Prodded to FREEDOM!

In the dirty pool water.

Yes, I drained the pool and power washed it. I 'm letting it air dry and then deflating it and packing it up.

Finally in the great outdoors!
A close up of the little cutie.

Hopefully our little tree frog will spend a fruitful night croaking his love in the bushes instead of on our back porch. I managed to convince him (using a plastic child's coat hanger) to leave his hiding spot on the glass door. He jumped down into the very dirty pool water and tried unsuccessfully to evade me. I scooped his little swimming self up and quickly deposited him outside the porch door. Luckily, I had NO help from Skipper or Cassidy or the outcome may have been much more dire.

Our Florida Alarm Clock

This is where he went to hide from us. I'm taking the picture from inside our living room looking out of the sliding glass doors to the back porch.

Reed and Cassidy were both awake this morning before I was. I heard feet pitter pattering and whispered giggles. They were both convinced we had a cricket in the house. So, we listened carefully and the sound was coming from our back porch. Cassidy and I went out there and discovered the source of the racket...a tree frog lookin' for love (in all the wrong places!). So, now I'm trying to figure out the best way to move him into the backyard without injuring him in any way. These little guys can move very quickly. They are awfully cute too!

Fishing the Flats

Reed and a little gag grouper. We released him quickly so he can grow big enough for us to eat some other day!
My little tree frog!
Check out my HUGE sea bass...not. Incidentally, this is the only fish I caught that day that was NOT a pin fish. But I had fun anyway.
Randy with a gag grouper...isn't he cute? Randy, not the grouper.
Reed and the needle(?) fish.

I can't believe I've forgotten the name of this fish and Randy is in Puerto Rico and Reed is at school. I'm sure if I am wrong someone will let me know. By the way, despite the strangle hold my son has on the fish, it did survive.

We had a great time Saturday on Paul and Lori's boat. We spent a couple of hours fishing and then a hour or so swimming before heading in. We saw a couple of dolphins jumping/playing quite near the boat and we also had a bonnet head shark swim by...but I didn't have the camera ready. There were quite a few sea urchins and spider crabs at the place we went swimming. It was neat to see them up close. Of course, my little crab-boy Reed had to fill up a bucket with spider crabs. He had fun. Thanks Paul and Lori for the fun afternoon.

Equal Opportunity Bragging!

Cassidy writing her name...she's adding the missing I.
Her name.

So far she hasn't asked me why we gave her a long name

while her brother's has only 4 letters.

She decided to write Reed's name on the driveway.It was backwards and has some obvious issues with the "E", but I am VERY proud!

Lest anyone worry, I am equally proud of Miss Cassidy and have NO trouble bragging about her! She is learning and growing so much. I have really enjoyed watching her explore the things that interest HER over the past year. Once Reed began Kindergarten last year, she had 3 days at our house without someone bigger planning all the activities. I was amazed at how quietly she played AND (this is huge) how she would play BY HERSELF! Puzzles, Legos, play doh - she really likes to manipulate objects and bring order.


And she is a big helper in the housework department. My mom taught her about allowances and getting paid for doing jobs...so I keep some quarters handy and she frequently requests a job so she can get her allowance. She can't remember the word allowance, but she describes it as "putting money in her little cup."


With Reed back in school now, she and I decided to work on her letters. She actually enjoys sitting down with flashcards or practicing writing. She knows more letters than I think she does. We had not worked on the letter "R", but she wrote Reed's name on the driveway.


(This is new territory for me. Reed NEVER voluntarily sat down to practice letters or writing...so we didn't really do it at home until he began bringing home homework last year. Praise God that he isn't behind in his class!)


Cass is in preschool 3 mornings a week this year and due to her birthday (Sept. 16), she has another year of preschool after this one. We've got plenty of time to master reading basics.


In short, I love having a few days with Cassidy to myself. She is a delight to be around - an incredibly happy spirit. She is one of the smiliest kids...even when she is systematically destroying something...she's just smiling away and really thinking how proud you'll be of her. There isn't a mean-spirited bone in her body (well, unless Reed tries to take over what she is doing...then watch out - she is no small fry).She is incredibly rambunctious and she wears me out...not to mention frequently bruising her spinning, twirling, jumping, running self. One sweet and, unfortunately, sincere lady at church suggested we purchase a helmet for Cass to protect her head and face. She is definitely a rough and tumble princess (all tangled curls and pink fingernails)and I am SO proud of her!

Labor Day!

Examining the catch.
A striped burr fish that Reed netted. Click on the picture and it will enlarge so you can really see the little guy well. He is so cool!
Reed fishing
Cassidy practicing with her mask.
Okay, so this is not the greatest picture, but I wanted to prove I was there.

So, guess where we went on Labor Day? Yep...Emerson Point. And yes, we had a great time...as usual.

I'm so proud of him!

Reed is showing his addition skills off for his Dad.
Randy has been working with Reed each night for about 10 minutes on math. Reed LOVES working with his Dad.

Reed is 2 weeks into 1st grade and I am already so proud of him. Every day he comes home with new skills and knowledge. His reading, writing and math are improving daily. And he likes school and makes friends easily. What a great kid!

Yes, I am his mommy and completely biased...what's your point?!

Soggy Football

While a simple rain coat was sufficient for 3 of us, someone (read Randy)needed a bit more...or a WHOLE LOT more.
My sticky, cotton candy loving boy!
Sticky, cutie girl!

We had a great time at the USF football game this past Saturday night. A good friend of ours is an athletic trainer for UT-Martin and called to say she could get us some tickets to their game against USF in Tampa. Randy, of course, jumped at the chance. So we got to go to Raymond James Stadium (home of the Buccaneers) to the game. Thanks, Dani - we had a blast!

It poured rain all afternoon before the game. My husband, the weather fanatic, was tracking the storms and said it looked like there would be a break in the weather about the time the game would start. So we packed up all of our snacks and rain gear and left, IN THE POURING RAIN, to go to a football game in an outdoor stadium. And, of course, Randy was exactly right. It quit raining at the kick off and didn't rain again. We stayed through half time and the kids really enjoyed the half time shows (and the cotton candy).

I really enjoyed watching Randy get all decked out in his rain gear before we walked in to the stadium (to his credit, it was still lightly raining at that point). I guess if the game didn't work out, he could have always gone salmon fishing. Can you just see me laughing AT him.