Field Day and Finished

The kids had field day(s) at school this week.  Brynn's was yesterday and her class won 2nd place overall for the relays.  I do a lot with Brynn's class so I decided to spend field day with Tyler - and his was today.  As it turns out, his class came in 2nd place overall for the relays too.  He's actually quite the speedy little runner, we know that about him.  So I noticed that he used that and was able to make up some distance for some of his other class/teammates who weren't as competitive or who didn't have quite the hustle that he did ;) which made me very proud.  He liked to have an eye on the competition :)

After that I snuck out while the kids had PE (yep, they were exhausted) to go grab Tyler his favorite food and surprise him for lunch...

It was a good morning hanging out with my buddy.  And here's just a random picture he drew this past week:

Also, I haven't blogged yet about the fact that his baseball season ended.  I was a little sad about that because I loved going to watch him in his "big games".  He had his last game while daddy was gone.  And we didn't make it to the closing ceremonies but he was so proud of the trophy he got.

Brynns Wonder Works Field Trip

 So like I said before... this past Thursday I got to go on a field trip with Brynn to the much anticipated Wonder Works upside down building.

Brynn has a bestie named Emma.  We switch off houses for having play dates for them just about every week.  Well I rode up with Jenn, Emma's mom, and we met the kids there - very thankful they didn't have room for us and we didn't have to do the bus ride ;)  

It was organized chaos.  The different classes were assigned to different levels/floors during a certain time period.  But during that time period they just got to run around and explore whatever was on that floor.  And the kids loved it. 











We started out on the top floor that had this awesome ropes course up in the air.  Brynn said this was her favorite part.  I was amazed at how much she liked it and how much she was willing to try it and do it and how brave she was.  She couldn't wait to come home and tell Tyler about it and show him the pictures and get him excited to go try it.

And then there was a bunch of other stuff...

There was even a bed of nails...

Okay, this 'scary ride' she wouldn't go on.  Other kids were giving in to peer pressure and going on it when they didn't want to and then ended up crying or being upset or whatever.  But Brynn knew she wouldn't like it.  Said she wasn't going to go on it.  And didn't.  I guess this time I was proud of her for that.  It was good to see that she wasn't just going to follow the crowd, but had a mind of her own and didn't care what anybody else thought.

You can never go wrong with bubbles.  They are always a winner...

Cute girlies...

And more fun...

Then instead of having them ride the bus back to the school (the school day was basically over) we checked them out and had them come home with us.  Of course we had to stop at Panera for lunch first :)  Lucky girls.  What a good day they had.  And Jenn and I were glad we could share it with them.

"Fun" Day = Needy Neighbor

Today was a fun day.  At least it started out that way.  I had a good friend who was willing to watch Dylan and Kate all day so that I could go on a field trip with Brynn.  It wasn't just any field trip either.  It was a field trip to Wonder Works.  Brynn has been asking to go to Wonder Works for  months.  But neither PJ or I were ready to fork out the money to take the family there - it isn't exactly a cheap outing.  So imagine her delight when she heard her class got to go there.  She was thrilled and has been very excitedly waiting for her field trip day to be here.  Today was that day.  But more on that to come in the next post...

Moving on with our day...
We got back, brought her best friend Emma and her sister Isabel with us (so they didn't have to go sit and watch their brothers during swim lessons), picked up Dylan and Kate, gathered up Tyler and headed home.  After a snack and a bit of gymnastics and dancing and singing inside, the girlies decided to go outside to play.  It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes before I gathered up some of the kitchen trash and went out through the garage to take it out and see how they were getting along.  A few steps into the garage I heard and saw the swishing motion I've always dreaded... there was a snake :[     

And it was headed the wrong direction - further in and not out.  So I had to go next door and get Blair to save me...

Which he bravely did.  Thankfully the snake was nice and obediently left when Blair urged him out.

Then Blair had to leave to get Milli.  But I had my boys there to protect me and help make sure the snake continued further away from our house instead of back inside.   We watched it for a while because he wasn't in a hurry to leave.  Surprisingly none of the kids were scared of it - not even Brynn - they all were very interested and wanted to see it.  So they watched it for me for a minute while I went into the garage to get the trash I never got around to throwing away.  And when I went back in I saw another motion along the wall and turned to see this guy...

Are you kidding me?!  I checked with Dylan to make sure the snake hadn't come back in.  Nope.  He was still over by the side of the house.  So this was snake #2 in my garage.  Lovely.  Blair was gone.  So I moved on down the street to Micah, who also bravely came to my rescue...

...only this snake wasn't as nice or obedient.  He found a hard to reach corner and coiled up.  We tried everything to get him out.  After about an HOUR (!!??) we were hot and sweaty and frustrated and the snake was getting upset and would not move.  I called housing so they could come and do some critter removal - they said they couldn't help.  Natural resources apparently only does alligators and bears.  What was I to do??  This was an emergency.  I wasn't about to let that thing stay in my garage.  We needed help.  The showdown needed to end.  So I called security forces.  They said a unit was on its way.  Imagine my delight when I saw who arrived... the very same Security Forces Officer that had to help me out of this situation a few months back:

 http://keddyskorner.blogspot.com/2013/03/hazards-of-living-at-beach.html  

Great.  They admitted when they got the call they weren't exactly sure what they were going to do to help.  But they got out of their car and came armed with gloves and a sledge hammer looking thing (even though they said legally they couldn't kill it) and some bolt cutters.  Wish I had gotten a picture of that but I was still getting over my initial embarrassment.  But they went to work and put on quite the show - the showdown became a throwdown!  I should have gotten video photage.  They were very scary... if I was the snake I would have fled also.  I'll tell you what that snake was bitting and striking at them like crazy but they were not going to let it win.  And my messy garage got even messier.  But they got the job done. 

And it literally FLEW out of our garage... in mid air.  So much so that a passing car stopped to ask what in the world it was.  I didn't get a picture of that either because I was running in the opposite direction when I saw it leave the ground and fly into the front hood of my car.  Yes, we/they drew a little crowd.  

In the end it ended up safely in a bucket where they took it far away out into the woods and let it go.  So it was a happy ending... only I can't help but wonder if those two snakes were making baby snakes in my garage somewhere.  I don't think I'll be able to go out there much until my husband finally returns home.  And I don't think I'll be able to ever look that awesome security officer in the face ever again because he admitted he remembered helping me in the sand too.  Sigh.  I hope my trusty neighbors don't start seeing me as the needy bothersome neighbor...  they were wonderful today.