Not getting my hopes up...

but there seems to be a new fun game in my house. Its a new version of Monkey-see-Monkey-do...

(I'm sure someday they'll thank me for sharing these pictures with the world.)

The obligatory playing in the leaf pile pictures

Whatever you say Mom...

I'm not a fan of fall, mainly because it comes before winter. I hate having to bundle us all up to go out, I hate that we can't spend all day with the doors open wandering in and out as we please, I hate that the playground is not as much fun, and that it gets dark soooo early, I hate being freezing inside the house, and mostly I hate that I know it is only going to get worse (and then better again, but still...)

Whenever I start whining about it, Mom always says, "but fall is so pretty!" Well the leaves are nice for a week or so, but I'm pretty sure her flowers looked a lot nicer a couple of months ago!

Christmas Ideas

A few people have asked me recently for ideas for the boys for Christmas. I know I have had lots of good ones recently, but can't seem to remember them all. I'll list what I remember, and add more as I think of them. If you're worried about repeats, post a comment that you plan to buy a certain gift so no one else will, and I will promise not to read them.

*Connectagons
*Bristle Blocks (I used to love these, and just saw them at Target.)
*A new PlayHut or kids tent, the Diego one is on its way out. PlayHut seems to be really poor quality now, so maybe not one of them, unless it is the older style.
*Some small construction type trucks. We're going to fill the sand table with beans once we move upstairs, and I thought some dump trucks, etc. would be fun to play with. Maybe something like this although they don't say how big these are, I would assume pretty small just based on the price.
*Playsilks, nevermind. I found out through the magic of messageboards that I can buy plain ones here much cheaper than the colored ones and dye them with Kool-Aid. I've already ordered a few, I'll let you all know how they turn out. :o)
*Anything that would be fun to play with on the plane to Peru (for 12+ hours). I thought of: coloring books/magazines to cut pictures out of (Taye's favorite activity), stickers, DVD's, small cars, Play-Doh, Color Wonder paper/markers, books, drinks, snacks, and of course, Benadryl (no, not really). We have some of most of these things, but a variety can't hurt.

I know there are more that I thought of, but this is it for now. Well, except that I want this - I'm an 'older child' you know! :o)

Daddy's Boys

Lately the boys have been all about Daddy. He is admittedly, way more fun than Mama. :o) Darius runs to greet him when he gets home from work, and cries if Luis dares to do so much as take off a shoe before picking him up. Its too bad they don't really like him.

The new Daddy car, 2008 model with reversible seats.



Snuggled up watching TV.



The other night they all made dinner, what a treat. Can you guess what was on the menu? I'll give you a clue, if you play the game I mentioned below then you can donate some of this to people who need it. Still can't guess? Here's another clue - there is a huge bag of it on the table in these pictures. If you can't guess it now, I can't help you!



Darius is obsessed with bubbles (and balls, and balloons, and pretty much anything round that starts with the letter 'b'). We, of course, cannot find any bubble toys, but we do have a huge bottle of bubble solution, so the ever-resourceful Daddy came up with this solution. I think he learned it from watching Curious George. Darius was thrilled.

Taye mostly watched from the couch and swooped in from time to time to pop a bubble before Darius could.

Replaced, but not forgotten...

With all this talk of Grover, you must be asking yourselves, 'what became of Cookie Monster?' Well I am happy to report that she is alive and well, and just as loved as ever (and not one bit replaced!). If it weren't for that whole nocturnal thing she would be even more fun. I'm sure that she wishes I would just get my act together and clean her cage at night when she is actually awake, but unfortunately that never seems to happen. Eventually my guilt over the condition of her cage outweighs the guilt over waking her up, and I wake her up to clean. Taye is always excited to see her, and loves to hold her.


Grover likes when she is out too. He is very curious about this little thing rolling around the house.

Game for good

I just learned about this game yesterday. Its a vocabulary game, and for every definition you choose correctly, the sponsors donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Sounds like a good idea to me!

http://freerice.com/index.php