Eeek! The Animal Man

We like guinea piggies, they are safe.

Ash gets right in the mix

He felt like an ear of corn (or so I'm told)

"My want to touch him!"

I took Ashton to a birthday party today while Mason went to Mimi's house and Sean stayed home with Blake. This was one of the most entertaining kid parties I have ever been forced to attend/attended. They had an "animal man" as the entertainment, and, if you want to get twenty 3 and 4 year-olds to sit still and pay attention, this is your guy. He was funny, he was informative, and the animals were not the usual classroom suspects. He brought (If I can remember them all) a tree frog (Woody), a mouse (Oreo) , two doves, a lizard, a chinchilla (who took a dirt bath, much to the host-mom's chagrin), a guinea pig, and the big show stopper: a white rat snake named Snow (shudder).

Here is Ash with the snake, watch his mood change from "cool" to "oh shit, there is a snake wrapped around my midsection!":

He was the only party goer to freak out, but I found my self thinking: rightfully so! The man called him "your snake belt" and when Snow nuzzled Ashy's fly, that's when the fun went out the window. Fortunately after that (and vigorous hand washing and forced hand-sanitizing) we had cake. Cake is the three year old wrinkle smoother, anxiety balm and order restorer. What can possibly be troubling you when your teeth are stained green from delicious frosting grass?

Yesterday I had a date night with my Mason, and it was so sweet. We went to see Marley and Me, and while I'm not happy about the S-E-X (look Mase, your popcorn is almost gone! How funny! lets focus on that for a minute or so...) and the frequent use of son-of-a-bitch, I had a great time with Mase. He held it together pretty well in the theater, but sobbed all of the way home like his heart was breaking. He said : "At least...sob, sniff sniff I got to...wahhh..sob, sob...spend some time alone with my moooooooooooommmmmm...sob, sob, and more uncontrollable sobbing".

Tomorrow we get to see Grandma and Papa, and we are excited to celebrate Papa's b-day and to show them all of the new things Blake is doing (biting, sitting, etc.).

I need to get chopping!

Oh Yeah-

CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Sanford. We wish we could have made it to the party, but we're so happy for you and the boys all the same.