It's Mommy's Birthday!!!!!

Today began with Julie hearing Joe holler from his bed, "IT'S!  MOMMY'S!  BIRTHDAY!!!!!" shortly before he and Clara clattered upstairs.  They each made a few trips up and down the stairs to collect the cards they'd made as well as the one they'd bought (a monkey with enormous google eyes  on a head that one can pull up and down).  In case it's not visible in the picture, the card Joe made for Julie reads:
"What I Love About Mommy:
Make dinner for us
Snuggling with Mommy
Sing Happy Birthday
Mommy is really good at mopping and vacuuming"
(Fans, it's true: Julie is terribly good mopping and vacuuming.  May it never be forgotten.)  The card features a hippo that Ted outlined, Joe colored in himself, and then Joe outlined again in blue.

The morning was filled with the usual craziness including the discovery of a pool of pee in front of the toilet that had cascaded down the stool that is almost always in front of it as we were finally headed out the door to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden to see how autumn is unfolding there.  The culprit remains unknown.  Also shrouded in mystery is the reason why the unknown culprit did not announce that an accident had occurred.

As they say, Fans, the days are long, but the years are short.  And as the song says, and many more. . .