Yesterday we baked cookies from scratch. They had half the butter that regular chocolate chip cookies have, and they were DELICIOUS! They were chewy and soft, but not quite as greasy as regular cookies. MMMMMMM!

We then took said cookies to a homeschooling group I recently joined, thanks to the invite from Julia and Kim (a mom from TJ's karate class). There were about six of us, plus kids, and it was really cool. The woman who hosted the meeting had a HUGE yard, complete with beautiful landscaping and fun kid stuff everywhere. Unfortunately, we also learned that there were plenty of spots that were maybe not so kid-friendly...or kid-safe would be a better word for it.

She had a giant see-saw made out of a wooden pole that looked like one of those ones they use for power lines. The kids were having a great time trying to balance on it, and early on a little boy fell off of it, but was fine. Later, TJ was balancing on it. He fell off as well. He immediately jumped up and yelled out, "I meant to do that!" Then I watched as he skittered off behind a tree with a big, sad look on his face. I went to talk to him, and he said, "My eyes keep trying to cry. STUPID EYES! STOP DOING THAT!!!" He rubbed his eyes over and over and hid his face, trying to hold back the tears. Oh, it's making me cry all over again! He was so embarrassed. It was cute and sad all at the same time. We talked, and after a few minutes he was fine, once I finally convinced him that no one was laughing at him. Oh, but it just broke my heart! My baby is getting so big! He's actually old enough to get embarrassed now, and he cares what other people think of him. I don't even know what to think!

So, we went back to talking about homeschooling and the kids went back to playing. Shortly after everything was settled again, a little boy fell and hit his head on a BIG rock. I heard it, from like, 15 feet away. It was LOUD. He cried, as expected, and his mom comforted him. After a couple of minutes, she asked him if he wanted a cookie (one of mine, oh yeah!), and he took it and was fine. I tell ya, the healing powers of good chocolate chip cookies! Makes me proud.

Pretty much the whole time we were there, Cole had been obsessed with the small pond with little fountains she had over by where we were all sitting. He played with the fountains every chance he got. After a while, he started to get gutsy, and was going to try to climb into the water. I put a stop to that. However, he wanted to put his hands in the water, so he'd lean over the side wall around it. He always bounced back just fine, so I thought nothing of it. Julia asked me if he was going to fall in at one point, and I said, "Nah, he's heavy enough on the bottom to hold him down." Yeah. So, naturally, two minutes later he would of course fall entirely into the water. He was DRENCHED. And upset. I think it literally scared the shit out of him, b/c minutes before he was fresh smelling, and after, he was pretty stanky! He was fine after a few minutes, and the host brought him a towel. Taryn must have thought he did it on purpose, b/c I looked over after I got him calmed down, and she had all of her clothes off, save her panties, and was trying to find the best spot to jump in! Well, at least they were feeling comfortable there!

Oh, and someone said, "Well, I guess he (Cole) won't be trying that again!" Yeah, that person didn't know my kids that well! Minutes after he was happy again, Cole was trying to reach into the water. Ahhhhh.....

So, we had a good time, needless to say. I think I got a few words in there with the actual meeting topics, but really, kids falling into/off of things, much more fun to talk about! Well, there was the one moment where one conversation ended while I was in mid-conversation w/someone else, and everyone else heard me say, "One of my kids was a murderer..." but that's another story for another day, I suppose!

Have a great day! Talk to you later.