First of all, sadly, there are very few pictures of Mr. Sneaky Pants celebrating his fifth birthday.  This is mainly because the birthday happened on a Tuesday, and Tuesdays are very, very crazy days around here.   Most of the celebrating happened before sunrise  and right before bed when it…

1.  Reader Friends, I finally got my sidebar list of book links updated.  I have been terrible at this lately! Most things on the list are children's chapter and picture books, since that's what we have spent most of our time reading lately.   2.  Mr. Sneaky Pants spent most…

Oh Clementines, Oh Clementines, how I cannot keep you stocked.  I think you grace my fridge with large populations, and then you disappear.  

Ya Ya's teacher mentioned what a meticulous, hard worker Ya Ya is when I met with her at conferences on Monday.  It's true.  She definitely works at a painstaking pace, making sure everything is just so.  This is very different from how I worked in first and second grade.  I…

While I was teaching piano lessons to some homeschooled students this afternoon, he listened to The Mouse and the Motorcycle audiobook and fell asleep.  I came into the room after waving goodbye to my neat students, and found these two all curled up on the futon.  Brutus the Cat loves everyone (even…

This large furry bunny, which actually belongs to Ya Ya, has been going back and forth to preschool each day we need to take Mr. Sneaky Pants and pick him back up.  The bunny rides in the seat Ya Ya usually sits, and has to be carefully buckled in.  Please…

This is our carrot crop this year.  The whole crop.  Every last carrot.   Let me just say, that I am very, very thankful that my family doesn't actually depend on me for food.  I'm thankful I have a supermarket within walking distance.  I'm thankful I have enough money to…

Apparently not a lot of people play on the sandy beach in November.  For our family, though, 50 degrees definitely constitutes beach weather!  After school on Monday the kidlets and I zipped down to the sandy beach, only to find it completely deserted!  Not a soul in sight!  I wasn't…

 We were hiking through the forest when we came to a half eaten bird carcass.  It wasn't particularly alarming because Brutus the cat brings us a lot of special dead animal love gifts and deposits them right out the back door where we are sure to see them.  After looking…

The weather has been amazing.  AMAZING.  50 degrees for 5 days!  We have been making the best of it every chance we get.  Monday is my less-scheduled-day-to-relax, so in the morning The Banana, Mr. SP and I went hiking to Rock Knob at Hartley park.  To make it more of…