Isn't it a great playground?

So tonight while they were supposed to be getting ready for bed, Guy found some little people toys in the girls room and decided to play.

 The big line looks like a typical Guy set up so I didn't think anything of it, till I heard him explaining it to Cinderella.

So if you look at the picture above you will notice that the line goes to the barn.  From there the person at the head of the line climbs onto the horses back, to get to the loft.

 From the loft there is a ladder.

The ladder goes to the top of the playground.  So the person follows the ladder to the playground and then goes down the slide.

 And into the waiting bus.  Oh, and the sippy cup is a prize for the winner.
 

And all the animals and people are lined up for this attraction.

Then Guy turns to me and says, "Isn't it a great playground?"

It amazes me the ideas these kids come up with.

Oh Snap!

OK so this post is a bit delayed.  A little over a week ago we caught our first mouse.  1 down, ? left to go. 

My husband apologized for not getting any pictures for the blog.  I told him that is perfectly OK.

Roses

So we bought this house a little over a year ago.  One of the things this house came with is some rose bushes in the back yard.  Last year with Aurora being born, and moving in in late spring, etc. Our roses didn't really receive any care. 

There where what looked like 3 bushes along the back of the house.

One right near the door that was just one little twig and got one or two blossoms last year.  Then the middle one had dark pink wild rose blossoms, and grew really tall.  Then the one on the other end is actually 2 planted close together.  One with light pink blossoms, and the other with white. 

Mid summer last year I pruned off the dead heads down to leaf sets of 5, as to the instructions I got from my mother, of how she cares for her roses, however they never bloomed again last year.

Well this spring, I wanted to make sure that I gave them the care they needed, so I consulted my mom as to what she does for her roses.  She told me she prunes them back to about 2-3 inches from the ground.  So that is what I did.  The one closest to the door appreciated the pruning and has grown quite a bit this year, but has yet to put out any blossoms. 

The wild rose has grown quite big again, and has finally started putting out blossoms again.  However I am slightly confused, I'll tell you why.  The first blossoms it has put out were the wild ones like last year,  but just this morning on a low branch I found some little pink rose buds, that as they are opening, don't look wild at all.

Light pink blossoms on middle bush.

The wild blossoms on the middle bush

Also my light pink rose bush, put out some blossoms that looked like what I expected them to look like, but then I also found this morning some dark pink, wild blossoms, like the bush next to it.

The wild looking blossoms on my light pink rose bush

If anyone knows more about roses than I do, and has any suggestions as to why my bushes are behaving this way, I would appreciate the insight.

Oh and yes I know there is morning glory all over my roses, I need to pull it out.  One step at a time.

We have a mouse

At least one.  There might be more.

A few weeks ago my husband and I  were in the kitchen getting dinner ready.  I have some 5 gallon buckets that I keep flour, sugar, wheat, powdered milk, and rice in on the floor of my pantry.  I had pulled out a bucket or two that day for some reason, and as I pushed it back in I noticed what looked like some grains of wild rice, or rodent dung.  I pointed it out to my husband and asked him what he thought it looked like.  His response was also rodent dung.    We figured that if there was a rodent problem we would see more signs, and we cleaned it up like it was rodent dung. Then I noticed what looked like some other types of rice grains on the floor.  We had had wild rice a few days earlier, and I just wrote it off as being rice. 

Also lately our refrigerator has started making this really annoying squeaking sound.  One day I had what I thought was a joke run through my mind.  I wanted to tell my husband that I had found the mouse that had left it's droppings in the pantry.  It is hiding behind the refrigerator and that is what is making the sound.  Well I never told him, and promptly forgot.

Until last night.  My husband and I were sitting in the living room talking while we were waiting for the kids to settle down so we could go to bed.  My husband was facing the stairs, and suddenly his eyes got big.  I was thinking it was something to do with the kids, but then he turned to me and said, "we have a mouse."  I was still confused, and thinking of the kids.  I think I asked him something about which kid he was talking about, when he said, "I just saw a little black thing come down the stairs and under the fridge."

Yuck!  So he pulled out the fridge and found a ton of mouse droppings.  But of course no mouse. 

Today I decided to really clean the kitchen floor and get rid of any food remnants I could find.  I started pulling stuff out of the pantry, and found a ton of droppings in there too.  So now we have to set traps, and keep our kids out of them, and try to keep them from coming back.  I hope there is just one.  But there might be more.

Childrens and infant Tylenol and Motrin Recall

So this morning I was at the grocery store and while I was there I went to get some new infant Tylenol drops.  Well there weren't any on the shelves, of Tylenol or generic brands, and there was a sign saying that children's and infant's concentrated drops have been recalled. 
So I did some research and found out that it isn't only Tylenol, but pretty much all children's pain medication, and antihistamines.  I'm glad they catch things like this because I don't want to be putting harmful things into my children, but still it is a little frustrating when you have a baby who is screaming because she is teething, and Orajel only works for a short time.  Oh well I guess it is better than nothing.

There's a baby in my belly.

While this is an announcement of sorts, child number four will be joining our family sometime around the end of the year, this blog post is more about my children's reactions to this news.


One day, before I had told my children we would have a new baby but my waist was already starting to expand, Cinderella declared herself "Captain Diaper Change."  Of course something like that was too good to miss, so seeing as how Aurora needed a diaper change at the moment, I let her do the job.  She loved it so much she started claiming the right anytime a diaper needed to be changed. 

Currently we are working on potty training Guy, but he still wears pull-ups some of the time, and when he does a number in them, it is a big mess.  Anyway, Cinderella wanted to change him too.  I told her that probably only Mom or Dad should change Guy.  She then asked if she could only change Aurora's diapers.  I said "yeah, but when we have another baby in our family maybe you can help change it's diapers."  Her response to that was, "I hope there is one in there right now, because your tummy is getting big like there is one."

Well I didn't break the news to her at that point, but one day a few days later, we were having a girls sleep over at grandma's house while the boys  were at a fathers and sons outing.  I've been needing to take a progesterone supplement with this pregnancy, and I have been instructed to take it right before bed.  So Cinderella happened to still be up when I was getting ready for bed, and asked why I have to take medicine, and if all mommy's have to take medicine.  I then told her that I have a baby in my tummy.  She got a confused look on her face, and then said, "but you have a baby out!" 
"That's right, I do.  But I have one in too."
"You have a baby in and a baby out?!  Wow!  I hope it's a girl, what are we going to name it?......."  Yeah she was excited. 

Guy had a little bit different response.  He didn't say much immediately.  A few days later, we were all sitting at the table eating a meal, when Cinderella said something about the baby in mommy's belly.  Guy then responded with, "there is a baby in MY belly."  pulling up his shirt and sticking out his tummy.  I asked him if it was a big baby.  "It's a big baby, and it's a BOY. We are going to have lot's of babies in our family.  One of their names is Aurora, but I don't know the other's names."

Aurora of course hasn't really had any response, because she is still to little to know any different.  However her response in the end is the one I am the most concerned about.  She and her younger sibling will be about 20 months apart.  And she is a total mama's girl.  I don't think she is going to be too happy about another baby taking mom's attention.  Oh well I guess only time will tell.