Nature...ick!

This will come as a shock to some of you, but I'm a GRANDMOTHER! If you are wondering how this is possible, please refer to my post on August 31. My sandbox is the home of one actual frog and a bazillion tadpoles. Yes indeedy, one of Kirk's original tadpoles turned into a frog (that half-tadpole, half-frog stage is a little creepy) and through the magic of reproduction, I've got more baby tadpoles than ever. I think we are going to have to engage the services of the Tadpole Relocation Program. Actually that will just be me with a bucket of tadpoles hiking down to the creek. You try to be a good mom and provide your children with a close-up glimpse of nature but really you just end up running a branch of Planned Parenthood for Amphibians! No good deed goes unpunished!

I was also called upon to make a fairy house this week. It turned out quite nice with some interesting rocks that Kirk found, some maple tree leaves and the petals of my smashed chrysanthemum that the neighbor kids jumped on. You can't use living material, but I figured since the flowers had been killed by someone other than Kirk, we could get away with it. Kirk got to display his fairy house in the school library, so he was happy.

Today is a school in-service day and so all the neighbor kids are massing outside planning their day's activities. It's starting to look like the playground scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." You know the one--the crows are lined up on all the playground equipment and are looking menacing just before they swoop down on the unsuspecting children. Except that it's all boys on their bikes or scooters trying to figure out which mom to hit up first for snacks. Kirk, a natural leader (drat!), is gesturing toward my house--this can't be good for me!

I went to Costco the other day and took Hilary with me. She spent the entire trip sticking things in my cart, most of which I made her put back (she's 22 BTW), but she did manage to keep the giant bucket of Toll House Cookie Dough out of sight until I was at the check stand. I see the hand of fate here--I'll just make those up this morning and if the boys look like they're going to converge on my house I'll throw some cookies out the door at them. Perhaps if Tippi Hedren had had a few cookies to toss to the crows the movie wouldn't have given me nightmares for 20 years.

There is banging coming from my bedroom and I don't think it's the cats. Better go see...