They say bad news comes in threes.

If that’s the case, I’m very nervous right now.

Because today I was hit with two bouts of bad news.

First my father called me and informed me he is having hip surgery today.

All of a sudden I realized my father was old. Isn’t that the kind of thing that happens to old people?

“Well, your lucky, I told him. First, you didn’t slip in the shower or anything. At least you have a good story, you did it riding your bike. And second, you are basically in one of the best places in the world for the problem you have now. Boca Raton for hip surgery is like getting plastic surgery in Korea. Everyone is doing it.”

All kidding aside, it’s bad news. Replacement anything is almost never as good as the original. I just hope since my Dad is in good shape, he’ll recover well.

The second bit of bad news was that Anjelica gave me two weeks notice today.

She was always overqualified for this job. I knew in the back of my mind I was getting a bargain.

I’ll be very sad to see her go, though. We have fallen into quite a comfortable routine. And I’ll miss her conversation each day.

But it does open the door wide open. The twins are older now. Unlike when she started a year ago, we no longer feed them bottles, we no longer feed them at separate times as the older kids, and they feed themselves for the most part. They entertain themselves a lot more, are walking and need less constant carrying.

It’s made me stop and think – am I ready to take on this job alone or do I still need help?

As for the third piece of bad news, I’m hoping I can count my recent broken toe, or maybe the big bill we just got slapped with to fix out dishwasher. Somehow they seem to pale in comparison, but no one ever said they had to be equal, right?

The older boys went back to school today.

Jack starts 1st grade today.

Since it was the same set up as last year, I was pretty unemotional about it.

Summer was long and hard, but it had it’s rewards too. Th biggest one, perhaps, was watching the friendship between Jack and Ben grow.

Ben is in his last year of Pre-K. This pose is the extent to which I could get him to co-operate for the picture. I feel sorry for his teachers this year…

What did Mommy do while the older kids were at school this morning?

I sat on the couch with my feet propped up. Besides an abnormally amount of poopy diapers, the twins played nicely in the basement together.

I justified my morning ‘lounge about’ to myself. After all, I still had a broken toe. Keeping it propped up was so nice, it didn’t throb all morning. But truthfully, I probably would have lazed around all day anyway. After this summer of tending children 7 days a week, 14 hour days with frequent night wakings, I felt I deserved it.

Another year, another block party.

I could write on, but I think the pictures do it more justice…

This year they hired a spray paint tattoo artist.

Look how great the tattoos came out!

All the kids loved the Magician, “The Great Scott”.

“The Great Scott” also does balloon art.

Is there anything better on a summer day than ice cream from the ice cream truck?

Emma Jane organized her annual craft table.

Here is Neena’s Piñata.

Block party’s band.

The twins were a lot more mobile compared to last year. Unlike last year, my father was not in town to lend a helping hand. But my amazing husband managed to find a way to juggle them all afternoon…

He juggled all the kids AND still had time for conversation!

Susie, the party organizer.

Later on the kids got to push all the buttons in the cop car.

Another amazing year. Thank you Susie for organizing!

I blame the late night with the girls the night before. I was up late, drinking too much wine. I was tired the next day.

But it could have been the fact that I was holding a baby in one hand while trying to take a cookie sheet out of the cabinet. I was off balance.

Whatever the reason, I very clumsily dropped a heavy cookie sheet on my toe Monday afternoon.

After two painful days, I got an X-Ray.

Broken toe. The Middle toe. I can’t believe I’m back in the boot. Again!

My next victim has arrived. My niece, Brandy, showed up last night to help out for the week.

With each new helper, I’m not sure how the dynamic in the house will shift. Some kids like some visitors more than others. Some people come to help and they do a lot of house work, some play with the kids, some want to cook. All of it is helpful. There is so much to do around here, every little bit helps.

I wasn’t sure which kids would attach to Brandy, but it turns out, it’s pretty much all of them (Aaron is still being a Mama’s boy, but I think that will change when he gets more comfortable). They are fighting over her already like, well, like she’s the only girl in a roomful of boys.