A Rose for the Teacher...

The Special Roses!

Hanging Out with the Teach!

Watch Me Slide!

Say Cheese!

Just Me and My Teacher!

In our school district, the teachers visit each student at home one time during the school year.

We are on a year round schedule and my kid's have been out of school for three weeks for Fall Break. My kindergartner's teacher came to visit one afternoon last week during the break. 

Storytellin' Boy showed her all of his treasures on his dresser, they shared a snack of chocolate cake, they played Legos together, and she toured the backyard and watched him and his brothers and sisters play on the swings and slide.

The visit was a great success. All of my kids enjoyed meeting her. She brought a bag full of books and my son picked one about a baby penguin for his very own.

As she was about to leave, my son ran and took a long pink rose out of a vase on the table and gave it to her.  

"This is for you to remember our special visit," he told her.   

Awww...


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Comparing Apples...

The boys apple picking at Apple Annie's Orchard.  

More pictures to come.  

Wordless Wednesday here.

Storytime...

Reading our stories 

Bath time finished smelling sweet

in pink pajamas.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Haiku Friday here!

Wonder Twin Powers Activate...

My twin sister and I in 1972.

My mom and her twin brother in 1948.

My mom is in town visiting while the kids are on fall break from school. It is great to have her here. She has been helping me so much.  

My mom has a twin brother. She was first born and is older by three minutes. 

I know how important these three minutes are because I am also a twin.  I have an identical twin sister and I beat her into the world by two minutes.  I  reminded her throughout our childhood that I was the older sister. 

Anyway, we have a lot of twins running through our family. I always wanted to have twins, or at least maybe hoped that one of my siblings might have them. No such luck. I guess since my mom was a twin and then had twins, we were the generation to skip.

In honor of my mom, I salute the twin experience.  It was so fun and zany growing up and I can't really imagine life as a singleton without my partner in crime.  

Through the years, people have mixed us up, called us the wrong names and asked us funny questions about being twins. 

My favorite recurring question has got to be, "How do you tell yourselves apart?"  

My grandmother always told us not to look in the mirror at the same time because one of us might be disappointed.  We thought this was so funny and we would turn to each other when we were getting ready and brushing our hair and say, "Are you disappointed?"

My mom didn't know she was pregnant with twins and she kept telling the doctor that this baby has too many arms and legs, but the doctor assured her that what she was feeling was normal. When we were born, the story goes that the last thing my mom remembers hearing was the doctor saying, "Oh my god there is another one," before she passed out. That was our grand entry into the world, me two minutes ahead of my "younger sister!"

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Faces... I Love those Mugs!

Happy

Silly

Sad... 

Can you please put away the camera and just let a guy have a moment?!

Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom

Reaching New Heights...

Big Girl!

Sisters!

I'm so Strong!

Triple the Trouble!

Lil' Red has learned to climb.  

She's climbing into the sink and onto the countertops.  

She's climbing up to the top bunk bed and up on the barstools.  

She's climbing the ladder of the play structure and sliding. 

She is most proud about sliding...

She loves sliding!

*More Silly Monkey Stories here!

*Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom

Happy 8th Birthday Son!

Really, I tried for a different picture. 

One with my child smiling and sane, 

but this picture seems to capture 

his goofy eight year old spirit!  

This morning Lil' Expert was up before 6:00 AM.  

"Mom is it official?  Am I officially eight years old?"

I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus.  "Yes, honey it's official."

Lil' Expert did an early morning birthday dance.

He informed me it was going to be one of the "best days ever!"

And so it will be.

It's PhotoStory Friday

Too Many Cooks in the kitchen...

Top Chef!

Best Assistant!

Top Tasters!

I Wanna Help too!

Mmmm... That's Good!

It's wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom

More Pets?

A large furry friend.

Hello there, Mr Spider!

Did you come to play?

Yikes, he moves so quick!

Big eyes when he comes too close.

Will he crawl on me?

Tarantula, eek!

My little boys think he's cool!

Mommy's not so sure!

Of course, there's this guy.

Lives in our aquarium.

A big wolf spider.

What about this one?

Tarantula? Wolf spider?

I am not sure which!

I love Arizona living, except for the creepy crawlers that share our land. What's a mom to do? This is my buggy life. We found all three of these eight-legged friends in our yard this week!

I remember in graduate school, I had some little tiny bugs in my apartment in San Francisco from construction going on in the neighborhood. I called the owner several times and I was freaking out... If only I knew then what I know now, those bugs were nothing. All these spiders are probably some kind of bad karma due to me driving my landlord crazy!

I try not to analyze it too much, or think about what else might be out there...  

Haiku Friday! See more poems at A Mommy Story

More pictures PhotoStory Friday

Go ahead and click on the photos it you want a closer look at these new pets!

Sonoita Rodeo Days

My Little Buckaroos!

A boy and his horse dog!

Ride em' Cowboy!

Lasso em' Lassie!

Way to ride!

Who's riding who?

Hold on now Pardner!

This weekend we attended the Sonoita Rodeo, a Labor Day tradition. The kids enjoyed the Jr. Rodeo and were amazed to see kindergartners through 3rd graders riding sheep, racing horses, and getting bucked of lil' steers and calves. 

My husband took these great shots of the days events. See more of his photography here.  

It was a fun weekend and nice to get out of the heat and to visit Sonoita.

One of our favorite places in Southern Arizona.  

More Silly Monkey stories here!

A Princess Tea...

Brown Eyed Gal went to her first birthday party last weekend "A Princess Tea." A little girl in the neighborhood was turning three. She enjoyed decorating her wand and princess hat with stickers and sequins. She had a cup of tea (sherbet punch) and she watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A fun time was had by all the little princesses! 

Learning from Each Other

Labor day weekend and many children are going back to school next week.  My boys are in a year round school and they have been in session since the week after the Fourth of July.  It is amazing to see the changing dynamics of their relationship, now that they are both in school.

My second grader loves to quiz his Kindergartner brother as we drive around in the car. 

"What's 2+2?" "What's 4+4?"

"4" and "8"

"Right... What's 20+20?" "What's 40+40?"  

He goes through all the addition facts coaching his brother about how to add by tens.

The other day I noticed them sitting together at the kitchen table and my older son was doing alphabetizing of his spelling words and he was showing his brother how you look to the second letter if two words start with the same letter- (like acrobat, applause).

He seems to love to be in the expert teaching mode... and then the tables turned.

I had put them to bed and my older son called to me.

"Mom, my brother learned something at school and I don't know if it's true or not."

His kindergartner brother had learned in a book that a baby fish is called a fry. 

"Let's look it up," I said.  

We found a table on the internet that listed all the animal names and what their babies are called. We found out that a fish is called a fry, or a fingerling.

My kindergartner was beaming because he had taught his older brother a fact that he didn't know.

The next morning at the breakfast table, my second grader was practicing his spelling words and he was having a little trouble getting "appreciate" right.  

His kindergartner brother piped up, "You just need to stretch it out A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-E."    

"Take the attitude of a student, never too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new"  Og Mandino

Photo Story Friday here.

Best Legs in a Kilt Contest...

My husband hamming it up!

My husband's co-worker and friend!

Showing a little leg!

Fancy moves!

And the winner is... this guy!!

My husband wins 2nd place!

A motley crew!

The bagpipes, of course!

2nd place and 1st place winners!!

My husband continues to embrace his Scottish and Irish heritage. Our local Irish store, Flanagan's Celtic Corner had a "Best Legs in a Kilt" contest Saturday night. My husband, the second place winner received a $25 gift certificate for the store and enjoyed the fun and company of some other displaced cronies! 

*Photos courtesy of Tony Graber.

*More Ruby Red pictures go here!

*More Silly monkey stories here!