The girl transformer

I found this little wild woman on the side of 51 on 7/25 driving home. Shelters are full, she is a dreaded black dog that are often the first to be put down, and she is really smart (and really cute). She sleeps & lives in our courtyard like the queen of the castle. She and Star play and wrestle and then ask for a break (At least Star does!). Luke's first comment when he saw her was "We can keep her?" and he is learning about guarding against a puppy's energy levels. He named her Arcee (RC) after the girl transformer. Makes sense and you can see it reads well on a tag...Everyone needs a puppy as a new school year begins, right? At least we are in better shape every day due to the extra (fast) walks!

Back to School

 On my first day back to work, my fellas were frolicking on the beach, but the left me a cute and supportive card to wish me a happy school year :)

 My dad snuck into my office before I got there to add this bouquet of sunshine - xoxo

 And, I took this girl out for a swim at Grassy. Starting the year off right...Here we go!

A Sweet Suite

Just for the memory of it, I have these two blurry photos of our party animal to add to the blog. We had an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G evening at The Four Seasons in St. Louis before Steve and Luke left for Boston.

Mall Outing & Other

Summer means lemon shake-ups - Yum! 

 Trips to the Science Center when it is too hot to play outside -

 King of the dinosaurs :) This one had a long orange tongue that 'shot icy lava' according to Luke.

 Rice area...fun with new kids

 Enjoying a 'little rest' on the way back to the exit

 Mom, enough pictures already :)

Summer Beauty

And the moonflowers are out of control amazing...love the beauty, love the beauty

Today was fun

"quotes"

 "Mommy, I'll be your blanket" The best one I've ever had...note Ironman taking a nap with us...

 "I grow because I eat food!" The size of his feet shocked me here...so big!

 "These cars are full of transformer toys!" & "The tanker cars are full of chocolate milk" Exactly.

 "I want a cheese quesadilla! Please!" Bumblebee joined us for lunch :)

 "Now it is time for dessert!" So we took our Larry's birthday muffins (no birthday, we just went to Mailboxes, etc...and Luke looked up when we parked and said "I want to go to Larry's!" which is next door)

 We found a shady spot at a park to have an "Ironhide" picnic.

 Luke loved the cupcake (all two bites that he took) and loved playing cowboy Luke 'riding his horse Whitey" even more in the back of Ironhide

Yum! Luke, you are such a gift. I think often that I am lucky to be a witness to your development and growth, let alone be your MOM! Love you, baby.

Some others:
--chuckle at the lunch table from Luke followed by "I just remembered sumpin' from when we were on the train with Gpa Nick. He had a newspaper that I folded and hit him on the head" LAUGHTER
--"Mommy, daddy and I know all about the transformers" after I asked him for clarification (again)abut which character was which color...
--"I am a robot scientist" At Harbaugh's this morning as he transformed Bumblebee with no directions
--"Mommy, I know some stuff. I am a little bit smart like Daddy" I replied that his daddy is the smartest person I know & told Luke he is catching him pretty quickly ;)
--"I don't want to get a boo boo from holding that picture frame" At the store getting a frame where he held a frame 8 months ago and it cut his finger (minor cut) impressive memory!
--"I want to sleep with the light on" & "rub my back, scratch my back, rub my belly...giggle"
--"Mommy, I need to give you a kiss/tell you a secret/come play with me"
--"I am going to hold baby Violet's legs if she sits on my shoulders. AND I will not let her get her head wet in the ocean. I will sing "Rock a bye" to baby Violet"
--"That's just the way I roll"
--"That's the way my brain works, mommy!"