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Bennett's First Field Trip

Bennett was so excited for his first field trip. It was with his Kinderheights Preschool class to the pumpkin patch. Mick was actually on vacation that week and was able to go too. It was so much fun.

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First we visited the petting zoo. He loved the cow and horse, but the pig scared him a little bit.

Next he conquered the hay pyramid.

Then he was challenged in the hay maze. (He tried peeking his way through)

Finally the search for the BEST pumpkin ever. He was pretty serious about this adventure. Needless to say, we were the last ones back to the tractor.

But he found it and couldn't have been happier.

SKATE PARK

For those of you who don't know, my boys consider themselves "skaters" and beg everyday to go to the skate park. We've been to all three (that we know about), but Davis and Kyle prefer the Richland skate park. I took them there on Monday when they had no school and took pictures. Davis is the only one that actually skateboards. Kyle prefers to ride his scooter.

Jake likes to ride his Heely's and his scooter.

Bennett loves to watch his brothers and try to do their tricks in his flip-flops.

I figure it's all harmless and fun as long as they don't end up like these guys and hang out at skate parks in the middle of the afternoon when they're in their 40's and aren't there with kids?

Or end up with too many of these.OUCH!

CALGON TAKE ME AWAY....

Today has been one of those days. After babysitting, I took Kyle and Davis to the orthodontist and found out they will both need braces. Neither one need them right away, but Kyle does need some work done now. First he'll need a rapid palatal expander placed in his mouth. Which I'll get to turn the key to expand his palate. Then he'll get upper braces (on 4 teeth) and lower braces (on 4 teeth) and be given a reverse pull headgear to wear every night to bed for a year (for his underbite class 3). Here's a picture of Dakota Fanning sporting this headgear Kyle will be wearing.

Not too bad and it's only at night. I was totally picturing the headgear that poor girl had to wear in "16 Candles." Remember her trying to get a drink out of the drinking fountain? Thank goodness Kyle's actually excited about all of this. I'm just seeing dollar signs and stress. Oh, and then he gets to wear a retainer until it's decided when he'll get full braces. Yay! I'm just thankful that we have the best orthodontist helping us!

Anyway, I get home from that, try to explain it all to Mick, then he asks me if I've checked the courthouse message to see if I have to report to jury duty tomorrow, which I hadn't. Guess what?! I have to report to jury duty tomorrow morning. So, I have to frantically call around to find somewhere for Bennett to go. And thankfully Brenda saved me and he'll have a play date with Landon. Thanks Brenda.

Oh, and while I'm checking to see if I have to report tomorrow, I have a "beep" through from my brother-in-law's attorney wanting to talk with me and Mick tomorrow. All the while kids are going crazy, tv's loud, computer's loud, etc. Aaaaaaah. I'm so hoping tomorrow's a lot less eventful.

McDonald's Grand Opening Pictures...

We had a great time at the McDonald's Grand Opening in West Richland on Saturday. We went with Mick's family, the McDonalds, and enjoyed the show and the $1.99 Happy Meals (which goes through the 24th).

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Has anyone else wondered about the gender of Grimace?? Well, I asked yesterday when I met HIM for the first time. He's male...another mystery solved. Then I asked him if he minded getting his picture taken with my boys. He gladly agreed.

(Davis, Kyle, Jake, and Bennett with Grimace)

Grimace couldn't help himself from flirting with Mick... Mick was totally unaware of Grimace's gender too, that's why he hugged back. After the show, Grimace came "out" and introduced himself to Mick. He came up to him and asked, "Did someone pat you on the head and hug you?" And Mick said, "Yes, Grimace did." And the guy said, "That was ME." Mick was totally embarassed.
Jake got chosen out of a bunch of kids to help participate in a magic trick (see video in post below). Everyone was laughing and having a great time. Especially Jake and Ronald. Ronald's quite the tease.
Ronald's giving Jake some special instructions below.
Ronald told Davis that HE's the oldest McDonald brother. The kids thought it was great that we have the same last name. (Ronald, Davis, Bennett, Jake, and Kyle)

The boy's twin cousins Dayne and Madisyn were also chosen to particapate in different acts with Ronald, that's why Dayne's wearing his Ronald mask in the cousins picture below. (Dakota, Ronald, Madisyn, Davis, Dayne, Tylan, Bennett, Jake, and Kyle)

If anyone goes to the W. Richland McDonald's after Tuesday, make sure you check out the bulletin board. They took lots of pictures of my boys, their cousins, and even us adults - especially when they found out we were McDonalds. We plan on checking it out and enjoying the $1.99 Happy Meals again!!

McDonald's Grand Opening

We went to the Grand Opening of the new McDonald's in West Richland yesterday with Mick's family and Jake was chosen to be Ronald's assistant. I recorded most of their act - I ran out of memory on my card (dangit). Enjoy the video.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lessons in Mother Nature

For Kyle's 9th birthday, he wanted everything to do with bugs. So, he got a bug vacuum, bug habitat, and a bug net gun. He was so anxious to put a "pet" in his habitat and quickly found a neighborhood slug and named her Shelly.I'm not sure what happened to Shelly - but she disappeared one day.

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I was telling my VTs about it and one of them told me she finds Praying Mantises (not sure what the plural is) all the time in her bean plants.

So she graciously caught one for Kyle and we went over to pick it up. Kyle named "her" Treeko. Well, almost a week later she died. So, I contacted this VT again and asked her to keep an eye out for another one. A few days later she found another one and Kyle named "her" Treeko too.

A couple of days later Bennett found a brown Praying Mantis at our house and Kyle caught "him" and put him in with Treeko. Kyle was so excited and ran in to tell me all about it. I reminded him what happens when Praying Mantises mate (which he thinks means dancing and playing together or getting married), but he wasn't worried about it.

About five minutes later he came running to me and said, "MOM! Treeko's giving the brown one (I forget his name) a piggy back ride!" He was so happy they were friends already. Well, that night the brown one had Treeko in a "headlock" and needless to say, killed Treeko and ate HIM. Kyle was devastated and couldn't sleep that night. I told him he knew that could happen, which he said he knew - but he thought Treeko was the girl and he wanted to see Treeko kill and eat the brown one. Silly me...
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So, if anyone finds a GREEN Praying Mantis, please let me know...Kyle's hoping for Treeko the third.

QUICK UPDATE

Some very thoughtful friends and family have shown concern because I have not posted or commented on blogs in 5 or so weeks. I just wanted to let everyone know, I am fine - but my computer isn't. I finally took it in and it's the motherboard. It's hopefully getting fixed and will be hooked up again soon. Dang lightening storm!

Momma's Boy

What can I say, my youngest is a big momma's boy. Which I love and enjoy, but today on his first day of preschool I was hoping he'd be ready for a little separation. When I woke him up this morning, the first thing he said was, "I don't want to go to preschool." And he continued saying that all the way to Miss Kim's.

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Here's pictures of him crying on the kitchen floor before we left...so sad.

But as we pull into preschool, Bennett hops right out of the van and I'm thinking "YES! He's going to do it and have no problems." And he's still fine while I'm filling out the paperwork (standing right next to me though) so I'm still pretty hopeful. And Maddie was standing right next to him, staring and wanting to play and I know he thought about leaving my side, but was still a little unsure. Then I tell him goodbye and he says, "I'm scared" and starts crying. Miss Kim came over, took his hand and comforted him as I left.

When I picked him up after preschool he was so excited to show me the cool dinosaur book he checked out from the library and Miss Kim and Miss Diane said he only cried for probably 2 seconds after I left, which is was hoping for (thanks guys). I asked him what his favorite thing about preschool was and he said, "EATING!" Typical boy answer.

Bennett and Maddie hugged goodbye and I'm hoping next Tuesday will go even smoother!

Aren't they cute?

The Rubbles Trying to Keep up with the Jetsons

Betty (me) and Barney (Mick) have been just waiting for their 15 year old (27") t.v. with rabbit ear reception to die already so they could catch up to the 21st century. But it looked as if this was never going to happen. So, when the government sent out those wonderful stimulus checks, Betty and Barney decided it was time to keep up with the Jetsons and get a new t.v. with channels (lots of channels) . Betty insisted that they not be too practical this time with their money (like they always are) and enjoy it like they're supposed to.
And this is what they got and they LOVE it. They actually can tell who and what's on their screen now (they can even see moles, freckles, tears, etc.). They can even tell the score of a game. No more blurry or triple vision on this screen.

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Their friend Wilma (Kim) was over awhile ago and told Betty that she couldn't figure out what Barney was watching on their old t.v. because the reception was THAT bad.

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Their son Bam Bam (Davis) tells everyone he knows that his family has a big screen t.v. with a satellite. And most everyone he tells just says, "so" because most people are WAY ahead of the Rubbles. But they'll getting there...someday.