Funny stuff

Picture this, if you will...

I've gotten the kids out of the bathtub. This is CRAZY TIME in our house. We have two kids running around that we are trying to corral and coax into diapers and pajamas. So tonight I'm struggling to get Ladybug snapped into her jammies, she's crying, things are nuts.

The Doodle comes in, naked, with a toy piano. Climbs into Franny's dollbed announcing, "Look, Momma! I'm in the BATH!" And proceeds to give the following stellar performance:




In other news, Franny is walking! She can't get very far, though, because she thinks she is SO AWESOME that she gets too excited to stand up. She crashes down, laughs hysterically, and then jumps up and tries again. She cracks herself up.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

We have a long-standing ritual of cooking Saturday morning breakfast. Doodlebug/Ladybug have now decided they are old enough to help. This morning Daddy brought in this step stool for Atticus to stand on. We turn around, and the next thing we know, there Franny is, balanced precariously on the step right behind him. She's definitely our little climber!



A few more random pictures of Frannybug I have. Here's one Uncle Chad took:



And one more I found from our outing to the pumpkin patch last week. She's ready to head home after a long day on the farm! :)

Pumpkin patch

Yesterday we went to this farm and pumpkin patch my friend Mendy told me about. We had a blast. They had train rides, hay rides, a giant trampoline, an 80' slide, animals, etc. The kids got to pet a baby pig, goats, sheep, and Atticus got to hold a bunny.


Here is Franny checking out one of the horses:



Hey Horse! She loves it!



Atticus next to the train. We rode in the caboose. :)



Atticus and Craig both played on the trampoline and went down the slide multiple times. Craig was the one begging to go down the slide "one more time." I think we had as much fun as the kids did.

We have had a great weekend. I was starting to get pretty burnt out with school, but I took this weekend and recharged my batteries, and it was SO great.

This girl wants to walk so badly she can't stand it:

She now says "uh-oh" when she or anyone else drops anything.

Franny-bug at the church carnival down the street:


FOUL BALL!!
Saturday afternoon I gave Craig break from the kids (much-needed, I'm sure!), and Atticus, Franny, and I went to the park. Atticus saw an adult softball game going on across the park, so of course we HAD to go. We were there less than 5 minutes when Atticus got hit with a foul ball!! I saw it coming but we were up on the bleachers and I had Franny in my lap, so there wasn't much I could do but cover their heads with my body and hope for the best. Lucky for us, it just caught Atticus on the ankle and didn't do much damage!

Also, every time the batter tossed the bat aside to run, Franny yelled "uh-oh!"



Today we were going to take the kids to the flying field to watch the radio-controlled airplanes, but it was too windy and there was no one flying. Instead, we crashed a 4th grade Pee-wee football game, and it was surprisingly fun. I had to end up dragging Atticus AND Craig away when it was time to go.

Tonight a church down the street was putting on a "block party" with face painting, games, a moon bounce, etc.

Sorry for the photo quality here. Taking pictures of kids while bouncing = not easy! (In case you can't tell, he's having the time of his life.)


Anyway, had some AWESOME quality family time and tomorrow it's back to the grind! :)

Can you believe this girl is going to be ONE soon?

This weekend was my mom's family's annual reunion at the lake. We spent Saturday night in my hometown, and Sunday morning while Franny-bug was taking her morning nap, Grandma and I took Atticus to the park.



I remember playing at this park as a kid. I love the old-school park equipment. The Doodle is really getting brave. He wanted to climb everything and go down the big slides himself.



Sweet Ladybug at the lake:


She wants to put EVERYTHING in her mouth, so keeping up with her wasn't easy. We finally put her in the pack 'n' play. She has never used it as a playpen, just for sleeping. I didn't know how she'd take it, but she absolutely LOVED it. She would pull up on the sides, fall down, and laugh and laugh. She thought it was her own little bounce house. Who knew!?

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend Craig and I went to Washington, DC. It was really nice to spend some time together before school starts. (Big thanks to Nana & Papa & Grandma for watching the Doodlebug and Ladybug!)



Neither of us had ever been to DC and it was a lot of fun. We went to a few of the Smithsonian museums. I can't believe the stuff that they actually still have, all in one place. It's incredible. They had Abraham Lincoln's top hat and suit, the original star-spangled banner (the one that inspired the song), Julia Child's kitchen, and Archie Bunker's chair. Of course Craig wanted to visit the air and space museum. He was interested in the WWII planes, but I thought the most interesting thing was the Wright Brothers' original plane.



Me at Mount Vernon. We spent over half a day there and it was great. For such a heavily visited place, it didn't really feel "touristy" at all. We also visited the Capitol and the Supreme Court. We didn't have enough notice in our (very) last minute plans to make arrangements to tour the White House (you have to do it six months in advance), which we would have loved.



Supreme Court (top) and White House (below, obviously)



It was a lot of fun to travel together again. We each only took a small backpack, so it was just like old times. (Except for also transporting 4 days worth of pumped breastmilk through the airport and back home. That was a new experience.)

So now we're back and ready to get into the swing of things. The kids are doing great. Franny's tooth #4 is peeking through but she's handling it fine...

Atticus' haircut. I know this picture is blurry, but I was having a hard time getting him to hold still. Doesn't he look grown-up?

Edit: I suppose I should also mention that the reason he is holding his hands like that is because he is petting a pretend cat. Ha, ha.




Ladybug had her 9 month appointment. She's weighing in at 18.6 lbs and everything went well. She was quite a trooper during the checkup. Of course she cried when she got her shot but got over it quickly. This was our first time with our new doctor for the kids and I think we will like him.