ANOTHER trip?!?!?!

Okay, so I didn't WANT to go back to Ohio for the second time in two months, but there was a death in the family and we needed to go back. I, therefore, have had enough traveling to last awhile. The next trip better be to somewhere fun, with room service, free air conditioning and lots of food. I'm pushing for a Disney cruise, but we'll see.

The hubby's grandfather passed away on Tuesday last week, so the last week has been a whirlwind. Thankfully the children were off track. We had about a million things to do on Wednesday before we left on Thursday in order to be there for the "festivities" on Friday and Saturday. Husband came home from traveling on Wednesday night and we left on Thursday. Only about half a million things got completed. Oh what fun.

When we got there, the family was already in an uproar. Finally one time when I wasn't the reason. We got to see relatives, some I'd never met (and being around for 19 years, that's something), and the kids got to see lots of grown ups with no other children around. They braved it pretty well. I explained the whole "process" and what to expect. They did much better than I had anticipated. Lots of questions that kept me on my toes and entertained for the two days. Kids see things so differently than the rest of the world. They were interested and not freaked out at all (like their mother). I don't do well at viewings and funerals. Just never had a good experience at one. But I guess that is the deal with these things.

Anyway, we are home and have Belle back (she was a Camp Bow Wow while we were gone) and we are returning to our normal (ha) lives.

Tea for two, two for tea...

Well, Lindsey attended her first "tea". We went to the Brown Palace for afternoon tea today. It was beautiful and so was my daughter. She was polite and kind when spoken to. She sat quietly while waiting for tea and scones.

I wondered where my daughter had gone. I thought maybe she'd been replaced by a pod person. I was soon to discover that that wasn't so. Although she was the epitome of well behaved child and sophistication, we still had some fun.

I knew I was in trouble when we were seated and the hostess said

"You are such a lovely child." and without a moments hesitation, my daughter said, "Why, thank you." At least I have raised her correctly by teaching her some manners.

She tried tea alone, with sugar, and with sugar and cream and decided that she didn't like tea at all, so she had a "Shirley Temple". She was much happier with that to drink. We talked about girlie stuff and were having a great time. Then the scones and pastries came. Of course, she went straight for the chocolate (a girl after my own heart), that resulted in the picture below:

To say the very least, that was the end of the sophistication (for both of us), we giggled like, well, girls the rest of the time. She loved it and talked my ear off. The waitress was so impressed with her that she sent extra chocolate covered strawberries home with her. We had a great time on our "girls tea".

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

We went to the annual Kinder- garten pumpkin patch field trip on the Friday before our track off. As expected, being with a bunch of 5 and6 year olds, it was crazy, but a lot of fun. The children in our group were very interested in the corn, grass and leaves. Not sure what is so interesting about leaves and grass, but beggers can't be choosers, now can we.

Lindsey had a wonderful time. About half way through the day, the kids got worn out and tired of us asking pointed questions such as, "What signs of Fall do you see?", "What do you hear?", and "What do you think lives here?".

We saw the movie "Pumpkin Circle" and went to the pumpkin patch. The kids loved it.