Excellent Post for all my Parenting Friends

http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2009/10/mama-don%e2%80%99t-let-your-babies-grow-up-to-be-deadbeats/comment-page-4/#comment-56010

In case you haven't become a reader of The Pioneer Woman.... Mrs G. is a frequent guest. This particular post was worth reading (in my opinion, of course).

Mortimer's Mouse - by Bennett Davidson

Mortimer’s Mouse
By Bennett Davidson

Once upon a time there was a monkey named Mortimer (which in this story is called Mort). Mort was very smart. One day the King wanted all of the town to come to his palace. The King was going to pick someone to go on a quest to look for a mouse to be his royal assistint. He was going to pull 3 names out of a jar to be in the monkey bar race to go on the quest. The person who won the race would get to go on the quest. So it was time to pull names out of the jar. The King pulled the first name out of the jar! He said in a high voice, Lovie Lamb! The King pulled the next name out of the jar, Mort Monkey! The King pulled the last name out of the jar, Tom Tortise! The next day Lovie Lamb, Mort Monkey and Tom Tortise were all exersizing. Finaly after 5 days of work they were all ready for the race. They were all warming up on the starting line of the monkey bar race. After 30 minutes the race had begun! Lovie Lamb was in the lead! Mort was catching up! Sudenly Mort was in the lead! Mort was getting closer and closer to the finish line! All of the sudden Mort had crossed the finish line! Everyone was cheering! The king came up to Mort and said, you have won the race and now you will go on a quest for a mouse to be my assistint. You will need plenty of sleep tonight so you can leave in the morning. Mort now you need to go to your hosue now and get some sleep. Meet me at 7:30am tommarow so we can get you ready. The next morning Mort and the king had met. You will need this box of cheese for the mouse when you find it. Also take this box of bannas for you. Take this backpack, flashlight, 10 dollar bill for plane tickets. Now go on your way! Mort had begun through his town. When he got out of the city limits he thought mouse holes would be a good place to find mice. After walking over bridges, through tunnels and on a place he found a mouse running through a field without a family. Mort saw the mouse and quicky asked if he would be interested in coming to be the kings assistint. The mouse said yes only if he would give him a box of cheese. It was lucky he had one in his packpack. The mouse hopped in Mort’s hands and they started walking through the field going on a plane, through tunnels and over bridges. Finaly Mort’s town was in sight! They started running and then the mouse yelled STOP! The mouse wanted to tell Mort his name. The mouse said his name was Montie and finily they started having conversations. When they got to the Kings palace the King was glad he found a mouse for his assistant. Mort and Montie almost said by to each other and the king stopped them and said Mort could visit Montie any time he wanted to and said thank you for finding a mouse to help the king and Mort visited Montie once a week and they had a great time together!

THE END

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!

Soccer season to drawing to a close. This has been a terribly wet and cold season. Fall is supposed to be hot and pleasurable. Not so much this year.

Tonight we had a couple of make-up games from earlier rained out games. Something happened to keep half of the team at home. I know several of the kids are sickly. Maggie got to play her entire game and her teacher came to watch and we were playing our good friend Leah... Maggie was showing off!! She scored at least 3 times (there's dispute over the number, Daddy thinks it was more). My camera battery died as I was following her into the goal for the 2nd one. Sigh!

Ruth and Lydia played short staffed as well. Ruth played the entire game and scored as well. There's a little dispute as to who actually touched the ball before it went across the line... but we're giving them both credit because it's cuter that way. Ruthie and Nelson worked TOGETHER to make the score. :)

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday

We just celebrated Ruthie's 6th and Bennett's 9th birthdays. Ruthie turned 6 and we spent 2 weeks having a 6, 7, and 8 year old! Those are always my favorite weeks for strangers to ask their ages. :) It freaks people out. I love freaking people out. Then, Bennett turned 9 and it wasn't so much fun to explain ages.

Ruth has asked for a booster seat last year. Easy enough, since it's necessity! This year she had a doll in mind. She said she wanted either a Build-a-Bear (like Lydia's), American Girl, or Cabbage Patch doll. Curtis and I both concurred that we are beyond the stuffed animal stage... or at least would very much LIKE to be beyond that stage! So, we researched the American Girl options. Those things are $100 a piece. Whoever heard of a $100 doll? Crazy people out there buy those things... crazy!

Sounds like us? Whatever! :) We've seen American Girl before. My sister's girls all have one. My brother's girls both have one. Or at least that's the rumor around our house. We've watched a few movies too. Molly - about the dad who was off at war. Kit - who survived the depression. Well, Kit has a best friend. Her name is Ruthie. Perfect?!?!! We told Ruthie she could have an American Girl doll... but we drove to the mall first without saying a word. She can't exactly read road signs and when Bennett and Maggie had it figured out they were just as excited about getting there as we were. When we showed her where we were going her face erupted into pure smiles. We let her go into the store and peruse the different characters. She (we) had talked about the Ruthie doll but we all wanted her to look around at all of them before deciding. So, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa for the shopping adventure. The other 3 kids did so well with helping her decide without being grumpy that it wasn't about them. They all wanted to show me what they would want IF it were their birthday, but none of them whined or complained at all. Yeah! My preaching on the way down worked! She picked out her Ruthie then had to get an outfit (PJs) from Grandma so she could have something else to wear. She's actually taken good care of her so far. Whew!

Her birthday dinner desire was IHOP. Cheap - if the kids pick a kid's meal and you go after 4pm. We were there at 2pm and they all wanted LOTS of food. Our waiter was very sweet. In fact, I believe several of the waiters were very sweet... but we weren't in rural north Georgia either. He quieted the entire restaurant to announce her birthday and then had the whole place and all the wait staff sing happy birthday to her. She was so embarrassed. Cute! Cute! Cute!

I'll have to get pictures from Grandma's camera one day.

As for Bennett's birthday... that was our fall break trip to Chattanooga (see previous post). We celebrated Monday morning by spanking his little behiney 9 times... each of us. :) He just giggles. At the end of our day, before heading south for home, we found the Grand Opening of Chattanooga Cupcakes and went in for birthday cake. He picked out the chocolate cake, chocolate icing with chocolate ganache inside. The girls picked a sprinkles topped one. I chose Key Lime (YUM) and Curtis picked a different chocolate flavored option. We made a big deal and sang happy birthday to him in front of everyone, which he LOVED! He ate his entire cupcake. Ruth decided she didn't like the sprinkles but my Key Lime was tastier. Of course, I shared! Maggie and Lydia finished off the other. Then we headed home... and slept. :)

We're still searching for the "perfect" Indiana Jones Lego set that includes Indy in his proper attire with his hat. The boy knows!

Now we get a month off before all the December birthdays 8th t0 31st (Grandpa, Aunt Holley, Eddie, Emily, AnnaGrace, Tyler, & Maggie). Whew!

Oh - Sept/Oct birthdays... 15th to 12th Jared, Aunt Leslie, Zack, Adam, Briella, Ruth, & Bennett.

October Stuff and more

Each time I start a new post I say how long it has been and how busy I have been since the last post. So, I'm not going to say it anymore. It's a given. We are in that stage and will remain here until after all the girls are married and given away! I'm accepting it. We are busy. With 3 in school and 4 in soccer we keep busy just from those things. Soccer season is short lived and only 2 days a week... until you multiply that by 4 kids. Some weeks we have played soccer each night which seems to stress out the adults more than the players. I love watching them play and learn new tricks. Maggie seems to be the natural athlete in the bunch, if we have one.

School is moving along well. We just got report cards back for this quarter and they all were all A's. Not such a difficult feat in the lower grades but I was very surprised about Bennett. He is the ONLY one in his class with all A's at this point. We are proud... slightly. :)

We just took a quick vacation to Chattanooga for our fall break and Bennett's 9th birthday. I have 200 pictures to sift through to put some here and a few videos as well. It was a terrific time all together and away from our responsibilities. This was the first time we've been "nap free" with all 4 and were able to go all day doing whatever we wanted. We visited the aquarium, saw some collegiate rowing, went to a children's museum, did a lot of walking, climbed aboard the Chattanooga Choo Choo, visit Rock City, went swimming and had some yummy food. At the hotel we went swimming each day and it's such a nice time now that the eldest two can actually swim safely. Lydia is a fish with her floaties on and jumps in and swims through crowds of strangers without fear. Ruth is still a little reluctant to get too far from safety and the crowds really freak her out. She spends most of her time in the hot pool.

This was a shot of the girls in the museum.

The kids at the top of Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Rock City. See Seven States.

Just outside the Aquarium... family photo shot op.