Five for Friday June 26, 2015: The Bunny Rollercoaster

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for five for Friday! We had an interesting week around here. I will first, however, think calming thoughts and back to our visit to Diana's Bath in North Conway, NH, last week.

The bunny rollercoaster. This is not an amusement park ride, however an emotional rollercoaster that I've been experiencing all week. We returned from a lovely week in the White Mountains of New Hampshire last Sunday and of course the lawn needed to be mowed. Since I am still down an arm due to shoulder surgery, my husband mowed the yard as he was leaving for Texas early Monday morning. He sent me a message while he mowed that there was a baby bunny in the yard. The kids and I ran out to see it.

See how itty it is?

After some ooohs and ahhhs we chased it out of the yard so it wouldn't get mowed up (ew). Crisis #1 averted. We didn't see any baby bunnies on Monday or Tuesday, so Wednesday morning when I went out to turn on the pool filter and harvest the strawberries, I wasn't thinking about bunnies at all. It was quite a shock, when I *stepped* on one. I wasn't sure if the baby bunny was okay, but then it hopped around our compost bin and under the fence. They really are cute when they hop. Aside from being startled, I thought that would be the end of the bunny...but I didn't really think that would be the END of the bunny. I picked the strawberries and came inside. I happened to look out the front window to see a neighborhood cat walking by with SOMETHING in its mouth. "Oh no, that looks like a baby bunny!" I thought. I ran out the front door to get a closer look. Sure enough, hanging from this cat's mouth was a limp and lifeless baby bunny. Now, I can't be sure it was the same baby bunny, as the cat was coming from the opposite direction, but needless to say the guilt set in.

Can you see it? I don't know why I felt the need to get a photo.

So that was pretty upsetting, but eventually I felt relief for my poor garden. Now that all of our dogs are dead and gone, I don't have anyone keeping tabs on the garden critters! A rabbit can eat a LOT of garden. Between the local rabbits and groundhogs, I'm not sure how I manage to get anything at all. Fast forward to Thursday, as I go into the garden to pick the strawberries and snow peas, of course now I say out loud "Don't step on any baby bunnies. Don't step on ANY bunny!" over and over and sound like an insane person, which is okay, because I am. I am watching where I step very carefully and am finally convinced all is safe in the baby bunny department. I start picking the strawberries, which are tapering down in production but have spread outside their original box to a wild and crazy patch:

As I am moving the leaves aside to look for hidden berries, the leaves touching my left hand *ruffle* a lot. So, I jump up. What the heck? I yelled at my strawberry patch. I don't remember what I said, but a baby bunny hopped on out and under the fence. Apparently I need to update my mantra to include watching for hidden bunnies in the strawberry patch. At least I walked away with a few more delicious berries:

And that, my friends, was my bunny rollercoaster. I am hoping I don't see any more critters for awhile!

My husband was gone all week for work, so we spent a good deal of the week decompressing from our vacation. I uploaded the photos I took, and realized I can be just as immature as my 7 and almost 9-year old boys:

Yes, I told him to hold still right there so I could get a picture of him "with the fountain." Haha.

This fountain was right next to a giant outdoor chess board, which the boys enjoyed playing with. It's not my favorite game, but it's a pretty big deal in our house as my older son competes in lots of chess tournaments and they both attend chess classes and camps.

We are all a little goofy sometimes.

You can see more images of our trip over at my Instagram page!

Since we were home most of the week, the kids managed to create two new games: a board game and a card game, based on Sushi Go by Gamewright, but with a rock theme. They spent hours doing this and then even more hours playing the games!  They're calling this one "Ready, set, dig!"

Though my TpT To Do List is MILES long, this wasn't even on the list, but after updating my binder covers last week, I just had to make some FREE planner pages to go with them! 

Whether you are a teacher, homeschooler, or TpT seller, I hope you find these pages useful. You can either edit in a PDF reader, or you can print out and write in your information by hand:

The colors coordinate with these binder covers:

Have a great weekend, everyone!