Chipmunks Be Gone

Wildlife seems to be an issue in our neighborhood recently. Over the summer, neighbors spotted some skunks. Although we never saw them, we smelled them once or twice. Our problems with the ever growing bunny population continue. Thanks to “Little Bunny Foo-Foo” and family, we quit trying to grow any new flowers or attempt another vegetable garden. I know squirrels and field mice will always be around. This is especially true when you have a neighbor that feeds pigeons.  ICK – dirty birds!

Last year, we saw chipmunks taunting the neighbors dog, but they seemed to go away. I think chipmunks are cute, but the only type I will allow in my house are these two critters:

Chip and Dale are acceptable chipmunks

While walking to put something into the garage, I realized that our chipmunks are still here. I do not think they ever went away. They now like to taunt me in the style of Jerry from Tom and Jerry. I do believe that they are seriously laughing at us.

Last weekend, we sprayed some natural pest spray (deer pepper spray good for rodents) around the house by some areas that we had seen the cute, but annoying critters hiding in. After hearing some animal cries the other day, I went outside to investigate. The only animal I saw was this little guy:

Unwanted chipmunk be gone

He kept making noises, but would not move no matter how close I got. Then he ran into the hole under the porch and kept going in and out while making sure to look me in the eye. I’m serious, this chipmunk had attitude.

With winter coming soon, we need to figure out a way to get these cute and destructive rodents away from the house. If anyone has had success in getting rid of chipmunks, please, please, please let me know in the comments because Chip and Dale must get their friends to go!

It's Me

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My Ghoulish Family

Dear PicMonkey, thank you for keeping me entertained while having my coffee on National Coffee Day. Seriously, the timing on your release of the Halloween effects could not have come on a better day. Early Saturday, I decided to make myself into a witch for my October profile picture. Note to the peanut galley: NO COMMENTS!

Morph me into a witch with Picmonkey

Many hours later, I was showing JSL what I had done to myself. He wanted to try to transform a photo as well. So I selected a photo of him with Baby No Name. He decided to go with the zombie look for both of them. This was our final product:

My Zombie kid and his baby

Then JSL and I wanted to have some fun creating something for NHL. He is a big fan of Hulk. The Demon option on PicMonkey did a great job with this. Thanks to the “gnarlifier” I was able to change up his nose a bit. In the end, this was what we came up with:

My kid as Hulk

Of course, we could not leave TechyDad out of the mix. I guess I channeled my inner Twilight fan and had some fun. NHL thought the moon should be red in his photo and I agreed it made it look unique.

TechyDad Vampire

What can I say, it was fun and it let some creativity fly. So fess up. Have you made your own October creation with PicMonkey yet? If not, what are you waiting for?

It's Me

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Missed Seeing that Smile

Dear NHL,

Fourth grade seems to be off to a very nice start. Thanks to previous years, I tend to hold my breath at the start of the school. This year has been very different. You are happy, have less worries, and you have a smile on your face more than I have seen in a long time.

Happy Fourth Grader

I love seeing that smile light up the room. I enjoy hearing about your days at school and what you are learning. Best of all, I love that you are my son. Thank you for being you. Thank you for helping us to learn more about this world that we live in, and for seeing things so clearly at times.

Love,

Mommy

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Baby Dolls for Boys

Rewind to almost six years ago. I was the mother of a three year old little boy and was busy teaching and trying to battle morning sickness. I was pregnant with my second child, waiting to find out if NHL’s sibling was going to be a girl or boy. There were many reasons I wanted to know, but one of them was to buy big brother his own baby to take care of. I wanted the baby to be the same sex as mine. When we found out that we were expecting another little boy, the hunt for a baby boy doll began. We eventually found a baby boy doll that NHL named several times. Eventually, Howie Harry stuck.

Even boys like baby dolls

Last year, JSL declared that he also wanted a “Howie Harry” baby to take care of. At nursery school, the kids were playing with dolls and he often felt left out there and wanted a baby to take care of. Problem, there were very few boy dolls to find that were reasonably priced. Eventually, NHL offered to loan Howie Harry to JSL. This worked, but only for a short time.

Just before going back to school, JSL started to beg, cry, and say he would do anything for a doll. There was a difference this time. He did not care if the baby was a boy or girl. He simply wanted to be a Daddy to a doll that was his own. We tried to distract this desire, but it was not working. JSL fell in love with a doll that he saw at Toys R Us a few weeks ago. TechyDad and I finally agreed that we would get JSL the baby that he really wanted. It was a very early Chanukah gift, but he has his baby and loves her.

Dolls for boys

Many may ask why JSL needed a doll since he is a boy. My answer is simple, it meant a lot to him for a very long time. He wanted to take care of something like a Daddy and it does not hurt anyone, so why not?!

My question to you this week:

Do you have any name ideas for JSL’s new baby girl? He is having a hard time naming her. He wanted to name her Howie Harry, but we insisted that was a no-go. Perhaps something you suggest will be one that he adores.

It's Me

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An<br<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
    /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
    Island<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
    Life

Aloha #222

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Learning with ABC Ducks

I am a certified reading teacher. My youngest son just started kindergarten and I have to say, I am not entirely sure if he knows all of his letters. He will joke around when you try to ask, or change the subject. As an educator, I knew it was not wise to push him, even if he said he really wanted to learn to read. Now that he is in school, JSL will quickly learn to do this with the guidance of his teachers. Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t try to help things out at home.

ABC learning with Leap Frog writing

Over the summer, I bought and used countless flashcards, games, writing books, and more. I have a feeling JSL knows a lot more than he is sharing with me. He is shy and gets embarrassed if he gets something wrong. Thanks to this, I tried to think of something a little different that would connect with what he likes. JSL loves Ducks. Over time, he has expressed interest in expanding his rubber duck collection. At the end of the summer, he had some new additions from the summer reading program at the library.

Original Rubber Duck Collection

I wanted to get the boys a little something special for going back to school. I knew that JSL would love some additional ducks since they are not too easy to find locally. While looking online, I found a Set of 26 ~ ABC’s Rubber Duckies on Amazon. After a while, we decided to order them for JSL. They arrived this week and I have to say, they are really cute. Let me introduce you to the new members of the duck family.

Alphabet Ducks A B C D E

Group 1 of the ducks includes an astronaut, baby, cat, dog, and elephant.

Alphabet Ducks F G H I J

Group 2 of the ducks includes a farmer, green, hockey player, ice cream, and joker.

Alphabet Ducks K L M N O

Group 3 of the ducks includes a king, lamb, monkey, nurse, and orange.

Alphabet Ducks P Q R S T

Group 4 of the ducks includes a pirate, queen, reindeer, Santa, and tennis player.

Alphabet Ducks U V W X Y Z

Group 5 of the ducks includes a unicorn, Valentine, walrus, x-ray, yak, and zebra.

Larger Rubber Duck Collection

Thank goodness JSL has a great container for his entire collection. Now I just need to come up with some ABC duck games to use as enrichment activities to work on his letter recognition and sounds.

If you have any ideas I would love you to leave them in the comments below – thank you in advance!

It's Me

Disclosure: One link within this post  is an Amazon Affiliate link for the ABC Ducks that we purchased. I will receive a percentage of money for the sale should you opt to buy them through that link.

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