One Week Down...

This is me on Monday morning just before beginning my first day of work:


It is Friday evening and I now look markedly less perky. More on that later.

Our Weekend

It was a busy weekend, and thus I have not yet posted much about it. Saturday morning we headed out to the off-leash area at Stoll Park. I don't have any pictures because I didn't take any. And I didn't take any because I didn't really want to memorialize the fact that I went all the way out there (okay fine it's really only about 10 minutes, but still) and the dog went and sat under a picnic table and the kids complained they were hot and wanted to leave. So leave we did. After dropping off the ungrateful dog, we went over to Gaga Kathy's for some swimming. The thermometer claimed the water was something like 82 degrees, but I don't trust it as it's been known to tell outrageous lies. The kids seemed to enjoy it though. Saturday evening was Kids' Night Out at the karate school which involved pizza, a screening of the movie Cars, and a rousing Guitar Hero tournament. There was also mention of a pinata. I dropped the kids off at 6:00 p.m. and had high hopes for attending a choral concert or watching an art film, but instead went home, organized my closet and watched Sweet Home Alabama on TNT. Cute enough movie. My favorite part is when she sees her old country girlfriend in the bar and the friend has brought her baby to the bar with her. And the friend explains that she's got "three more of em at home, but this one's still on the tit so I can pretty much cart him anywhere." There were many years I could relate to that-- the portability of the nursing infant, not the bringing of babies to bars. Kids' Night Out ended at 10:00 p.m. and mine were sufficiently exhausted- falling asleep almost immediately upon our arrival at home. Sunday morning we went to church at Unity. Adrian's Sunday school teacher made a point to tell me that Adrian contributed a lot to the discussion. I didn't get any details as to what he contributed because after church we headed straight to Figlio for brunch-- a late birthday celebration for Uncle Paul who is now....32? Yes. 32. Then Grandpa Paul came over to stay with the kids while I went to band practice--a great success, our set list just keeps growing. We're looking at playing an open mike night hopefully within the next month or so. Sunday evening the kids went to swim and play at Gaga Kathy's while I watched Scott's new band make their debut at the Cover Wars semifinals in Lee's Summit. They are the artists formerly known as Bare Bonz (now known as Three Bear Bomb Scare). They were excellent. But they lost. Booo. Pictures soon to come.

Both Birds Up and Mom Bringing Breakfast

Standing Bird

Mission accomplished: this photo will confirm that at least one of the birds can stand, which as we all know is the precursor to flight (in the case of birds, but not humans, unless you are a superhero).

Birds Look Ready to Leave the Nest...

So, the birds have turned completely around, as you can tell from these photos. This would seem to indicate that, at the very least, the birds have the ability to turn around. Yes, I deduced that all by myself. We have put a blanket under the nest so that in case one of them fell out, it would not fall onto the brick. I have no idea if the blanket would actually make any difference, but it seemed like the least we could do. Earlier when snuck up upon, the birds were STANDING in the nest. I will try to get a picture of that if possible. We saw the mother in the yard yesterday with a worm in her mouth and after we went in, she flew right into the nest, so I think the babies are eating well. I also moved the kids' tent that had been in one spot in the courtyard for several months and uncovered a cornucopia of insect delicacies for the little family. Not sure she took advantage, but it sure would have been handy for dinner.

Olivia- Preschool Graduate

So, my little Olivialou is done with preschool. And I am done with Valley View. My last preschooler has moved on. Well, I am taking it like a champ aside from the crying. And the fact that Olivia is so darned adorable and excited about Kindergarten helps. Here she is with her teachers Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Cooper and with Valley View's awesome director Mrs. Converse. Such a nice school and so many kind people-- they were so wonderful to us when Mike was so sick and Adrian was in Mrs. Peterson's 4 year old class.

Geodesic Dome

So, while the kids were getting ready for bed, my dad and I were trying to make one of these (this is a random photo I found online):






Unfortunately ours turned out like this:



Scott did a little better:




Oh yeah, and I should add that at the time we were working on ours, we did not yet have the benefit of the photo above. With it, I am sure it would have been a snap.