Friday's Top Ten

1.

The chicks are staying through the weekend!  Landlord Buzzard graciously extended their lease.  :-) Emma and I read to them, so we've spent loooooots of time cuddled up next to the bucket with a stack of library books.

2.

Speaking of reading, I've started a new reading program with Emma.  She was all of the sudden READY to learn....full of questions about letters, sounds, and words.  So, off we went!  This week, she read her very first "chapter" out of her little reader.  It's about a yak eating jam.  :-)  More on our reading program (and why it's one of my favorite curriculum choices EVER) in a later post.  Here she is feeding bones to a monster.  As soon as you read the word on the bone, you get to feed it to the monster.

Also, matching rhyming ice cream scoops to make ice cream cones.

3.

I have 2,500 pounds of rocks on my driveway.  (Thank you, Calvin!!!)  I unexpectedly found some gorgeous boulders at an outrageous price, and we are giddy to finally address a landscape issue on the front of the house that has plagued us for years.  We weren't really looking for a project, but sometimes projects just have a way of finding you!  I'll be excited to share more about what we have planned.

4.

My girl and I on a date to spend a little gift card we were given.  (Thank you, Aunt Marci!).  Love this photo.  Emma has been in preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays this year, and both of those mornings the boys have co-op classes that are quite a distance away, especially in morning traffic.  So, that sweet girl has eaten her breakfast out of a zip lock baggie while sitting in her seat for 90 minutes very early before preschool twice a week all year.  Sometimes we stop at Starbucks if traffic is moving well and we have extra time to kill before preschool carpool drop off.  I treat her to a vanilla scone, her favorite.  This photo is a cute reminder to me of the visits we have spent there this year, and how sometimes being flexible can have its own rewards!  :-)

5.

Last night was "Bark at the Park" at Texas Rangers Ballpark.  Oh, I wish I would have known!!!  It would have been a blast to take Penny.  689 dogs showed up, despite some really off weather.  Owners and their dogs were allowed on the field a few hours before game time.  Hayden got Penny all dressed up this morning, just to "practice" her ensemble for next year's bark at the park.  We definitely want to go!

6.  "New cowgirl hat" has been on our wish list for a long, long time.  DONE!!  :-)

7.  I found this cute panel of nursing fabric at the quilt show this year.  Wendy and I each bought one.  I turned it into a bag to send to Hannah.  Duh.......she called me when it arrived in the mail.  I completely forgot to sew a HUGE hole in the lining closed, so the bag is unusable.  Phooey.  I'm so forgetful lately!

8.  I have a box of dissected animals in my garage.  Hayden's life science class ended this week and he brought all the animals from the year home with him.  He was extraordinarily interested in this class, and he really, really wanted the opportunity to show me these animals (and all their various parts) before disposing of them.  They have been in the garage for three days now.  I am working so, so hard to try to find the motivation to go out there and look at dissected brains, eyeballs, and hearts.  Nope, haven't found it yet!!!!!!  Ha!

9.  In other wildlife news, our new caterpillars came in the mail yesterday!!!  We're doing a butterfly garden this year.  This was my HUGE, exciting surprise that I've been building toward for weeks.  Then Kenny showed up and completely upstaged me in a massive way!!!  Ha!  Maybe not quite as awesome as chickens, but we're still happy to have caterpillars living on our piano.  (Are there any other empty corners of this house that I need to fill with nature???)  Marci and Nichole were giving me a REALLY hard time last week when I mentioned that when something happens to Mindy I'm not going to replace her.  I was casually talking about how we didn't really need any more pets.  They totally called my bluff.......and accused me of all manner of obsessive pet collecting.  I may need a special program.  Whatever am I going to do when I don't have little ones in this house to use as an excuse for housing all these critters???

10.  Don't you think I need this garden statue?  You know, just to remember my week??