Happy Birthday Luke!

We started the day by trying to squeeze in breakfast at the donut shop before school...Luke was late to school.  We brought Chick Fil A for lunch and ate on the playground with the birthday boy.  Richard is taking the afternoon snack to school at 3:30 and this evening we will have a slice of cake (I bought 2 slices at the grocery store this morning) and sing.  Despite all of this, Luke is a bit disappointed that no one is coming over.  He seems to have forgotten about the big blowout at the Children's Museum last weekend!


Nemo died this morning, so now all we have is Nemo 2, but I'm sure we will buy a replacement for Nemo.


That's all for now - I have to catch up on some work!

Nemo, Nemo B and Pirates

The cruelty of the church Halloween Carnival is that one of the "surprise" prizes for the fish bowl booth was...yes, you guessed it...goldfish.  We all went to the carnival and had lunch, but then Ruth and I had to come home so Ruth could nap.  When the boys came home, they had 2 goldfish with them.  Great.  Actually, not great.  We promptly had to go out and purchase a habitat for Nemo and Nemo B).  We got the tank set up and, miraculously, the fish lived...until this morning...once we returned from taking Paul to school, I found Nemo B on the bottom of the tank.  Such is the life cycle of a goldfish.  I can't begin to take the time to figure out the fish habitat...there seem to be too many variables.  I'm sure the boys will want to replace Nemo B, but I'm not so sure that Nemo is not about to succumb as well.  I'm sure Daddy, who is ever-optimistic, will plow through with no worries and we will do the best we can with these pets.


Our family celebrated the first non-family-only birthday party this on November 6th.  Luke wanted to have a Chuck E. Cheese party, but came around to seeing the fun to be had at a pirate-themed party at the Children's Museum.  He invited friends from his last-year school and his classmates from his this-year school.  All told, there were 24 children.  They spent an hour playing in the museum before coming upstairs to a pirate-decorated (part of what the Children's Museum provides) room to have cake and ice cream and to make a treasure map.  We supplied pirate-themed chocolate lollipops and patches (as well as cake, ice cream and drinks).  We had a great time and it appeared that all of the children had fun.  Luke came home with lots of gifts and we are letting him open (they are all unwrapped) one a day.  He writes the Thank You note for the previous day's gift before he opens the gift of the day.  He seems to enjoy this slow approach.  Of course, his birthday is still a few days away, but I believe he realizes he's gotten all that he's going to get!


Last night, Luke's Tiger Cub Den toured a fire station.  I don't believe I have ever toured a fire station and I enjoyed it quite a bit!  


Ruth took a tumble last week and we think she tore the little thing that connects the top lip to the top gum.  It bled like crazy and he poor upper lip swelled up so that she looked like Maggie Simpson.  It stayed swollen for a couple of days and she had some bruising up the side of her nose and into the corner of her eye.  None of her teeth are loose and she is almost all healed now.  


I think we are mostly recovered from the time change.  Sunday, the morning of Luke's birthday party and the first encounter with "falling back" - Ruth woke up at 5:00 am.  This made Sunday one LONG day!