Texas, Outdoorsy at the Ranch

Ah, Thanksgiving!  I'm so glad that the kids and I got to have an early celebration with family in Texas.  We spent close to a week at the ranch, so let's start there.  I may have been a bit optimistic in traveling with two youngsters by myself, but they were really pretty great travelers!  (Though I have to mention that several bystanders at the local airport became aware of Owen's bathroom habits: "I'm wiping my butt!", I learned that we should just check all car seats, I can never pack too many snacks, and we did have to run to make one of our connections!)

Unfortunately, we brought the cold air with us (Polar Vortex), but the kids didn't mind too much and spent a good deal of time outside.  And it was better than the negative temperatures back home.  They LOVE dirt...  

and playing outside...

and leaves...

and making leaves float on water...

and let's not forget the firewood!  Because you know Grandad had the fireplace going non-stop.

When the logs are too big, bring out the tractor!  

Owen was so excited to ride the tractor, and Grandad even let him drive!

Monkey see, monkey do, as they say.  Hadley wanted up on the tractor too.

And though it was a little damp, we had our traditional bonfire.  The kids loved it!  They could run out into the dark, 'spooky' woods, see the stars, and squirt water on anything of concern. 

The Real Snow!

While I sort through our Texas pictures, I'll catch up on the rest of November.  Here's what was on the ground just before we left.  We missed a lot of snow and negative temperatures while we were gone, which was good to miss!

Here's what the kids got to go play in the day after we got back 10 days later.  Owen was pretty excited about the snow, though sad that he didn't have to shovel.  Hadley, like last year, was fine until some got on her face.

I also wanted to post a picture of Owen at a friend's painting birthday party earlier this month.  I thought he did a pretty good job painting his robot, "Bot."  (It's the blue and yellow one on the back row below, 3rd from right.)

Family Portraits 2014

We took advantage of the fall colors in Freeman Park for some family photos!

Practice Snow and Hadley at 28 months

On one of our regular trips to the local elementary school playground, we came across some random piles of snow!  The kids were so excited.  Hadley played until the snow soaked through her mittens, but Owen stayed near the ice/snow piles the entire time we were at the playground.  I'm not sure where the snow came from, since we hadn't had any and temps were in the upper 40s, but some of the local kids even brought their sled and let Owen go down the ramp a couple of times.  Me?  I'll wait for the real stuff, which is coming soon enough.

For indoor entertainment, the kids have finally gotten into Legos.  Hadley's still on the bigger blocks, but Owen loves building cars with the smaller, original version.  They are a good activity before bed and keep them quietly occupied for quite a while!

I've begun to notice some OCD/engineer qualities from Hadley.  For example, one day I gave them some fruit salad with their lunch, and I realized she had sorted everything out, including her crackers and lunchmeat.  Poor girl never had a chance!

I also wanted to document some current Hadley-isms that make me smile:

• "beppas" - breakfast
• "Happy Ween!" - Halloween
• "Yaygos" - Legos
• "I do!" and raising her hand when something agreeable has been suggested 
• "I wanna turtle, Mom" - I want to color, Mom
• "It's dark outside!" - every night at dusk
• "I sleep all night!" - comment to everyone when she waits until her clock is green in the morning (at acceptable time to holler at us)
• "pizza" - zebra
• "rie heeya" - right here, with a Jersey accent
• "move!" - when someone is obstructing her path, we are still working on following that with "please" or "excuse me" :)

And some notable behavior:

• She is very gentle with the younger babies in boot camp and often pets their heads 
• She is also a great cleaner-upper even singing herself a song while she does it
• When she gives an adamant "no!", it is sometimes accompanied with a "talk to the hand" hand
• Sometimes she shushes me when I'm singing to her at night, complete with a finger to my lips
• She can also be argumentative just for grins.  Like when I ask her "what's this?" and point to a picture of a zebra, she'll say "jaff" (giraffe) with a big smile on her face. I'll say, "no, what is it?" and she'll say more energetically, "Jaff!" with a laugh. Repeat until I break first.  
• When we do a block puzzle, she'll ask "Where does this go?" when she already knows, just to get your participation.  And she'll playfully try to put it in wrong places to draw it out, "Does it go here?", "Here?", smiling all the while.
• Often when we get in the car on a clear day, she'll declare "It stopped raining!", which makes Owen say, "It wasn't raining.  It didn't stop.  It's just not raining!"  Then Hadley says, "Yeah, it stopped raining."  Owen escalates, "It wasn't raining!"  This can go on for a long time, until I change the subject.  I think she likes to get a rise out of him.  Should be real fun in a few years!
• She likes going to MOPS!  It's like a mother's day out twice a month.  I let her take her backpack, and she's ready to say good-bye in the parking lot!  It's quite a change from last year, when she cried enough that they would have to bring her back to me every time.

Halloweek

Another Halloween is in the books!  A look back at our last week of October...  Owen was so excited that we finally got to carve the pumpkins!  We found a 'family Halloween' pandora station to listen to while carving, which is why Hadley is dancing here. Apparently, they haven't made any good, clean Halloween songs since 'Ghostbusters'.

While Owen was in school one day, we met up with a group of kids (and moms) to reverse trick-or-treat in a local nursing home's memory care unit.  I was a little nervous on how Hadley would behave surrounded by elderly strangers when asked to give them candy, but she did really great!  She diligently made sure that each of their treat bags got one of her bags of crackers and even smiled during the process.  Yea to giving back!  I think we brightened their day a bit with our colorful costume parade and treats.

We had gorgeous weather this week, so we decided to brave Boo at the Zoo for the first time in a couple of years.  It was pretty crowded, but not too bad, and the kids had fun.

Hadley was very interested in the animatronic displays.  Here a couple of skeletons played the banjo a la Deliverance.  We had to encourage her to keep moving along.  :)

Had to get a picture of Hadley with her kinfolk in the background.  Every time she heard someone say 'Halloween' these last few weeks, she quickly declared, "I'm going to be a lion!  Ghost Owen!"  If you didn't acknowledge that statement, she would repeat it until you did, which earned her the nickname of 'Broken Record' from Owen.  Not sure he really gets the vintage reference, but it was still funny.

Owen being a spooky ghost and just another pumpkin face at the pumpkin display.

Finally, it was time to Trick-or-Treat.  We met up with some neighbors to do just that. Hadley excitedly ran from house to house once she caught on, but she was the first to poop out and head home early.  It was the first Halloween here where we didn't have to bundle up, which was a great bonus.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween, too!