The weekend of "what should we do?"

The weather just wouldn't let us make real plans this weekend. Yesterday I had planned on going to the farmers market and screwing around downtown and getting some strawberry starts for my Topsy Turvy strawberry planter. The weather said "really? you wanna head downtown outside with your children. Go ahead. I dare ya." So I chickened out and instead we met a friend down south for lunch and got our errands accomplished down there (Costco and the Co-Op). Back home in time for sunshine and the Procession Of the Species... and it was just as it sounds.... Bellingham hippies in their element. Along with a few fetish folks called "Furries" I'm sure too. Oh, and a handful of college students still exhaling, if you catch my drift. But, who am I to turn down a parade, right? So we went happily and I'm sure I'll go again next year. And the kids will happily go too because while mommy had her Black Drop mocha, they got powdered sugar donuts from Rocket. And Gort came to life while we were at Rocket, which has never happened before so that was super cool. Well I missed it, but the kids were beyond thrilled to have witnessed his animation.

Sunday rolled around slowly too... I finally couldn't stand the sound of my children anymore so we headed out to find mischief. First stop: Cenex (or Whatcom Farmers Co-Op, I call it Cenex) where we were disappointed in the lack of baby farm animals to pet. As I was checking out, I also said "I need a bag of small-animal shavings" (for Radish) so she said OK and rung me up $6.99, not to shabby I'm thinking. She calls the guy in the warehouse and instructs me to pull around back to pick it up (totally a normal thing at Cenex). So I do, but the bag of shavings that arrives is as tall as Natalie and twice as wide! Ello? I live in a townhouse, thanks. And I just know that this thing is going to get knocked over and create the worlds biggest mess in my garage. But hey, it was only $6.99 so I guess I should just buck up right? But come on, it's ridiculously large for one little guinea pig.

Afterwards we headed to MindPort which the kids love and it's only $6 for all of us to go to (vs. oh the say $19 we'd spend at the FIG, had I not bought an annual pass sight unseen). It was a super way to kill a couple of hours before heading home.

Brady's favorite part: the make-your-own tornado.
Natalie and Chocolate. That is my bear that I've had since I was 2. And now she drags it everywhere which both makes me nervous as hell (that's MY bear) and warms my heart (that's my bear). I think I've talked about Chocolate on here before... that Chocolate is real. If you didn't know that, take a look at Chocolate in this picture and you'll see what I'm talking about. That bear is loved.

Love this shot of Little Miss...

Brady brought me over ("close your eyes mom!") to show me what he wrote in the inverted chalkboard... super sweet. Then I wrote him some love notes and you know what? I'm a frigging rockstar at writing inverted. And we all know what a useful skill that can be.

Where the kids always end up: the water feature. Natalie had collected all of the wooden "boats" to send down the river...

My son connecting with his roots, after a quick lesson in washtub bass from yours truly.

Natalie made me a driftwood&rock 'H' for 'Heather'... hey kids save the sweet for next Sunday, get the most bang for your buck!

And a good night group hug. My mad photography skillz return.

On the way home, Natalie found the needle nose pliers I had forgotten in the van while trying to fix something. She proceeded to pinch Brady's side with them which created the most shocking noise I've heard in a very long time. I pulled over to the side of the road out of shock, and hopped out to console Brady who is now NOT breathing he is so upset and then to console Natalie who you could tell she had no idea that she knew what she was up to and was wide eyed with tears spilling over gushing "I'm sorry, I'm sorry". This from the girl who not 5 minutes earlier was telling B "I'm smiling because I love you." Thank god we were just blocks from being home. Good grief!