New Friends and Animal Life

Grandma spent the day housecleaning for Steve today. I don't clean my own house, so it gave me a workout. When I finished at 2:15, I lay down for a few minutes and set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes. I awoke at 3:10 -- 10 minutes late for picking up Kevin from school!!! I made a mad dash, praying to not be caught speeding and made it there in 5 minutes! Kevin did not seem upset, and the teacher was understanding. I had not met his afternoon teacher before, so in spite of already holding her up, she willingly chatted with me another 15 minutes.

Earlier, I had scouted out a city park very close to their new home under construction. It is huge with ballfields of every description plus two large playgrounds. We stopped there this afternoon for Kevin to check out the play areas. Families were arriving for a ballgame next to the playground, so he met and played with several kids.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard seemed to have taken up residence next to the playground. Not a very safe place for babies. I hope they decide to move before it is too late!


This little tomboy is not quite 2 and is way too brave for her own good. Kevin took her under his wing and went down the slide with her several times.


The playground was not quite reckless enough for Kevin, so he made up his own daring acrobatics by climbing around and over the top barricades and jumping from high places.

Kevin is very comfortable in his skin in any situation. He went down to the ballfield and climbed up in the bleachers by himself and sat there watching the activity for many minutes. Then he and another new friend were trying to kill bees. ACH!!!

We left the park to have supper at a favorite Faulkner Family fast food restaurant: Chick-Fil-A. From there, we went to the favorite local frozen custard parlor for a banana split! Kevin's first!

We were close to his old neighborhood and I was curious to see the frog pond. It was almost dry! No frogs in sight, so we walked across the street and into the woods to see the lake. We heard croaking and began walking towards the sound when Kevin saw this --

From my Web searching, this seems to be a Copperhead! What say you, MLE? I have never seen one before and don't care to see one again!

Then we walked towards the croaking and saw a couple of heads sticking out of the water occasionally.