The Boat.

A little over a week ago Ryan called in the middle of the day pretty excited about something. His boat. He's dreamed of owning a boat for at least as long as I've known him. We all have our dreams - it's nice when they become reality. Ryan's boat is a little special. Special like the short bus kind of special? At first I thought so, with the rusty trailer and mildew and wet dog/pee smells - but then special as in...that super warm smiley feeling you get from someone off the short bus you actually get to know. When he drove it in, I took pictures of all the things I liked about it. I wasn't excited about the boat, or the huge motor that came with it. But I really did like the vintage boat lights, and the the vintage hanging cup holders (remind me to get a set of vintage tupperware tumblers to go with them), and I really liked the turquoise color. But, after vacuuming and washing and scrubbing and polishing and waxing the smelly, dirty, old boat - she has become more of a vintage beauty. After replacing the battery, she started up easily, and we took our first ride on the lake. I'm glad Ryan got his boat, but I'm even happier that she's my kind of pretty.

Ice Cream Day!

I've been totally inspired by a college friend who creates these amazing theme days for her kids. I had been doing some small preschool type stuff with the girls on and off and decided to make it a little bit more exciting by doing my own theme days. They don't seem to be quite as elaborate as my friend's, but it works, and the kids love it. I try and plan one every other week. Each week is something, either a theme day or an adventure. But I'd been struggling on my theme day for a week and kept postponing it, till my good friend suggested ice cream day, and started pouring out ideas, so I went with it! I built them an ice cream parlor (cardboard boxes are great for EVERYTHING!), and we did a banana split craft where they got to paint with chocolate and strawberry syrup and cool whip! Then we made baggie ice cream, which turned out more like baggie milkshakes, and the kids loved it anyway. There was a felt board rhyme that I made little felt ice cream cones to go with and a science experiment was planned, but it wasn't hot outside, so melting ice cream on different surfaces wasn't executed. If all I had done was the ice cream parlor, they would have been just as happy - it lasted the whole week long!

Death Toll 490

That's just a rough number, and will continue to grow as we commit slug genocide at the Smith Home. That's right. If you're a slug, you're not welcome here, and we WILL remove you by force. Or rather by death. So keep that slimy foot on someone else's plants.

Last night we conducted our 3rd slug hunt which resulted in 300 deaths. We celebrated by burning them. It was disgusting. We'll be drowning them next time .