Ten on Tuesday

1. I need a fox. A week or so ago, I discovered that our neighborhood rabbits really like some of the plants we had so carefully planted out front. Apparently, the rabbit population in our neighborhood is high this year, as a number of our neighbors have also been having problems. Upon talking with them and thinking on it, we used to have some foxes in the neighborhood. I haven't seen any lately. Do you suppose I could call animal control and have them drop a fox or two in our parts? ;) 

In the meantime...two things. First, thankfully the nursery we bought the plants from has a one year guarantee so we went and exchanged our poor eaten plants for new (hopefully rabbit-resistant) plants. Two, I read somewhere that pepper repels rabbits so have been sprinkling both black pepper and red pepper flakes around the remaining plant we have that matches the ones eaten by the rabbits. So far it's doing well. Fingers crossed.

2. While exchanging plants to replace our poor eaten ones, we also bought more for a few more pots for out front now that the last bush is gone. I've assured Nathan I'm mostly done (with the front yard, excluding wanting a new front door and such, lol) for now. ;)

3. My youngest two regaled me with their newfound skill yesterday. Yup. They can burp the alphabet. I'm so proud. ;)

4. I mailed off our completed PASS tests for the year yesterday! Whew. Glad to have that just done. (I administer the PASS tests every other year as a means of meeting the homeschool law testing requirement here in Colorado. I don't actually much care about the tests, as I already have a very good idea what the boys know and don't know, lol.)

5. Randomly, Micah has decided to start drawing Pokemon characters. He's not bad. :) I'll take some pictures soon. He's already got almost a dozen.

6. Though he's miffed at the rabbits now, Micah continues to try to get close enough to hug them. Well. He alternates between trying to hug them and chasing them away with enthusiasm, lol. His latest tactic is to use his stuffies...holding one out in front of him in the hopes that the stuffie is less intimidating than the boy. It actually appears to work a bit...as he's gotten much closer (like within a foot) than ever before. He's still not succeeded in catching any, though. (I've pointed out that we have plenty of friends with rabbits who would be happy to let him hold them. He's stubbornly continuing to try to catch the neighborhood rabbits.)

7. Last week, I finally had a chance to go see the movie "Mom's Night Out" with friends. It was co-written/directed/produced by a homeschooler and is a touching, hilarious, fun story. If you can still find it in a theater, go see it!

8. Nathan and the boys bought the supplies to make a simple fire pit in the backyard. The goal is to finish that up in the evenings this week. I'll keep you posted. :)

9. I actually did some "back to school" shopping with Noah today. I know it's still only June, but I had one of those super cash coupon things that expires tomorrow, so we went and picked up some more tees, a hoodie and some khakis (that he'll need for JOAD). I know I joke about how he's a pretty picky dresser and all, but I have to admit that he's pretty easy to shop with...his very specific requirements limit the selections quickly, lol. So. It's easy to tell when we're done looking. 

10. Noah got his new bow today. He's happy...

This one *should* fit him for years, and he's got it mostly all tweaked the way he wants it for now.  

Whew. 

Comic Con: Things Learned

So. As you can tell, Comic Con rocked! ;) Asher, Micah and I are already planning to go again next year. In efforts to wrap things up, here are some random things we learned and observed...

• Go over the map in advance. (We missed a section entirely and definitely want to hit that next year. It was probably okay for this year, as we were already pretty overwhelmed with the newness of everything and I'd have had trouble getting boys back out of the gaming section, lol.)
• Apparently bodysuit costumes boost confidence, particularly those with full face masks.
• Fishnet stockings do NOT equal pants. ;)
• If you plan to purchase prints or posters, it might be a good idea to bring a tube or portfolio to carry them in.
• Go ahead and park in the convention center parking garage...so convenient and I don't really think I'd have found parking for that amount of time much cheaper anywhere else nearby.
• Bring a water bottle. There are fountains near every bathroom with faucets for refilling water bottles. Much cheaper than the $4 little bottled water at the concessions.
• In the panels and presentations, perhaps don't sit right next to the speakers (which we did twice in trying to make sure boys could see, lol).
• Thankfully, my boys recognized that paying for autographs and photo ops seemed extravagant. They still enjoyed learning about who was there but have decided that really only a few people would be worth paying for...Stan Lee, Robert Downey, Jr., the Mythbusters, Picard/Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and/or Gandalf/Magneto (Ian McKellen)...along with other members of the Avengers and the Lord of the Rings casts, lol. 
• Relatedly, they were quite bummed to have missed their old karate instructor who was there at a booth with another comic artist. (MJ is an artist whose work the boys have hanging proudly in their rooms.)
• Be careful with capes and long skirts on escalators. (Fortunately, we didn't have any issues with this, but I could so clearly see that we could have, lol.)

Whew.

This was the final picture we took as we were leaving Comic Con.

Awesome. :) 

Five on Friday

Taking a break from the Comic Con posts (which are *almost* done, promise!)...just five other random things in my head:

1. I find it hilarious that Noah is bothered by the fact that our silverware drawer isn't organized "properly." He'll deny it, but he's mentioned it to me on more than one occasion lately. He thinks the spoons should be on the right and the forks on the left, as they are when you set a table. ;) (Nevermind the fact that we rarely set a proper table...) Being as Micah is in charge of putting away the silverware, though, we'll apparently leave things as they are. :)
2. Asher was texting a friend the other day and suddenly asked the room at large, "What the heck is colon capital P?" :P
3. Micah's been projecting his troublemaking on Koaly of late...blaming all sorts of things on him and having him get into trouble. Needless to say, Koaly's been receiving a good bit of instruction and disciplining lately. ;)
4. If you happen to see Nathan these days, he's switched to contacts...after losing his glasses in the Pacific while in Hawaii for work last week, lol.
5. We're *this* close to finishing up our academic year! (Just one (light) week to go...) Soooooo excited for having July off!

Happy weekend to y'all!

Comic Con: Characters (part 2)

And it wouldn't be right without a photo op with Darth Vader...

(This was not a live person, but that didn't matter to the boys.)

Nor did they care that they attempted to kill sweet little Ewok models...

And we just had to get a picture with Professor X, Magneto and Jane Grey...

We wish we'd thought of it sooner but only managed one picture with another Loki. We saw a handful of other Loki and Thor's at the convention, but no other Frigga's. :)

Whew. Comic Con rocks! 

Comic Con: Characters We Posed With (part 1)

We didn't realize it ahead of time, but apparently it's the thing to do to stop complete strangers and ask to take their picture or to take a picture with them while at Comic Con. ;) We missed a number of opportunities toward the start but managed a number of fun shots...

Admittedly, some of these aren't live characters. They still count. ;)

First up was Azog, the big ugly Orc in the Hobbit movies...

(This was pretty early on, so I couldn't convince them to cower and pretend, lol.)

They also particularly enjoyed Gollum:

(For some reason, Micah reserved his smiles for when he was pretending to attack people, lol. When posing as Loki, he had a strictly serious face.)

And we got stopped by a SHIELD agent who even asked to see Asher's hammer and then pretended she couldn't lift it. :)

And Micah chased down this Gandalf after the cartoon voices panel to get his picture taken with him...

This is Allen Bellman. He was awesome. The boys were quite impressed that he actually knows and is friends with Stan Lee. We purchased one of his prints, had him sign it and got this great picture with him:

(He managed to get Micah to smile. He was quite insistent, lol.)

More coming...