Caution: 16-Year-Old at the Wheel!

Tomorrow will be my niece's 16th birthday and she has been diligently working hard on her driving skills and practice hours for the past year. But this past Saturday was my dog-niece's 16th birthday, and in celebration of that, my hilarious sister and brother-in-law sent this message to our family yesterday. It made me laugh, so I decided to post it here, too!

"Well, Chelsea beat Rachel to the punch by just 3 days. As it turns out in dog years, Chelsea became a 16-year-old on Saturday. She immediately took the highways as seen in the pictures attached. (As it turns out, Illinois allows a dog to drive on their dog license alone!). We will keep you posted on any further 16-year-old's happenings! - Brian, Mary, Rachel and Emily (and Chelsea!)"

Happy Sweet Sixteen, Chelsea and Rachel!

A Wintertime Plank Walk Adventure

There's a beautiful trail in Connecticut called the Plank Walk. In February, we took an adventurous hike through the snowy woods, only to find that the planks we were hoping to walk across were submerged in standing water!


But did that make us sad? Oh my goodness, no! Just look at all these happy hikers' faces!

April Fools

This morning, Jacob had an orthodontist appointment to get the first phase of braces started. He was not looking forward to it.

So he yells downstairs to me: "Mom, is it OK if I wear my powdered wig today for April Fools? I stapled some of it so it looks better."

Me: "Uh, sure, buddy. Whatever you want."

I wish I could show you the funny looks and comments he got. I think he mostly enjoyed them, and they were all certainly given to him in the spirit of joy and silliness. The funniest part for me was when the appointment was nearly over, I went in to talk with the dental assistant and noticed that the wig was (a) still on his head and (b) now waaaaay off kilter to one side. Hilarious! Also funny was a couple minutes later when Jacob opened his mouth to speak and a HUGE glob of saliva literally poured out of his mouth like a river. Poor kid -- your momma is laughing at you!!! And the dental assistant, too! Good thing it's April Fools Day!

Another funny thing happened when the boys checked the computer to see what was goofy on April Fools Day. Who knew that they were anticipating this "holiday" so much?? (Not me, obviously...) Anyway, Alex enthusiastically announced, "Mom! Google is now Topeka!"

And finally, in case you were wondering what Jacob had up to his mouth in that picture above, it is, in fact, a hose nozzle, as you may have guessed. What you might not have guessed is that this is his homemade tube trombone. (No, it is not a floor-lint sucker, although it could possibly pass as one and might even function that way?!?) The 4th graders have to create homemade musical instruments that can produce more than one pitch. I think he might get a Wow/A on this one. It actually sounds pretty good -- take a listen for yourself.


And just for reference, this is what the powdered wig looked like before it was stapled and adjusted. It was first used as a beard for his Professor Dumbledore costume, but was modified in February to be a wig for a classroom social studies project. The thing is, the project was replicating an 1800s schoolhouse setting, during which Jacob and his friend had to present a poem written in the 1700s, so they needed to (attempt to) dress the part. Nothing like a complicated story becoming even more complicated! All I can say is, that beard/wig was the best $6.99 I spent all year so far!