they {heart} the park (and so do i) :)

"cool pictures" gone wrong

i am reminded over and over again at how different each of my girls are... 

i took both of my older girls' pictures so far this fall and in an attempt to get that "cool picture" i copied the idea of the big open frame.  with my eldest they turned out great and one of my fave pics of her is one with her holding a frame. 

This is what happened with my second. 

click on the picture to make it bigger to see it better

oh she cracks me up.  what a goof.

we did get some good ones amongst her antics though:

 

Shout Out to Aunt Renee!

my fabulous sister (one of them, they are all fabulous) knit us some super soft, warm and adorable hats! 

they all put them on before dinner and thought they should keep them on to eat.
 warm heads = better eaters i guess?

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pumpkin pickers

we took a quick trip to "Pumpkinland" a couple weeks ago.

here's the low-down via pictures:

the sun was setting as we arrived and it was beautiful

the older kiddos tried out the munchkin maze

she talked this kitty's ear off and all the other adorable animals in the petting zoo area

they checked out the llamas and goats and mini-pony (baby goats are SO cute! i want one)

then they were off to pick out their pumpkins.
the only rule:  you must carry your own pumpkin

the birthday girl picked a pretty big one

this was miss j's pick and her attempt to "roll" it out of the field
(kind of reminds me of those "mighty dog" commercials where those little yappy dogs think they are big tough dogs, ya know?)

she recruited a friend to carry one for her

my first attempt at a group shot of the girls

fail.
so we headed back to the main building to measure up.

Then... one more attempt at a girls group shot:

seriously?!? is it so hard to just get ONE decent picture?

yes. yes it is.

but the picture completely cracks me up (you have to find the humor in  life right?) miss baby is out of there as she has her eyes on all the things she can get into, number 2 is rolling her eyes to the heavens, the eldest is not paying attention and miss j is turned around pouting about something giving us a half moon. nice.

happy fall!

2 down 2 to go

my second least favorite job as a parent (in first place is potty training):  teaching them to ride a bike. 
which is why i pretty much offed this job to dear hubby.  (hey, i do the potty training, so it's only fair right?)  i did attempt it a couple times but both of us ended up frustrated after about 2 minutes. 

but about a month or so ago girly #2 mastered her bike sans training wheels.  YAY!

a little play by play in pictures:

walk bike to top of driveway (downhill is easier for starting, right?)

there she goes!

turn around through the grass

oops, look out for the pine tree

and the neighbor's yard

smile for mom :)  so proud of you girly!

i do not {heart} the cone of shame

so norman got into a little scuffle with the bathroom door.  a bathroom door and a 21 month old toddler who must slam all doors she finds open.  he didn't make it through in time. 

of course it happened as i was literally on my way out the door for coffeebreak. 

did you know dogs' tails bleed A LOT?  i do now.  my kitchen looked like a massacre had happened. 

i lost my brain in the chaos of it all but when i found it i finally put the profusely bleeding tail and it's owner outside.  so now there is blood all over my deck too. 

my amazing hubby to the rescue.  he raced home. helped me clean up.  took the dog to the vet (without a single blood stain in the van, thank you very much) and got me and girlies to coffeebreak only a half hour late ;) 

poor little norman.  he had to wear the "cone of shame" as we called it (quoted from the movie "Up" love that movie!) for a week.  he ran into everything. he took skin off the backs of my legs several times.  miss baby would hold up her hand and yell "no no no-man" whenever he came toward her cause she didn't want to get taken out by the thing. 

on a happy note, his entire tail is still intact.  they thought at first they would have to amputate the bottom few inches because they couldn't get it to stitch together.  they super-glued it instead and then kept him there sedated for a couple days so the bandage would stay on (it flung off whenever he got excited and wagged his tail).

but now the cone is gone and the bandage fell off soon after he returned home. as miss j tells everyone who comes over "norman all better now"  :)