T.P. Neighbors

Hey, in looking for some photos I came across some I took the night the neighbor's house got toilet papered. This is an annual tradition. Our neighbor is a high schoolteacher at one of the many schools in town. It seems that every year during their homecoming week students come by and toilet paper the house. I thought it was because he had daughters at the high school, but they have graduated. I guess he is the popular one.

The kids were hooting and hollering and the cul de sac was filled with cars. Amid their laughter we watched from our window and could see flashes of light going off. It was obvious that they were taking pictures of their handiwork, probably with their cell phones. I thought this was a great idea and took my camera out to get pictures, well I guess my picture taking scared them off. They all took off running for their cars and left. Oh, well.

Busy Times

We started school with a bang. I'd say that in the first two to three weeks of school we went to three open house, one I.E.P. meeting, and I had my own open house for parents. Then things settled down until conferences rolled around the 1st week of October. I was busy for several nights and we had the youngest one's school conference.

We had one weekend where the little girl had a ballet performance, the youngest boy had a evening zoo keeper's meeting and there was a party hosted by the man the he works for, and the oldest was going to his girlfriends. We ran and ran and ran that day.

The next weekend we visited the pumpkin patch and brought home all kinds of items to decorate the front yard. I love standing dried cornstalks up around our light post and tying them together with raffia. Then I place a hay bale at the foot of the light post and the kids help decorate the area with gourds and pumpkins. It really quite festive and I leave it up through Thanksgiving.

The following weekend the oldest went to his first homecoming. Dress clothes, corsage, dinner, and dance were on the agenda that night. Sunday night we had the parent and child Costa Rica meeting, discussing rules, expectations, recommended supplies, itinerary, etc. After two years of talk and preparations, can you believe that we are only two months away from this trip??!!

Good-bye To Summer

Now that we are well into fall, I have given up on the summer chronicles. We end our summer with a trip to FL to visit family and the Orlando tourist spots. We celebrated the twins' birthday. We always miss the birthday parties so it was fun to see the little one play and chase each other and fuss at the pouting big kids.

There was the challenge of putting together the playhouse kitchen. My brother-in-law couldn't get the electric screwdriver to screw the screws into the hard molded plastic. As we struggled by hand to get the screw into the playhouse my brother discovered that the screwdriver was set to rotate backwards not forwards. We USF grads had a good time teasing the brother-in-law that it was understandable that he was a bit backwards since he's an FSU grad.

We had a good time visiting the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Universal Studios. I'm thinking of using one of the pictures for our Christmas card. I've also declared this the Year of The Bulls and we may go with a Bull themed card. I've found what I think will be a super local spot for a photo.