This car is apparently not a coupe as advertised, but actually, a pick-up truck!  Who knew?

The picture above resulted from Ben activity that was decidedly less cute!  He took the popcorn (in it's nice, brittle, brown bag) out of the microwave, placed it on the stove burner, and . . . turned it on!  I ran in when I heard him crying his distress cry.  The flames were almost to the top of the microwave.  YIKES!!  I thought water?  No, it'll take too long to fill something.  Lid?  Fire might be too big.  Fire extinguisher?  Fire extinguisher.  And therein laid the second miracle of the day (after me actually responding promptly to Ben crying), the fire extinguisher was where it was supposed to be and full.  It made short work of the blazing fire.  I stood looking at the remains ready to blast any remaining sparks.  As I realized that there wasn't anything still burning and the fire was really out, I also then realized how fast and hard my heart was beating.  Whoa.  That was pretty scary.  I turned to look at Ben.  He looked back at me with big eyes.  It seemed we were going to be okay.  Whew.

There's never a dull moment around here at the Skinner house!

Actually, we started the week with a birthday party on Tuesday for sweet Cheyenne and Calianne.  They turned eight years-old!!

Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik held a great birthday party at their house, as usual.  It was great!  Somehow all the presents were ready in time for the big hour and Cali and Chey were happy with everything.  Yay!  We hope they know how much we love them and how happy we are that they came into our lives eight years ago.  They are such fun!

This week we also canned peaches.  I really don't know how we managed that.  In fact, if my neighbor had called and said, "Would you like these extra peaches?" instead of just bringing them over, I probably would have said, "There is just no way that I can fit that in anytime this week, let alone tonight." -- which was Monday.  It just proves that sometimes you don't know what you can do until it is thrust upon you.

My kids are feeling overwhelmed with the new demands of school and most of them have sports demands as well so I even had a hard time convincing myself to ask the girls for help with the peaches.  It turned out awesome, though.  It only took them an hour to fill 29 quarts and they sat and talked to each other.  It's sometimes hard to find a job that so many people can be in the same place doing together.  Canning is cool like that.  Yay for free peaches from neighbors!

Bethany had her first ballet class this week.  She was so excited!  Go Bethany!

Ben wanted to be in the picture, too.

Megan tried out for the junior high tennis team on Tuesday.  The coach decided to keep everybody and hasn't told them who will play at what level, yet.  Either way, it looks like Megan will start playing tennis everyday, too, starting next week!  Go Megan!
 
Mariah had a soccer game on Wednesday.  She played great and assisted two of their goals.  They won!  Go Mariah!


Sarah played in a tennis meet on Thursday.  She's switched to playing doubles and it's taking some getting used to.  I got to watch her since they were at home.  It was fun.  Go Sarah!

Savannah had a cross country meet on Saturday where she ran three miles in 23 minutes.  Kevin and Grandma went to watch the race.  They said it was great!  Go Savannah!

On Saturday we also had Cali and Cheyenne's friend birthday party.  Calianne said they wanted a "ninja, spy, dance party."  I said, "  .  .  .  .  . "  Yah, I didn't have any idea what to say about that.  Fortunately, I have older daughters who are very creative and great with little kids.  I love having older daughters!  I asked Megan to be in charge.  I told her I would do pizza time, cake time, and present time and she could do everything else.  She was awesome!  Sarah helped as assistant.

First she taught them how to fold origami ninja stars.

Later they played a version of sharks and minnows called "Spies and Ninjas."

These are the "lasers" that the ninjas (or was it spies?) had to navigate in order to get to the lollipops at the end.

Here they are enjoying their pizza but you can also see some of them still wearing their ninja headbands that Meg made for them!

It is safe to say that in the end, a fun time was had by all!  Yay for eight-year-old birthday parties!  Yay for big sisters!  (Have I mentioned that I love having older daughters?)  Yay for Megan!