The Shupeville Zoo

Valentine 2012

2012-02-17T11:42:00.001-05:00

Thank you grandmas and granpa for the valentine cards and gifts.

Your thoughtfulness made the day extra special.

A few sweets helped make the day special too.

Flowers from kids to mom.

Guess whose idea that was?

Flowers from Dad to Mom.

Isn't he a sweet guy? He hasn't missed a year in twenty years of marriage.

Hope yours was special too!

The Simple Life

2012-02-16T22:46:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty good artistic representation of our life.....

To quote the Grinch...

"mangled up in tangled up knots!"

It was actually Grant playing with silly straws.

You can tell from the background he has a severe shortage of toys to play with.

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His nose is fine.

So is the wall he crashed into.

The truth is I was standing right beside Grant waiting to clean his face up but David was holding him and took the picture before I started washing him off.

For the record

we are not so insensitive as to let our child suffer unnecessarily for the sake of a picture.

Well, MAYBE for a really good picture we would.

Kidding.

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This is one for the record books.

Why would I spend all of my spare time photographing bouillon cubes you ask.

The answer is pretty simple really.

This picture represents the last two cubes from a jar David bought when we were first married.

That's right. Twenty year old bouillon.

Surely that is a record of some sort.

I had to take a picture of the jar before tossing it in recycling.

That jar has been to every house we've ever lived in.

It's seen a lot of history.

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The bouillon jar also happened to be out the same day I was taking other useful pictures

like this one of a partially consumed bottle of vodka.

Remember this little project?

Here's the latest view.

Still not a finished jar of vanilla extract, but it's getting there.

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My latest foray into the world of 'homemade stuff' was making lye soap.

It actually turned out pretty good.

It has been one of my more successful science experiments.

I might quit buying soap at the store and get my lye kettle cooking on the fire out back like Granny Clampet instead.

I'm sure the neighbors would appreciate that.

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Going to bed tonight.

Have a good evening!

I fought the wall

2012-02-15T23:04:00.000-05:00

and the wall won!!

Sorry for the bad pun on song lyrics.

I couldn't resist.

Grant's nose is going to be fine.

The wall, well.....

I am not sure it fared quite as well.

Taking the Show On the Road

2012-02-14T23:59:00.002-05:00

Coming to a location near you.....

We are taking our traveling ~~circus~~ zoo on the road.

We have this talent for buying things we didn't plan to buy....

similar to how we ended up with horses last fall after a trip to the petting zoo.

David and I went to the Boat and RV show when it was in town just to look and somehow ended up coming home with a little more than we planned on.

We've talked the past couple years about loading the kids up in a motorcoach and traveling out west for a few weeks during the summer.

This sure isn't a motorcoach, but it fit our budget a little better than the big motor homes do.

PLUS

not only does it have a bed for mom and dad.....

but it comes equipped with a bunkhouse in the back that has two sets of bunks plus a trundle bed on the floor.

Bonus points are awarded to the designer of this thing because we don't have to make beds for anyone on a pull out couch every night we are on the road.

I'm not sure this is the summer we'll make a big trip in this thing.

But you never can tell when the zoo might just surprise you

by pulling up in front of your house!!

You've been warned!!

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what is the significance of this picture??

It shows that I am diligently working to sort and rebuild all the files I lost when my HP computer crashed and burned on me last fall.

We never did get things loaded back onto the HP after it was rebuilt (twice). Now that the new Sony computer has been up and running for a week or so I'm trying to get things back in order.

The problem is each and every file name has been messed around. I opened something that said "Printer" on it last night and found this picture. That means I have to go through everything the drive saver guys recovered and see what it is and name it and file it accordingly.

That may take a few hours (or a few hundred hours I fear).

That also means Joselyn can finally get her 21st birthday present from me before I have to (with much embarrassment) renumber it as her 22nd birthday present.

I'll be working on that and let you know when I send it your way, Jos!!

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I'm killing time while waiting on cupcakes to cool tonight.

John and Emily are having an end of season party tomorrow after school for their quick recall team. My daughter graciously volunteered me to bring cupcakes.

Isn't she a sweetheart?

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Speaking of sweetheart, did you wish yours a Happy Valentine's Day today?

David and I didn't go out to eat or anything overly romantic, but he had a long day on the road today and had an even longer day scheduled tomorrow. I'm not sure a date night would have been much fun in the middle of all that.

He did buy me roses

and a card.

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Grant had a party at preschool today for Valentine's Day.

I left my camera at home by accident.

Last child syndrome is taking over.

I forgot to take it in for his Christmas party too.

He had lots of fun and got way too much candy.

The dentist is going to love him some day with his penchant for sugary treats.

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Speaking of ~~dentist~~ orthodontists, John had his final evaluation yesterday with his orthodontist. They will either release him as "done" or sign him up for braces if they feel he needs them.

So what would you bet they'll decide??

My pocket book is predicting there are braces in his future.

Anyone ever played a trumpet with braces?

Any words of advice you want to share with a 'non-braces wearing' parent?

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Grant had "Donuts With Dad" at school last week.

Once again, no pictures.

Sorry Grant!

Here's the words to one of the songs he sang that day and still sings with regularity around the house.

1, 2, 3

I can count on you.

4, 5, 6

I can count on you.

You're all I need to make it through.

7, 8, 9, 10

I can count on you.

It's pretty sweet to hear those words coming out of your five year old son's mouth.

He was so excited the day of the program.

He voluntarily wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

YES, he was THAT excited.

As he walked into the sanctuary at the start of the program he said to his teacher

"I can't believe it's finally today! I've been waiting a long time for this day!"

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Grace had her Valentine party last Friday.

I took Grant in and helped celebrate the holiday with Grace and her friends.

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Monday was a day out of school for all of our kids for Parent-Teacher conferences.

David and I had conferences with Grace and Grant's teachers.

Both are doing well and are right on track with where they should be for their ages.

Grant will definitely be moving on to kindergarten in the fall.

She thinks he's ready.

I'm not sure Grant and I are ready though.

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Okay, cupcakes are cool enough to finish up tonight.

I'll get to downloading pictures tomorrow.

I hope!!

Sorry for the LONG post.

Mini Maestro - Take 2

2012-02-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

Grace at the end of the first piano book.

It only took us more than eighteen months to do what John and Emily did in less than a year.

I obviously am not pushing her as hard as I did them at this age.

It could have something to do with a few more kids and animals hanging around the house these days than back then.

I think she's progressed pretty well.

Here's what she sounded like back then.

Please disregard her singing skills.

None of us will every win a prize for our vocal skills!

Grace's Early Performance

Okay not really.

Here's her first piano recital.

First Performance

Breakfast of Champions

2012-02-03T10:52:00.000-05:00

We do some mighty strange things to cheer up our kids.

Grace has been less than excited about school the past few mornings. A little off the wall humor seems to dispell some of the tension she's feeling.

She was quite amused at the enormity of her cereal bowl the other morning.

Though she was still sad getting out of the car in carpool line.

I'll keep working on my comedic skills. She's a pretty tough audience.

Hittin' the Bottle

2012-02-02T10:48:00.003-05:00

No, it has not come to this.

I am not an alcoholic

yet.

I did learn that by mixing this

with this....

you get pure vanilla extract.

Well, you get vanilla extract

after thirty days of ~~sipping~~ shaking the contents of the bottle daily.

Sipping might be more fun, but shaking is the way to make vanilla.

After the first thirty days, you can use straight from the bottle for cooking and just refill with more vodka when needed.

Check back in thirty days and I'll let you know if this really worked or not.

Have I mentioned how nice it is to have a computer again?

NEW-New versus OLD-New

2012-02-01T21:07:00.004-05:00

I am back online again.

Yeah!

The timeline goes something like this......

November 2010 - HP computer suddenly becomes totally lame and locks up randomly and without cause (at least that's my opinion)

December 2010 - Spend every waking moment nagging husband to fix my computer (his version of the facts, not mine)

January 2011 - HP no longer willing to cooperate - breathes its last - wife not happy - husband not happy either

January 2011 - Husband and tech guy from work take dead computer to their magical workshop and reincarnate it as better/faster/more reliable version of its old self - wife exceedingly pleased with rebuilt OLD-NEW computer

January 2011 - Wife makes promise to self to stay off those porn sites (kidding here people)

November 2011 - Computer malady rears its ugly head once more causing strife and discord in Shupe residence as important computer stuff ain't gettin' done!!!!!!!!

January 2012 - OLD-NEW computer now completely uncooperative - receives severe tongue lashing from wife (computer, not husband) - dead computer unphased by said tongue lashing - wife once again unhappy - husband thusly unhappy as well

January 2012 - OLD-NEW computer once again brought back from the icy grips of death by beloved husband once again working his magic rebuilding computer from scratch. All is well and peace is restored in Shupe home.

January 2012 - OLD-NEW piece of @#$% does it AGAIN!!!!! NO ONE is pleased with this piece of news!

January 2012 - Husband uses HP computer for handgun target practice - places NEW-NEW SONY on wife's desk as peace offering - peace offering accepted - all is right once again (I hope)

So you see my last new computer was actually all new 'stuff' put into the old HP. David has graciously rebuilt it twice now and it has redied (is that possible?) each time. He said enough is enough and went and forked over the money for a new computer for me.

The irony in this entire situation is that I LOVED my old computer. Well, at least when it worked I loved it. I'm a bit sad to see it go. I do appreciate that I have a new one that hopefully will not give us the fits of the old one. We'll see.

However, I am now so paranoid about killing my computer that I am afraid to do almost ANYTHING on it. You know...

no more online gaming

no more hours whiling away the time shopping for new clothing

no more hours on facebook with all my friends

no more smarmy sites displaying scantily clad people doing unspeakable things

Nope

Just plain old blogging for me

and maybe a little shopping online since I HATE going into real stores.

It's a risk I'm willing to take.

So out with the OLD-NEW and in with the NEW-NEW.

Here's to blogging once again!!

Sad news

2012-01-31T22:56:00.001-05:00

So sorry to get a call today that Dad's sister Lois Goodson died yesterday. What a wonderfully caring person. She will surely be missed by all who knew and loved her.Love you dad.

2012-01-26T08:22:00.001-05:00

Computer breathed its last this week. David refuses to rebuild it a third time for me so we are waiting on a new "non-HP" computer. I think I'm done with HP's for now. At least I didn't lose anything on my hard drive since I have learned to back it up more frequently and since David hadn't even loaded the restored files onto my rebuilt HP. Some times it pays to not do things too quickly. More tonite. Right now I'm hunting and pecking with my fat fingers on my iPad. Have a good day!

Fourth Place Isn't So Bad

2012-01-21T21:25:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not talking about the goings on in South Carolina today.

Today was the district tournament for Quick Recall for middle schoolers.

Our kids earned fourth place.

Yeah!

There were only four teams.

Bummer.

David stayed home with the two younger kids while I was with John and Emily most of the day during the competition. They had fun, but just didn't have a good day of things going their way. It was an extremely close competition, we just happened to come up short.

Maybe next time!

We're still proud of you guys.

In Honor of Martin's Big Day

2012-01-19T18:49:00.002-05:00

The kids were out of school Monday.

For once, they were not out because of wind or water or snow.

It was Martin Luther King Day. Thus, no school.

In honor of the day we went bowling.

Not really.

Actually, we decided it was too cold to go to the zoo so we looked for indoor options.

All of us like to bowl.

None of us are very good.

That's okay.

We have a good time anyway.

Look who took off work and went with us.

I am taking donations to the "David Shupe Needs A Shave" fund.

Contributions may be sent to our current address.

I think everyone had a good time.

As you can tell, the place was PACKED with people!!

(kidding there)

Not much exciting here. The kids got grade cards yesterday. All A's except one from the middle school crowd. All O's and S's from the elementary crowd. The preschool crowd isn't graded yet.

We are proud of them.

I steam cleaned carpets Tuesday while Grant was at preschool. I had to ponder whether it was worth stopping long enough to seek shelter in the basement while a tornado touched down about four miles from home.

I kept cleaning.

I didn't want my carpets to be dirty when my house was blown away in the tornado!

The kids have their final match in Quick Recall this Saturday. Their team finished fifth in their regional bracket. That qualified them to move on to the county tournament this weekend. I really don't look for them to make it to state level, but they could surprise all of us still. We'll see.

Grant and I are still cranking out Perler Bead shapes like there's no tomorrow. He is wild for them right now. No pictures of his new creations, but he gets ever more inventive as he works with them. Yesterday he spelled his name with them. I thought that was pretty good for five years old.

One of our ducks in MIA. I don't know if it went looking for a better mate or if it became dinner for a lucky raccoon. Either way, I'm guessing Donald has seen the last of Daisy. I'm not looking forward to breaking that news to the kids. I guess they'll learn first hand about how the food chain works with small animals.

The pond continues to fill quickly. It should easily reach the spillway by spring. We are looking forward to stocking the pond with some bass and catfish this coming fall and having some homegrown fish in a couple years to eat.

The horses are doing fine. We've not been out to ride in a few weeks, but hope to get there sometime this coming weekend if the Quick Recall tournament doesn't drag into the late afternoon.

OK, enough rambling. I've got to go get kids ready for bed!

Goodnight!

Milestones

2012-01-16T15:37:00.000-05:00

Today we reached a milestone in this house.

The little blue LINE in this picture shows how tall my oldest son is.

The problem is that the little blue DOT shows how tall his mother is!

Yes, I am now looking up to John.

You can see he has really shot up past Emily the last six months.

She's got quite a way to go yet to catch me.

We record the kids' height every year on their birthday and on their 'half birthday'.

January is John and Emily's half birthday.

I guess I'll have to get a stepstool to record John's height from now on.

The next goal he has is to reach that second dot on the growth chart line..

that would be his dad's height.

I don't expect it will be too long before he passes up his dad too.

Skills Building 101

2012-01-14T21:48:00.002-05:00

For a kids who holds a fork like a shovel,

Grant's latest passion has produced results nothing short of miraculous.

He is fascinated with Perler Beads....

teeny tiny beads that can be arranged into just about any shape or image then melted and fused together with a hot iron.

I'm not kidding when I say they're tiny.

He has progressed from just plunking random colors down with no rhyme nor reason to their arrangement to making some very pretty patterns like this.

These are all his creations.

He's done all of these in less than a week.

I think he's got the fine motor thing quite under control now.

Time to move on.

Maybe we can work on letter recognition now!!

I just found this picture on my camera.

They are David's 'birthday presents' from Grace and Grant.

The kids found my aluminum foil and wrapped up toys from the playroom to give David for his birthday.

Inside these carefully wrapped packages I believe David found: a pair of drumsticks, a fisher-price camera case, and a book.

It's the thought that counts, right?

New Year's Eve Party - G rated

2012-01-12T22:41:00.001-05:00

When the average age of the younger party goes is under 20, some modifications must be made by the party planner.....

Thus, there was no wild dancing...

only a lively game or two of Twister....

Some people played less "fairly" than others.

Gambling and other such adult entertainment was replaced by

"GO FISH"

"Do you have any 3's?"

"No. Go Fish!"

Chex mix and soda were consumed in place of champagne and hor douvers.

But the evening would not have been complete without a little midnight celebration.

These guys hung on until the bitter end.

Their reward?

Party hats, leis, blowers, noise makers and.....

fireworks set of by my biggest kid of all!

After sleeping in Sunday morning, we returned to Louisville and began the process of 'undecorating' the house.

Grace and Grant were more than a little excited to be given the job of vacuuming up the needles from the Christmas trees.

Isn't it great when kids still think of these chores as fun??

They were actually fighting over whose turn it was to push the vacuum!

Happy New Years!!

I do believe I am caught up on pictures finally.

Now I just have to sort them sometime and put them on the right date.

Not tonight though. I'm off to bed.

Goodnight!!!

Who Had a Birthday??

2012-01-11T13:01:00.001-05:00

Still slowly catching up on pictures....

While we were at the farm between Christmas and New Years, someone had a birthday.

We celebrated with birthday cake....

both pretend cake....

and a real one too......

This is what a Texas Sheetcake looks like when Mom leaves the cake pan for it at home and has nothing at the farm to bake a sheetcake in!

Here's the birthday boy.

It looks like someone should buy him a razor for a birthday gift, huh??

Preparing to blow out the candles...

but a couple certain somebodies beat him to it.....

Grant made dad this card (with help from mom).

Dad loved the card.

It said...

"Happy Birthday, Dad. I hope you enjoy your presents. You are the best birthday boy. Love to Dad From Grant"

Grace also made her daddy a card. Hers said...
"Dear Dad, I hope you have a happy birthday to day Dad. And i hope you have fun trning 45 to day! Love, your dotter Grace Shupe"

He loved this card too.

After opening gifts and putting the little kids to bed, we then celebrated his birthday by beating him at a game of rummy.

Happy Birthday, David!!

Saddle Up Your Horse!

2012-01-10T12:28:00.000-05:00

Here's a look at a couple of the new horses.....

This is Bella.

I think she is by far the favorite of the kids.

Grant and Grace both ask to ride her often.

These are the two newest to the family.

They came to us with no names, so for quite some time we're referred to them as

Thing 1 and Thing 2.

I think the kids have settled on calling this mare Juliet to complement one of the other horses named, of course, Romeo.

She's a sweet little mare.

Emily has been riding her the most.

She would appear to have two speeds most of the time....

slow

and

stop.

The palomino is another mare that is pretty small.

Both of these horses are fairly young too. The guy we bought them from thought they were about five or six years old.

This one has now officially been named Whinny. I thought she was going to be Sally (Grant's suggestion), but somehow that got replaced by Whinny in the final vote.

She has a little more life and spunk than Juliet.....but not much!

That makes them the perfect horses for kids to learn on!

Snowball....

Brownie.....

Butterscotch....

These three are more aptly known as The Three Stooges.

It's funny to watch them sidle up to the big horses who are all around sixteen hands or taller and start kicking at them.

My goodness, Butterscotch can't kick anything higher than their ankles!!

I'll give him credit for trying anyway.

Sunday we went out after church and rode for a few hours.

The kids are getting more and more comfortable in the saddle.

I would guess by springtime we'll let them take their horses out alone if they want to.

We did have a 'first' this weekend.

Someone (who shall remain nameless) wins the prize for being the first family member to get bucked off.

Let's just say one of the horses hasn't been around too many blue tractors!

Horse and rider are both fine in spite of a bruised ego and maybe a sore leg.

Want to guess who?

Christmas Morning

2012-01-08T16:29:00.000-05:00

Grab a good snack. (Maybe Santa did)

Sit back and relax....

unwrap.....

and enjoy.

Hope Santa found your house too!!

2012-01-07T19:28:00.000-05:00

more messes....

more playdoh people to make

more books

more ways to draw.....

more things to be drawn

and more

more ways to build

more things made

more ways to discover

more things to learn

more coloring to do

more self image

more colors to choose

more hugs to share

more love to go around

more people (than intended) in one chair

Yep, more is good.

Mom's Manic Midnight Musings - Part 2

2012-01-07T00:23:00.000-05:00

Regarding The Subtlety of Symantics

I observed an interesting thing today.

I live in a flop house.

As I move about my home I most assuredly will see a dog flopped down by the side of our bed. The twelve year old boy is flopped on his bed reading a book. A cat is flopped on the landing of the stairs soaking in the sun. Another dog will be flopped in the corner of the living room. A twelve year old girl is flopped on the sofa in the basement watching television. A cat is flopped across her lap while she watches. I can find a five year old boy flopped on the playroom floor driving his matchbox cars from some imaginary here to somewhere else over there and without fail a six year old girl will be flopped on her tummy with a coloring book or a library book or such.

What's that??

That's not the REAL meaning of flop house?

Hmmmmm.

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On Why I Raised the White Flag

Today while driving my two youngest kids around the 'ville, Grace observed three flags, including a US flag, on display in front of an office building. She asked why the middle one, the US flag, was taller.

I took the opportunity to explain the significance of displaying the flag of our county higher than any other flag present in order to show the importance of our country's flag. Other flags must be flown lower to show respect.

After a moment of silent reflection Grace showed me how even a six year old mind is tripped up occasionally by flawed logic when she said, "So planes can't fly higher than the flag when they are close to it?"

I (trying to conceal my amusement) explained at great length that only flags being flown together need to observe these rules. The rules of flag flying don't apply to airplanes.

I think she understood.

I felt quite proud of our conversation.

But then.....

Grant said, "But BIRDS can't fly higher than the flag. Right, Mom?"

Sigh.

I surrendered and just agreed with him.

And THAT is how misinformation gets started.

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On The Subject of Fuzzy (CAT) Math

Grace, Grant and I ran errands yesterday including a trip to the pet store.

Grant has become buddies with one of the cats up for adoption. Each time we visit the store we have to stop and see the cat.

He has even named it.....Nails. ( I keep telling you we're awful at naming living things.)

After visiting 'Nails' today we got back in the car to continue our errands when this conversation transpired............

Grant: I miss Kitty. (still heard with some regularity in our house) I wish we could take Nails home with us.

Me: Nope. We have two cats. That's enough.

Grant: (ignoring my less than gentle reply) When can we take Nails home?

Me: Not for a long time. We don't need three cats.

Grant: But we HAD three cats. Why can't we have Nails?

Me: We HAD three cats because Kitty was getting old and sick. We were given Bella when she needed a home. We knew we would not always have three cats. Since Kitty got sick and died now we have two cats. We don't need three cats. Three is too many. Two cats are enough. (Thinking this would end the conversation)

Grant: (pondering in silence for a few minutes) But if we take Nails and ANOTHER CAT then we wouldn't have THREE cats. We would have FOUR, so that would be okay. When can we bring them home?

(Did I miss something there?)

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Calgon! Take Me Away!!!

Just Stuff

2012-01-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

"Hey Grant!! What are you doing?!"

"Well, I got something so my hands stop being cold while Keoni and I are playing outside."

(it was probably thirty degrees outside)

Makes perfect sense to me.

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Jam Session

I'll let you know when their new album is released.

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Paparazzi Ambush

GOTCHA, Emily!!

Cats

2012-01-05T20:41:00.000-05:00

What could possibly be better than having a cat in a dog kennel?

The answer is...

having TWO cats in the kennel!!

So what could top even two cats in a kennel?

How about two kids leaning on two pillows holding two cats while reading books in a kennel?

Yeah, I thought that was pretty good too.

I don't think Bella shows up in any of these pictures, but she was somewhere stuffed in there with them too.

Fine Art

2012-01-04T20:35:00.000-05:00

This would be funny looking paper because it isn't really paper at all....

Lately, the kids' favorite creative outlet is drawing on my windows.

Here is grant's helicopter.

He wants to be a pilot when he grows up.

At least that day he did.

It changes daily.

Grace is into drawing houses and trees.

Grant's drawing of Santa putting presents under our tree.

That's our fireplace on the right side of the drawing.

Grace's Santa....

I think this is a tree with a doll in a box (which she asked for). I'm not sure what all the other boxes are supposed to contain. She made a fireplace too.

Hey, at least it helped while away the hours as the kids counted down the days to Christmas!!

Just stuff

2012-01-03T20:50:00.003-05:00

Kids will create the strangest ways to entertain themselves when forced to do so.

Take for instance the day when Emily and Grant built a Lego measuring stick.

Nothing was missed in the measuring process, even themselves.

Grace at home relaxing and recovering after being the middle of a sandwich made between a horse and a fence post.

She was a bundle of fists and fury at first, but we explained that horses don't do these things on purpose and it was an accident.

It was probably a good lesson in the need for caution around the horses.....

a lesson heeded now that was falling on deaf ears before now.

All are well. All was forgiven. All is good once again.

Thanksgiving

2012-01-03T20:41:00.005-05:00

Has anyone seen an indian looking like this fellow running around?

He was lurking around my house a few months ago and now I can't find him anymore.

This is the outfit Grant made for his Thanksgiving feast at preschool.

I'm just getting it on the blog since my computer is working. I'll put it in its correct place another day!

Christmas View

2012-01-03T19:26:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure I ever got a picture of my tree this year.

I did get a picture of my poinsettia.

I love these things though it is the thing I am least successful at keeping alive.

I think I took this picture while sitting on the floor counting coins with Grant.

Doesn't this look picture perfect?

Ahhhhhh.

THEN.....

I turned around and took a picture of the rest of the house....

Just keeping it real here, folks.

This is what my house looks like frequently.

Usually it's toys on the floor instead of tree branches though.

Don't you like the dog-cat standoff in the picture??

Remington thinks the cats are just mobile chew toys. He keeps trying to figure out how to catch one and nibble on it.

Okay, enough of the stark reality of our life.

I like this view better.

Meatballs

2012-01-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

Cooking in the zoo kitchen presents its own unique challenges....

the most obvious being the lack of square footage.

Sometimes there's four or even five people milling around at once in a space really made for one person.

Not always fun.

BUT...

when Grant broke out the play-doh in order to bake with me one day, I was more than happy to share my kitchen with another chef.

While I worked and mixed and rolled five pound (yes, FIVE) of meatballs for my family....

Grant worked hard and rolled at least as many of his own meatballs.....

Pretty good, huh?

He was so proud of his work. He kept asking me to take a picture of him with them.

So I obliged.

Then because I'm a little weird I went ahead and took a picture of one of the trays of meatballs awaiting their fate in my oven.

These were naked (without BBQ). I had to shove them in the oven so I had room on the counter for my other trays I was working on....

(refer to above subject - "the too small kitchen")

Meatballs don't last long around here. The beef ones don't anyway. Play-doh meatballs were carefully preserved in a plastic container at Grant's insistence. I found them a few days ago rock hard and beyond rescue.

They were quickly and discreetly deposited in the trash. I'll buy more playdoh.

Penny Piles Aplenty

2012-01-02T22:05:00.001-05:00

Grant is my math whiz.

I was going to say he was my mathematician,

but I reconsidered when I tried to spell mathematician.

Then my sixth grade spelling expertise kicked in and I figured it out.

I am rocket smart, huh??

Anyway, back to my ~~mathematician~~ math whiz.....

He can count past one hundred, count by 2's, 3's, or 10's, and does three digit addition (sometimes).

He is working his way through multiplication right now.

No he's not doing the times tables, but if asked how many would be in five groups of three, he can figure out the answer pretty quickly.

This was a picture of our afternoon a few weeks ago learning(him, not me) to count by ten.

We then talked about the different coins that could be put in place of each stack. The effort to explain the concept of carrying paper bills instead of a big bag of coins is a totally wasted effort.

Why would anyone want to carry paper when they can have ALL THESE COINS????

I figured why argue with four year old (it was before his birthday) logic??

*************************

David is feeling better tonight. He's been parked on the couch today WAY more than normal, so I know he doesn't feel super great yet.

Emily and Grace have not gotten sick yet.

School starts tomorrow.

Can you guess what I'm predicting??? Hopefully not. Emily still has perfect attendance.

***************************

Emily had a sleepover last night at a friend's house. The girls had a great time from the stories I'm hearing today.

After partying into the wee hours two nights in a row, I wonder how Emily will feel in the morning when the alarm blares in her ear at 5:30??

2012

2012-01-01T02:17:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hoping 2012 brings more hours to my day

or

fewer things to be done in the hours provided!

We've been wandering the countryside
visiting friends and family

and

hiding at the farm riding horses and building docks on our almost completely filled pond and celebrating the arrival of the new year

and

taking turns being sick.

John

Angie

Grant

David

That would be the order we went down in.

Left in the lineup are Grace and Emily.

Here's hoping they don't suffer the same fate as the rest of us the past few days.

BRUTAL

I'm hoping tomorrow to catch up here since I am now caught up around the house! Christmas decorations are all down and end of year business is finished.

Computer though is still NOT finished. I'm not smart enough to load everything that was recovered from my crashed hard drive back onto my newly restored computer .

As I type this, my computer tech (David) is lying in bed trying not to succumb to the virus working its evil on him. I'm guessing it will be a few more days before I get things up and running full speed.

Thank you for continuing to check in despite my lack of blogging lately. It has been a long process getting stuff working again.

Love you all. It was great visiting with everyone over the holiday break!!

The Running of the Gifts

2011-12-24T10:37:00.002-05:00

Sitting in my attic the past several weeks have been boxes of different shapes and sizes

wrapped in various assortments of colorfully printed paper.

Pooh for Grant....Princess for Grace

Star Wars for John and Tinkerbell for Emily

Funny how the older the kids get the fewer presents they get.

Boxes that are much smaller but much more expensive!!!

After doing all the work of buying the gifts, wrapping and hiding them, I figure the kids can do their part to help me.

So a couple days before Christmas we have what has officially been named

"The Running of the Gifts"

Let the running begin!!!

This is the first time they've seen their presents.

They get the pleasure of carrying them downstairs and placing them under the tree.

It takes Grace and Grant several trips to finish moving theirs.

And now the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest.

We are enjoying a quiet day at home.

I hope you have the pleasure of doing the same.

Party! - Party! - Party!

2011-12-22T23:01:00.002-05:00

Computer is running nicely.

Recovered hard drive has returned from California.

Pictures seem to be safe. (I have not verified all of the missing file dates yet...too scared to do it)

Onward!!!

Let the posting begin!!

Pictures taken last week at Grant's (first) birthday party.

He wanted a dinosaur cake, so I obliged.

Having a mid-December birthday makes scheduling anything tough.

We invited a couple neighborhood buddies of his over after school on a Friday evening for a few hours of fun and pizza (and of course cake).

Here they are popping ~~balloons~~ dinosaur eggs to get to the treats hidden inside.

I underestimated boys.

This game took all of thirty seconds at the most.

After a dinosaur treasure hunt and a paleontology activity with ~~dog biscuits~~ dinosaur bones,

we proceeded to celebrate the birthday boy with cupcakes and ice cream.

I was mean and made them eat the cupcakes made from extra cake batter instead of the dinosaur cake. I didn't want to have to make another cake for his real birthday just a couple days later, so we saved the dinosaur cake for the real birthday.

I don't think anyone minded the cupcakes. They ate them without complaint.

After food, I moved them to the living room to open presents.

The big mountain is something Grant had seen in an old video of John's.

He wanted it for birthday, but they don't sell them anymore.

So what is a mother to do?

I bought him a used one on ebay.

He was thrilled and could have cared less if it was new or not.

THEN

Grant got his second birthday party at school on Monday. I took in cupcakes for the kids in his class. They sang Happy Birthday to him and he got to be line leader for the day.

Oh, and he got this awesome crown to wear.....

His real birthday was on Tuesday.

That was the last day of preschool before Christmas break so he got ANOTHER party (Christmas party) at school that day as well!!

That night we partied again at home.

We sang Happy Birthday and (finally) ate dinosaur cake.

Some of us even took small enough bites to TASTE the cake.....

not Grant though.

Two bites and it was history.

Birthday card made by Grace.....

Grant was miffed that she drew herself taller than him.

He's so funny.

David and I have an unspoken contest going on for the 'coolest birthday card' for our kids.

I thought for sure I had this one in the bag with the gigantic pirate card that played a song while a pirate sang to the birthday boy.

David's card won the contest this year though.

Not only was it a monster truck card that made cool truck noises, but it had a maze in it as well.

Grant is seriously into mazes and puzzles right now.

David definitely had the winning card.

One more present to open from Mom and Dad....

but wait....

The look on Grant's face says it all....

A few days before his birthday, Grant saw this big truck/tractor set in a toy catalog.

He had circled it and painstakingly written on the catalog cover that he wanted it for birthday.

Guess who saw the catalog and had to buy it for him?

Yes, my overgrown kid!!

The final birthday celebration took place at Grandma's house when we had our family Christmas.

Three family members with Christmas birthdays meant taking time to recognize them before opening Christmas presents.

Now how's THAT for thoroughly celebrating a birthday??

Only five years old, but got five chances to celebrate his birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANT!!!!

We love you!

Just because it was the last picture in the file....

Grace and Grant sporting their new rain gear.

I thought Grace's raincoat looked small a couple weeks ago when getting out at carpool line.

I looked at the tag later.

It was a 3Toddler.

She'll be seven years old in March. Time for a new coat.

Of course she's still wearing a size four jeans.

If only I had her weight problems!!!

YIPEE!!!

2011-12-20T10:27:00.001-05:00

My husband is the greatest!

He got my computer up and running again.

AND

my hard drive has been worked on for the past few days and is now on its way home from vacation in California.

I'm still a little jealous.

I didn't get a trip to California.

Soon I'll have my files rebuilt and be back in business.

Yeah!!

Until then, I'll have to be content with pictures that are on my camera.

Like this one.....

taken after I scrubbed Grant's face unmercifully.

It was a huge improvement from what it looked like when I started scrubbing.

See?

That would be a spider stamper he got while trick-or-treating.

Who gives a kid permanent ink stampers?

Sigh.

Still waiting

2011-12-16T22:07:00.001-05:00

Still waiting for my hard drive to be fixed. It got to take a trip to California. I've never been to California. It malfunctions and gets a vacation??? So unfair!Still waiting on Christmas. The kids had their last day of school today until the new year. I took grant in to help with grace's Christmas party. They go a bit overboard I think. A chocolate fountain for a first grade party?? Really? Maybe I'm just being ebenezer, or at the very least ebenezer's grumpy wife. Anyway, the party was fun and school is over. No more 5:30 mornings until next year!We decorated the tree at the farm tonight. I forgot the big needles needed to string cranberries so that was a fail. Instead we made salt dough cookies with our Christmas cookie cutters. The kids each made a hand print too. I'm waiting on them to finish baking as I type this. It is peaceful here tonight looking at the tree, listening to Christmas music and the sounds of family surrounding me. What more could a person ask for on a perfect December evening?Tomorrow we are going riding. Did I mention we got some more horses? We got more horses.Six more to be exact. That put our horse population up to eleven. Actually though we traded two of our horses to a guy for two others then bought four others so we really "only" have nine horses. How does a family go from having NOTHING relating to horses to owning nine of them in under six months?? leave it to us to figure out a way to do it.We wanted horses a little more reliable and trustworthy for now. None of us are experienced riders and the two horses we traded were simply too advanced for our limited skills. They will be happier elsewhere and we will be able to do some riding instead of retraining horses too long left unridden by previous owners. Last night john and Emily had a Christmas concert at their middle school. The auditorium was standing room only. We know that because we stood! That's okay though. It made taking pictures easier. The concert was really enjoyable with all the various groups performing quite well. The band, orchestra and choir all took turns entertaining the audience. I'm always amazes at how much their instructors can accomplish with a bunch of rowdy kids in such a short amount of time.Grant is now officially five. We had a little celebration the evening of his actual birthday. I do have pictures. I'll get pictures posted as soon as I have my computer back up and running. I'm not proofing this so there is a high probability that autocorrect has made this totally unreadable. Hopefully not.Take care. More later from the zoo!

Finally, A Post

2011-12-09T22:14:00.002-05:00

I still don't have a functioning desktop computer, but found time this evening to sit with a laptop and catch up on the zoo's happenings for the past few days/weeks. So here it is in a nutshell before something happens and I don't get this finished.....

Highlights at the Zoo

Emily received the Hilltopper Award for her class in October. I have pictures, but they are on my dead computer. Not gonna be showing them anytime soon. Hilltopper Awards are given to a student in each room once a month. The award is for students showing leadership and qualities of discipline, leadership, helpfulness, etc. She fits this bill pretty well and was pleased to get the recognition. She and John both received the award last year. I'm not sure John will this year seeing as how his homeroom class is an honors class and the teacher draws a name from a hat each month. She claims all her kids are exceptional and none deserve the recognition more than others. Sounds like a teacher not wanting to make a decision, but to each his own. Congratulations Emily.

On a sad note, John did not make All County Band this year. He has auditioned four years in a row now and this is the first time he has not made it. He was disappointed to say the least, but I think like me, he was also a bit relieved. That meant not having to make all of the after school practices and meant he did not have to work on the extra musical pieces for the concert in addition to regular school work and band. I think he'll give it a shot next year. He enjoys playing too much to give up that easily I'm guessing.

The kids have finished two grading periods so far this year. John and Emily are both pulling all A's with the exception of maybe one B I saw on someone's grade card the first grading period. That's not too shabby in my humble opinion. Grace doesn't get letter grades yet. She did receive all S's and O's. That is about typical for a primary report card at her age. It drives me crazy because to me it isn't an indicator of how she is really doing. I think by third grade they switch to letter grades. Overall, she's happy and well adusted to public school now. She handles it like a pro. Her favorite parts of the week are library and music. She's not overly fond of PE or science.....just like her mom!

The week of Thanksgiving Grace's class put on a little performance in their classroom for the parents to watch. It was the ABC's of Thanksgiving. She had a piece to memorize that was several sentences long. Never one to be shy, she stepped right up and said her lines like she'd done it a hundred times before. The program was very cute and very brief....perfect.

Grant has been a busy guy in preschool too. He had a Halloween party in October and got to dress up as Batman for that. In November they had a Thanksgiving feast. All of the four year old classes sit down to a full meal dressed as indians and pilgrims. The indians outnumbered the pilgrims about ten to one. Mrs. C said kids don't like to be pilgrims because the costumes aren't as much fun to make and wear as the indian costumes. Grant informed me they are not 'indians'. They are 'native americans'. So much for keeping my son away from political correctness!! He's already been indoctrinated!!

Last weekend John and Emily arose bright and early. I took them to a local high school where they participated in a Duke University testing program that allows seventh graders to take the SAT test. It can have some adacemic and financial benefits and recognition if they do well on it. They were not thrilled to sit in a room with high schoolers for four hours testing, but I think once it was over they realized it wasn't so bad after all. I'll be curious what their test results are.

Last Saturday was also the company Christmas party. It was a good time sharing food and stories with everyone from work. As always there were pool and dart tournaments for those interested. A new twist this year was that we let John and Emily babysit while we were at the party. This was the first time we left them in charge of dinner and bedtime. Things seemed to go well and they were very appreciative of the babysitting pay. We were thrilled because we saved a bundle paying our own kids at 'novice babysitter' rates instead of 'experienced college girl' babysitter rates. Yipee!

We spent Thanksgiving visiting with family in Carrollton and West Salem. It was great to sit down and enjoy good company and good food with those we love. As always, the kids had fun playing with cousins and dogs. I look forward to seeing everyone again for Christmas.

Tonight we had a little party to celebrate Grants upcoming fifth birthday. Since his big day is so close to Christmas, it gets tough to find time for a party. This is the first time we have had a party for him. He chose to invite two neighbor boys over for the festivities. We had a dinosaur cake and a few games and treats. Everyone had a good time and we suffered no major damage from energetic boys on a sugar buzz and a pre-christmas high. Whew!

Presents are bought. Presents are wrapped. The tree is decorated. Cookies are baked. Lights are strung. We are ready for Christmas!! Of course there will be no Christmas cards because I can't get to my contacts which are saved on my computer. Well, okay. Those addresses that I have memorized might still get a card, but hey, I'm not promising anything at this point.

Next Friday is the last day of school for the kids. They are getting excited. The few flurries of snow this week haven't helped calm things down at all either.

Here's hoping you're enjoying the season and not too overwhelmed by the to do lists and activities that come with this time of year.

And now folks, I will end this essay before it stretches into a novel. I'll hopefully be up and running on a computer in a week or so.

Take care!!

Love you all.

Have You Missed Us?

2011-12-05T14:58:00.000-05:00

OK. We did not fall off the face of the earth. We did not die. We did not leave the country.

We are all fine and functioning. Well, all of us except my computer. My hp computer has done its annual 'crash and burn' routine. It is TOTALLY DEAD. As David calls it, it has the 'blue screen of death'. Sucks.

Anyway, we're working through some technical difficulties. Last year my husband sort of wanted to blame it on questionable websites I frequent. You know my penchant for spending all my free hours each day on illicit websites looking at inappropriate subject content. Another theory was that my super online Christmas shopping frenzy was just more than one little computer could handle.

This year I think we've narrowed the issues down to possibly my youngest child playing on my computer using the touch screen feature. I went most of the year with no trouble, but I wouldn't let anyone under the age of twenty touch my computer. I finally caved to the constant barage of pleas to play on my computer. A few days spent happily tapping my computer screen with the Cat in the Hat and PRESTO......dead computer.......again.

Sigh.

After giving my computer last rites and saying my goodbyes, I dug out my laptop once more to try and catch up some. Have I mentioned I stink at using a laptop? I drive myself crazy with that little bitty mouse pad thing. Anyway, I won't complain. At least I have something to use.

Hopefully, I can get caught up on blogging the family news in the next couple days. I have decided this is faster than scrapbooking, but there is still a certain amount of 'mother's guilt' when I fail to get done what I want to.

Later! I'm off to pick up the kids from school. John and Emily have Quick Recall practice after school on Mondays. I think I'll take the boat. We've had so much rain that I bet I could just about float there instead of drive!!

All Is Calm???

2011-11-30T17:29:00.001-05:00

Silent night, holy night.

My kids are acting 'not real bright'.

Round the zoo things are wild

I can't keep clothes on that poor child.

Hey! Sit still if you please.

I'm takin' your picture. Say Cheese!

Radiant beams from their ornery face.

It looks like John is strangling Grace.

Our house is full of mirth.

What bribe is a good picture worth?

In spite of these less than satisfactory results, we did get a Christmas picture the other night.

Aren't they a dandy crew??

And you wonder why I refer to this place as a zoo!!!

Losing a Friend

2011-11-28T21:52:00.001-05:00

After a lovely Thanksgiving weekend, we arrived home in time to repack and go to the farm for a few days.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent enjoying the unbelievably pretty weather before packing up and returning home Sunday afternoon.

What we encountered at home was not quite so pleasant.

It was quite obvious Kitty was not doing well.

Rather than seeing her suffer even one more day to wait until Monday and take her to the vet, we took her to a vet ER of sorts nearby.

They agreed that any form of treatment was just delaying the inevitable.

So everyone has said their good-byes and Kitty will join the rest of the Shupe pets in a special place on the farm.

John and Emily took the news as well as twelve year olds take news like that.

Grace, of course, cried.

Grant in an effort to comfort his sister patted Grace gently on the back saying, "It's okay, Grace. We'll see Kitty in Heaven someday."

Now how does a parent argue with four year old theology like that??

We miss you Kitty!

We Are Thankful

2011-11-24T07:36:00.000-05:00

You Shouldn't Have!

2011-11-22T12:33:00.001-05:00

Someone in this house has had a birthday in November.

Maybe this person?

or this person?

or this person with marker all over his face?

Nope, nope and nope.

David and the kids helped me celebrate another birthday.

They gave me a cake

and cards....

and an incredibly HEAVY box of candy.

Look at all that candy!

What's that?

Look UNDER the candy?!

Well, look at that!

Ghirardelli now packages their candy with an iPad included.

What a wonderful gift.

Thank you, family!!

You shouldn't have.

But I'll accept it just the same!!

Happy Thanksgiving.

We're looking forward to visiting with family and eating way too much as we count our blessings once again.

It's a SMALL SMALL World

2011-11-17T21:42:00.001-05:00

Last Friday Grant, David and I visited a very TINY town.

We peeked in the bakery

visited the laundromat

and stepped back in time a hundred or so years

at the train museum in Cincinnati.

He loved this place when I took the kids there last year and has talked about going back ever since.

The details are amazing. I think I could walk through here daily for an entire year and still find something new each time.

Looking down from above over the entire layout....

Of course, what's a trip to the train museum without a stop to refuel ourselves?

Hot dogs and pizza for everyone!!

And

of course

he suckered his dad into buying him a new train for his Thomas the Tank Engine track set.

Good times.

Yes indeed.

Seeing Spots

2011-11-16T11:21:00.000-05:00

We have added some paper lanterns in Emily's room for reading lights.

She loves them.

It carries on with the theme of dots.

Last year I made this French memo board for her.

Of course, it's dots too.

It turned out pretty well I thought.

Though you can't see it through all the pictures on it, she actually has another bulletin board in her room too. We made this big 'dot' when we originally decorated her room.

This one is a cork board. The dots theme worked easily for a bulletin board....much easier than the airplane, flower and baseball ones we made for the other kids' rooms.

2011-11-15T20:44:00.000-05:00

Kitty update:

She's still alive and ~~hissing~~ kicking.

The vet said she's not doing well based on her lab results.

We discussed at length what to do and came to somewhat of a consensus.

There is no point putting her through the stress of more tests. She is not a very congenial patient. The tests would probably indicate either a need for diabetic treatment or thyroid treatment daily. She's not the kind of cat to take well to much handling.

As long as she seems comfortable and doesn't lose too much more weight, we'll just watch her.

Someday maybe soon, maybe not, we will have to make the decision if her quality of life is still okay.

Until then, she's taken up permanent residency in John's room. They get along pretty well. We call him the 'cat guy' because some nights he'll have all three cats on his bed at night. Yeah, you can say it....oh gross!!

Goodnight, cat guy!

Take good care of Kitty.

Seeing Orange

2011-11-14T21:38:00.001-05:00

That's a lot of orange, isn't it?

Orange is not my favorite color except when worn over camo, then I love it.

At least I love what it's supposed to do.

Can you guess what this guy did last weekend?

Yes, that's a real gun.

The men went hunting to provide for our family.

They failed.

Good thing Kroger is nearby.

This was Grant's first hunting trip ever.

He seemed to enjoy it. He lasted maybe forty-five minutes before giving up and coming to the house.

He told me he liked it, but it was cold and Dad made him be quiet.

The nerve of him, huh??

I am sure this was the first of many hunting expeditions for this group.

They saw a few and shot at one or two but no luck bringing one down.

Maybe next time.

Stick 'Em Up!!

2011-11-10T21:20:00.001-05:00

Grant being a pest this afternoon while I was trying to get some work done.....

He's a double barreled mess is all I can say sometimes!!

******************************

This would be Emily playing with Kitty several years ago.

Kitty has been in our family longer than any of our kids have been!

Right now she's having some health issues that make us concerned she's not going to be with us many more days or weeks. We spent a good part of the morning at the vet's office trying to get to the bottom of her sudden onset of symptoms.

I should know more tomorrow when they get some lab results back.

With her being thirteen years old now I guess it is to be expected, but the kids are taking it pretty hard already.

Hopefully, the news from the vet tomorrow will leave us smiling.

Well, look at that!

I guess these two did get along once in a while when they were little!

The Zoo Expands Once More

2011-11-09T22:46:00.001-05:00

Now when you walk back onto our farm this is what you see......

all of the horses come running....

well, all except Butterscotch that is. He's still playing hard to get most of the time.

Everyone seems to have adjusted well to their new home. We brought the two horses over Saturday morning early and worked with them most of the day. Late that afternoon we went back for the two ponies and Butterscotch (who really only counts as half a horse in my opinion).

They were all glad to be reunited.

The rest of the four day weekend (kids were out of school Monday and Tuesday) was spent grooming, feeding, petting and loving on horses.

Grace and Grant were always quick to put lead ropes on the two ponies. They would lead them around the paddock like oversized puppies. It was quite comical.

There is never an issue with catching the horses. All we have to do is open the tack room door where we store the horse feed and they are lined up waiting for a handout. David and I agree before long we WILL end up with at least a pony if not a horse INSIDE the tack room with us.

This is Major. He's not a bit shy. He gets pretty pushy when it comes to treats. He LOVES pears. Carrots really aren't his thing.

As you can tell from the picture though, Grace isn't about to be pushed around even by a thousand pounds of horse.

Emily was feeding Snowball. He has really transformed into quite the little buddy with the kids. In the beginning he wasn't really fond of being caught.

We also brought home the four seat wagon that Bluegrass Animal Land used with the ponies. The former owner came over Monday afternoon and helped us hitch Snowball to the wagon and gave us a few pointers on using the wagon. We also got a single seat buggy for the ponies to pull. It need some extensive restoration before it's able to be used though.

In the midst of all the hooves, corn, saddles and loves....Grant could be found playing in the dirt in the barn.

Go figure!

The zoo has gotten quite large over the years so it was with great ease that we all agreed.....

What's a couple more???

A couple more DUCKS, that is.

Meet Donald

and his lovely wife Daisy.

They are our newest residents at the farm.
Both are very tame and easy to pet and catch.
At least they're easy to catch when a four year old isn't hot on their heels screaming and chasing them around the yard.

See?

They'll eat right out of your hand.

Like I said....

what's a few more??

These were the last two ducks left at the petting zoo. Rick basically gave them to us just to get them gone.

Good thing the camel was sold so quickly.

We might have become camel jockeys at this rate!

2011-11-05T15:30:00.000-04:00

We stopped to check on the horses one day when we were at the farm working.

We didn't do much riding, but just had some fun loving on them.

They didn't seem to mind.

Emily giving Pace a good brushing

I think this was the first time any of us ever actually touched Butterscotch.

He's been pretty shy and played hard to get.

I guess he hasn't PLAYED hard to get he really has been 'hard to get'.

Looking at him in these pictures tells you how truly tiny he is.

Don't let his size fool you though.

He is so full of spunk. I probably trust him least of any of them.

Doesn't he just look rotten?

Emily is a little bit sweet on him.

Grant loving on Bella

Bella looking totally unimpressed with the affection.

Fall at the Farm

2011-11-04T16:00:00.001-04:00

Grace modeling her coloring book shirt.

She colored it herself.

ready to go exploring

always able to find the last flowers of summer

working hard

cleaning the yard

the finished product

weiner roast

Horse Progress

2011-11-04T15:23:00.002-04:00

John is getting things ready to go for a rhino/wagon ride.

Let's go look at the horse barn!

Here's the hill where things are going to happen.

Now let's add a barn!

The tack room is ready and the saddles are all hung.

Water and power has been buried.

Hey, Dad.....

Now we need some horses.

That's the plan for this weekend if everything goes well.

We should be bringing them to our farm in the next couple days.

Yeah!!

Smurftastic

2011-11-04T14:30:00.001-04:00

Look what I found.....

Pictures from drive-in movie night this year.

We missed going last year. No one was in elementary school last year, so we didn't have the chance to go. Now with Grace (and soon Grant) in elementary school, we are guaranteed seven more years of drive-in movie night.

In spite of being very cold, I think everyone had a good time. John and Emily went with us so we had the whole family represented. Several of their friends were there with younger siblings as well.

We watched Smurfs and Spy Kids. Both were good movies for family viewing.

All but Grant made it through both movies. He was curled up in the back of the Denali asleep by the beginning of the second movie. He was not a very happy little guy on the trip home after the shows.

I hope the PTA keeps doing this family night activity for many years to come (well, for at least seven). I think it's a great way to spend a Thursday night together as a family.

Grantisms - Part 239 (or something like that)

2011-11-02T20:34:00.002-04:00

Mom - (on first day of preschool) So who do you sit beside in class?

Grant - I sit by the gray shirt boy.

Mom - What is his name?

Grant - I told you. He's gray shirt boy.

Mom - Is his name Bradley? (I'm not psychic. I knew that from orientation.)

Grant - Yeah. That too.

************************

Grant - Hey Mom! Why haven't I ever been to space before?

*************************

Grant - Hey Mom! I know what squirrels like to eat.

Mom - What is that?

Grant - They eat coconuts!

**************************

Grant - Hey Mom! (I told you he says this a lot.)

Mom - What Grant?

Grant - See that car parked beside ours? Our cars are the same long.
(interpretation - our cars are the same size)

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Grant - (telling Grace how old he is while role playing with Grace) I'm seventy-four thousand one hundred and two years old. That's a grandpa age!

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Grant - (informing everyone of what order we're going to be in while playing Candy Land) I'm number one. Mom, you're number two. Emily, you're number three. Grace, you're number last.

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Grant - Hey Mom! Look! I can run backwards. (shuffling his feet in reverse at a snail's pace)

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Grant - Downer! Left! Upper! Downer! Downer! Right there! (giving me directions on where exactly to scratch his back.)

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Grant - Bye Mom! Will you be gone a long minute? (interpretation - a long time)

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Grant - This tastes cookie-ish!

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Hope you're feeling better, Bethany!! We love you.

October 31

2011-11-01T23:43:00.005-04:00

Grace's field trip to Gallrien Farms to pick pumpkins with her class from school.

Halloween

Emily dressed as a Greek goddess and John dressed as ummm....a black crayon??
He never really decided what he was, he didn't really care as long as people gave him candy.

Grace was reallly workin' it as Princess Jasmine.

I found her costume on eBay this year. I may pass it on through eBay when she outgrows it too. Her shoes are old black dress shoes that we painted with gold spray paint.

Once again, John and Emily ventured out with their friends to trick-or-treat without the parents along. Both came home with pillow cases loaded with candy. This year Emily was the winner of the most loot.

Grant was decked out as Batman. He carried a sword and shield with him too.....not sure what that was all about, but he was happy. That's what counts.

About halfway through the trip up and down the hill knocking on doors, he proclaimed he was tired and his bag of candy was too heavy....seems rather out of character for him to not be all about free candy, doesn't it?

Remington wore his own costume.

Actually he just carried Grace's coat in case Jasmine's bare belly got cold.

It didn't.

Happy Halloween to you all!

Picture Taking - FAIL!!

2011-10-31T11:30:00.000-04:00

Hey, Grant! Let me take a picture of your way cool spider hat from preschool!

Umm, why don't you take the ring pop/pacifier thingy out of your mouth for the picture, huh?

Okay, not good. Let's keep trying.

Shut your mouth Grant!

How about a smile???

Indigestion, perhaps?

You look like you ATE a spider instead of wore a spider!

Twenty shots later this is the best we could do.

He has been WIRED on candy all week last week.

My stash of candy for Halloween night is dwindling quickly thanks to my kids.

So Grace, what have you been up to this past week??

Oh yeah! You lost a SECOND TOOTH!

I got to pull this one for her after dinner Friday night.

Here is the tooth all tucked into the tooth fairy bag to place under her pillow.

She left the tooth fairy a note asking her to leave the tooth.

At this rate, I think the tooth fairy needs to go lock in a low interest loan to pay for all these teeth!!

Halloween Preparations

2011-10-30T23:34:00.001-04:00

We were busy here today!

Finished jack-o-lanterns and Halloween costumes tomorrow.

Goodnight!!

Milestones

2011-10-30T23:08:00.000-04:00

October 26, 1991

Happy 20th Anniversary

(late of course)

Who would have guessed twenty years ago?

Thanks for a wonderful twenty years.

Shall we try for twenty more??

Chowder

2011-10-25T22:17:00.000-04:00

What a great looking crew!

The Shupe crew

What a great day!

Thanks for all the work and effort put into making it so nice.

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Grant playing with Dad's old tractor.

Hi Ho Cherry-O game pieces

Dog and Cats and Dogs

2011-10-24T22:18:00.000-04:00

Don't be fooled.

This isn't Meg and Remington playing together.

That isn't me.

This is Remington playing with a littermate, Bailey.

Her owners brought her over to play one morning.

Meg lasted about five minutes then headed for the safety of the deck to keep watch from above.

Remington and Bailey played until they could play no more then simply lay down in the grass and panted at each other.

Family reunion picture.

Doggie kisses......

One other littermate, Ellie, that didn't make the party.

We got to enjoy her company while in West Salem a couple days later.

I found this set up on the living room floor.

These are the bowls I used to feed the puppies last year.

I think someone remembers how we fed puppies last year.

What do you think??

Having the puppies was so much fun!

I'm just glad it's over!

Playtime

2011-10-23T21:37:00.000-04:00

Helping mom in the kitchen

The perks of being the only child home is not having to take turns at ANYTHING!

Grant flying up the sidewalk on his bike.

His mission in life right now is to see how fast he can make this thing fly!

Look, MOM! No FEET!!

Grace and friends from school....

Swingset fun....

Grace - the former gymnast - working on the homemade balance beam in the yard.

Grant and his (newest) "biggest stick in the world"

Little People World

He's really had a lot of fun with this stuff lately.

Happy Birthday to someone.

Not sure who this was supposed to be for.

If messiness is a sign of creativity,

we must be raising some pretty creative kids!

Farm Hay

2011-10-22T22:40:00.000-04:00

Pronoun Post

2011-10-22T21:17:00.002-04:00

THIS is not supposed to be at the farm....

Want to wager how long IT survived in the wild?

SHE was in love with this ride at Devine's Farm and Orchard.

HE thought it was pretty neat too.

THEY wanted to keep riding, but we made them get out after one trip around.

WE had places to go and pumpkins to pick.

THOSE are the chosen gourds.

THAT is a path in a cornfield.

THESE are my kids wandering around (sort of lost) in the cornfield.

AND wandering.....

AND WANDERING!

THIS is the hottest natured kid I have EVER known.

THESE are his slumped shoulders as he shuffles through the corn ready to die from heat exhaustion.

(It was seventy degrees in case you were wondering.)

I am the mom that carried the boy the last several minutes because HE was absolutely one hundred percent positive he would die if he took one more step.

THIS is the crew that (barely) finished the First Timers maze.

You'll be happy to know we finished without needing to call 9-1-1.

THIS is a genuine show of affection between our two oldest kids.

THE END