When Chris was cleaning around the garage last week, he found this salamander. It's the biggest I think I've ever seen.

Sunday was the celebration of Fin and Z's birthdays. I made Finley's cake per her instructions: a strawberry shortcake (I made a white layer cake with strawberries between the layers), pink with white along the edge and a flower on top. Then I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting for Z. I am proud to say that for the first time, I made everything from scratch. No nasty, indeterminable-shelf-life, artery-clogging frosting this time. (And to make baking/decorating day less stressful, I had made the frosting the day before.)

After cake and ice cream, the kids played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and had a 'treasure hunt'. The treasure hunt consists of a series of clues that are hidden all over the place, telling where the next clue is. It is quite funny to see the kids get really excited and run like mad all over the place, even if they aren't quite sure where they are supposed to be going. This treasure at the end of this hunt was a Sponge Bob pinata (where's the squiggle n?) hanging in the garage. I had hoped to get the unicorn pinata I saw at the store, but somebody bought it out from under me. But, in the end, I got a whole lot of satisfaction watching SB's face get smashed in.

Unfortunately, Joe smashed his head on the corner of some furniture during pin-the-tail, but he bounced right back and enjoyed posing for pictures of the knot on his head.

Today, we I took the girls for their check-up to their pediatrician up in Nashville. It was probably our last visit to him, though. I don't want to drive an hour to see the doc. I hope I can find a convenient and reliable place to take the kids close to home. When Z and Fin came down with ear infections last week, the closest clinic told me they could schedule them for two days later, so I ended up taking them to a walk-in a half hour away (where we waited nearly two hours to see the doc). The office in Nashville was always able to schedule us in same day if I called early enough. (That's good management, if you ask me...) Anyway.

I suppose I ought to go out and lock up the chickens. Thankfully, I remembered to chase them off the top of the chicken tractor before it got dark. When I forget, it's a little like trying to get a drunk guy that's passed out on the stairs into bed (I guess)... They are hard to wake up and keep falling back asleep before they make it inside the coop, and it's not so easy to shove them inside the coop through the tractor's little door.