A menagerie of events in this post!

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to get to accompany Rooster's first grade classes to the Dolphin exhibit at the Mirage.  I am grateful my name was chosen to be a Chaperone.  There were so many parents that wanted to go they had to draw names out of a hat.  I lucked out! What an interesting trip though.  The bus driver got lost, confused, disoriented, or all of the above.  So you can picture her in your mind, she was wearing a little sassy police style looking black hat with a badge on the front of it and she played Snoop Dogg music.  Yeah, no joke, true story. She took us the long, back way to the Mirage past all the showgirl supply stores and strip clubs.   One of the little boys goes- "Oooohhh look at that naked lady picture! Gross!! She's in her underwear!" Thank-you bus driver. Yeah, again, true story.  Interesting to say the least.  

Finally an hour longer then it should have taken, we arrived in the back alley of the Mirage casino.  Inviting place with the garbage trucks driving by and the service trucks.  There were our sweet little first graders unloading off the bus to go see the dolphins and tigers.   

We did get to see all the animals but it was a bit rushed.  I was trying to ask them questions about the Panther, and they started moving on to the next animal.  Wait! I wanted to know why if the Panther was a "carnivore" was it eating the grass? Evidently they didn't have time for us to ask questions.  One of the helpers did tell me the Panther was just like a dog, they eat grass if they have an upset stomach then the puke it up. Nice.  I really liked the secret garden and would love to bring the boys back another time and spend some time watching the lions and panthers.  The black leopard was FREAKY! It's eyes were crazy eyes.  Definately not an animal I would like to meet along it the Costa Rican jungle!

We had a great time going on the field trip.   I'm lucky to be able to do these types of activities with the boys!

This week I did some more cleaning, laundry, more floors and played with the Gunman.  When the boys got home from school we did homework for quite a while.  You would not believe how much homework they send home! Bean is getting better and better each day with everything.  He is starting to write his own name and can finally write words if I tell him what letters to write.  This is a big step so we are excited.  He is trying, it's just he gets SO distracted and has a REALLY hard time concentrating.  How do you teach a TV to learn when it's switching the channel ever 10 seconds? That's truely what it's like working with him.  You get him for 10 seconds of time every few minutes.  

I've decided that I need to be a better mom and start watching for box tops.  I haven't been good about it in the past and its a shame.  All that money that people are just throwing away.  It's free money for our schools, and they need it so bad right now.  I went through my cabinets and look at all the box tops we had! I sent them with Bean to school.  Hopefully it helped! So far this year the boys' schools have earned over $1000 each. 

This is for Rooster's accomplishment. (I blurred out his name on the document) What a great job Roost!

 We had a huge moon this week! I guess this was the yearly "Harvest" moon.  It looked pretty cool.

Tuesday night of this week the boys had first a BMX practice and then a race on Thursday night.  I did not take part in the practice night.  Kes and I divided and conquered as I call it.  I had LOADS of groceries to buy from Sams Club tonight with the Gunman.  Can you believe how full my cart was? And this was the cart 1 of 2.  The next one doesn't have nearly as much, but somehow I hit just below the $400 mark.  Man, good thing I don't by Organic! That would be 3 times that amount! But I understand the boys had a good time at BMX practice. I guess Bean struggled a little bit but had a lot of fun.  Kes said he just forget's he's riding a bike and gets laxidasical a lot.  I know he had two catastrophes however.  One: he tipped over the starting gate and crashed.  The track manager said that was the first time he has ever seen somebody do that.  And two, right after the crash, he went around the corner and had another crash.  This one broke his break lever off the bike.  Nice..... glad we are making hallmark events. 

The photos below are from Thursday night when the boys had an actual race.  Bean did A LOT better this night.  I was so glad their Great Grandparents were able to come.  How neat is that to have Great Grandparents still alive? I tried to take some pictures, but unfortunately I didn't have my good camera, so these are just off my iPhone (sorry, a lot of my pictures are off my iPhone, but at least its easy and always with me)

Gunman and Great Grandma

Group shot

The Gunman enjoying the perfect 80 degree temperatures

What a great night though! Rooster took first and Bean third.  They did great!

Here's a video from the Main event. 

Last night we had a tri-ward luau at the church.  It was a lot of fun! This is them cooking the pig in a pit! How cool is that?

This is the sweet Gunman playing in the church afterwards. Such a good baby. 

 And I will leave you with yet another video of my sweet Gunman.  This is a present I bought from my friend Adrienne that loves VW buses.  It was used, so I wanted to make sure it worked before I gave it to her.  Gunman loved it!