Jones Family: September 2009

Our little Charly is in her first dance class and loving every minute of it. Not only does she love dressing up in her leotards, skirts, tights, and ballet and tap shoes, she loves taking the class with her special cousin Afton and her good friends, Claire and Alyson. She is in girl heaven!!

Afton and Charly

Miss Muffie and Charly.

Miss Muffie has taught dance for years and has her own little studio in her basement. She is a darling little teacher. We'll see what the future has to hold for Charly and her love for dance...watching her gracefulness--or lack of, she might want to stick with sports like her Mom. She is pretty girly, so maybe she'll figure it out--it is her first time--so we'll give her a chance.
So much fun!!

So...we've had some interesting bee stories around here lately. The first one is that my son Drake is recently OBSESSED with bees. I think it all started about 2 months ago. He found these 3 purple bushes in our front yard that are always covered with bees and will not leave them alone. He's decided that he needs to catch as many as he can and put them in his mom's old pickle jars. I think he's found at least 3 pickle jars to fill up with bees. This addiction is not just a once a day thing, we're talking all day. He is out there from sun up to sun down. A little while ago, Mike woke up around 6:30 to head out on the boat with some friends and I was still asleep, and I hear from downstairs, "Mom--Mom?" So I go out of my room to find Drake all bundled up in his hoodie with 2 bottle's of pickle jars in his hands ready for an adventure--needless to say it is only 6:45 in the morning. And he says "Is it ok if I go and catch some bees?" OBSESSED--that is the only word I can think of. Well I guess i could call it CRAZY too. I don't know about you, but I am freaked out by bees, they scare me so bad and I'm always afraid of them stinging me. He could care less if he gets stung or not--and I don't think he's been stung once. He thinks it's because they like him. Yah--if they only knew what was going to happen to them, they all would be stinging him. He would catch like 8-10 bees in one jar and after a couple of days there would only be 2 alive. Wesley's been his little sidekick, but I don't think he's as brave as Drake is though--it might be because he got stung on his finger. I asked him how he got stung and he said "well, I picked it up." That just might explain it I think--I definitely wouldn't be picking up any of those bees--that's for sure.

So now for the funny story now that you have the background on how OBSESSED Drake is with the bees. A few weeks ago, I was at one of my friends houses and I get a call on my cell phone that I didn't recognize, but it did look like a CO number, so I decided to answer it. It was this nicest little lady who drives the bus that Drake rides to school. At first I didn't know what to think---How often do you get a call from your kid's bus driver? Well I have never and I hear it's usually only because of some trouble your kids been causing. I wasn't really worried knowing that "trouble" is Drake's least favorite word when it comes to anything but home. He hates being in trouble and is very obedient when it comes to teachers, so I knew it couldn't be too bad. I was still really confused until she told me that Drake had brought in his backpack a pickle jar full of bees on the bus. I was really shocked knowing that I saw Drake walk out my door and start walking to the bus stop with no sign of any bees in his backpack. Come to find out he'd left it at the neighbor's house and on his way had found it and decided to just put it in his backpack--very innocent I know. So of course he decides to get it out on the bus and low and behold he has a million friends now surrounding him and the bees. So of course this causes the bus driver to see what is going on. She pulls Drake aside and tells him the reasons why we don't bring glass jars on the bus and also bees on the bus. That it can be very dangerous if it breaks and also some kids can be allergic to the bees. Anyway--she wanted to make sure he knew that he was not in trouble but that she had to take it from him and let the school deal with the jar. She was the sweetest lady and just wanted me to be aware of the "situation"--and that she did give it to the school and it is in the principal's office. I just apologized and told her I had no idea he had brought it on the bus. She was so nice and I was relieved to know that Drake's bus driver is so kind. So after I returned home I listened to my messages and there was one from Drake--saying " Mom, I was just wondering if you could come and pick up my bees?" that was it--just come and get them Mom. So knowing how OBSESSED my child has been about these bees, I figured he would probably be heart broken if I didn't go get those bees for him. So I did--I picked them up from the principal's office and had a little laugh with the secretaries.

The bees made it safely home and Drake was pleased to have them back. He just acted like nothing had happened to them, and didn't even seem to care that they got taken away.

Funny Kid! He has let up a little bit on the bees, but mostly everyday as soon as he gets home from school--I know where to find him---the 3 purple bushes!

Now these 2 pictures are another story of our friendly bees--although these ones aren't so friendly, as you can see it is a humongous wasps nest hanging on one of our branches in our back yard. I couldn't believe how huge it was. These pictures don't even do it justice. Anyway--we've had a bunch of workers in our yard and a few of them had been stung by these wasps as they were working close by them, so they showed us this nest to which we had no idea it was there. Thank goodness they found it, because it is right next to our swingset where the kids play all the time. So they said we should call to have someone come and get it but they had told Mike and he said "OH--I'll just get some gear on and get it myself--it can't be that bad" Well he hadn't seen the thing yet for himself. When he got home he couldn't believe how big it was either. But that still didn't stop his fabulous idea. He did change the plan a little and called his best friend-Rich to help him. So they did--they geared up from head to toe --and man you couldn't even see an inch of skin anywhere. They had dressed in their snow gear and borrowed motorcyle helmets from our neighbor and duct taped all the holes up. I don't know how they breathed in there--it looked so clastrophobic. So they waited 'til dark--knowing that night time is when the wasps go to sleep(he had done a little research). They had it all planned out. Since the nest was on the end of a branch, Rich would quickly cover the nest with a big trash bad and then Mike would chop off the branch and then somehow sinch it up tight hoping they would all sleep through it all. But who cares if they woke up--they were prepared and no wasps were getting them. During the whole process--Mike thought he was going to die--he could barely see, because he was so sweaty he was fogging up his goggles--so he comes running over to me to rip the tape off of him. I think Rich had it all sinched up tight and they couldn't hear a thing. They had conquered the wasps, and probably didn't even need half the stuff they had on. Better safe than sorry-I guess. Their plan worked and I was really proud of them. Now the trick is to keep them all in there long enough where they all die so they don't escape. The next day we checked on the bag and you could hear them all buzzing around. They lasted over a week before there was silence. Sad bees, but they were far too dangerous to be in our backyard. Thank goodness they're gone---way to go Mike and Rich!!!