A Berry Sweet Party

The girls went to a birthday party today for Zari. Their new friend. Who is not related to them.

They played in the pool, though Abigail mostly hung out on the steps. The water was NOT warm. She's like me and doesn't like the cold. Amelia jumped right in.





There was even a girl who painted nails for all the girls.

And of course there was birthday cake.



The girls had fun picking out Strawberry Shortcake things for Zari. They helped make the card and both signed their own names. Amelia is getting very good at it.

Dog Daze

Every year, the city hosts an event especially for our furry friends. We try to make it every year for Guinness and the girls. It's always a blast, but this year was the best.

The girls fell asleep and were promptly trampled by a roving band of Shih Tzus. Gina and I chased after them to no avail. They are tougher than they look. I know this from first hand experience. These paw prints were the only evidence they left. Crafty little things. -Will

"We got blue stamps that are scratchy." -Abigail

"We got stamps today. And we met Colton there. And I love you Colton." -Amelia

We're not sure why, but Guinness confused this kid's pool with a place to go potty. As you can see, he really had to go. And yes, he does pee like a girl. -Will

"Guinness went in a big blue pool with water in it that was blue." -Abigail

"And smiley faces in the net." -Amelia

I abstain. -Will

"We colored at the place and they had a fun activity place for kids. There's all different colors of crayons." -Abigail

"We had different colors of crayons. At Dog Daze." -Amelia

At Dog Daze, they cooked the world's largest vanilla cake in an attempt to break into the book of world records. Guinness ruined it all when he single handedly licked his way through the center of it. Don't think everyone didn't catch the irony of Guinness keeping the town out of the Guinness Book of World Records. -Will

"Guinness went in the tent that was yellow and had dirt all over it. And feathers. Maybe." -Abigail

"Guinness went in the yellow tunnel. He was wrinkly in the tunnel. And I love you Guinness." -Amelia

Who is that guy in the blue shirt and what is he doing to that poor dog! -Will

"Guinness went on the teeter-totter. And he went on the bridge. That's a bridge. Guinness walked on it." -Amelia

"He scratched it all up. And it was scratched up. And it was dirty." -Abigail

In a strange animal testing experiment, they asked Guinness to try out this flotation device. Needless to say, if you're a 70 pound dog you're in trouble. If you're a three hundred pound woman telling us how to get through the agility course, you're good to go. Let it be known, I am against product testing on animals, solely based on my experience today. For all the little bunnies out there, I'm with you now. -Will

"He went in a big life guard thing and it was like a pool thing. Guinness went through it." -Abigail

"In the tire, but it's kind of a swimming thing. " -Amelia

We were waiting on the sidelines for Guinness's turn on the agility course. He actually said "I got you suckas!" and stared down the rest of the competition. My eyes watered up a little when I heard it. I was proud of the big guy. -Will

"I weared a tutu skirt today. And a "I like candy" shirt. I weared pink puddle jumpers with white polka dots. And I weared my candy shoes to the grocery store with Dad. We bought ice cream. It was a date. We got Birthday Cake ice cream." -Abigail

"Guinness the Dog went in the race. Obstacle. Guinness, I love you too." -Amelia

Enjoying The Gorgeous Weather

(A scarecrow, Cinderella and her stagecoach, A pumpkin)

(A pumpkin sun and a playhouse )

Reason #101 To Move

You can't really tell the size of this spider, but he's at least 5 inches from leg to leg and he's living right outside the laundry room door. I can appreciate the beauty of his web and all the bugs he must catch in it, but he's still huge and disgusting. While we do have a few more legitimate reasons for moving, school for the girls is the major one, this guy is definitely on my list.

On a little bit more serious of a note.. We have been getting ready to put our house up for sale. We actually have someone coming to look at it today! We've been talking about moving for a while now, giving the girls plenty of time to get used to the idea. They have both been super helpful getting the house ready. Abigail, of course, LOVED helping me clean, and both the girls helped plant some fall mums in the front garden yesterday. It's exciting to think about moving somewhere new, but there are things we will definitely miss about this house.

Here's just a few:

My little barn door

Will made this door for me. I told him what I wanted and he made exactly what I had in mind. With a little help from Karen (our friend and once neighbor), I banged it up with tools from the garage. Then we painted it with some of the oldest, stickiest paint I've ever seen. It turned out perfect. I love this little door. It leads into the "playroom" for the girls. It's really just where we store their toys but it makes us laugh to call it a playroom.

My claw foot bathtub
I have always loved claw foot tubs. They make me think of old farmhouses. When I think of those, I always think of home. We use this tub all the time. The girls take their bath in it every night. We remodeled our whole bathroom but this is my favorite part.

My front porch
I've always loved front porches. Goes right along with my love of farmhouses. We sit out on our porch almost every day. Our favorite spot is the swing. We put it up before we had even moved in.

Abigail's walls
Karen painted these flowers and butterflies all around Abigail's room to match her quilt. I love the way it looks and it makes me sad to think with just a can a paint it'll all be gone.

Here's hoping a family with a little girls buys our house.

Just A Few Mug Shots

Ping Pong Slammit Whammit

(Inspired by an episode of the Backyardigans)

The whole time the girls played this game of "Ping Pong" they were yelling Slammit! Whammit! and a few other words that rhymed. :) And yes, those are zucchinis they are using as their paddles.

Happy Fall

It almost feels like fall here too!

Bed Diving

This is not Amelia's usual bedtime routine. :)

Politics VS. Baked Goods

The "Catched" Frog

For smiling little faces

Really serious ones too

Only one step from my hand

Got it, now what do I do?!?

A Goodnight Story By Abigail

The book Abigail is "reading" is Little Miss Spider. It was a Christmas gift from Robin in 2006. She was only 2 1/2. It only took a few readings snuggled up in bed for Abigail to memorize it. I would read a line and she would say the next line to me (word for word). Whenever I read this book to her now, I still hear her little voice saying the lines. She was so little then. Now she can read it all by herself.

Our Big Teeth Day

Braces off and little teeth cleaned!

Bed = Cama

Abigail: Daddy, how do you say 'Bed' in spanish? My horsie speaks spanish, we speak what we speak? She's 41.
Daddy: I don't know. Hmmmm. I think it's cama.

(Daddy makes a quick google stop to find it is indeed cama.)

Daddy: Yep, it's cama.
Mommy: Hey Abigail, why don't you ride your horsie straight up to your cama?
Abigail: IT'S NOT CAMA-TIME!

Nice. After Daddy's brutal day, even he was laughing.

Just A "Small" Fooddelivery

The girls have been wanting to do another food delivery lately. It's been a little while since we've done it so we decided to do one this week. I asked Will to just get a small one because the last time a few things went to waste. :( This is not my idea of small.

In the few deliveries we've got there is always an obscure vegetable or fruit (no label or tag to tell us what it is). We always take a guess but we were pretty clueless this time. Only one way to find out. Google it.

It turned out to be a baby coconut from Thailand. It was soft on the inside and the meat was easy to scape out. It was delicious and left us wanting more.