today was a sad day

The kids had to let their new pet go. Laserbeam the Snail, formerly known as Pete the Snail, wasn't looking too good in his frisbee home so we had to let him loose.

I'm actually pretty surprised he lasted this long. Simon has carried him around non-stop, picking him up and putting him in the middle of the frisbee whenever Pete/Laserbeam got close to the edge (about every 5 minutes at first) and fell asleep one night with the frisbee tucked under the edge of his pillow with Pete/Laserbeam as close as he could get to Simon's head. Everett was really good at collecting all different kinds of food for him to eat and says he's really sad now that we don't have a snail anymore. Simon let him go near an irrigation ditch so he'd have plenty of water (Everett was busy playing Lego Starwars - shocking, huh?).

whew!

I'm so glad to be done with the bar! Now we've just got about a million other things to do - we can't wait to see those of you who are coming to visit in the meantime!

the power of ice cream

Simon: Can I have ice cream?
me: no
Simon: but my shots are hurting and ice cream heals them.

you know what happens when you don't have kids?

You never walk into the bathroom and find toy soup in the sink.

a backlog of kid quotes

Roman (neighbor kid): Can you give me a moment please?
Simon: They don't give moments on this game.

me: Be nice to your brother.
Everett: Even when he has the evil bionicle mask on?

Uncle Steven: Why are you so cute?
Simon: I'm five!

Simon: Clouds are water, but they look like milk. The sky looks blue like water, but the clouds are really the water.

four generations

My grandpa sent me this picture. It's always been one of my favorites. In case it's not blatantly obvious, it's of me, my mom, my grandma, and my great grandma.

I swim like a human too

Uncle Jon: I hear you're taking swimming lessons. Do you swim like a fish now?
Simon: Nooo.
Uncle Jon: You don't? Then what do you swim like?
Simon: Like a human.