Thursday

Have you ever seen a hermit crab out of its shell? One of our hermit crabs decided to switch shells, and stayed "naked" for a whole day. I got this neat picture of him (or her?)! He stayed in the corner of the tank the whole day, but he finally decided on a nice blue Snoopy shell!
Got a nice compliment about Samantha today. One of the girl's basketball coaches mentioned to us that "Sam really stood out" at tryouts and did "Very well". That meant a lot to us considering the coach was also her softball coach and he really knows her.
Speaking of Samantha, she got STUDENT OF THE MONTH for September!!!
Will had his first basketball try out today. He did really well! And he looked like he was having a lot of fun so that is the most important thing! He even wore his "Pippen" jersey (that is about 5 times too big!) to the try outs!!
I bought Will the book "Joy of Origami" and it is really cool! He has already done a couple of the birds in the book. I even surprised myself by figuring one out! It's pretty funny when your 8 year old is teaching you how to do something. He's a great teacher too. Much more patient than me!
I got a BIG SCARE today. Little Samantha never got off of the school bus. When I called the bus garage, no one answered. So I called the school, and was told that they couldn't reach the bus garage either and I should just keep trying. I tried again, but when I couldn't get through I finally called her parents. I reached her dad and he was like, "Oh, um, that's because she came home sick today. Sorry, I forgot to call you". He did certainly sound like he felt awful...but oh my God! I was so stressed out!!
And I am now officially 1/2 of the way through the book "The Crazy Ladies of Pearl Street" which I am reading as part of a book club at the library. It's a really neat book, even neater since it talks about Albany and Rensselaer and all other places I am familiar with. I recommend this book!

Wednesday

It's Wednesday, but the kids are home from school so it is very confusing! I have Sami and Nick, but I also have my three!! Needless to say, I haven't "done" anything today!

Samantha is done with basketball tryouts. We're waiting to hear what team she is on. I've heard rumors that this year they start having an "A" (better) team and "B" team. Sam is pretty good at basketball so are a lot of the other girls!

Yesterday, Samantha had a tick underneath her armpit. Yuck! Sami and Nick's dad pulled it out... and then Art got more out last night (what looked like a leg?) We tease her about her "hole" because Art really had to dig in there to get it out. She was such a good sport though!!! We were very proud of her because she was SO brave!

Tonight Colby is supposed to go to a "go see it" at a local farm for Cub Scouts. But I'm not sure if he will go. Honeslty, it's our ONE night that we are all home as a family and I really want to go get pumpkins and maybe some apples. We really need more time. It seems funny because I'm home all day, sometimes bored out of my mind, and then come 2:30 and the kids get home and it seems like bam bam bam, we need to go here and there and there is no time!! But I'm NOT complaining! I know they will grow up all too fast and I'll be bored again!

Well, I hear Shea barking outside and I'm pretty sure Nick is awake, so I should go and tend to both of them :)

Sunday

Today was Samantha's cheerleading competition at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY. It was a great competition. Our pee wee squad was only up against 4 other pee small novice squads... but they were all really good. Unfortunately, only 3 teams placed and moved on to the next round. We weren't one of those teams. I can't say I'm surprised though. Our girls were good, and they did a good job. But the teams that won had harder, stronger stunts and really great routines. Sam isn't really upset. I'm a little teeny bit relieved to be done with cheer.

Here is Art's progress on the house-- moving on to the back!!! He is really moving along! Too bad he ran out of siding and has to order more...



And I can't keep updating the blog without a picture of the boys!! Here's a pic I snapped in my bedroom for no reason... they weren't really wanting to have their picture taken but they are good sports.

Happy Sunday!

Go Devils!

Everyone shout "Go Devils!"
Tomorrow is Samantha's *cheerleading competition*!!! We have to be to the coach's house at 6 am... erg!! They should be performing sometime around 9 am... so wish them luck!
Art has been siding all day... he got lots done in the back of the house! I will post pics hopefully tomorrow. Thank goodness it warmed up a little bit today. Am I brave enough to say luck might actually be on our side?
I babysat Hannah today... and Will and Colby had 2 friends over, plus our neighbor Adam! It was a fun day! The boys played so much, and it was so nice to spend a whole day with no fighting :-) They ate a ton of snacks too... I can only imagine what it will be like when they are older.!
The girls had to cheer at half a game tonight... I have no idea what the final score was since we left at half time, but when we left we were winning 19-0! We have such a great team! Go Devils!!!
GOOD LUCK TOMORROW, Sam!! And Madi and Mikayla and Makenzie and Loren and Taylor and Antania and Adrianna!! Good luck girls!!

Is it really Friday????

Is it really Friday???
Today was, of course, another busy day for me. I babysat Nick today. He peed so much in his diaper that it leaked all through his pants, right down to his socks and shoes, and on my carpet. Nice. So he got a nice warm bath and I got a nice warm wet carpet.
Really, though, we had a good day. I spent a lot of the day emptying my inbox. I have a bad habit of keeping all of my emails as new... and then all of a sudden I have 350 emails and I can't find a certain one I need. So, I decided it was time to clean the inbox. That took a while. Thank goodness Nick naps for two hours!!
Tonight was Art Works night at the school. I got to bring all 3 kids because Art is still working on the house. It's a good thing we left, I think, because he wasn't too happy. It's very very cold today and now the siding and stuff is breaking on him. Uh oh. Let's hope it warms up a little, just for a little while longer. Please!
Back to Art Works... that was... interesting. Samantha made some really nice, colorful pictures. Colby did one that is pretty cool. He put a lot of effort into it and of course it's adorable. And then there's Will's picture. At first he drew swirls, in pencil, and tried to pass it off as his artwork. He was way too busy playing with the other kids. I finally got him to draw something. I would have felt awful leaving there getting something for two kids and not the third. His artwork cost me a guilty $7.
Now we are home. It's almost 2 hours past bedtime and the kids are wired. Me, I want to crawl into bed and go to sleep. But of course that can't happen until the kids are in bed, because Art's not home. He went to help his dad install a furnace.
Did I mention how cold it is? I doubt it reached 60 today. And it started off pouring rain. Did I ever tell you how my dog will not go outside in the rain? No, she hates the rain. So she will sit by the door and whine and whine, but when you open it, she turns and runs. That always makes for a fun morning.
Hopefully tomorrow will be warm. Or at least warmER. We've been spoiled with this awesome warm weather lately. I haven't even checked to see if the kids have pants that fit!
Happy Friday Night!

R.I.P. Hamtaro

I'm sorry to say, Hamtaro passed away this morning. We're not really sure what happened. He escaped from his cage yesterday... and this morning Shea "brought" him to me. We think maybe he just had a heart attack or something. He was almost 2 1/2 years old.
Art made this adorable little coffin for him. (Anyone recognize the old tablecloth!?) Samantha decorated it. Art made it totally freehand... and it was just the perfect size.

***warning, you may not want to see the next picture...***





As you can see, Hamtaro fit perfectly in Art's little coffin. Yes, I know it's a bit morbid to have a picture of a dead hamster... but I couldn't resist.
Samantha is pretty upset. But I think she knew this was coming... she knows the life expectancy of a hamster is only 2 years.
Colby was really upset too... he's the one who found him, so he's a little traumatized.
Will was perfectly fine with it though. Didn't shed a tear. He's the one who picked the hamster up and put him in a box for me.
So interesting how different they all are.
Well, rest in peace Hamataro... You were a great hamster.

Onto some other Leahon news...
Samantha's cheerleading squad has competition in just 3 days. Wish them luck!! We have to be at the coach's house at 6 am on Sunday morning... ooph! It will be a fun, long day!

"A light at the end of the tunnel" says Art

This is the back of the house. That big hole is the hole Art made for a slider door to go in. Notice how all of the other windows are nice new windows?
And here is the new slider door!! Woo hoo!! You can see that there is a big piece of plywood behind it (inside). Well that is because Art still has to work on, and we have to put some locks on it so that no one (the little ones especially) open it up and fall out.
And that piece of wood underneath it... that is where our deck will be eventually (next year I hope!)
Hard to see in the picture, but all of the windows are in!!! Art is so excited-- we all are!! Some of the windows are damaged and they have been re-ordered. But he says it's not too hard to just change them. I hope he's right!! And now onto siding.
And here's something fun we did today!! We went to Plaster Planet and painted!! Samantha made a Christmas gift for Nellie and Braelyn (a unicorn), Hannah did Blue's Clues, Colby did Patrick from Spongebob and Will did a plaque that says "Homework Causes Brain Damage". Isn't he cute?
The other people there had a hard time believing Hannah wasn't part of our family :) She does look a lot like Colby with the red hair... but no...