Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Nuggie, Monkey and the Zoo

Meet Nuggie...
He is just your average snugly lovey that Cannon has had since birth. Actually, to be quite honest, this is Nuggie #2. Nuggie #1 lasted less than 2 years of intense cuddling. Nuggie has silk pads on his "feet" that Cannon rubs as he falls asleep. He can't sleep without him, and loves him dearly.
We were walking home from bible study a week ago, and Rich brought up some wild animals that we would see if we went to the zoo. (Good one Rich. First of all, its dark, and we are walking home with a few children who have super active imaginations. Second of all, now we have to go to the zoo....) He talked about lions, tigers, and bears (oh my), hippos (huh?), elephants, etc. He talked about how if you saw those animals at the zoo, it was safe to walk around and look at them since they were behind cages. Then, being safety dad that he is, he also discussed that if you saw those animals out wandering on the streets (again - good one dad) that you should stay away cause they are not nice and can be dangerous.
There was a bit of silence, as my children pondered being mauled by wild animals, then I hear my precious little boy's voice pipe up....
"But daddy, nuggies are nice..."


Meet Monkey
Monkey is a gift that Maeve gave to Cannon when she was born. Monkey is the newest member of the "animals that sleep on the bed every night" family.
Rich was on you tube looking up videos of all the animals that we would see if we went to the zoo. (OK seriously...now its like we are horrible parents if we don't take these kids to the zoo sometime soon!) We looked up videos of lions, sharks, hippos and monkeys. The kids were amazed. Cannon took particular interest to the monkey clips. He watched them, and then went racing off to the room to find something. He came back dragging monkey out of his bed shouting....
"Look daddy! I have one! I have one too!!!"

OK, fine - we will go to the zoo!

Mix-up

This morning at the breakfast table, we were talking before Rich had to go to work. Brynn decided to share with us her version of one of the verses that I have been repeating to them over and over these last couple days.

The original text goes something like this: Do to others as you would have done to you.
Her version is a bit different - (and I quote) : Do what you want others to do, and if not, that's your problem.

Huh?

I think she might have gotten two of my lectures mixed up. The "Do you want Cannon to do that you? Then why did you do it to him?" lecture and the "I don't know what you did with that toy...it's not my problem that you can't find it." one....

Hey, this parenting stuff is all new to me!

On an separate note. I found a funny new blog that I have been reading everyday. Its all about crock pot meals! The fall weather hits, and all I want to do is have food simmering in a crock pot on my counter all day. This girl has been cooking in her crock pot for the entire year. She makes cool meals, rates them, and shares the recipes. Everything from stew to play dough! Pretty cool so I thought I would share! Enjoy!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The same, but different....

Here is my monthly photo comparison of the kids.


Brynn 5 months


Cannon 5 months


Maeve 5 months

Look What I Made!

Yummy!!!

The pumpkin is the casserole in this case! Cook stuff, mix stuff, put in in a pumpkin, cook some more, and voile' --- serve dinner! The kids thought it was pretty fun to eat out of a pumpkin. Perfect fall dinner.

Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch on our Tuesday night "family date". We went to Olufs Pumpkin Patch in Windsor, and had a great time. There were pumpkins, animals, a small hay maze for the kids, a jumpy house, and plenty of warm fall evening sunshine to warm our bodies. The kids had a great time with all of the activities, and Rich and I enjoyed a long talk with one of the local farmers in the area who helps out with the pumpkin patch each year. This man was a male version of my grandma, and it was fun to talk to him and hear his stories.
Cannon's mission to find a pumpkin ended quickly. (Typical seek and destroy shopping attitude of a male.) He walked to the patch, picked the first white pumpkin up, and claimed it as his own.

Brynn (typical female shopping attitude) had to look over every single pumpkin in the patch before she settled on the "perfect" one.


Our rule for purchase - you have to be able to carry it if you want to buy it. Keeps the cost, and the size of pumpkin down.
The kids fed some sheep, petted an brawn (?) cow, and shared time in the cage with a beautiful bunny rabbit.

They went through the hay maze about 20 times, and enjoyed it every single time. We saved the jumpy house for last.. Cannon isn't a fan of jumpy things so he just picked grass by the handfuls and threw it in the air (to bad we paid $5 for him to do that), but Brynn loved it and she jumped enough for the both of them.


Rich and I got to sit in the sunlight and enjoy the fall evening. We paid for the pumpkins, took the kids to Mickey D's for dinner and came home. I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did....

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Wonderfall !

Yep, I spelled that exactly the way I wanted to!
Last week I was sitting on my parents front porch watching the kids play on the swing set, and I had the great idea of inviting a few friends out for a day in the fall sunshine. I sent out an evite to all my mommy friends for a day of play out in the orchard picking apples, playing on the playground and picnicking. We had a blast! The weather was perfect ( 87 degrees...even a bit hot) and tons of little friends showed up for some fresh-air play. We pulled all of the toys out of my parents garage and Farmer John (my dad) surprised us with hay rides. Kids had fun in the dirt, picking organic apples (watch the worm holes) and playing with "new" toys that they don't usually see. Thank you to all my friends who came out!


Lily is enjoying the dirt.


The oldest ones


The youngest one

Hay Rides for all !

Cannon with his bag "O" apples

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Old Toys, New Fun

We recently pulled out some of the large toys for Maeve. Brynn was the first to enjoy this excersaucer. She actually spent A LOT of time in it. She loved the activities, and all of the fun toys to play with. Cannon needed more activity, and was not satisfied with the saucer. He required another huge piece of equipment - The Jumperoo. So now, our living room looks like a daycare! We have a full sized swing, an exersaucer and a jumperoo all crowding the already small room.
The good news is that Maeve seems to be enjoying them. The bad news is that she might have to fight off the other two to get her turn...

Daddy's Little Angels


Something is wrong with this picture....

Starts off nicely,




But ends badly...




Daddy wasn't so happy with this whole arrangement!

Updated Andre Look-alike Meter 1

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Updated Andre Look-alike Meter 2

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Free family history

Updated Andre Look-alike Meter 3



Had to see if it had changed since last year...

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph