44

thats what the temp was when we got up this morning. Pass me the ice scraper. Honestly, Frankie said this morning when we went outside to walk cho cho at about 7, "It feels like ice out here!" At least they say that cold crisp nights and sunny nice days (like today!) make for beautiful fall foliage. bring on the football and hot chocolate!

update....

various and sundry

Our tomatoes are finally turning red. Frankie's favorite job is to run out to the backyard and pick tomatoes for supper. She is really good at it too. She also picked our lone little piece of broccoli. We did not plant broccoli this year, so this was a little orphan from last years broccoli crop. It was tiny a one, but we cut it in fourths to share.

Then Bee is just about ready to lose her first tooth! Her adult tooth is already growing in behind it, so the baby tooth is sort of just sitting there, sticking out perpendicular to the rest of her teeth. that thing is hanging on by a thread. But she does not really want to pluck it out. I told her that today i was tying a string to it, hooking the string to cho cho's leash and then pointing cho cho towards a squirrel. She did not seem to like that idea!

Kind of embarrassing...

So i got intro Detroit from NYC at 8pm and decided that I would rent a car to get home. Otherwise if I took the bus I wouldnt get home till after 11pm. So I called National and made a reservation, took the shuttle over to the car rental place to pick up my car, and because I have "Emerald Club" all i had to do was pick a car, jump in it, and drive to the exit booth, where i show my credit car and drivers license. So, I did that, and the lady in the booth says to me, do you have your license extension? And I said , what? And she said your license extension. I said, I didnt know what she was talking about. She then proceeded to tell me that my drivers license was expired. I guess it expired on friday (my b-day). I had to back up the car from the exit booth, park it, grab my stuff, get back on the shuttle bus to go back to the airport (at which point the driver asks me what the problem is and why I couldnt get a car), and head to the airport to await my bus ride to east lansing. Man, was I cranky. 2 days later it is kind of funny.

back to school specials, part 2

I was working at home this morning and bee and frankie were playing together nicely. About an hour later they came downstairs and frankie says "Hey Bee, you gotta look at this!". I not sure what was funnier, the tiny magnifying glass trained on the completely rotted out carrot, or Frankie's "back to school" outfit #2. She definitely will have a full wardrobe for Pre-K (K CLub) which starts in a couple of weeks!!
































And, lets not forget Cho Cho. Now if I could just train her to respond to instead of just send those emails that would be great!

swimming

Here are a few pics of the girls at swimming lessons. They love the pool! We went yesterday and Bee was practicing her front float (she has to be able to do it for 3 seconds by herself to pass level 1). So she practiced and practiced yesterday and by the end of our time in the pool. she could float for 10 seconds and "underwater swim" (which is kicking and paddling while doing the front float). It was amazing to see how much she has improved this summer! Frankie started "walking underwater" yesterday, which means walking down the stairs into the pool with her eyes open until she is walking under water. Now that is hilarious!

new styles for back to school

frankie and bee were playing school while i was getting ready for supper. Anyhow when Frankie came downstairs for a second to check on the supper preparation progress this is what i found.

Cho Cho and Teddy

Cho Cho and Teddy had a lot of fun playing. And considering Cho Cho is about 15 pounds and Teddy is about 70 pounds, it was also a lot of fun to watch!!

A little tired

We had friends stay over friday night to saturday, and they had their 7 month old lab with them. Cho Cho and Teddy played non stop. They also had their two kids with them, with whom Bee and Frankie also played nonstop. This is what our household looked like yesterday afternoon...

lemonade and cookie stand

The girls had their lemonade and cookie stand on friday. They made sprinkle cookies and chocolate chip cookies. They made the cookies on thursday night and friday afternoon, and worked on the poster in the morning. We set up the stand at 4pm in hopes of catching the Collingwood rush hour traffic. (ha ha). At about 4:07, the girls started eating their profits. They kept the stand open till about 5.30 and sold two plates of cookies. Frankie would scream at the top of her lungs: Lemonade and Cookies by Frankie and Bee! Ive got to say they got college kids, some families in the neighborhood, and the crazy lady to stop on by. Uh, i guess you can see we didnt make the lemonade ourselves.

Our trip to the children's garden

Usually the garden is a bit browner, but the cold and wet summer has left the garden remarkably beautiful!! Bee loved the sheep, Frankie loved running around and the lily pads, and Cho Cho had total sensory overload. Of course, the children's garden is near the MSU Dairy Store so we had delicious treats there. Frankie picked vanilla, Bee picked Blue Moon, and I picked Coconut Chocolate Almond. Cho Cho picked all three as she sampled from the three of us! Poor Scotty was at work!!! So close and yet so far away!

We baked a bunch of cookies today because Bee and Frankie want to have a "lemonade and cookie" stand. The girls made choco chip and sugar cookies with stars. They did a really nice job measuring the ingrediants, cracking eggs, mixing, tasting batter. We'll try to catch rush hour down Collingwood. Im a bit nervous about it all. What if no one stops? What if someone finds a dog hair in the cookie. ha ha Just kidding on that one (I hope!). I think we will charge 10 cents because I cant imagine charging more. Seriously, what do people charge these days in lemonade stands? I saw one in NYC where kids were charging a dollar. That seemed a little stiff even by NYC standards.

Can you find Cho Cho?

OK, she is actually easy to spot in this picture, but in real life she was sort of camaflaged by the orange flowers. We were walking to the children's garden when Cho Cho found these!