It's 2

Asher is finally 2. I say finally because it feels like he's been two since he turned one. His birthday was completely typical, for Asher. Illustrative of the fact that this kid is going to give us a run for our money. All my presuppositions about parenting, all my schemes and carefully thought out ways of dealing with kids are thrown right out the window with this little chap.

And so we begin...




Asher loves cars. So I made him this little car playmat. Holds 6 cars, has a car wash, park, construction site, and gas station. Took me a lot of hours... he liked it for about 10 minutes. So we showed him the next gift. A sure fire winner we supposed. Aidan and Sophie both have Razor scooters that they ride to and from the school and on walks; Asher loves them and begs (read screams) to ride them, so we bought him this lovely little Radio Flyer scooter with a wide base and three wheels. Here's what he looked like as Bren put it together.



Still not sure what about it made him so very angry. This is how it ended.



The only thing we did right that day was pizza for dinner. Asher was truly very pleased with the pizza and cinnamon rolls.
The day of his party we had watermelon for lunch, that was also acceptable.



Asher had 6 pieces...

Enjoyed every bite. "The way to a man's heart..." I suppose.

Daphne made spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for his cake, because Asher will not eat cake if it's in cake form, but cupcakes are okay. (I have no idea)
The candles also interested him.

However, when the singing started he got up and walked away.

When we got him back to the table, he caught on to the blowing out of the candles fairly quickly.

And with a little help we got the candles blown out.

This enraged the little imp.
We relit the candles 4 times.

After the candle trauma subsided, Asher managed to scarf down three cupcakes. So the little booger is two and the only thing we got right was the food, and we'll never know why. Sigh.

Happy Birthday to our little Man of Mystery.

A cow by any other name...

After living in Texas for 6 1/2 years, we finally made a trip over to the Fort Worth Stockyards.



It was pretty cold that morning (by Texas standards) so the kids were all bundled up and a little grumpy at first, even after being greeted by a friendly amigo.



Asher was the first to warm up to the idea and he promptly took off down the cobblestone street to see the sites.



Ash found himself a fine steed and had a great ride.



He managed to get Aidan excited about the day and the two brothers had a ball on the plastic horses as well as checking out the real ones.



After Aidan got a good look at the real cowboys riding around the town on their horses, he was completely sold and managed to talk his way into this new cowboy hat. (How could you say no to that little cowpoke?)



After a trip to the sweet shop and some indulging from her grandpa, Sophie was ready to ride as well. (That kid will do anything for a Starburst)



While we waited for the cattle drive to begin, Bren was kind enough to rustle us up some grub in the form of super delicious deep fried pickles. Boy are those good!



The cattle drive was slow, but still pretty impressive. Amazing how long their horns can get. They almost look too heavy for their heads.



Just after the cattle drive, Aidan discovered the mechanical bull and insisted that he could take it on. He stayed on for a good while, but decided to end it on his terms rather than being thrown.



Daphne wasn't inclined to ride the bull, but seemed to enjoy herself once we got out in the warm sunshine.



She even spent some time in the pokey.



A petting area for some friendly goats was set up on the main street and Asher got quite a kick out of the furry fellas. He even let one goat taste his fingers... and then Bren poured hand sanitizer up his arm.



Sophie on the other hand nearly jumped into her brother's arms when a friendly goat tried to taste her.



Bren found a comfortable spot to wait for a shoeshine, but alas, he was wearing Chucks.



All in all a fun day, finished up with some good Mexican food.



Via la Texas!

MythBusters...

This week was book fair at the elementary school.

When I was a kid, I L-O-V-E LOVED book fair. The shiny new books, the jars of sparkly pencils, boy band posters, calculators in neon colors. Sigh...love. So naturally, when it was time for my own children to experience book fair, I was pretty excited.

Alas, book fair is not the wonderland of possibilities to a parent as it is to a child.

Pretty much here's how it goes... "Can have these?"... "Those are HOW much?".. "Why can't we get more books?"... "Stop taking all those books off the shelf!"... "What a ripoff!"... "Why do we always have to get books at the library?!"... "No, I will not buy anymore sticky hands"... Sad.

Even with all the frustration, I still have those fond memories of book fairs so long ago, so each year I will buy one book from the book fair.

This year Aidan picked this book. It's basically a book of kitchen science type myths, with experiments and "myth-busting" activities for kids at home. Naturally, Aidan couldn't wait to get started, so off we go a myth-busting!

Armed with 4 dollars worth of supplies from the candy and soda aisles, the setup begins.



Sophie, anxiously awaiting zero hour...



The boys consult to develop the best plan for optimum explosiveness.



The joy of science!



Final instructions...



Ready to run...



4...3...2...1...



Thar she blows!





Great fun! This weekend we will attempt lemon powered LED lights and how to stop hot chili pepper burn. Sweet.

HALLOWEEN!

It's Halloween at the house of spooks.
Ghosts and goblins have us shaking in our boots!

Aidan finally settled on zombie for his costume this year after mulling over some very diverse ideas (including two headed dragon and wizard with a jet pack). Bren did a pretty good job with the gore. He made the suit jacket out of a black sweatshirt and scrap fabric.







Here come the others...



Little tink spreading pixie dust. Sophie had a great party at her preschool yesterday. It included t-shirt painting, halloween games, trick or treat and a pinata to wrap it all up. Pretty fancy for sure.





Asher finally let me put on his gnome hat. Here he is guarding the front door.



On a break from guard duty. Even gnomes need technology breaks.



Daphne knew exactly who she wanted to be very early on. Her costume earned her first place in the church costume contest.





Bren decided to break out the Moses costume complete with a new and improved beard made of polyester quilt batting. His efforts earned him first place in the adult church costume contest as well.





Sophie says, But mom, what is Halloween for?
I say, To dress up, get candy, and put up spooky decorations.
Sophie says, Cool.

Yes it is.

Things I love...

Favorites:

Fall - It has finally arrived. This morning's air was truly "crisp".

A visit from a friend sorely missed. And now missed some more.

Leftovers from a birthday lunch - taste even better in bed with a book.

When happy kids run into the backyard yelling things like "FOR NARNIA!" and "That stick is not the only source of my power!".

Amazon super saver shipping.

Walks with good friends - the best therapy.

New fabric - The colors. The patterns. The perfect folds. The smell even.

General Conference Women's Broadcast - Can't wait.

Tiny, lawn mowing, baby butt.



I hope your week has been equally lovely.
Emilee