Halloween 2011

The weekend before Halloween, we gals attended our second annual Witch Day.

My girls with their "Aunt Nini" (or "Dooween" if you ask Adele).
Resting from nearly 20 min of walking!

And me, with my ravishing little darlings. Halloween Night

My two little angels. (Stop laughing, they are too!)
Trick-or-treat!!!


Dad's office party. The other kids went from desk to desk filling their buckets with candy but not Benjamin, he got hold of one and figured he'd best run as fast and far as possible before it got taken away!

Dino Day

About a month ago, Ryan and I noticed that we had a middle child.

We realized Deli doesn't get all the baby attention. We noticed we sometimes make a point of spending time with Elsa without "the babies" and that we naturally sometimes need to cart Ben around alone but this girl hasn't really had much time alone with the parents. And I figure there are only a few short years she would see time alone with the " 'rents" as a good thing.

So, as she is really into dinosaurs right now, and she roars at them whenever she sees a picture of one, we decided we better go see some "real" ones.

This is not a dinosaur, it is a shark. But, Adele will tell you, it is the scariest thing at the museum.

It's even scarier than possibly falling two stories I guess. (There were live fish swimming in the little stream below.)

If you have seen pictures of another little girl, who looks similar to this one, diggin' in this same dirt, feel free to get a little nostalgic and teary-eyed about the passing of time. I did.

She is such a fun girl. If you don't believe me, just ask her, she'll tell ya all about it.

Big Boy!

He can sit at the table now, just like the big kids. Just...keep the food comin'!

Random Pictures

Just some photos I've taken recently.

Ben Is Starting To Walk

A couple of days ago, we couldn't get Ben to take a step. Now, he's doing this...

Looks like it is almost time to retire the stroller.

Night on the Town

I sure like the way they prettied up the Riverwoods. We went to dinner there my birthday weekend and had lots of fun.

Oh also, the sidewalk shoots water now.

Does it get any better?

Let's Catch Up

Although I have not posted for a while, I have gotten some cute, nay, adorable shots. Here are the highlights:

Adele still likes pacifiers. Kinda a lot. Is it possible to O.D. on binki?

We have not been to the mall much lately, what with the outdoors being so nice. But we made a trip the other night. Ben is really close to walking on his own (we hope and pray he is, anyway):

I was out shopping with the two little ones, killin' time until Costco opened. I noticed an all kids' haircut place and realized Ben was in need. So we popped in. He was reticent at first, but then they blew bubbles:

I wasn't going to do Adele, but they had a pink car she was pretty sure she NEEDED to sit down in:

Also, Ben has learned a new stroller trick. Don't try this at home folks, he's a professional:

Speakin' of shopping with the little ones, how on Earth did people manage before shopping carts were designed to seat multiple children?

This one seats up to four comfortably. The other day I was there and saw a mother actually pushing a cart filled to child-capacity. I thought I was frazzled!

Benjamin is learning to use crayons. We may have to hold off on Kindergarten for a bit....

A few weeks ago, both of my little ones were fevered and out of it, so we had a jammie and relax day:

We got plenty of fluids, and everyone recovered just fine:

Milkin' the Summer While it Lasts

No need to worry, we bailed her out a few hours after this photo was taken.

Actually, the mini jail is just one of the exciting things you can see at Thanksgiving Point.

Saturday we packed some snacks, water, and babies on our bikes and rode them to Thanksgiving Point for some Summer-is-waning-but-we-are-not-letting-go-just-yet-fun!

We went to farm land where for a mere $5 you can pet a baby goat:

Throw oats to some ducks and pigs:

Moo at a cow:

(Yip, we did moo at it.)

And ride a pony! (Guess which part Adele liked best):

In the main plaza of Thanksgiving Point there is this contraption:

See the yellow levers? What you do is pull them, or stand near by while someone else pulls them and you may get a little mist of water, or nothing, or a giant splash from above, below, or the middle, or it may just shoot a stream, or explode and soak anyone in range. Think water Russian Roulette: