Laundry: The bane of my existence

The laundry situation at the Pettis house is a little out of control. 

Please.

Send. 

Help.

Now.

Homeschool Field Trip

Every year Shawn and I try to catch Tehachapi's apple season. Last year they only sold apples for two weeks and we missed it. This year they have an abundance of apples and have been selling apples for about two months. 

If you only buy apples in the grocery store, you are missing out. We were told by the apple growers that the apples in the grocery store are actually last year's apples and have been kept refrigerated since they were picked. Obviously the fresh ones are way better.

As we were driving around, we stumbled upon a pumpkin patch (happy, happy, joy, joy). Have I told you that I love pumpkins? Well, I do. I have a fetish about pumpkins, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. 

Kohen wanted to get down and walk so we were happy to oblige him. We soon got distracted with helping the boys pick out their pumpkins. Kohen wasn't impressed with the pretty, orange pumpkins at all. He decided to have a sit and check out the dirt. 

It looked interesting...... It felt interesting....

Let's see if it tastes interesting.

Not so much.

Tip of the day: Emergency Adhesive

Pretend you are having a bad day and find yourself in a MacGyverish position.

Let's say you're locked in a building with a bomb that's about to explode or stranded in a deep crevice facing a deadly avalanche.

Possibly, you're trapped in a 3 bedroom house, with three boys, sleep deprived and out of coffee..... wait, that's my reality.

We're supposed to be pretending, remember?

Anyway, you're in a sticky situation, whatever it may be and you need some type of adhesive. You have no tape and no glue of any kind.

What do you use?

Rice Krispies.

I have discovered that Rice Krispies + milk = super glue.

It's true.

Try it.

Or better yet, give your kids Rice Krispies for breakfast and don't clean up after them for about 30 minutes or so.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We recently took our first homeschool field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. My dad had gotten us tickets and we used them on Karter's birthday weekend. 

There's something very intriguing about the ocean and the aquarium was a cool way to get to explore a small part of it. 

My favorite part was the sea horse exhibit. It was huge and displayed so well. I have never seen so many different species of sea horses and I have been to three other large aquariums. This had the best sea horse exhibit by far. I wish I had taken more pictures.

If you've never been to Monterey Bay, it is totally a worth while trip. We didn't get to spend any time on Cannery Row, but all of the shops and restaurants looked like a ton of fun.

Here the boys are "underneath" a wave

Kohen loved looking at all the fish too.

Can you see the sea horse? 

When I first saw this tank, I thought "what are all those people staring at?" These sea horses are so cleverly disguised. God actually made their body leaf like, so they blend in with the sea weed. This truly was the coolest thing I saw all day. It's called a Leafy Sea Dragon. 

Here is a better pic of it.

Pappa Mick, Kenson and Karter and Harry Otter.

An explanation of my "First day of homeschool" post

Sometimes I have these really, weird, lapses of memory/reality and I forget that I am the mother of unruly boys. I don't know how this happens, I have three constant reminders running circles around me all day.

This happened to me on a Monday, our first day of home school. I was making pancakes and I told Kenson to go wake Karter up and tell him I was making pancakes for breakfast. In my delirium, I envisioned Kenson skipping down the hall, butterflies flitting about, birdies, singing sweetly on the window sill. He gently leans over his sleeping brother whispering softly, "Little brother.... Mommy dear is making us pancakes. Won't you please join us?" My darling offspring would then walk back into the kitchen arm in arm with broad smiles on their faces.

What was I thinking?

I KNOW that this would never, ever happen in my house..... with my boys. Yet, for some reason, I did it anyway.

Was I drunk on French Vanilla Coffemate or what?

What did happen is this: Somehow when the words left my mouth and entered into the ears of Kenson they turned into "Please, please go torture your brother and see just how mad you can make him." So Kenson, happy to oblige, sped down to Karter's room, leaped onto his bed and began jumping, up and down.

Karter, even under the best circumstances, is not a morning person. These were not the best circumstances and he began to scream like a banshee. I have never heard a banshee scream, but I imagine they sound similar to Karter in the height of his fury.

I intervened.

Karter stopped his screaming.

Kenson left Karter's room only to return a few minutes later to continue afflicting his brother. This time he decided to poke him randomly at intervals as he was trying to fall back asleep.

There really are no words to describe what happened next.

Let's just say it was ugly, real ugly.

I got angry, real angry.

This was our first day of homeschool.

It did not go well.

In hindsight, I probably should have just postponed the first day until Tuesday, but I didn't. (please see first paragraph)

It feels like fall

Today I woke up to a very pleasant surprise. I hadn't paid any attention to the weather in the paper or I wouldn't have been surprised.

Good thing, Huh?

It feels like fall, finally. It's cloudy, slight breezy and only 65 degrees. Awesome. Since it was 91 on Saturday, I had no idea it was going to cool down so drastically.

I feel giddy, like a school girl. Hey, I'm a homeschool girl/mom. Does that count?

Autumn is my favorite time of the year, hands down. I love the crisp air,the turning leaves, pumpkins, apples and candy corn.

I need to go get some pumpkins, a bale of straw, some indian corn and some gourds to decorate my front porch.

I also need to bake something. But I don't know what. I don't do pies so pumpkin pies are out of the question, maybe a pumpkin log?

Happy Autumn, Everyone!