This morning I took Caitlin to school (Matthew stays home on Tuesdays) and as I was letting Caitlin out of the car, one of Matthew's teachers approached me and said, "
Ok. I have to ask you a question" (never a good start...especially regarding Matthew).
"Who is
Zarr?", she asks.
(a little background.
zarr is a stuffed animal kitty of his that we make up stories about)
"Oh!
Zarr is just Matthew's stuffed animal kitty, we sometimes make up pretend stories about him" I said...feeling relieved that this was all she was asking. But then:
"Is he flat?"
"F-flat?"
"And did he die?"
"
wh-what?!"
"Is he flat and did he die?" she repeated, this time speaking slowly and giving me hand gestures to indicate flat...like that might be the reason i am acting confused.
"
Noooo..I mean, he's just a stuffed animal. Fully stuffed, so, no. Not flat. And never really alive, so
Im pretty sure he didn't die...why?"
"well...."
Eventually I got to the bottom of it...apparently Matthew's class has morning prayers and they allow the children to pray for whomever is sick or needs a prayer. I know for a fact that Matthew had been just praying for actual people that we knew early on in the year. But I guess that got boring, so Matthew decides to make up all sorts of horrific things about his animals thus creating a need to pray for them. Evidently
zarr was "squished flat and he died" so Matthew told his class to pray for him.
Im gonna kill that boy! The preschool already thinks we're the
Clampetts....now we are also running some sort of stuffed animal pet
cemetery-
esque fantasy land....
Greasing the pans....
Stirring the batter
Licking the bowl!! (the best part)
Waiting for it to be done...(the hardest part!)
Sad because she can't have any cake...
Eating pizza with the dragons
Blowing out the candles
Hooray for Funfetti!
Enjoying the cake...I guess it was too good to share with the birthday dragons...
On the beach
I asked them to do something silly for me...this time it wasn't sticking out the tongue!
Some of Hilton Head's wildlife-Actually we were hoping (?) to see an alligator-one of the notices in the complex we stayed in was "please do not feed the alligators". Um...good thing... We don't have any small babies to spare anyway...
Hannah at the beach-thank heavens for the Bumbo! (though she was not all that thrilled with it-)
Close up on the beach.
About to take her first taste of sand
Armed with beach balls and ready to go to the (freezing cold!) pool
Lil' grease monkey...covered from her head to her toes in bulletproof sunscreen-
They were so brave! That water was about 33 degrees-but they still swam in it.
Matthew didn't last all that long of course...he gets cold so quickly! 
Hannah 'getting her drink on' at the pool while the big kids play...
