Thanks, Mya!

When I got out of the shower tonight, Mya came in and asked me, "you done?" I said "yup" and she asked, "do you wash all your bellies?" Just the boost of self-esteem I was looking for!

Crafty

Darius is very into crafting and building, and all sorts of projects lately. He spends half the day at the dining room table, coming up with tons of fun ideas. He told me the other day that he wants to make some things to sell at the craft fair with me in November. He wanted me to help him think of what to make, so we hit Google and came up with this cute spider craft:



I love his face.

Mya made one too:

He's also started with the Construx again (now that I've swept under the couches and found all the pieces!) Today he made a cherry picker:

This guy reminds me of Darius' spider.

Every day when we go to the bus stop to get Taye, Darius brings along something to show the other moms (and dad) there. They are all quite enamored with him, and I can't say I blame them.

THE DRESS!

Mya's dress for the wedding came yesterday, imported directly from Florida. It looks awesome on her, I can't wait to see her with Emma in her dress, and the boys in tuxes! Oh, and people are like getting married or something...that's pretty cool.

Here she is with that camera-shyness going on:



The back of the dress (for some reason, this is my favorite picture):


And here she is, giving it a twirl:

Oh, and she even got new, cute undies to go with it! Such a lady!

Buds

These two spent half the afternoon yesterday playing under the dining room table. Darius was being Patrick from Spongebob, and the table was his rock house. It seemed pretty cozy for a rock.



'Oh, what is that? A camera you say? Why, I've never seen one of those!'

What-EVER Mya!

Yesterday I put this shirt on Mya -


and we proceeded to have the following conversation:

Me: Nice shirt.
Mya: It not a shirt, it's a dress.
Me: Nope, it's too short to be a dress, it's a shirt.
Mya: It not a shirt, it's a dress.
Me: OK, it's a dressy shirt.
Mya: It's a dressy not a shirt.

Apple Picking

Sunday seemed like the perfect day for some apples, so we decided to go apple picking. Taye wasn't so sure he wanted to go, until we reminded him about climbing trees - then he was all for it!



We fed the animals, and Darius told me he's "never seen a goat before!" (Did I mention he lies a lot?)



I let it slide though, because he is one mean apple picker. We were barely out of the parking lot before he scored his first Mac.

Naturally, we picked and ate (and, uh - sat on) apples. And that was a lot of fun...

But the real excitement of the trip? We found raspberries under nearly every tree.

You would have thought that my kids were berry-deprived, and trust me - they're not! We couldn't tear them away until every last berry had been picked and eaten.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to announce that we're having another baby. Luis in his infinite love and generosity has offered to carry the pregnancy this time. He's about 2 months along (I know it looks like more, there's a whole litter - its still a very new technology), we're very excited!!

In addition to apples and raspberries, there were pumpkins! I guess we've never ventured this far into the orchard before, because we didn't even know these were here. We didn't actually buy any pumpkins because it's nowhere near Halloween, and fall isn't really here yet, it's an illusion. Also, there's no such thing as winter.

Best of all, there was my favorite part of apple picking, the one thing that brings me back for overpriced apples year after year - the pictures. And this is a particularly awesome one, if I do say so myself.

Hiking

Last weekend we set out for a hike around one of the local lakes. I don't know why we don't do this more often. It's a great path for the kids, and there is so much to see.


There are a plethora of bridges throughout the path. Of course, I warned the kids about the trolls, but no matter what I said, they went trip-trapping willy-nilly all over the bridges. I think the trolls were on vacation, luckily for them.

There are also a couple piers which we just had to check out. The first one we went on, about halfway out, Frog suddenly dropped to his belly with his legs splayed out, as if he were holding on for dear life. He suddenly realized he wasn't on regular ground anymore (he is such a chicken!)

Despite the scare, I think Frog had the most fun of all. He would have stood in the water all day if we let him.

We're definitely hoping to get back again before the weather gets all cold and depressing.

Aprons

Recently, I decided I was sick of changing my shirts constantly because I just cannot seem to keep them clean when I cook. I don't know why, but I am a sloppy chef. You should see my work uniform about 5 minutes after I start working! Anyway, I called in a custom order with my personal seamstress. She made me three awesome aprons, this one is my favorite (I don't have pictures of the other two yet):

Actually, in all honesty, this is my favorite (could have something to do with the model):

Just so you know, these are not (just) for fashion - they are serious, working aprons. As proof, I will assure you we did not get one drop of this water on our shirts!

First Day

Last Thursday was Taye's first day of Kindergarten. Because I'm a good mom, I'm just posting about it now. He was excited to get ready, and to take the bus. Of course, we had his favorite Mario outfit clean and ready for him.


When he saw me taking pictures, Taye insisted that I get one of just his face. I love the expression.



The bus stop is at the end of our street, and we all walked down together. Daddy skipped his first class to come with us.

We met lots of new neighbors at the bus stop, and there were tons of kids to run around with (well, as much as you can run around on a street corner). When the bus came, Taye skipped right over with the other kids, and climbed up without even looking back. He was much more ready than I was.

When we got home, it was time to send Luis off for his first day too!

Both boys seem to be settling right in to school. When Taye got home the first day, the first thing he said was, "now I know how much fun it is to ride the bus!" So far, so good.

Grasshopper

While I was at work Sunday morning, Luis and the kids were outside playing with Kyle when they saw this:



According to my entomologist husband, she was laying her eggs. He said she stayed there for a long, long time.


The kids were fascinated, and who wouldn't be? How often do you see a grasshopper lay eggs? Before Sunday, I don't think I'd ever given a thought to where or when or how a grasshopper lays eggs. I think this is so very cool, and I think Kyle would agree.

Mya

Mya totally blew me away the other day. We made cupcakes to bring to the birthday party, and she was helping me out. We only made half a tray, and froze the rest for future parties. Mya put the paper cups into the muffin tin for me, and when she was finished, she proceeded to point to each one and count, "one, two, three, four, five, six!"

Of course, now I know why she seemed to smart - Darius came running to me today and said, "Mama, do you remember Mt. Fizzlepop?" (from a kids show)
"Yup."
"Well, Mya just said it! Like a real boy! Like a big kid!"

And, you know, real boy big kids count to six all the time. Duh.