Right before the end of school, there was a walk-a-thon fundraiser.  Athletic shoes required.  My barefoot princess gripes about wearing crocs each day and didn’t own a single pair of athletic shoes (outside of her gym shoes, which are never to be worn outside of gym).

I took her to the store to choose a new pair.  We tried on so many cute shoes, but she INSISTED upon these peach dayglo monstrosities.  Would drag her legs as if afflicted with polio when I made her try on the other colors, because pretty purple shoes are just SO uncomfortable.      

She still prefers her bare feet though.

Yesterday, her teacher told the kids that if they packed up quickly, they would get a story, and first one to the rug got to choose the story.

Celia was first, at the expense of not putting her homework folder in her backpack. No homework is an automatic yellow card, which is BIG drama for Celia.

This is the second time the folder has been forgotten, and last time produced hours of tears and then an evening of sulking. Such a hilarious difference from Jordan, who has barely noticed the existence of homework for the past four years.

Needless to say, we’re going to start checking for her folder before we leave the school from now on!

Her most favorite place is still outside. We’ve given her a little more freedom now; she’s allowed to roam the sidewalk in front of our house. Not allowed to cross any streets, and I’ve always got an eye or ear on her (though she doesn’t know and thinks she’s running wild).

It started clouding up while she was playing out there one day so I went to round her up before she got soaked.

First I found one of our snake-y draft dodgers riding her scooter:

The trike that she’s much too big for but still loves to ride, sitting awkwardly in the yard:

Boots, cast aside. Even in October, she prefers not to wear shoes.

And there she is, my little free spirit. Skipping down the sidewalk and singing to herself.

She’s made friends with all the neighbors. Even the crabby ones that aren’t too fond of pretty much anything, they love chatting with her.

That’s a good thing, because she makes herself right at home in their yards too. She’s made herself a little den in the giant bush that sits at the edge of our neighbor’s yard.

I mean really, how could you pass that up though? The thing looks like an overgrown fairy dome.

Finally when the raindrops started to fall, she had one more request. Couldn’t she please, PLEASE just stay out for a few more minutes? She needed to look up at the rain.

Since I was finally able to design a costume for her, I decided she couldn’t be just any old cat. She needed to be a fabulous cat. A CATS! cat. I found a tutorial on how to make a wig, found some furry legwarmers and set to work.

After several hours of pulling yarn, tying knots, and burning myself with hot glue, we had a pretty neat wig.

My kids also got the best end of a raw deal. Not to make light of other’s misfortune, because there were plenty of people in our area with no power for well over a week due to hurricane Sandy….but all that weather caused communities to reschedule their Trick or Treat hours for times other than Halloween. So they got to Trick or Treat twice (well, Jordan walked with the grown ups once and handed out candy once) and go to a fun community event.

Here’s my little kitty carving a pumpkin. She was insistant on doing it all on her own, and despite the rather scary looking stabbing technique, it came out quite well!

Jordan managed to find his entire costume from the racks of Goodwill, of which I was pretty proud. He also worked on some movie quotes for several weeks to add some authenticity to the costume.

All told, it made for one very happy, very sleepy kitty.

She’s also convinced that she and Brianna are now even closer than ever before….since they can dress alike.

I found out that several of her friends were doing a ‘mini-mudder’ run for a local charity. I mentioned it to her and she was immediately “Yes! I’m in! I’m doing it!”

I reminded her that she didn’t particularly like being wet. Or muddy. She said she didn’t care. She REALLY wanted to do it.

I went out and bought her a pair of shoes. Something cheap, as they were likely to be ruined, but comfortable. I had to buy shoes because this child owns no athletic shoes. She doesn’t own them because she won’t wear them.

Got the shoes on and had her try them on. I suggested she run around a bit and break them in. She immediately started crabbing about how uncomfortable they were.

After an evening of ‘discussion’ on how one must wear shoes to run in a race, she got up bright and early, ready to go. It was cool, and rainy. Definitely going to be muddy.

She met up with her friends and had a great time before the race. She loved wearing the number (which they took back before the kids ran, not sure why)

Then we watched the adults do their race. We bought some confetti to throw at them and cheered them on. We got to ride up the mountain to see some of the other obstacles in a truck, ran down in the pouring ran with friends, then caught a ride on an ATV/golf cart thing that was pretty thrilling.

Finally, it was time for the kids to race. First they had to wade through a corner of the pond, then run around the ponds.

Then roll bits of pipe for a distance:

Dance through some old tires, then slide over the finish line (Jordan saved some confetti for the little kids)

She finished with her friends, so she was happy.

She did NOT like being all wet and muddy though and was so crabby after the race that we agreed never to do another mud race again. A nap in the car was definitely needed.

It’s a cute (if more than a bit run down) park, full of old school cement cast climbing things. Celia loved it.

And Chris got the shot he needed. He borrowed a home made slider rig from a friend, and it’s fantastically random, but gets the job done well.

So, here are the things that Bennie knows how to do and does quite well:

Bennie can lay in the sun.

Bennie can play in the house.  With his one special toy, for about 5 mintes, in the cutest and fluffiest way imaginable.  For about five minutes until he’s too tired or bored to continue.

Bennie likes riding in the car.

Bennie likes walking on sidewalks.

Bennie likes people.

Bennie doesn’t like most dogs.  Well, it’s not that he doesn’t like them, he just doesn’t know them and is generally terrified of them. He has a few doggie friends which we visit and with whom he will play.  Little dogs.

Bennie did NOT know what to do with himself at a ‘dog park’.  I’m not sure that Bennie realizes he is a dog.  Once we got him in the gate (a challenge in itself as it already smelled like other dogs) we removed his leash.  He stood there, like a statue.  Every once in awhile he would gingerly tiptoe around, but eventually gave up and just stood there.  Nervous and drooling copiously.

We tortured him for about 10 minutes, trying to get him to run or play.  Then we gave up, put the leash back on him, and went to visit some people.  That made him completely happy.

All ready to go (complete with a big of a snaggletooth grin, as she’s growing in new teeth)

Backpack stuffed with supplies:

They couldn’t decide when to smile at the same time, goofy kids.