Headed to the Outback

No, not the restaurant, the Outback Kangaroo Farm! I took a long lunch on Friday and met Natalie and her school at the farm in Arlington for the tour. Brady got to go this summer as part of the YMCA daycamp and had so much fun, so I was excited to get to tag along with Little Miss.
Her school is studying birds right now, so really we were at the Kangaroo farm to see their birds (they have a lot of different birds: Emu's, an Ostrich, a turkey, peacocks and pea hens...)
I was surprised that we got to be IN with the Kangaroos and Wallaby's. I mean... don't they kick and punch?
Everyone had fun, and we stopped at a park for lunch which happened to be Bum-Skeezo park. I hate that when you're in an unfamiliar city and you end up in a place that the locals wouldn't go near. Ever. And by the time the adults and given each other "the look" the kids had already poured out of the vans and plunked their lunches down next to the bums and were sprawled all over the playground. So we kind of shrugged our shoulders and chalked it up to lesson learned: do not take your children to Haller Park.

Mr. Donkey enjoying a nibble.

Little Miss getting brave enough to pet the Kangaroo, they're velvety like a bunny, but bony.

Giving a Kangaroo a nibble of bread.

And lovin on a Wallaby. **Sigh** Natalie's dimples kill me. I love them.

In the pockets of little boys

I have been fortunate enough to not reach in and regret what I find... Brady's pockets usually contain folded up pieces of paper, mini-flashlights, ipods, marbles... and pencils. But there was something about this pencil that made me giggle.

Asking for Trouble

I think he's blurry enough that I don't feel too guilty for posting his smug little face. You know, since he's a minor and all... but then I also think 'hey paparazzi always snap pic's of famous peoples children and I buy the magazines, so it's not illegal for me to post this obscure photo of this neighborhood punk, right?' So this kid... I've had one run-in with him before regarding a beach ball that went over the fence that he tried to steal but I played it off like "hey thanks for grabbing my kids' beach ball, go ahead and toss it back over to me" and he was like "yeah...ummm...right. OK."

But tonight I didn't want to play so nice. He was mouthing off to my lovely friend Erin who asked him to stop bending the prongs of our fence down because no, he will not be climbing over it as a shortcut to his house. He continued to mouth off to her and continued to bend the prongs down in her face. So I came out and asked him "Would you like to stop now or would you like me to call the police?" since he couldn't seem to stop vandalizing and mouthing off on his own. That stopped him quick, but not permanently.

Soon he was back at the fence, standing and staring at Erin and I. Really? We're supposed to be intimidated by a chubby 12 year old? We ignored him. Then he started tugging on the fence. We ignored him. He started touching the prongs again, not bending them, just touching them. We continued to ignore him, but this time I pulled my phone out and snapped his picture and made sure he saw me do it. He tried to duck down real quick but I let him no he was a little slow on the uptake and I got a lovely photo of him. When he popped his head up he had his hood on, and then he walked home (using the public sidewalks! What a concept!) and when he walked past me he pulled his hoodie up again. I don't think he likes me.

So tomorrow when I post about how I have to buy 4 new tires for my van because they mysteriously all went flat overnight, or how my house was TP'ed or how my cute little Halloween decoration on my front porch went missing, you'll know who I'm gonna blame.

Lesson of the day? I have to deal with my kids being mouthy and defiant all day long and I have to deal with them because I'm their mom. I'm not this kids mom, therefore I don't have to put up with his shit. And my shit-toleration is kind of in short supply these days.

"We're going to make and example out of you"

Every other time I've heard that in my life it usually meant I had done something atrocious and my antics were going to be told to others as a warning on what NOT to do.

But this week? This week someone wants to use THIS BLOG as an example. A sample even. Like "hey, your blog could look like this too!"

I entered my blog on a little Facebook shout-out from this company that was looking for blogs to make sample books to show off their product and I was selected! I just finished submitting the past few months of posts and am excited and anxious to see what Blog2Print comes up with!

A boy turns 8

There was tree climbing, burping, stick sword fighting (and dead bird poking), and remote control car racing. I think it was a success. At the least it taught me to know better than to drive around town with 6 - 7&8 year old boys. I don't think I'll ever be quite the same.