Sean and Mim were outside and I went out to check on them.  I told Collin to keep an eye on Maura, who was watching Spongebob and therefore, not really going anywhere.

Chatted with my neighbors for a bit, shooed kids inside for dinner.  Maura met me at the door....where I noticed she had something tied around her waist.

Collin decided to put a "tracking device" on her - aka some of the spy gear Sean was playing with today.  He tied it on with some holiday garland, which I'd been making fun little headwear for the girls with.  Since he didn't have scissors, she had it trailing behind her.

In a sense, it was quite ingenious.  All he had to do was push a button and she'd start beeping.  But I don't think he's quite up to actually babysitting her yet....

And for the record, she thought it was great.  A fun accessory that made noise.  As the second picture shows, it made her giggle. tee hee!

Monday, June 23, 2008 10:57:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Only the adults get to use such things as the chainsaw and the sledgehammer.  We are thrilled you children want to help with renovations, but we'd like everyone to come out of it at the end with all their limbs and digits.

Sunday, June 22, 2008 1:53:35 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Okay, you know by now my love of Great Big Sea.  Well, they posted a thing about how they were looking for pictures of  accomplishments/acheivements/etc for their upcoming video.  I sent in one of each kid, hoping one of them would make the cut.

I got to see the video today and got to see my Seanie Boy in their video!  He's the boy at the first minute mark going up the rock climbing wall.  FYI - he was seven years old in the picture.  We were at the neighboring town's fall festival, they had this rock climbing wall and Sean really wanted to try it.  Of course we let him.  And of course, he did great! And I got a couple great shots of him...one good enough for the video!

I don't know if the embedding worked, so if it doesn't, just click on the link.  The link does work, I checked.

Anyway, the Song of the Week is Great Big Sea's "Walk on the Moon" - which is bound to become one of the best videos EVER!  LOL!

http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-canada-com-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=entertainment&maven_referralPlaylistId=87c93c73111553f5a56f8c6a758198113760163d&maven_referralObject=1615504

Friday, June 20, 2008 5:08:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Maura can open the patio door all by herself.

Maura likes to let herself out into the unfenced yard all by herself via the patio door.

Maura can be very quiet and sneaky when letting herself out into the unfenced yard all by herself via the patio door.

I can see Maura standing in the road, after letting herself out into the unfenced yard all by herself via the patio door, from my bedroom window.

It's very hard to run and shout that Maura's out in the road with a mouth full of food.

Josh understands what I mean when I yell "Maura! Road!  Outside!" as I go running for the door.

A high chain lock works well to keep Maura from letting herself out into the unfenced yard all by herself via the patio door.

However, the high chain lock only works well if you remember to use it.

Yes, there's been a common theme to this week's lessons.  On Tuesday, while we're close to it, I shall stop at Babies R Us for those door alarms.  Until then, I think I'll tether Maura to me, so I know where she is at all times.  It's either that or never blink again.  Because that girl has gotten fast!  Sure, the other three have all gotten out by themselves here and there but A) they also understood that one shouldn't wander out onto the road and B) they understood when they were told that they were not to go outside without asking first.

Meanwhile, I shall thank God once again that Maura went out onto the dirt road, that has about four cars a day go down it slowly, instead of the paved road, that people come speeding over the hill on a consistant basis. 

Sunday, June 15, 2008 10:13:50 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

The kids (and the parents, we'll admit to it) enjoy watching iCarly - a show on Nickelodeon about a girl, Carly, and her two friends who have a web show and all the wacky fun things that happen.  To add to the humor is Carly's older brother (who she lives with) who quite frankly, makes me look like quite the normal person. 

I'll admit it - I like the theme song.  Miriam and I go around singing it.  It gets stuck in my head...but in a good way.  Not in a bad way...oh, say...like the Dora the Explorer theme song, which makes me want to take a metal bat to my head. 

So here is the full version of the iCarly theme song - feel free to get it stuck in your head as well!

Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:49:45 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Summer has indeed arrived here.  Kids are out of school now, the temperatures have shot up, and we keep getting thunderstorms.  Not that we have anything to complain about - the worst of the storms have missed us.  We've only had a few downed branches and lost our Internet for a day. 

Last weekend was one of those interesting weekends.  Josh spent all Saturday building a pen for Lucky the Duck only for Sean to accidentally set Lucky free, who of course raced into the woods.  Sean was horrified, terrified for Lucky, and was so heartbroken, I had to promise him we would find the duck.  Amazingly, we did.  Collin spotted Lucky hiding and grabbed him.  All those years of grabbing a racing little hamster have paid off.

Right now the children are supposed to be working off the stuff I bought for them at Target yesterday.  This of course is involving lots of wandering back and forth, some drama on Miriam's part, and minor whining.  Ooo fun. 

Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:30:28 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Miriam is leaning over the duckling's container, singing the "Five Little Ducks" song.  She sings it to him daily. 

Lucky Duckling is doing well.  And after comaping baby duck pictures to baby goose pictures, we're certain he is a duck.  Thus, we don't have to change his name from Lucky Duck to Lucy Goosey. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 4:28:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

So it's Friday already.  Wow.  Fast week. 

Maura's officially five.  She had a fun birthday, loved getting to open presents that were for her, and actually getting to blow out all five candles (with some help.)  Her favorite gift has been the Wonder Pets Flyboat toy.  Miriam and Sean have been having fun with all the wooden playfood I got for Maura's kitchen...though Maura did feed some imaginary mac and cheese to a Wonder Pet.

Lucky the Duckling is still with us.  I spent an hour on Monday searching for duck food that did not come in a fifty pound bag.  I'm half Irish - buying that much duck food would ensure that he'd die the next day.  However, the feed store in the next town sold duck food by the pound.  So for eighty cents we left with a pound of duck food. 

The kids still love the duckling.  Josh and I have become mom and dad duck.  He's gotten pretty used to us to.  Oh sure, he tries to attack the Big Hand when it reaches into the cage to pick him up, but once in the Big Hand, he settles right down.  He likes napping on one of us as well. 

Of course, putting a duckling into the family mix has made for a couple interesting moments.  Like when Sean was cleaning out the duck bin, cut his finger, needed a band-aid, but meanwhile, I'm holding the duckling as the cat watches, trying to figure out what this peeping thing is, and Maura's smearing frosting on the storm door while trying to get outside. 

Yep, all normal.

Friday, May 23, 2008 7:58:51 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Here she is, all big girl at school this morning.

Monday, May 19, 2008 9:34:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

In honor of Maura's birthday, this week's SotW is one of her absolute favorites - "The Old Black Rum" by Great Big Sea.

Yeah, there's nothing like having to explain to the preschool teacher that if your daughter happens to say "rum", it's because of her favorite song...uh...it's traditional music...really, we're not alcoholics.

FYI - the video is from the Great Big Sea CD/DVD set - which I highly recommend - and has the closing credits on it.

Monday, May 19, 2008 9:32:03 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

what?  You don't have a duck?

Okay, we didn't mean to get a duck.  We just found it.  A little duckling in a shopping center, all by his lonesome.  We searched around for parents, thought we actually found them at one point, but no suck luck.  Josh said our choices were to leave it there and hope it made it, or take it home.

Good thing we bought Collin new sandals today and had a shoebox handy.

He has been named Lucky...you know, Lucky Duck.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 7:19:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]