my children, the hole diggers

so last night at about 6PM, I walked outside to tell the neighbor boy that it was time to go home and that it was time for dinner for J & E. I see one of our neighbors (she lives on the next street, but her backyard and our backyard touch at one corner) standing at my fence, waving at me to come over. I tell J and E to go inside with L and I walk over to her. apparently, she has a big hole in her yard and she saw J, E, and neighbor boy with shovels. I apologize profusely, she is very nice about it and I say that I will make it clear that they are NOT to dig in other people's yards, etc. so I spoke with all 3 of them(neighbor boy was still inside the house when I came back), they all said they were sorry and would not do it anymore. this morning, neighbor husband comes over. he asks me if I have seen the hole. no, I just talked to his wife about the hole, I did not actually see it. I walk out back and walk over to his side yard and there is this hole that is about 1 foot in diameter and at least 4 feet deep I kid you not, E could probably stand in the hole and her head might be even with the ground. I apologize even moreso. I am so embarrassed. I ask him if he will leave it alone and not fill it in yet, so that the kids can do this for him when they get home from school. he says that is not necessary, but if that is what I want than he will not do it. E got home from school, I talked with her. J gets home, I talked with him. I got the wheelbarrel and J held 2 shovels and off we went. E was pushing L in the swing in the backyard, that was her responsibility...to keep Luke happy while we filled in the hole. 2 wheelbarrels full of dirt and the hole is no longer there. then, I watched as J & E scooped up the dog poop in the backyard together. then, E Windexed the sliding glass doors and J put away his laundry. we are walking over after dinner so that they can apologize in person. I have no freaking idea how 3 kids dug such a deep hole. and not one of them was dirty.
J did say when we were filling it in that they were on the lookout for bones...as in dinosaur bones.
so at least it started as an educational destruction of property?
there's always a bright side.

it had to happen, right?

I thought I had gotten off without going through the Barney phase. nope, the baby has discovered the big purple dinosaur. and he loves him. a lot.

I actually just dvr'ed some Barney episodes to have on hand. you know, just in case we have a Barney emergency.

he just finished watching an episode and actually clapped. oh, this doesn't look like it's going to be a quick phase.

if my posts start sounding a little too sing songy and happy happy, this is why. I'm surrounded by Max and Ruby and Dora, that chick that sings the ABC ChooChoo Train song, and Noddy.

next home project? watch out Bob Vila!!!

well, the dollhouse is still sitting in the exact same spot it was from my last post. this does not mean, however, that we have not been working on something. I decided Martin Luther King weekend was the perfect time to...tile the kitchen.
all of the tile is now on the floor. half of the kitchen is grouted. walls have been painted. a new stove is arriving tomorrow. I'm hoping by the end of the week I will have a fully functional kitchen again.
on a side note...the knee pads would have helped, a lot. my knees hurt. my back hurts. my rear end hurts. my hands are all dry and I had mortar in my hair.
the man and I only yelled once at one another. there were many entertaining moments, though. I really think we should have filmed it and sent it in to Bob Vila or Ty Pennington or something. there used to be a show on called Hometime. not sure if it is still around or not, but we loved that show. it was a man and a woman who did home projects and they used to fight like cats and dogs about every 3 episodes or so.
hmm, I guess I'd better go grout some more.

the dollhouse from Santa...again

well, this picture is so deceiving. to look at this dollhouse, you would assume, "hey, it's almost done. it looks great!". yes, the door won't stay closed. we're going with the assumption that the family that lives here is very friendly and welcomes guests at all times. but, there are like a hundred pieces of wood still to be used and a bunch of steps left in the instruction book, so maybe the door can be closed at some point.

we've been working on this since the day after Christmas. it's now January 15. what's left to assemble? the porch roof, the ladder, the upstairs railing(can't have any dollhouse family dolls falling overboard) and the furniture.

the instruction booklet did not say you needed to have a general contractor in the family in order to assemble this thing. damn liars.

to be continued.....

I love Saturdays

I get to sleep in...until 8AM. but hey, that is sleeping in to me! I pretended to be in a dead sleep while I listened to the baby babble happily from the monitor, until the man got up and took care of breakfast for them both.
yes, he works all week. but, he can do kid duty once a week. that's not a lot to ask, is it? Saturdays I get to get up, have coffee, take a shower by myself...possibly shave my legs without anyone asking me why my legs are prickly and why do I have hair on my peepee.
this makes me happy.