There are lots of fun things that make kids smile when they discover them, but there are some times when you see pure joy and delight that I just wish I could duplicate at will.

Last night Jessie found a small plastic container of marbles. Don't flip you lid, I didn't let the 2-year-old play with marbles. I did watch her shake the fire out of that container and make a racket that almost shook the house. Before she was done, both her brother and her daddy were hollering about what was going on.

The look of pure delight on her face was priceless!

Maggie's most recent masterpiece. Says it is Humpty Dumpty, and she would have had me text it to everyone in my contacts if I would have.

Another year of football parties got started this weekend. Jessie had a great time!

My son just asked me if there was a place like the library where you can get books and keep them forever. I said, "Like a bookstore?" He said he wanted to check that out. Guess it's been a while since we've been to Barnes & Noble.

In Maggie's own words, they are "on a boat going down the river bound (yes, she used that word) for California where we'll bring back more food."

Dalton and I were discussing some corrections on his homework in front of my mom who said it sounded technical. He quickly replied, "Of course it's technical. I'm in the third grade."

Note to self: Do NOT throw away a giggling doll in a trash can you are not going to take out immediately. This one got peed on so there was no choice, but every time something got dropped in the trash, it made the doll giggle and the girls would fall out all over again.

For the last rack of ribs from our freezer thaw, I was roasting them in the oven with a glaze similar to a homemade BBQ sauce. Maggie saw me putting them back in the oven and asked, "What's the matter? Do you not know how to cook on the grill?"

Guys had a great time at the game!

Only thing better would be to be at the game with my guys. But then again, they don't have my gumbo.


As a side note, this gumbo actually has rib meat in it. We had a freezer incident thaw 4 racks, and I threw one in my stock and put the meat back in. Not bad at all!

Maggie Anne colored the outside of this box, put her sleeping bag and special bear in it just to have it taken over by Jessie. She said that was not part of her plan.


She looks like she feels really bad for spoiling her sister's plans.

Ok, this was hysterical. Jessie's been going to the potty on her own because she only goes about once every 5 or 6 times. She just enjoys going in there for the celebration that she went.

Anyway, she was just in there on her own when I heard, "Oh yeah, we did it! Woohoo! We did it!" I had to listen close because it sounded so funny in her little voice.

Tonight is the first time that I am completely exasperated with this Common Core business. Just google a Tape Diagram and watch one of the videos that demonstrates how to take two minutes (for an adult, probably twice as long as a kid) to do the work that simply adding two numbers together would take you 10 seconds to do. 

By the time I had watched the video to learn what it was, Dalton was two questions down.