Frozen Margaritas and Stitches

Some things can only happen at my zoo and to me. It must be a space-time continuum kind of thing. And once again, space and time lined up perfectly at my zoo this evening.

I spent all day getting the house ready to have a party this evening. Mowed the yard, cleaned, etc. Everything ready. I even made the food last night so that I didn't have to worry about it for today. Heathen #3 helped with the food prep.

Ten minutes into my party starting, Heathen #2 starts screaming in the yard and I could hear him heading for the front door. With him, he could be missing a limb or the wind could simply be blowing the wrong way. Definitely my drama queen. I didn't get very excited since I could hear him getting closer. Movement means it isn't a broken leg.

When he greeted me at the front door, it was with blood running down his leg and PUDDLING on my porch floor. He had fallen off the swing set and onto his bicycle. Puncture wound.

I wrapped him up in a tea towel and sat him on the swing. Upon inspection, it needed to be stitched. Not a problem, except for that I'm hosting a party and my house is full of people!

My mother-in-law agrees to stay at the house and play hostess for me while I take him down to get stitches. As I'm gathering up shoes to head for the ER, it dawns on me that I've had a few drinks out of my frozen margarita. Hurray! I get to take my child to the ER for stitches while I have alcohol on my breath! Could this get any better?

I informed Heathen #3 that he would be staying at the house and I asked him if he could be in charge of the party for me. He had been wanting to feed everyone strawberry shortcake all day since he had helped me get it ready. He was all over that!

I got Heathen #2 stitched and out of the ER without any comments on my alcohol breath and we headed for home. Heathen #3 was passed out on the couch and everyone had already left (of course!).

My mother-in-law and I were chatting before she left for home and she commented about she had never had strawberry shortcake with beer bread before. Heathen #3 had insisted that they were to put the strawberries on the beer bread - he never showed them the pound cake in the fridge!!!! And he told them he wasn't allowed to have any of it because it had beer in it.

I'm not sure if the best part or the worst part is that all the women ate strawberries and whip cream on beer bread at the direction of a 4-year-old.

Seriously. Only at my zoo!

No Gutter Balls Allowed

On Tuesday, the Heathens and I went bowling. We had a few "free game" passes laying around on my desk that we just never seemed to get around to using. So we went over to the alley for a few games. The boys had a good time - both bowling and fighting with each other. It's harder to photograph bowling than you would think. These were the best shots I got of each of the boys.

I still love the fashion statement that bowling shoes make!

Nana & Pap's Pizza Party

Yesterday, (Sunday, 8/16) Nana and Pap threw a pizza party for their great-grandchildren! We rounded up all eight of them at my younger BIL's house and turned them loose in the yard.

This is a photo of Nana and Pap, with my older BIL's wife Jen sitting in the middle.

After stuffing themselves full of pizza, they rode Pappy's tractor around the yard, and took turns driving Grandma's scooter through the grass.

Being the youngest, Baby Whatt headed inside for a nap.

Everyone else headed for Grandma and Pappy's pool to beat the August heat. Here's the rest of the crew that were swimming with my boys yesterday:

Aunt Kimmie and Ili Grace:

Noah Logan:

Skinny Minnie (or Rorrie):

Gertrude (or Gretchen):

Grandma w/ Ili Grace and Gertrude:

The kids all had an absolutely great day playing and swimming together. It was fantastic weather. And Nana and Pap were fun to watch while they were watching their great-grandchildren play. Definitely a day to remember.

RoboWorld!

This past Saturday, our Zoo, along with family friends, visited the new exhibit RoboWorld at the Carnegie Science Center. The Heathens LOVE to go to this place because you can touch everything (without getting in trouble!).

The exhibit was AWESOME. I wish I could have gone without the Heathens so that I could have looked at more and watched more than I was able to while following around the youngest Heathen.

This clip is of Heathen #3 and the Asst. Zookeeper attempting to build an earthquake proof building.

This clip is of Heathen #2 and the "colored spinners" that he was fascinated by.

And this clip is of Heathen #1 playing air hockey against a robot! He actually did manage to score twice.