Yes, school started, we went back to ice skating, Girl Scouts started back up, but it is no excuse. So, here are a few funny stories for you.
Graveyards- We played with a little girl this summer who
taught C all about driving past a graveyard. C will tell you that you have to hold your breath when driving past so you will not wake the spirits. This was sweet at first, but after driving around Galveston a bit, I realized how funny it was. To get to C's school we pass a four block long one with stoplights at either end. To get to my school you have to drive around one. To get to the skating rink we pass three! There is lots of breath holding and gesturing at me to stop talking. After every one she lectures me to stop talking. We now have a complex set of rules governing when I can talk that includes number of cars between us
and the
cemetery, if those cars are playing music and if we are driving faster than the
speed limit.
Overpasses- the same week C learned about the graveyard she told me she had to hold her hands on
the roof of the car as you pass under another road. She can be seen holding her breath (cheeks puffed out , eyes bugging out) and holding the roof up fairly often.
punch
buggie- Hunter used to drive a Tahoe and Caroline would see them on the road and yell "Tahoe". She was pretty good at it (maybe 4 years old) with just a few Explorers and Suburbans thrown in. This summer someone
taught her about slug bugs. She understood the game, but there aren't enough
Volkswagens around for her to
truly catch on to the type of car she is looking for. This last weekend we saw four and was in heaven.
Car colors- You pick one color and she picks one color and you count the number of cars you see of that color while you are driving. I liked this game
because it kept her entertained and she was counting in big numbers since she usually picks silver or red. I pick yellow- easy to see, not
alot of them. The other day I asked if I could pick
RV's. She agreed and I thought I had hit on another easy one, until I realized we w
ere going to pass two RV parks and at least one RV sales lot. I won my first game that day.
A couple of my girls missed the bridging in May and I wanted to make sure it happened before we started back up in the fall. We happened to be all together for a swim party and I went for it. 
C was in her swimsuit with her vest over the top. Maddy in her bikini- which proved hard to pin a brownie pin to, and Ellie in her cover-up. The mirror we used was a princess hand held and the bridge was decorated in beach towels. The perfect bridging event for a bunch of island girls.
Caroline had an awesome Science Seventh birthday party today. Here are the highlights.
Decorations- yes we used posters from my classroom. We put them up all over the house.
We had six stations inside the house (magnifying glasses, tornadoes, check the weight, UV beads and sunscreen, make a hat and of course snacks). Most of the stuff was from my classroom or scavenged from other classrooms in my hallway. 
C's best bud Ryan. We invited all the girls in the class, the girl scout troop and Ryan. He was a bit overwhelmed but hung in there.
Safety first!!.JPG)
We also had a couple of outside stations. We made goop or silly putty and we made volcanoes. the volcanoes were a hit! we went through two large boxes of baking soda as the kids exploded things over and over. The hand washing got a bit out of hand so c had to go change clothes.
I love decorating cakes. C told me she wanted a world map cake this year. I had it worked out on paper when Hunter suggested I make a globe. I have never worked with a sphere before, but had fun trying. When we put the globe (yes it is all cake and icing) on top of the base (also all cake and icing) it sank a bit and Africa got lost. But overall I think it looks pretty great!
Blowing out the candles- or melting the Arctic circle depending on how you look at it. 
