Hamsters, tomboys, & superheroes, oh my!

Don't you hate it when you go to save your post and it erases? So happy that happened.

So, starting over--my favorite quotes from this week?

CBC: "I'm half-boy and half-girl. That means I'm a tomboy and I can do whatever I want."

Buddy: Playing with his Superman and Batman toys: "You killed my father!" and "Wanna piece of me?!"

This has been a busy month, as usual. I went on a 3-day weekend trip to Oregon with my sister-in-law--we shopped and went sight-seeing and had an overall great time! (Enjoy the picture of me practically blowing off the coast.) The kids missed me a lot, though, so I tried to make up for it by taking two days off this week to spend with them while Clark was at a work conference. Right before we left, we found out Buddy had the flu and pneumonia, so that was a definite drag for him (poor guy!), but I think Toys R Us, Target, and Chuck E. Cheese made up for it :) Buddy seriously thought Toys R Us was the greatest store ever, and feeding the tickets into the ticket machine at Chuck E. Cheese was a definite highlight. And CBC loved playing the big sister and showing little brother how everything worked.

This month we also were happy to see friends from college--we used to live by them in Arizona and haven't seen them in a few years, so it was really enjoyable to show them our fair city (Seattle, not Maple Valley :) ). It's so crazy to see friends' kids growing up when you remember them as babies.

Now that school is back in, we've started swimming lessons again. CBC loves jumping off the diving board, and just overall being in the water. Buddy walked the plank but couldn't actually bring himself to jump off. I presume he was imaging himself as Spider-man at the time. Or Superman. Or Batman. Or Lightning McQueen. Or Buzz Lightyear. I think I've overdone it with heroic toys :)

And to top it off, CBC decided she wanted a hamster instead of a dog. Of course, this lasted all of a week before she admitted she just wanted the hamster as a warm-up. Good thing Superman held me off from buying one! Now her plan is to learn how to take care of dogs by walking neighbor dogs. Her flier is very impressive.

And the violin came home this week! You should hear my girl play! I'll post a video as soon as I think the general audience can stand it :)