CSI anyone?

When Kevin came home from work a few minutes ago, Tavin surprised us both with signs she'd made. I"ll skip the part about her taping them to the walls (newly painted), but they said "Big Meeting", and "Sit Down" with arrows pointing to the couch. Once she had our undivided attention, she proceeded to unfold a paper marked "Top Secret" in red crayon. This is her happy, "pleased with myself" look at the end of the ceremonious tattling. She proceeded to read the note, which is below, and then displayed the evidence: A bag with the involved scissors and toy motorcycle.

The note reads: "All about Simon. Today at 3:17 I Tavin was sneeking on my brother. He was disturbly (pronounced "disturbidly") distroying his motorcycle with my sisers (scissors) that he took. The best spyer in the world got out of the closet when he went downstairs and took my scissors and the broken motorcycle and ran to my room and wrote this story! This has been the Best spyer in the world! telling you this!"

To further explain, she had been hiding in his closet and observed this behavior. It also means that she saw him go to her room to get and return the scissors. Dangerous territory for a little brother, but she doesn't see her part as intrusive, as of yet. This is only the first week of summer vacation, and I am desperately waiting for sports, or pools, or SOMETHING to begin!! I guess this is what I get for harping on them so much to stop tattling on each other all the time. It was impressive that she sat on this story for a good hour!

Simon's Kindergarten Graduation

Simon graduated from Kindergarten this morning. It was only a brief ceremony of diploma giving followed by a longer, noisier, sloppier and more entertaining pizza party. The balloons caused quite a stir. Unfortunately, Simon's only lasted about 10 minutes once we got home. He declined to have me tie it to him, and when he looked up at a passing airplane, it escaped. Being the nurse and paranoid mom that I am, I was actually relieved as I know that balloons are a terrible choking hazard for young children. I can tell a tragic story, but only if you contact me in private. :)

Each child also received a personalized "year book" of pictures of themselves on various class trips and activities.

Simon thoroughly enjoyed the star shaped jello pieces they had. Tomorrow is their last day of school and only a fun/field day. Simon is convinced that he is a first grader as of his graduation.

P.S. I am already on vacation with Lucy.....everyone else will join me tomorrow. ;)

Belated Mother's Day Posting

I can't believe I forgot to blog after Mother's Day! Oh well. We spent the weekend with my family, as we stayed home last year. Friday Kevin worked until 4ish, so we decided to stop at Melissa & Kenny's for the night. Tavin had a great time with T's many hermit crabs. Even if she did have some scabs afterwards. The kids had a great time playing together, and basically just running around the house waving pirate swords and yelling. Lucy was initiated to the world of sword fighting with her brother, by way of a swipe across the cheek. Inadvertently, of course. The bruise is mostly faded.

Saturday we continued on our way to mom & dad's. This would have been a really cute picture if the cameraman (me) wouldn't have had to hurry to catch it. The little stinker. Lucy was looking for her aunts on Monday, asking where "Dody" and "Fafissa" went. She also was handing Kenny DVDs saying "Foofie!". We'd never heard her swap her "fs" for "ms" before.

Grandpa had remnants of a burn pile in the back yard that T and Simon thoroughly enjoyed. It was only smoking a little, but they did manage to fan it into flame again. Scary. I missed all pictures of Brenden somehow, but I was present to hear him pronounce to Grandpa that he "...couldn't see the back yard because of all that JUNK!". Which I believe was all of our cars. He stayed out of the dirty ash pile...or maybe it was just during his "nap" time, when he whispered to uncle Kevin from the bed "I'm supposed to be taking a nap!". We are looking forward to a long weekend over the holiday all together in Sun River! I"m sure there'll be stories to tell afterwards!

Fishing and Flying Day

Today was the annual Kid's Fishing Derby at the local dam. Since Kevin was in charge of opening the gym for men's basketball this morning, I felt obligated (and thought it would be fun) to take the kids. The kids were supposed to do their own casting (as much as possible) and reel in their own fish, which we didn't need to worry about. I soon became very familiar with everyone to either side of us while retrieving errant casts

by Simon. Tavin couldn't believe that a fish would bite her lure without her seeing it, so she was only letting it sit for 30 seconds or so before reeling it back in. Lucy, well, Lucy was not impressed with ANY of it. The derby started at 9, we were there at 8:30 to register and borrow 1 pole, and it was to end at noon. I was sure we'd been there for 3 hours between the line criss-crosses, the screaming, the whining, and watching everyone else all around us catch fish, but it turns out we were done after only 29 minutes!! The only thing I have to say about that is: Never Again. I just couldn't handle it any more and told the kids that I was sure dad would take them back after he was done playing ball, which he did. The kids and I piddled around a couple of garage sales, and then when Kevin got home he did take them back to the derby.

I gave them a good 1/2 hour, then drove back there with Lucy to get a picture of the fish they had caught....here they are!

Invisible fish. Hogged by all of the other anglers around us....the smiles on the faces of my children were now concentrated scowls, and the whining was a little more high pitched. We finished the derby and all was forgotten by taking them to McDonald's.

Little Eagle's Day at the airport was a very busy event, just like it was last year. Unfortunately for Simon, you have to be 8 to get a free ride in the airplanes, but he still enjoys going. Tavin managed to be called with a couple of girls (twins) from her school and past basketball team.

Kevin says she got to fly in "the best airplane there", a Cessna 185. I see she's wearing her black flip flops, one of which she had to retrieve out of the muck and mud at the fishing derby, as she snuck them by her father when he took them back....mean old mom made them wear socks and shoes. :)
Tavin got to sit in the front seat and said she "talked to the pilots". Here they are getting ready for take off.

Birdies on a fence

I finally caught the pair of Quail on the fence this morning. It really is entertaining when they run along the top of it. They tend to mostly just stand there and survey their surroundings, mainly, where is George? I think that within the next month or two, I should be able to get photos of the little quail, which are even cuter.