Tomorrow is Grandma's Marathon, which means that today was the annual Whippersnapper (usually referred to as Snippersnapper around here) race.  Mr. Sneaky Pants has been waiting one full year to participate in this race.  He was hooked after our runner friends, the Penns, visited during the last marathon.  He was…

When the cat's away, the mice do play, and play, and play, and play.  Mr. SP was off with Dr. Peds for the afternoon, and The Banana had a great time trying out the precious plastic knight helmet.  She was pretty proud of herself, marching around with a strut that…

We had a spontaneous picnic supper with friends at the beach tonight, complete with ice cream cupcakes with frosting.  They were drippy and tasty, and Mr. SP and The Banana slurped them right up.   It was a fun night of wave watching, rock climbing, baby cuddling, munching, and super…

One of The Banana's first words was "Ya Ya!"  screamed from her carseat as Sarah ran down the sidewalk to catch a school bus to kindergarten last year.  Even though The Banana can say "Sassa" (what she called herself as a toddler, followed by Mr. SP and the rest of…

We'd been contemplating a visit to a Renaissance Faire this summer for several months now, knowing our young knight would be pretty fascinated.  We had planned on making the trek down to The Cities in September for the gigantic Faire, but a couple of weeks ago Dr. Peds brought home…

I found this tiny, tiny weed blooming in my yard.  I braved the biting mayflies to snap the picture, but they took a chunk out of my forehead.  

They got the brilliant idea to gather up pinecones and plant them underneath the monkey bars.  They found the shovel.  They planted.  They watered. They have tremendous faith.   I had to put a stop to the digging yesterday afternoon, though, when I walked out and noticed that Mr. Sneaky…

The Banana has had another language explosion, and in the last couple of weeks she's really been able to put her thoughts into words and express herself more clearly.  She's a riot.  She has the most interesting commentary on her elder siblings' actions.   She still loves to be doing…

The black mayflies/giant gnats have arrived.  Every year in early spring they come out in droves, and they are the nastiest little biting bugs ever.  I can handle swarms of mosquitos, but these little flies bite so big they actually take a hunk of flesh out with them, so much…

I snapped this picture of a tall dandelion in our front yard just milliseconds before Mr. Sneaky Pants, in full knight regalia, sliced it down with this plastic sword.   The Banana is a big fan of bright yellow dandelions.  She loves picking them.  She loves smelling them, and most…