Unprepared Mom or Creative Genius?

We went to storytime the other day. We go to a library downtown. The drive takes about 20 minutes. And we carpool with a friend.

So we pulled into the parking garage right on time and I took Caroline out of her car seat to find that her diaper has leaked everywhere. Not the stinky, messy kinda leak. Just the soppy wet kind...but still. I told our friends to go on without us and we'd meet them in a minute.

I didn't have an extra outfit in the car. And her clothes were wet enough that we couldn't get away with wearing them in. What was a mom to do?

These were the options I considered.

1. Leave. Go home. Change her clothes. Forget about story time. Oh, wait. We brought our friends and have their car seat with us. Probably not so nice to leave them stranded.

2. Drive somewhere quickly and buy her a new outfit and come back for story time. I didn't know of any stores with baby clothes that were nearby.

3. Wait in the van until our friends were done with story time and then just go home with them. I thought long and hard about this one. It might not be so bad. Except the Brandon's and Wht's books were due, I already owed $5 in fines, and they love getting new ones every week. Was there anything else I could do?

So I resorted to option #4:

Invent a new outfit.
Do you like Caroline's colorful new skirt?

It's kinda cute, but what's the deal with the back?

Oh, I see.
It's a receiving blanket.
Tied around my daughter's waist.

Yes, this is what Caroline wore in public. Poor baby. Have I learned my lesson? I have yet to put a change of clothes in the car for her, so apparently not. Maybe I should go do that right now.

Backyard Entertainment

Before Andrew and I had kids, we were at his parents' home for a weekend. We took a softball and our gloves out in the yard and spent a good hour or so just playing catch. It was a blast. I remember his Mom saying, "All you have to do is give Andrew and Andi a ball and they are good to go!" It was true back then and after this weekend I found that it's still true. And we've apparently passed it on to our kids.

On Sunday, after a glorious afternoon nap for each of us,

Caroline and I went into the backyard to see
what the boys were up to.

Turns out B and Drew were in the middle
of a pretty intense kickball match.

It included some fast sprinting around the bases,

high jumps to avoid getting out,
(I was SO impressed with Old Man Sweat's vertical!)

some sweet catches,

and the loss of one old pair of sandals.
It was a fierce battle, but I think B-train
came back to win in the end.

After that, Caroline was up for a few rounds
of "Ring Around The Rosy."

She still doesn't get the "we all fall down" part.

But she thought it was funny to tackle me
when I was down.

Then Brandon proceeded to show us

some of his sweet scooter moves.
Yee haw.

And Andrew's back was feeling good enough

to practice dunking. Woot!

At this point, Whit finally woke up
from her extended nap and joined us

for some volleyball.

The kids giggled at my demonstration

of how to get down to receive the ball
Bend those long legs, girl!

Man, do I miss playing volleyball.

It felt so good to have sore forearms again.

Andrew rounded out the sports-fest with a

three-point shooting contest.
He predicted a run of 10 for 10.
You'll have to ask him how close he got.

Whit cheered for him.
Go, Dad!

Before we finally gave up and went in for dinner,

the kids and I put together a big ol' chalk masterpiece.
We called it the Haunted Halloween Party.

Andrew was drawing his own work of art,

"Don't Mess With Sweat."

Now that's my idea of a near-perfect Sunday afternoon/evening. (I guess it could've been better if dinner would have magically been waiting for me when I went in.) What's yours?

Heritage bulletin board

A few months ago, our friend Greg won an auction for some bulletin boards and chalk boards. They were more than he could handle, so he shared the wealth. I was the proud owner a 4 foot by 8 foot bulletin board. AND I happened to have a wall that was completely empty and screaming for some sort of decoration.

So the idea of a family heritage bulletin board was born. It took several months to complete. Not that I was working on it that whole time. Most of the time it was just sitting in the hall creating an eyesore. But with Andrew's help, I finally completed it. Or at least it's MOSTLY done. I would love to add a few more photos if I can find them.

And here it is:
Voila!

Our family tree in photos.

Andrew's maternal grandparents have
the most representation.
If my calculations are correct
(no guarantees there),
the oldest pics are about 200 years old.
It is so neat to put faces with the
names on our pedigree charts.

Parting shot

I took this pic today.
Fall is in the air!
Love this time of year.

Updates and tidbits

A collection of random things I've left off the blog.

*Our garden.
We put in a little veggie garden in the backyard this year.

We have LOVED it.
It started off looking so clean and manicured.
Now it's very unruly, but still producing.

Here's a sampling:

Pear tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapenos.
We also have a ton of cherry tomatoes.
We didn't even have to use pesticides on it
this year. Sweet!
Failure crops: watermelon and yellow squash.
Our zucchini plant gave us ONE veggie.

*Brandon started Cub Scouts!
It still seems weird that I have a kid this old.

He is excited and so is Andrew.

He already earned his Bobcat.
Way to go, B-train!

He's also keeping up his Jedi skills.

*Whit started tumbling class.
It is hard work!
She comes out sweating at the end of her hour.

But she has a lot of fun, too.
Her favorite part is jumping on trampolines at the end.

*She had a visit with her favorite eye doctor last month.
It made her day!

And we were happy, too, because he gave us more
good news on her eyes. They are maintaining vision,
so we're just going to keep monitoring. We go back
in six months. Yippee!

*She's also learning how to ride her bike...
without training wheels.
Of course it was on a Sunday after church.
I hear that dresses are the BEST for bike-riding.
She did pretty well, but still needs some practice.

*Caroline is just as cute as ever.
Here she is at joy school.
We studied circles.

I don't know how she pulled this off,
but she was pretty excited about her new look.

*Andrew's back is doing pretty well.
He still has bad days, but is able to get out

and play basketball in the backyard when he can
and at church one night a week.
No trips to the ER recently.
We celebrate small victories around here.

*I've been making a little bit of progress on
my persuasive writing class.
I've finished the rough draft on my first three
assignments. After Andrew proofreads them for
me, I have one more six page paper to do and
then I can turn them in. They are NOT good.
I'm kind of embarrassed.

Oh, and my debit card info got stolen.
I've spent hours on the phone getting
that resolved. Ugh. What a pain.

And that's what we've been up to.

Out of the mouths of babes--September

I'll admit it. I had a lazy month. There were a few occasions when the kids were being hilarious and I thought, "You better go write this down or you'll forget." But the lazy half of my brain said, "No, that was too funny. You'll remember it." Lesson learned? The lazy half of my brain is a liar! I'll try to ignore her in October.

9/18--Brandon LOVES to eat crab legs. I don't get it. I can't stand them. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa treated us to seafood while at the Outer Banks. Brandon jumped on that offer and got his favorite meal. While he was eating, he commented,

"This is heaven on a fork!"

9/19--Whit found a very pretty rock on the beach and said,

"It's like a little masterpiece."

9/25--Ate dinner at Wendy's. Brandon didn't finish his kids meal because he was "too full." As we were driving away and telling him he didn't need any snacks tonight he said, "I'm seriously full! I couldn't consume another bite."
Drew: Brandon, you crack me up. "Consume?"
B: Yes. I have a very advanced vocabulary.

That's it! Only three things!
We gotta supplement a little here.
This was fun:

Grandma brought Brandon a Mentos and Diet Coke Geyser.

We didn't have time to do it while they were in town,
so that was our Family Home Evening activity this week.

We got it all set up with seven mentos in
a tube and a trigger to pull.

Here's how it went down:

It was awesome!
I had crappy camera work, though.
Didn't expect it to go THAT high.

Neither did Whit.
She got soaked!

Brandon consuming the last of the Mentos-flavored Coke.

Here was Whit's new talent of the month:
Scooter-boarding
Looks dangerous, right?

Right.
(She was not injured. Phew.)

One random funny:
Andrew and I are surprised/disturbed/laughing
at some of the names of kids in kindergarten at
our kids' school. Are you ready for this?
(Yes, I took photos. I needed visual proof
or you would think I was making these up!)

There's Vinson.

And his classmate Vision.

Silver is in a different class.

And one poor teacher has all of these students
together: Xandrea, Precious, Jewelia, and the
show-stopper: VOLTRON.
(Click to enlarge--I'm not joking!)
I feel much safer knowing that the
Defender of the Universe is just down
the hall from Whit.

And, finally, this month's bonus pics of Care Bear:

She's sixteen months old now.

I would describe her as energetic,
curious, and playful. She loves animals...
especially from a distance.

She loves to be outside.
Apparently, she's into safety because she found
B's helmet and put it on before her bike ride.

Here she is chillin with Mia at the library.
She is still a Mama's girl, but loves her Daddy, too.
She has started talking up a storm lately.
Her favorite words: No, Mama,
bobo(used when she fills her diaper),
woof woof, shoes, and stuck.