Apple Fest '09

On Sunday we went to Apple Fest with Nana and Jim. I'll say at the start, that I feel like a bad mother because pretty much every picture here is of Taye. Darius was in a funk and didn't want to do anything, and Mya slept 90% of the time. So, it's not that I don't love them, it's just that they're boring. :o)

The first thing we saw when we escaped the crowded indoors was the giant inflatable slide. You may remember the photo-op from two years ago when Emma came with us. Taye jumped right in line. Somehow he went from this:



to this:

to this:

in the span of about 4 seconds. When he reached the bottom (by which time he had completely flipped over) he popped right up, and said "I'm OK!" before anyone could even ask. A mother standing next to us seemed very relieved, we knew he was fine before he could even speak. He's Taye.

We walked around and checked out the outside vendors. Taye, Luis, and I all played a ring toss game at the Hannaford's booth, and "won" pity-prizes. We found the pony rides at the other side of the park. Somehow we avoided a line, and Taye got right on. If only we had thought to bring his cowboy hat.


We stopped to watch Juggling John juggle some fire, how could we resist?

After some more wandering, and an all-apple snack break (cider donuts, apple turnovers, and cider - yum), we met back up with Nana and Jim for the skyride. Darius was excited about that, but since he rode with Nana and Jim, I don't have any pictures of him on the ride either. The view from the top was amazing, but the real entertainment was in watching Taye.

He was completely beside himself excited the entire time. We would point something out - "Look at the water, Taye!" and he would start laughing and yelling, "WATER!! hahaha LOOK! MORE WATER!" At some point he noticed that some of the chairs coming down on the other side were empty. He asked us if there were invisible people riding on them. He apparently didn't believe us when we said no, because he started yelling, "HELLO INVISIBLE PEOPLE!!" every time one went by. Then, whenever we passed a chair with people in it, he yelled, "HELLO REGULAR PEOPLE!!" He also kept yelling, "HEY DARIUS, ARE YOU HAVING FUN?" to which Darius would yell "YEAH!" If he wasn't yelling, he was laughing. He brought a smile to everyone's face, Luis and I couldn't stop laughing.

At the bottom of the skyride they had a rock climbing set-up. Taye decided he wanted to try that too.

We all figured he would be at the top in under a minute, but he didn't quite get that far. More like this far:

That really was enough exictement for one day!

Girl's Best Friend

Daddy thinks he's okay too ('cause, you know - he needed another wrestling buddy).

Frog

Yes, I know. I can't believe it either. I have officially lost my mind. I must be crazy, what was I thinking? Have we got that out of our system? OK, then, moving on...

Meet Frog, or Frog the Dog as we like to call him. He is the result of months of debating about when to get a puppy/dog, combined with a visit from the paranoid schizophrenic, heavy drug & alcohol using, potentially violent, former resident of our house, which left me thinking a) call the locksmith, and b) maybe having a big dog around wouldn't be such a bad idea. :o) He is admittedly lacking on the "big" part, but he'll get there.

We found him through a rescue on Petfinder, and went to meet him (and his brother and sisters - he was the best of the bunch) today. While we were driving home, I asked the boys what they wanted to name him, and Frog was the first thing out of Taye's mouth. Darius immediately agreed, and it stuck. He is officially harder to photograph than Taye, but here are a few.

Happy to Me

We celebrated my birthday a day early this weekend. I got to sleep in until 11am (ok, I didn't actually go to bed until 6am, but it was still nice!) Then I was woken up to balloons, cake, and presents in bed. Beats breakfast in bed by a mile!

The kids were possibly more excited about it than I was, they were so cute to see. After cake breakfast, we went to the movie theatre. They were showing a double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. The boys all had a good time, Mya and I had to leave early into the movie and she slept in the car through the rest of both. All in all in was a good day.

Fun at the Dorseys

The other day we took the trip down to visit the Dorsey's. As usual, it was good times. We didn't just spend the day hanging around and doing nothing. Well, not the whole day anyway. We were very busy with projects.



First there were Halloween decorations to be made. Construction paper littered the floor, awesome creations littered the windows and door. When that was all done, Jean made Oobleck (or Ew-bleck, as I like to call it). Oobleck is very cool...it's like a liquid and a solid. It gives me chills just thinking about touching it. I am, apparently, the only one. The kids all loved it.



But that was not all, oh no, that was not all. The kids and I brought molds to make Halloween chocolate covered Oreo's (because what Oreos really need is a chocolate coating). We had planned to make them to bring to the Halloween party, but since we blew that off, we decided to make them with the Dorsey's instead.



Here you can see Mya attempting to use the power of telekinesis to will the chocolate covered spoon away from Taye.

It didn't work.

What-What?

Darius has taken to naming a lot of the toy animals around. There are several that he plays with often, and he remembers the names of each. We have noticed a theme with his names. So far he has:

Pin-Pin the rabbit
Pan-Pan the bear
Cup-Cup the ladybug
Circle-Circle the dolphin
Straw-Straw the lizard
I'm sure I am forgetting one or two more.

He also has:
Crush the turtle
Cinnamon Toast Croonch (not crunch) the bat

and I'm not sure who named these, but the pumpkins they picked out now have names as well.

Taye's is Georgie the Giant, and Darius' is Blue-Blue the Baby Giant.

Here is Pin-Pin, who seems to be Darius' favorite, going sledding on the couch.

Apple Picking

Since Luis didn't have school on Columbus Day, we thought that would be a good time to go apple picking. I've been on the fence about whether I wanted to go at all. It's just so expensive, and it seems like a bit of a rip-off, to be honest. Usually pick your own fruit is cheaper than what you'd find in stores, but not apples. Plus, I don't even really like apples.

Ultimately, we decided to go because, if nothing else, apple picking is good for one thing - pictures:

Mya's First Birthday

Before the party started, Taye and Darius carefully wrapped the present they got for Mya (a teddy bear Darius has named Pin-Pin). She giggled when she opened him, which I'd take to mean she liked him. :o)

I think it's safe to say we had the biggest turnout we've ever had at one of our parties. Thankfully it was a gorgeous day out, as I'm not sure we could have fit everyone in the house!

After feeding everyone, we started the usual festivities. The piñata proved to be a bit of a challenge, with about a dozen kids taking turns whacking it, to no avail.

But then, the piñata destroyer moved in. I think Rowan must have some kind of piñata breaking record, she is the expert.

This little monster broke clean in half, and became the next fashion rage.

We moved inside for cake, and Mya had her very own. She was a little hesitant at first, but she got over it and dug right in.

After cake, she opened presents...

with a little help.

She got so many fun things, and cute clothes. She is set for the season now, and we loved it all!

Happy Birthday, baby girl!