I don't know why Chuckles wants to shoot me or is he the armed protection.
Believe me this picture explains so much - This is Chuckles in the dark.
Mr Bones
Her Highness
Unbeknownto me, my youngest, Chuckles, was drawing a secret facility outside last night on my driveway. Not a hideout or simply a chalk town but a SECRET FACILITY. Chuckles cracks me up. Chuckles and his friend, Nick, were very busy. Evidently, this secret facility was to house their money they were robbing from banks. I am also raising a criminal. As summer starts off, I think Mommy needs a secret facility complete with crafting supplies, chick flicks, and Cherry Coke. A girl has to dream, right.
On one of our walks, Pappy found a 4 leaf clover. He also found a 5 leaf clover. How is your luck today? We dropped Pappy off at the "Butter House". Chuckles started calling it that and it stuck. It is a yellow house. Pappy was so excited. Deep down I think he was ready to be away from all the CHAOS of the two man wrecking crew. We helped him unpack some of his stuff.
Reason 97: I don't love blue tape enough. I definitely didn't use enough blue tape to indicate that I wanted items to stay. Though Chuckles asked the Giant Man child, who had written a note on blue tape and stuck it to himself, if he was marking himself so the movers wouldn't take him.
The last full day in California we had our teeth cleaned by our outstanding Hygienist, Nonna, and we took the kids (this includes the Giant Man Child too) to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Just look at the picture above and ask yourself who is the biggest kid. LOL The kids really enjoyed the log ride and still talking about it. It really surprised me how much they enjoyed the ride. The Giant Man Child also took them on the giant roller coaster "The Big Dipper" They didn't like that too much.
I was saddened to hear that the Schooner the "Adventuress" ran a ground. A few details here and here on the mishap. I sailed and was part of the crew of her for a week in 1986. Our Girl Scout Troop got to sail her in the San Juan Islands and into the port of Victoria. It was one of the highlights of being in Girl Scouts for me. The above picture is me at the helm. Talk about a flashback. Stop laughing Mrs Respiratory Therapist, Mrs Epi, and Mars and I don't even want to hear it from you dear sister. I put these pictures in purely for your reading and laughing enjoyment.
We are hitting the road tomorrow to deliver this porcelain beauty. Pappy needs a new throne at his house and since we replaced ours with a super flusher. We thought we would give him this one. I hope to update from the road. We will see how that goes. Without a doubt, I will be back to blogging the week of the 23rd.
Sorry for the blurry picture but I just couldn't get a decent pic of this Shiny Chaperone Label. The fine print says, "I'm responsible for my children." That made me laugh. I made it back alive. It wasn't too rainy or too loud. We didn't lose any children and we got to see quite a few animals. The baby gorilla was definitely a showstopper. However, I really didn't have a decent photo of that. We also got to see them feed one of the spiders a cricket. The giraffes were out and one of them was trying to eat the leaves off the tree outside the exhibit. 
We got to go to the beach yesterday. One of the children was crying because they had sand in their tush. Meditate on that! LOL We were very lucky to be taken to a private beach by our dear friend, Mrs Epi. Thank you. The tide was incredibly low (-1 foot). It has been lower than that -3 feet this past week. It was amazing how far you could walk out. There were so many starfish.
Some of the starfish were just mounded up on each other. I don't know why one is red and all the rest are purple though this seems to be pretty common. There will be one red one among all the purple.
It is another single mom weekend for me so my friend who also is a single mom for the weekend too took our kids to Lynden's Tractor Parade aka Farmer's Day Parade. Lynden is known for it's Dutch heritage, Cows, and Raspberries. It was a little on the chilly side for a parade.
#1 Son took this picture of Chuckles, Bones, and Her Highness. 
Another #1 Son picture, I like his perspective. 
For you not from these parts, this is the machine used to pick raspberries.
with this picture? We are now in possession of 6 St Joesph statues and we have zero plans to sell our house. Giant Man Child and I had a major miscommunication. Mrs Epi, Nonna, and Pappy are selling their places so we decided to get them all a St Joseph to bury. (There is custom of burying a statue of St. Joseph in order to sell a home.) Giant Man Child ordered 3 and I ordered 3. Now, we have St Joseph and his Merry Men.
This Rhodie was planted by my front door for 3 years and it never bloomed. It grew and it didn't have any diseases but it never bloomed. I didn't even know what color the blooms were. Mrs Respiratory Therapist suggested that I move it to the back and lo and behold it bloomed. I think people are a lot like that, too. We can grow where we are but sometimes we need to move/change in order to bloom. Ali Edwards, coolest scrapbooker on the planet, had the following quote on her creative newsletter today and it bears repeating:
The sun is courtesy of the Diva. There was a lot of wishful thinking this morning that the sun might actually make an appearance. Cruddy rainy weather makes great baking weather I decided. I am making pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Honestly you can't taste the pumpkin. I also decided I specialize in tasty but not that great looking cookies. The pumpkin cookies aren't especially lovely looking but moist and delicious. I was debating whether to make my sister's favorite banana cookies too. In my opinion, those cookies are evil. They never last more than a day at our house and they aren't that attractive looking either. They are based on the Land of Lakes Butter recipe minus the orange zest and glaze. Really there shouldn't be any debate. LOL Maybe my thighs should have a vote.
