Leaping Lizards...and missing snakes!

Leaping lizards may be the only animal we are missing at our house!  They just keep appearing.  Many years back, we started a salt water aquarium.  That lasted less than a year and was a costly lesson we had to learn. We moved on to a fresh water aquarium and things are easier, especially since Dave cleans the tank and Olivia feeds the fish daily.  Looks like it could use a nice cleaning at the moment.

Well over a year ago, we finally gave in to Olivia's constant requests and bought gerbils.  Fluffy met his demise last year and he's buried in the backyard.  Charlie, on the other hand, is healthy and enjoys time in Olivia's Barbie house or wherever she may let him play.

 

The dwarf water frogs have been with us for almost three years.  They are by far, the easiest of our brood.  No cleaning their eco-friendly water cube of a tank, and only feed them on Monday's and Friday's.  I can remember that, right?

We said "no more animals" after Kobe, but look what appeared two weekends ago when the kids returned home with Mimi!  Tadpoles!!  We've grown frogs before and both Olivia and Zach came home with, as Olivia counted, 22 tadpoles.  Ugh, do we really have to do this again?!  So, late that Sunday night, I was hobbling around, while Dave was in Germany, boiling lettuce for 15 minutes, draining it and freezing it for the tads.  I'm a sucker.  The water is less murky now too.

Olivia...the snake handler

And the ultimate!  Our newest reptile is.......Stripe!  Dave was landscaping Saturday.  When I returned from getting Zach's birthday cake, Olivia was proud to announce she had a snake.  Yep.....a snake.  After Dave confirmed it was not poisonous (he's a snake expert, I guess?!), she decided to carry that baby snake around for the last several days.  Stripe was supposed to go home the next morning, but alas, Olivia wanted to play with him one more time before releasing him.  Guess what happened next?.......

He got loose in the playroom.  We have yet to find him.  We had high hopes that Kobe would find him, but no luck.  

  So, if you afraid of snakes, DO NOT come to my house.  

I think I'll stick with this cutie pie.  He's more affectionate. :-)

A birthday fitting of a 6-year old....Zach

Little Brother

I thought we were going to do something 'smaller' this year for Zach's birthday.  Smaller doesn't necessarily mean less, in this case.  We kept adding to the festivities, mainly because mommy's knee felt better and I could do more.  It was nothing like the 60+ people party of a year ago, but fun, none the less.

Zach woke me at 4:00 am to say "It's my Birthday"!!  I proceeded to give him a hug and a happy birthday kiss and promptly sent him back to bed.  He politely waited until 6:30 am to open his first present, a aircraft carrier from Aunt Kim.

Zach's birthday is March 25th, so Friday afternoon, I arrived in his class with 24 donuts to celebrate with his classmates.  They were very excited to see me, I mean, the donuts!

We gave Mrs. Muller's Kindergarten class a 'sugar high' before we sent them home.  

Dave came home early so we could open a few more presents and take Zach, Olivia and Zach's buddy, Garrett to the Hibachi steak house.  Zach's pumping his fist because he's ready to open more presents!

D Blog PS3 game from Nonnie

Game Stop gift certificate from Uncle Barry and the gang!  Sweet!

Orient Express Hibachi grill with some yummy steak.  Dave was nice enough to return home to get my gluten free soy sauce so I was able to enjoy dinner as well.  I can't believe I forgot it!  Zach got a lovely piece of Oreo Cheesecake to help celebrate his special occasion.

After baseball pictures and a baseball game on Saturday, we headed to bowling at Brunswick Lanes for a birthday party with friends.  Yes, it was a busy day!  Reed, Johnny & Faith, their parents, Kim and John, Garrett and Gavin, along with Olivia, Uncle Mike, Aunt Karen, Mimi and Papa all enjoyed a little bowling craziness, flashing disco lights and all!  Thank you to everyone that made Zach's day (couple of days) special!

Star Wars cake

Cha-cha-cha!

Baby Back Rib dinner for the family....yummm!

The kids stayed up extra late to play with their cousin, Gavin, and Dave and I had some sister/brother-in-law time for the evening.  We capped off the evening with a tornado siren....luckily, no tornado (except in my living room - ha!)

Happy 6th Birthday, Big Guy!  

It's Spring!

The moment we have all been waiting for....it's officially Spring!  I have 'the bunny photo' to prove it.  One of these days, I will scan the past seven years of my kids' bunny photos.  Of course, Zach was in my belly on the first one, but appeared a week later.  

Happy Spring everyone!

Amelia Island Concours and Jill's birthday

This is where I went to help with my knee recovery....or so I told myself!  It was my 4th annual Concour d'Elegance in Amelia Island last weekend.  The weather was perfect, I was easy on the knee and Dave and I had a fabulous time.

It's not official until we have lunch at Barbara Jean's (also a Barbara Jean's in St. Simons where we were married, gulp, almost 10 years ago).  This also coincides with my best friend, Kaci, texting me that her daughter just made the JV cheerleading squad.  What?!  How is this possible?  She must be only....wait, she's  right, Abbie is old enough for JV cheerleading.  Congrats, Abbie!  I'm dating myself.  Bittersweet....Kaci and I were cheerleaders together from middle school until senior year.  Our names, by those around us...."Jiffer Kaci", because we were always together.  I wonder if I can still do a back handspring?  Who am I kidding, I can barely walk without crutches:-)  You can thank me later, Kaci, since I did not find a picture to insert here.

Not a bad view from my resting spot.

How do you like my fancy knee brace accessory.  It's all the rage this Spring...

Before we left for Amelia, Kobe found a great spot to hang out.  He would crawl in the space in my recliner.  Yes, he had to be THAT close to me!  Dog are funny animals.

Kobe became Joan's dog while she was here.  He followed her around and tripped her up (instead of me, thank goodness).  I think she wanted to take him home :-)

After his first boarding, Kobe learned a few interesting habits.  He sleeps like a corpse and he digs in our plants.  Cayenne pepper helped with the latter.  Instead of downward dog pose, it's dead dog pose - I have to get my yoga in some way!

Friday, March 18th was my best neighbor in the entire world, Jill's, birthday! 

This is what happens when you put Gigi's glorious cupcakes in a Porsche (with Jen driving - ha)  "and they all fall down".

No worries, pitchers of Sangria make it all better.  Sangria was a theme this weekend, Jill's birthday gathering Friday afternoon and Susanna's baby shower Sunday afternoon.  I love springtime in Atlanta!

Gimpy

This blog will mostly be about my torn ACL seeing that I haven't spent much time with my children.  I'm on day 13 since I tore my ACL in Idaho and I have no idea where the time has gone.  My parents helped out for the first couple of days and Joan, my mother-in-law, has been here the rest of the time.  She'll be going home this Friday to upstate New York.  Flowers and trees are blooming in Atlanta, and it's STILL snowing in Utica.  Our family lives would not have gone on without their help, so for that, I am extremely grateful.  Thanks to all my friends too, who sprung me from jail over the last week or so.  Lunch, brunch and a little shopping trip makes your spirits high.  Thanks to Amy for being my personal shopper for my kids' Easter photo clothing.  Take a look at my Costco shopping trip.  Hey, I'm not too proud.  An outing is an outing!

Our main guy, Kobe, has been out of sorts with new people in his house and after being boarded the week we were in Idaho.  He came back a changed pup.  Unfortunately, he is teething (i.e. chewing) on everything in his path and he has 'played in the dirt' of our house plants multiple times.  Who needs more to clean up while they are taking care of two kids, an injured mom and a chaotic household?!  We are not sure what happened, but Sunday Kobe woke from a nap and started limping.  It lasted until the next day.  Could he have hurt it or was he imitating me?  It looked like he was imitating me!  Go figure.

We had a little surprise visit from my cousin, Zac.  Olivia and Zach love Zac, so we snapped a picture of them along with Joan....it was Dr. Seuss's birthday and the kids celebrated at school.  I wanted a picture of their cute hats.  It was nice to have Zac chase after those crazy kids.  I won't be doing that for quite some time.  

Speaking of kids, Olivia and Zach have been wonderful throughout this whole ordeal.  I am so proud of them for helping out, especially when I cannot get something myself.  They have provided me with plenty of water, ice packs, Advils, you name it.  I think Dave's patience wore thin getting us home from Idaho and around day seven, he left me to ask the 'others' for things.  He's been pulling double duty for a while, so I'll give him some slack (and credit).  He tag teams with his mom to get the kids ready in the mornings and takes them to school.    It's a effort to keep things moving along, but one day.....many, many months from now (after surgery), I will be back on my A-GAME!  

Physical therapy has worked wonders over the last week or so.  I started walking a bit without crutches today (woo hoo), but I'm still very cautious.  I'll know more March 21 when I meet with Dr. X again to discuss my knee.  I doubt this will keep me from traveling....:-)