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Here are Bee and Frankie getting ready to go to school today. Bee was a little nervous because the big transition from kindergarten to first grade is that you only get one snack period instead of two. Frankie is in pre-K or “K-club” this year so she is excited to be up on the 3rd floor of Bailey! You can see Cho Cho sitting behind the door wondering why everyone is leaving her. Poor Cho Cho. She doesn’t realize doggie school starts wednesday evenings. Let the fun begin! Even Dora got to go to school! What you can’t quite tell in this picture is that Dora has a gotee, complements of Frankie.

>Bag of nutbags, not nutbags. As in Cho Cho GO IRISH Bag of Nutbags Calabrese Barton

If you are crazy you are a nut
If you are really crazy you are a nutbag
If you are really really crazy you are a bag of nutbags.
–a wise old proverb.

>That is Cho Chos new middle name. So her name now is Cho Cho Irish Nutbags Calabrese Barton. We decided to officially give her that middle name when she ran to the kitchen table, and with her running start leaped up onto a seat and then to the table. She proceeded to eat the apple sauce. I should have taken her right down and maybe disciplined her or something, but between being caught by surprise, laughing (because it was really funny) and looking for my camera, she ate a bowl of applesauce then jumped off. At least she got her fruit for the day. She is also pretty good at drinking water from the water fountain.

>thats what the temp was when we got up this morning. Pass me the ice scraper. Honestly, Frankie said this morning when we went outside to walk cho cho at about 7, “It feels like ice out here!” At least they say that cold crisp nights and sunny nice days (like today!) make for beautiful fall foliage. bring on the football and hot chocolate!

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>Our tomatoes are finally turning red. Frankie’s favorite job is to run out to the backyard and pick tomatoes for supper. She is really good at it too. She also picked our lone little piece of broccoli. We did not plant broccoli this year, so this was a little orphan from last years broccoli crop. It was tiny a one, but we cut it in fourths to share.

Then Bee is just about ready to lose her first tooth! Her adult tooth is already growing in behind it, so the baby tooth is sort of just sitting there, sticking out perpendicular to the rest of her teeth. that thing is hanging on by a thread. But she does not really want to pluck it out. I told her that today i was tying a string to it, hooking the string to cho cho’s leash and then pointing cho cho towards a squirrel. She did not seem to like that idea!

>So i got intro Detroit from NYC at 8pm and decided that I would rent a car to get home. Otherwise if I took the bus I wouldnt get home till after 11pm. So I called National and made a reservation, took the shuttle over to the car rental place to pick up my car, and because I have “Emerald Club” all i had to do was pick a car, jump in it, and drive to the exit booth, where i show my credit car and drivers license. So, I did that, and the lady in the booth says to me, do you have your license extension? And I said , what? And she said your license extension. I said, I didnt know what she was talking about. She then proceeded to tell me that my drivers license was expired. I guess it expired on friday (my b-day). I had to back up the car from the exit booth, park it, grab my stuff, get back on the shuttle bus to go back to the airport (at which point the driver asks me what the problem is and why I couldnt get a car), and head to the airport to await my bus ride to east lansing. Man, was I cranky. 2 days later it is kind of funny.

>I was working at home this morning and bee and frankie were playing together nicely. About an hour later they came downstairs and frankie says “Hey Bee, you gotta look at this!”. I not sure what was funnier, the tiny magnifying glass trained on the completely rotted out carrot, or Frankie’s “back to school” outfit #2. She definitely will have a full wardrobe for Pre-K (K CLub) which starts in a couple of weeks!!

And, lets not forget Cho Cho. Now if I could just train her to respond to instead of just send those emails that would be great!

>Here are a few pics of the girls at swimming lessons. They love the pool! We went yesterday and Bee was practicing her front float (she has to be able to do it for 3 seconds by herself to pass level 1). So she practiced and practiced yesterday and by the end of our time in the pool. she could float for 10 seconds and “underwater swim” (which is kicking and paddling while doing the front float). It was amazing to see how much she has improved this summer! Frankie started “walking underwater” yesterday, which means walking down the stairs into the pool with her eyes open until she is walking under water. Now that is hilarious!

>frankie and bee were playing school while i was getting ready for supper. Anyhow when Frankie came downstairs for a second to check on the supper preparation progress this is what i found.