It's a Jungle Out There!

We have somewhat of an animal problem in our backyard. The kids all think it's great because we don't have any pets. They have gone and named all of the animals. We however (Steve and I) aren't because well, you'll see. The first varmit, is a squirrel. The kids have named it Mr./Mrs. Nutterworth (aren't sure whether it's a boy or a girl). It is living in our rocks in the backyard. If you look at about the middle of the picture, amongst all the watermelon plants, you can see it sticking it's head out of the hole. The pain about the squirrel is it has burrowed a little nest behind the rocks. It has gone in and pushed all of the dirt out from behind all of the rocks and made him/herself right at home. Our concern is what happens now. Will it stay through the winter? Is it building up a food supply behind those rocks to last? Who knows. I did catch Jenna and Jayden outside with a bag of trail mix trying to leave the squirrel some nuts. Had to put an end to that one!

Here the squirrel is running back to it's home:

Our second set of "guests" in the backyard, are a family, of quail. There are twelve of them in all. And every morning they come through our backyard, and play a bit, before hopping over the back fence and leaving. It is a morning ritual though. The funny thing is we have seen the squirrel watching them in the backyard. Here they are making their exit:

Also over the summer, we had two Doves make a nest in one of our trees and then a family of Robins make a nest in another tree. Like I said the kids were really excited about the whole thing, but if it is a continual problem. I don't think Steve and I will be.

The first bus ride

Finally the day we have all been waiting for arrived! And yes, we all were excited for it because now she can stop talking about it! Jenna got to ride the bus! And here is the full account:

She stood in line and waited... She waited patiently inching up to the bus, no pushing or shoving...

Then she hopped on...(I almost missed it)

And then she found her seat. I was hoping she would at least look out the window and wave, but I just had to settle for getting her head.

Whew! Melissa helped her at school get off the bus and then find the correct line to stand in until the bell rang for school to start. Which was nice for me because I didn't have to then drive to the school. After school was out, the morning bus was kind of late dropping off the Kindergartners, so when she got home, the afternoon bus was there picking up the afternoon kids. When that bus drove off, there were four cars of Moms and Dads following the bus, to help their kids when they got to school make sure they got to the right place. Which is funny because the teachers are already out there ready to greet the kids when they get to school.