LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS...OH MY!

Saturday was gorgeous and perfect zoo weather.

Mag had been wanting to ride a giraffe all week. Guess this will have to do.

We take a double and single stroller just to carry our stuff, I guess.

He's keeping a close eye on those wheels.

"All aboard!" That reminds me. The other day, the kids were all on the glider at mom's. Mag said, "All aboard!" Then Mac and Mary hopped off. Mag said, "Off aboard!" ;)

Mac was not super excited about this ride but we kept him occupied looking for letters.

Waiting for the train to roll. Funny little thing she's doing with her mouth. No telling what she's thinking.

While we were on the train, I snapped a few close-ups of my sweet Magpie.

I really like this one.

Hitching a ride on daddy.

Checking out the gorillas.

Getting a lift to see the sea lions.

Waiting on her hamburger. It was so loud in there. Metal chairs on whatever kind of floor that is was a horrible idea. Mag was getting rather annoyed.

He forgot to pray.

Mary's new face.

They all conked out on the way back to town.

No rest for the weary though. We had to hurry back from the zoo to attend Drew's b'day party at The Playhouse. And Jake was there too, of course. Drew is one of Mag's friends from school. His G'paw is Mike Dubose. Mary really hit it off with coach. She kept going to him and sitting in his lap and chatting. All three kids had a ball. I didn't take my camera in though. Boo. They were cracking up us when all three of them were trying to crawl up the side at the same time. Mary was all over Mac & Mag. AND, Mac finally got up the courage to climb in the slide/bouncy thingy and slide down. Huge accomplishment for him!

When we got home, MB took a nap and we all did a little yard work.

I love a little boy in a t-shirt and jeans.

"Now there has got to be one around here somewhere..."

"Ahh, there you are, my beloved."

PICKIN' WILDFLOWERS

It was another gorgeous Friday but a tad on the chilly side. Mac and Mag went and rolled around in the "flowers" for a while. Unfortunately, those are in our yard which is probably why the TruGreen salesman stopped by yesterday. Either that or he knew Brett lived here. Ask Brett about his Kirby salesman sometime. The Kirby salesman that Brett let in our house. The Kirby salesman that stayed for 3 hours!

Sweet man sucking his thumb the entire time.

While Mac and Mag were playing outside, Mary was inside eating lunch. I decided to snap a few pics since she was strapped down. She's the only one of our kids to ever take a pacifier after a few weeks of age.

My new favorite. Reminds me of one I had of Maggie when she was about Mary's age.

Not a flattering picture but in total mid-laugh. I could just bite those cheeks.

She's done now.

CAT FIGHTS AND LATE NIGHTS

Okay. I'm finally getting around to writing about Mac's big ole scratch on his face. He has gotten in a really bad habit of messing with Charlie, Chucky as Mag calls him, Charles when he's in trouble. Chuck likes to spread out on our bed and take cat naps. And I mean spread out. He's a big boy. Well, Mac loves to pull his tail or bop him on the head with cars or trucks or anything with wheels. We've been trying to close the bedroom door when Chuck's in there because we knew the retaliation was near. On this day, Chuck snuck (I think it's actually proper to say sneaked but I don't like that word) in without us knowing. Brett and I are in the kitchen and hear Mac crying as he runs in the kitchen with blood dripping down his face. It looked a lot worse than it was. After texting a pic to some friends, I was assured it didn't need stitches. Well, we couldn't get Mac to tell us what exactly happened at that point. Chuck was curled up on the changing table by then like nothing happened. He kinda just looked at us and in Mr. T manner & cat talk said, "I pity da fool. I pity da fool that pulls on my tail." We knew he was guilty. So, on to another issue we've been having. Mary Brooke is her name and fighting sleep is her game. Since everyone is so close in age, we just basically tried to keep her content and quiet at night so the others could get to sleep and stay asleep. That usually meant Brett walking her or putting her in our bouncy seat with "Praise Baby." When she fell asleep, we'd put her in her bed. It's been rough for the last few months. Like a newborn in the house again. Well, one night, we heard her crying & the crying getting closer and closer. She was in her bouncy seat in the living room, mind you. Imagine the freakiness when your bedroom door busts (I know, it's actually bursts but again, I don't like it) open and a big baby comes barreling through. She flipped her seat over and crawled slap out. That sleepytime plan was out the window. So, since she's not our first child, we have no issues with her crying it out in her bed at night. Mag and Mac would just have to suffer through it for a little while. The problem lies that Maggie shares a room with the beast. So, the night of the cat fight, we play fruit-baby turnover. Mag had already fallen asleep in her bed. We put MB in her crib and the wailing begins. Brett scoops Mag up and throws her in our bed. Then we hear Mac yelling, "Mary cwi-ing! Mary cwi-ing! So, we plop on the couch with Mac for some milk. Brett asked him again what happened with Chuck. He fesses up. We were almost crying, ourselves, from laughing at his expressions and story. "I bwoo (blew) in Chucky's face like dis(really big blow) and Chucky smiled... Cheese!... and said, wee-wee and did dis (arm motions like cat slapping.) Then a fly joined us on the couch and Mac freaked! Bless that little guy. He's got a long road ahead of him. Anyway, while he's running from the fly Brett puts Mag back in her bed since Kong is now silent and puts Mac in our bed until he gets over the fly trauma. We had several night like this but Mary will now scream for a minute or two and then is down for the count. If you are still here, I apologize that this was so stinkin' long. But, if you are, I invite you to drop by our house at any hour of the night to have some milk or help thwart any cat or fly attacks. Call us Motel 6, we'll leave the light on for ya.

"IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD"

This past Friday, the weather was absolute perfect. I mean perfect. I took Mag and Mac to school and Mary and I went for a nice walk and ran a few errands. After we went to pick them up from school, we came home and Mary was o-u-t. And she stayed that way for 3 hours. I hate to say this but it was really nice. Mag, Mac and I had lunch on the back porch and then played all afternoon. I took Mac in for his regular 3-4 hour afternoon nap but he kept yelling, "Outside! Outside!" So, I caved. It was too nice a day for him to miss it. So, we swang, jumped on the trampoline, played with bubbles, lots and lots of bubbles, & played hide-n-seek. BTW, that game has always freaked me out and still does. The thought of hiding and not knowing when the seeker would sneak up and find you? Yeah, not a fan. Anyway, I won so that was nice. Mac was really loving the slide at one point. Mag would wait at the bottom and catch him every time he slide down. He was greeted with a big hug and "Oh, Mac! I'm so impressed and proud of you! I love you, buddy!" And, being the little momma that she is, she'd run in and check on Mary for me. Once, she told me to not let him on that slide until she got back. She came back out, hugged him where his little feet barely left the ground and said, "Oh, Mac. You are just getting too big for me to hold." I can't describe her little sweet face. I'll try though. It was like a lip crinkled up, head shaking slightly, bittersweet, my youngest child is graduating from high school & got a free ride to a really expensive school face. Anyway, we had a great afternoon and of course, headed straight to the tub after all that playing.

I'll tell you. With all three in there, that water was niz-as-ty.



I have a really cute pic of all of them in the tub but then I remembered that lady who got her pictures developed at Walmart and was arrested. So, it worried me. Hopefully, whoever is reading my blog wouldn't be so cruel/stupid to turn me in for something like that but I just don't know about you people sometimes. ;)

Sucking on a paci and reading a book.




All clean and momma feels much better.

And these two wear the same size diaper.






Well, he just couldn't make it without a nap. Poor guy fell asleep while watching "Scooby Doo."

Such sweet, little feet.

Not sure how he sleeps with this going on. Kong doesn't care if you're asleep or not. She'll roll slap over you.

Nice close-up of that kick to the face.

And lastly for tonight, this. Remember the little blond-headed boy who has a thing for W's and wheels? Here he is taking the vacuum for a walk. I think that face is saying, "What? There's nothing weird about this."