Happy Thursday!

Sophia first thing in the morning with her playful smirk on her face. She was saying that she was going to steal Josh's presents which were on my bed at the time. She can be so silly. And, she never stops talking. This afternoon Zack said, "Mom, I tell Sohpia stop talking, and she not listen." I told him she could talk, and he said, "But, my ears hurt"!!! So, I told Sophia to go and talk to Auntie Stepha! Notice below Josh's bday corner. I always try to put the kids gifts out a week or two early so they can revel in their birthday even before it arrives. When Josh got home from school, he was all smiles!

Below you see some of our after school frolic. Sophia is tickling Zack to the point that I had to break them up. Then Sophia jumped up and started doing the booty dance with Josh! Great fun!

Then came the favorite part of the day - the park. Both Josh and Zack are pros at riding their bikes without training wheels. Today Zack rode his smaller bike. I was glad because on the bigger when he falls there is great risk of a super ouchy you know where. Josh is so proud of himself that he can hardly stand it! He rides his bike for 2 hours straight. If you know Josh, that is HUGE! The kids are getting so much exercise here in Texas as am I. I typically ride my bike along with them. Sorry no pics.

Sophia can get going so fast on her bike now. She needs no help at all! The second picture is of the ouchy Zack got at school. Ms Brown said he was limping most of the day. He is so drama sometimes! He and Josh share this trait. When they get a little boo boo, they act as though they have a limb hanging by a thread. Sophia is the opposite. She gets a bump or bruise and keeps on trucking. She says quickly, "I not hurt."

I LOVE the Texas sky. It is different each night, but there is typically an orange hue. I love watching the sun go down. In the second pic, you can see how we depart from the park each evening. We have a crossing guard in the family.

Please note below Mike's shirt hanging from the light at the highest point of the house. He was tossing it down to Steph, and voila, it stuck! The next pic is from Mike to Rona and yes, he made the shot. He really did say the pic was for her. Go figure! And, please note the Texas Tech t-shirt. We all miss my friends!!!!

And, last but not least I must post about Stephanie's crazy happenings today. First, she took a big swig of Zack's banana shake and chewed up what she thought was an oreo only to find that she had sucked a fly through the straw and chewed it!!! When Mike asked her how she knew, she said, it didn't crunch like an oreo so she picked it out of her tooth and surprise, it was the remains of a fly! Yuck, but we had to chuckle!

Next crazy thing for Steph happened after the park. I stayed in the garage to give it a long overdue cleaning. I found some laundry detergent and swung open the laundry room door which is actually the entry to the house from the garage. With the garage open, you are looking directly at the door or if the door is open, you are looking at the laundry room. When I swung the door open, I heard a startling scream. There she stood derobing tossing her clothes into the washer. Let's just say that if anyone was jogging, they got an eye full tonight! She's gonna kill me for posting this, but hey, you read because you like to hear about the day to day lives of this crazy household, right?

One last thing, Zack came home yesterday and said a girl hit him. When I asked what he did, he said he hit her back. Then I asked what she did and he said she hit him hard in the face. He said he ran into the "bafroom" and cried. He said I cry for you. I said you cried for your mama. He said, "Yes, but you didn't come." This morning he said, "I don't want to go to Ms Brown class anymore." I said, yes, you need to go to learn. That was the end of that conversation. Fortunately, no one hit him today, and he came home a happy camper. Oh, and I explained to him about NEVER hitting girls and how he should tell the teacher if someone hits him. One thing I learned during my teaching years is that some parenting styles encourage kids to become victims. I don't plan to follow the lead of those parenting styles. This is my first test. I sent him back to school without batting an eyelash and refrained from calling the teacher. Zack seems to be working through it and learning in the process.

Okay, I must get some shut eye. Much love to all.