The Luck of the Mantis is Strong with Us

We saw at least five matis on the fence by the mint this weekend.  One of them, in the second photo, we actually saw poop!  

I saw this one catch a bug off the mint and eat it.  

We always find egg casings in the mint and this Spring was no exception.  We hid the casing in a broken pot to keep the casing safe until they hatched.  

Hopefully it will be another lucky year for us.  

Baylor has been asking to wash the van and I was happy to because it is disgustingly dirty.  I am sure it was happy to get the film of grime off of it!  And Baylor loved playing with the water and bubbles in the bucket!

Sunday we were invited to Mrs Sarah's house for a cookout and for the kids to play.  Baylor was in a Batman hat and caped shirt.  Then he put the hat on backwards!  

There were many kids there and they started out playing Transformers on the hill in the back yard and the games went to zombie hunting to general chaos over the course of the evening.  

He really had a good time with Shawn and the other kids, with me, it was more of a struggle to have fun with!

Two Girls, a Boy, and a Wedding

Wednesday was the third day of kindergarten and he had recess.  That is about all we can get out of him.  But we picked him up from COF an hour early today to go to a district justice to get married, right here in PA.  It took Gloria a few days and many phone calls to find someone who would perform a ceremony, outside a church setting, and with a reasonable rate.  When we arrived, Charles Clements made us feel comfortable and welcome to be there.  He said he was glad to see this finally be legal and he had actually performed a ceremony before it was really legal in PA.  When we walked in Baylor said he did not think this was a place for kids, it looked like a grown up place!  But he was glad to be there, other than he was really shy around Mr. Clements. 

And he got to play with the phone and took a ton of selfies while we waited for Mr. Clements to get ready.  

And our last selfie as single ladies in PA.  

Since we just needed this to be a legal process for PA, we had a very short exchange of basic vows, with 'I do's,' and everything.  We did not get a picture of the ceremony because we were the only ones there and Baylor was being too shy to hold a camera at this point.  But he did take a few afterward.  

Mr. Clements let Baylor help him stamp all the paperwork.  He was a big help!  He asked us if we were going to change our last names and I said we are going to take Baylor's last name, Thatcher-Miller. 

Not sure the face I am making but I did it in both pictures Mr. Clements took.  I guess there will be no wedding photos on our walls!  Afterward we went out to dinner at Bonefish Grill to celebrate.  Congratulations to us both!  

Happy August Birthdays Celebration

Baylor's second day of school went as well as the first but today I picked him up two hours early for COF because we were heading to my parent's house to have dinner with my brother and sister in law.  They arrived in Lancaster Monday evening on their road trip to their new home in Nashville, TN.  Laura was hired by Vanderbilt University in their travel office and she is to start September 2nd.  She is also due to be a mom later in September so it was really nice to be able to see her so close to her due date.  We had a few boxes of items for the baby and it was a good thing they were here and I did not have to mail the boxes.  They were packed full!  I am not sure they are really ready for parenthood, it has just been the two of the for 11 years, but I told Laura in a few days after her daughter arrives she will wonder what they did with their time before she was there.  

We had dinner on the deck and after eating I brought out the cake I made for the four August Birthdays: Laura's is the 6th, Mom's is the 18th, Gloria's is the 23rd, and Dad's is the 26th, which is today.  But they all had to share a cake, sorry Dad!

I did not do a good job coloring the piping bag and ran out of color be the time I made it around the cake.  

I made my favorite chocolate and white cake recipes and the awesome Italian buttercream I use on Baylor's cakes.  It is awesome!  The whole cake was awesome!   

We sang Happy Birthday, squishing in everyone's name at the end.  

And they let Baylor blow out the candles.  That is still his favorite part of birthdays.  

And a little bit of cake and ice cream is not so bad either.  

We wanted to take another family photo but I could not get the auto timer to work on my camera this time. It said it was set to be on delayed timer but every time I hit the shutter it went off.  So no group shot, just a lot of my trying to make it work and the family trying to be patient about it.  Baylor was pretty done with the whole thing, it was a bit boring I am sure.  

But we took a few different configurations and called it a night.  We hugged everyone, wished Jamie and Laura good luck in all the big changes happening in September and headed home.  Baylor fell asleep on the way home and did not wake up until the next morning, his third day of kindergarten!  

First Day of Kindergarten

I am not sure how nearly six years went by but here we are: the first day of school!  Baylor was not excited or anxious about it.  He really took it in stride and was more excited about getting his own kindercone and seeing if he got a come-back ball also.  

He found the come-back ball right off.  

He said he wants to be a Fireman when he grows up, which is the first time I heard him say that.

 And he wore the hat like Cullen did but his fell down past his ears.  There is a  reason Cullen got stuck during birth!  LOL  Gloria and I both took him to Circle of Friends to drop him off.  I don't think either of us cried because he was not acting scared or nervous.  He was actually excited to be in the gym in the morning and not in the preschool classroom.  

When we picked him up at the end of the day all we could get out of him was he rode a van to the school, he rode the van back to Circle of Friends, and then he had lunch.  Oh, yeah, he checked a book out from the library!  The director at COF sent us this photo of him getting off the van.  No sad face there!   

Baby Lochlan

:Friday around 9:30 am baby Lochlan McGraw arrived in this world, healthy 8 lbs and something and 20 inches long.  He was actually born on his due date which is most unusual.  I had told Julie I was running over that weekend to give something to Cullen.  We headed over Sunday after I finished making chicken pot pie, some for them and some for Laura later in the week.  I did not know if they would be home and did not call ahead.  When we parked Julie came out and was glad to see us.  Which was good, because they had just arrived home on Saturday and I am sure having guests may not have been in their plans.  But thankfully we were able to stay a few hours and I got to hold the little guy after he had a good meal.  Just a sweet little bug and I love him!  I love all my nephews, whether by blood or friendship.  Which is apparently a good thing because Julie asked me if Gloria and I would be the boys guardians should anything ever happen to them.  I of course said yes, and I was not going to even check with her first!  It would be an honor which I hope never happens!  

The boys played and had a good time together.  

And I had a good time with Locke.  

What I had to bring to Cullen was a kindercone, which is a German tradition to give to the kids on the first day of school to help sweeten their day.  I filled it with small school items and a few treats.  The favorite was a come back ball which is a rubber ball attached to an elastic string attached to a velcro bracelet. Baylor asked if he was going to get one in his cone!  

And Cullen loved using the cone as a hat!  We stayed until after 6:00 and Baylor fell asleep on the way home.  Which was a good thing because Monday is his first day of school and he needed to get a good night's sleep. 

New Fish

Sunday we headed to the amazing fish store for a road trip and some new fish food.  We ended up bringing home nine Hifin Serpae Tetras.  They are brightly colored and larger than our other tetras. And after I got home and looked them up I found out their are fin nippers.  I hope they don't harass my other fish!