End football, begin basketball

That's a sad Avery after his team's last game for the season on November 4th.

We had a nice three week break before basketball started this Saturday. Yikes!

Get the vote out!

On the way home from picking up our last Blooming Glen Farm crop share this after noon (I know, I'm barely holding it together), Avery and I voted.

It was one of those "got to love a small town moments": we ran into an old neighbor in the parking lotn and a new one inside the polling place, a little Mennonite Church right in town where retired seniors looked up my name and showed me to the booth. Adorable, right? Mr. Avery took some photos (well, I took the first one.) (And, in case you don't notice, his new thing is not smiling for photos.) (Lovely, having a tween child, isn't it?):

Happy birthday, Kelly An!

Woot!

Halloween is almost here

Signs of Halloween at our house:

Happy fall!

Identify this bug!

What in the world is this bug, internet?


Seen at Nockamixon State Park on Labor Day.

Birthday Gorilla

Yay for awesome coworkers, mom and Jason, who arranged for a dancing, cupcake-bearing gorilla to embarrass the hell out of me, cause me to laugh 'till I cried and nearly pee my pants!

Happy birthday to me :D

Avery Cain's fist day of school!

Rodney (Avery's rock star dad) came over to give the monster some first day of school hugs and "good lucks."


Jason, Rodney and I loaded him up with his backpack and lunchbox, and sent him out the door.


His name on his desk - in cursive!


His new classroom is so cool! Big windows, bright blue floor and two awesome teachers. Avery and Grandpa Dan went shopping earlier last week for school supplies; here's his unloaded backpack.


I can't believe it... fourth grade. He's such a little man, so tall and so silly and so caring. Being a mom makes me cry sometimes...

First football game

Thoughts about Avery's first game:

• Bobbleheads
• We have the loudest coach EVER
• Ernesto made the field nice and muddy
• Bright, bright sun
• Beautiful, beautiful son

Have an awesome season, Braves!

Bums!

Cinder! Boyfriend! Tubby! Bluex!

They're all bums!

Bums!

Ok, so football practice isn't that bad...

It does force us all outside every evening to enjoy to sunset :)

Skunked!

We live in one of the middle homes of a six rowhome set. We're right in town and our homes are old (1928), simple and have small, fenced-in yards. The two houses to our left recently began boarding a family of skunks beneath their back porches. The neighbors have consulted with a Skunk Man, set out humane traps and sprayed vinegar in an attempt to evict them. We didn't have any worries because our porches don't connect, our own porch is not closed in underneath and therefore offers no protection and we figured that with the dog, they'd probably stay out of the yard.

In fact, we even went so far as to feel sorry for the skunks. Obviously they don't want to live this close to us, but with all the housing and strip mall development taking up their habitat, they've been forced to. I'm thinking that the skunks are out skunking around doing their skunky business and muttering under their breaths about all these people gettin' up in their shit.

Well tonight, I think they had enough of us. Or, of Cinder anyway. Poor super pooch:

That's her eating a treat shortly after her fourth bath and baking soda/hydrogen peroxide rinse. She took a hit right in her fuzzy little face.

Oh, and did I mention that right after she was sprayed, she came running top speed through the house, shaking her head? Please add "scrubbing the entire footprint of the house" to Jason's list of Things I'd Prefer Not To Do At 10 O'clock On A Thursday Night When There's A Baseball Game That I Have Money On Happening Right Now.

Suburban sprawl, kids. It's a terrible thing.

NHL pre season

Oh, we didn't tell you? Yeah, Tubby's playing for the Flyers this season.

Pretty awesome, I know :)


We're all pretty excited about him making the team - and his obvious hatred for the Rangers. A Philly boy to the core :)

PS: Tubby is quite photogenic, as you can see here and here.

Avery Cain is a Vegetarian!

I was tucking in my monster and he told me that he decided to become a vegetarian... Details to follow!

Ready! Set! Hike!

Mr. Avery Cain began football on August first. He's never played before.

His team is the Souderton Braves. And practice is FOUR NIGHTS A WEEK. Until school starts. Then, it's only two nights a week, with games on the weekends.


Dear football players,

Please don't squish my son. Thank you.

Warmest regards,
Mikaela

Super Pooch Update, 2

Harvey's photo is up on the Super Pooch Update post. Harvey sent this card to his momma in the mail - how sweet!

Now, what to do with those toe-may-ters?

At Blooming Glen last week, cherry tomatoes were pick-your-own. Avery has very little love for tomatoes; he likes sauces, salsas and pico de gallo, but won't touch them plain. Given that, he was wondering what we would do with all of them:

Of course, because they are cherry tomatoes, pico de gallo and sauce just seemed a bit labor intensive. (Not so for the larger ones!) While Jase and I used them in salads and as snacks, Avery was left to his own devices. Thankfully, he came up with something:


An untraditional use of cherry tomatoes, yes. But acceptable :) Or should that be, 8-)

Our kitties are Interior Decorators

Tonight, while I tried my hand at jarring tomatoes, Avery played catch in his newly acquired football gear, and Jason listed some comic books.

And the kitties created a new centerpiece for the dining table:

Thanks, kitties. It looks great!

Super Pooch Update

We got some update photographs of the super pooches:

Harvey...

















Gretchen...
















Tucker and Cinder...












Uuum, yeah. I think we can safely assume that these puppies daddy is a small horse.

We love you, super pooches! Thank you for all the joy, slober, and cuddles you've given us. We miss and love you!

:-D

Avery "The Helmet" Cain

I just received this photograph from my sexy, sweet and sassy girl, Jen.


It was taken at a gallery opening at the end of June, and features Avery "The Helmet" Cain and El Amerikano. Rawr!

[Photo credit: Jeff Law via Flickr]

One year ago...

We were blessed to witness Miss Cinder Bear give birth to six beautifully perfect puppies. Happy birthday, little super pooches!