Playing hookie

We don't have "snow days" in Houston. You know, the days of the week where a blanket of snow covers the ground, therefore sending your children to school becomes to dangerous in certain parts of the country? Well, here in Houston, we just have hurricanes that wipe you out for weeks at a time. Regardless of the natural disaster, today Ty got to take advantage of what we'll call a "snow day" which he spent with Reese and myself at the zoo. The weather was a cool 81 degrees and we couldn't pass it up.

Here's the trick: send them to school like normal, pick them up a few hours later after attendance has been taken and when your pretty sure they'll be having 3 sets of "specials" in a row, ensuring any guilt you may have had go out the window. It's kindergarten, on top of that it's the first few months of kinder where all of the naughty children are still working the classroom. They're not missing much.

And we'll likely do it all over again. In a few months. Especially after Ty tells me the next day, "Mom, I still like that you took me out of school. I will never forget that day."

Jaden is up next, except her "snow day" takes a little more effort to be sure she's not missing out on important lessons. Ty's was on a whim and he had no idea. Jaden's will have to be scheduled and not near as lengthy.

This deserves a post of its own

Let me first apologize to the general public who might happen to fall upon this post. It's one of those things where you just have to know the guy. Mostly, this video post has been created as a site where my husbands extended family can view the video. Blackmailing Ryan would be fun too, but he has no shame.

Anderson/Harris family members:

Ryan was asked impromptu to bust out these lyrics from an old song that Kyle had downloaded and brought to Utah when visiting this summer. Enjoy Ryan's rendition of The Smiths.

The first video is to wet your appetite. Let me know if you didn't wet your pants through the second one. Err, maybe you just had to be there.

VIDEO ONE

VIDEO TWO

In case you're wondering his captivated audience was Jaden and Kate.

Besides witnessing Ryan's painful singing debut, (and it does look painful the way he has to arch his whole body to hit the high notes) I also find it interesting to watch Marshall's reaction to his father making a fool of himself . . . there is no reaction. I guess Marshall has been plenty exposed. In fact, Marshall reminds us of a "younger, less hairy" Ryan. So, we'll be looking forward to that "special" time when Marshall might be ready to perform.

Not to be outdone by her siblings. . . here is Reese

She is the cutest little thing and we can't get enough of her. We'd love to bottle her up so she'd stop growing because we absolutely love this phase of her life. I love when toddlers start to comprehend what your saying and then try to answer back in a babble like we are two adults conversing. She's a good listener, she goes where she's told and does what she's told, for the most part. You can't ask for much more than that at this stage. Quite an entertaining little gal.

She misses her siblings now that they are gone at school all day. I didn't realize how much entertainment Ty was for her. I have a new shadow now, she used to be Ty's. Good thing she's cute. Reese has every last Harris family member wrapped around her little finger.

Having just come upon these slimy looking amphibians Reese is obviously disgusted. I love this video. It captures her adorable babbling along with her silly personality, as of late.