What happens when I leave them alone for 2 minutes

I've been absent from the blogging world partly because I haven't taken pictures at any of the fun events we've attended recently and partly because when I leave either of my kids to their own devices, they "make mischief of one kind or another".

Exhibit A:

I was quickly finishing up dinner when I heard little happy sighs coming from James. I rounded the corner and was met with this sight. (I love how totally he pleased he is with himself in the first and how cute he is in the second. I love this little boy!)

For the record, and despite James' happy demeanor, blueberry-flavored craisins are NASTY.

Exhibit B:

After my first week of teaching Joy School to Annie and FIVE of her friends (two and a half hours of 6 two- and three-year olds at my house, complete with FOUR kids working on potty training), we had a meeting with all the moms to assess how things were going. We mistakenly let the older kids go outside, so then we had to let the little ones go out too. At the end of our meeting we found Annie and William sitting, totally stuck, in a giant puddle of mud. Fittingly, one of Annie's very favorite books right now is Stuck in the Mud. Love this girl! I feel like we are finally turning a corner with her. She still has tantrums, but they don't seem to consume our lives like they have for the last several months. She's mastering her emotions a lot better now. The other day she was really mad at me for not letting her take James' apple out of his mouth and eat it. I told her she couldn't and I would get her some grapes. She yelled, "NOOO! I DON'T WANT GRAPES!!!" Then she paused and said, "Actually, I do." Love it. It made me laugh so hard.

First Haircut

According to my cute neighbor girl, "James' hair is really turning red." :) I'm pretty sure she just noticed because he's getting quite a bit of hair. Consequently, Brad gave James his first haircut a couple of nights ago. It's pretty cute! Brad and I both think he looks more grown up with his new do. Both of my boys are just so handsome!

Thanks Christensens!

This morning at breakfast Annie started to tell Brad and me about Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. We were fairly surprised since the last time we talked about this was in December of last year and we're pretty sure she didn't remember it from then. I asked her where she learned it and she replied, "Actually, I read it in my scriptures." Well, well, well, did you now?

She was sort of just chattering on and on, but then she told us that they had to hide in a cave so no one would find them. I knew we hadn't brought up the flight into Egypt last year at all. But then I remembered that I'd seen her playing with the Little People nativity at Katie's the other night. So I have to conclude that the Christensens are teaching their kids the scriptures and our child is getting it vicariously. Thanks Christensens!

Below is Annie and James Christensen. They were both Elmo for Halloween. It was pretty dang cute. :)

"It's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife . . ."

Actually, all I needed was a spoon. The other day after I finished emptying the dishwasher, I noticed we had considerably fewer spoons than I remembered us having (I think we were down to 6 spoons). That night when Brad came home from school, I asked, "Is it possible that you left some of the spoons you've taken in your lunches at school?" He was pretty sure he hadn't left them at school, but thought he might have a couple in his backpack. "Here's one . . . And here's another . . . and one more . . . and another . . . and another . . . and one more." I can't remember for sure if it was 6 or 7 spoons that he found, but it really cracked me up. Then two days ago, he found 2 more. :) So funny. I'm really grateful he DID have them in his backpack and hadn't lost them.

This picture is too cute not to share, but has nothing to do with spoons.

Weekend of Wonders

Every once in a while, Brad likes to proclaim something about a given period of time. For instance, when we were dating (and Brad wanted to be engaged), he told me we needed to have a "magical May". Well, after several HUGE tests for him and lots of extra kid time for me, he told me last Saturday was going to be a "day of wonder". Turns out, it was. We packed tons into the weekend and had a blast!

We went to Powers Market to feed the animals, pick out a pumpkin, and (most importantly) eat pumpkin donuts. Check, check, and check.

We headed to the Museum of Play because Annie had really been wanting to ride on the carousel with Daddy. Check. James loved the Museum too.

After naps and a few other errands, we headed to our ward's Halloween party. It was great! We ate a quick dinner, played several Halloween games, participated in Trunk or Treat, and headed home. We stayed up a little late because we finally switched James into the real crib and Annie into a toddler bed. We're really hoping this change goes okay. To date, we've only had one successful nap in the bed, but nighttime hasn't presented any new challenges.

What a day of wonder!

"Unslumping yourself is not easily done"

Today is a slump day. Not terrible, but I've just been a little off. I decided to help James work on sleeping through the night last night. Ha! As a result, we both had a much worse night and are (unsurprisingly) cranky.

But I'm trying to CHOOSE to not be in a slump anymore today, and my first step in the unslumping process is to post some recent photos of my super cute kids (mostly to remind myself that they really are super cute and for the grandmas).

When I tried to take a picture today for the "Just James" post of just James, Annie was not thrilled and wanted to be in some too. So I took some of them together and some of Annie. In the one together, she was really trying to help clap and simultaneously put her arm around him. It was pretty sweet.

In this one she is holding up the zero puzzle piece. She's recently become interested in numbers and letters. Her favorite number is 0 and letter is M.

The bun picture is because she is in a phase where she wants to (insists on) doing EVERYTHING just like somebody else. Sometimes it's big James, sometimes it's little James, and today it was Grace. She saw a picture of her cousin with a bun about a month ago and all of the sudden today there was no other option for a hair-do. I didn't think it would turn out as cute as it did. I was pretty pleased.

Here are a few shots of her with some of her favorite friends - Ruth, Bryce, and James. The muddy ones are right in front of our house (aren't you all jealous you don't have mud puddles literally feet from your front door?), and the pumpkin one is at Powers Market. It was so sunny that day. We got the yummiest pumpkin muffins ever pretty soon after the picture was taken.

For the record, I do know that I have a FANTASTIC life. Also, does anyone know what Dr. Seuss book the title of the post comes from? Bonus points for you if you do. Annie and I read it today.

Just James

James is on such a steep learning curve right now, so I feel like I need to document it. He started really crawling just 2 days ago (at 7 1/2 months - eek). He's been threatening to crawl since just before 6 months. He would always get up on all four, but then he figured out sitting and that contented him for a little while. I was VERY encouraging of this stage. I relentlessly handed him toys that were out of his reach so that he wouldn't feel a need to figure out a way to get to them. Much to my chagrin, my tactics failed. For only crawling for 2 days, he's already remarkably good at it. I think he's going to be a coordinated little boy and love running and playing a whole bunch. Today as I read Annie a story on the couch, he spotted a toy, got a determined look on his face, and march-crawled (I know I'm making that term up, but can't you just picture it?) right over to it. So deliberate and so cute.

Yesterday (the day after he learned to crawl officially), he figured out clapping. I LOVE the clapping. He doesn't quite know it's a trick yet - it almost feels more like a fidgety thing to do when he's feeling emotions. He does it when he's happy or when he's very worked up and sad.

He is much more of a babbler these days, particularly when he's happy and around our small little family. He says "mamama", "dadada", "bababa", a few "ga"'s, maybe a "la" here and there, and lots of cooing things. He has loud squawking laugh when he's being tickled. His favorite thing in the world is getting tossed around and wrestled by Daddy.

He is liking his solid foods more and more. The only thing he still won't eat is rice cereal. He did great with green beans and squash, which made his daddy happy.

He is much more shy than Annie ever was. Annie never really went through a stranger anxiety phase, but James does not light up for every person he sees. He doesn't cry, he just studies them. But if it's anyone from our family that's talking to him (or a few of our cute neighbors), he will light up and want to play and play.

He is still HUGE! One friend described him as "juicy" and another friend as "hefty". Both fit him pretty well. His hair is still quite red. One of our cute neighbor girls saw him the other day and said, "His hair is kind of turning red." :) I get lots of comments about him being a milkman baby. Rest assured, he is not. The conversation goes like this, "Does his dad have red hair?" "No, both of our grandpas have some red in their hair and beards." "Oh, so he's a milkman baby." (In my head, "No, but thank you for implying that I cheated on my husband.")

I haven't taken a picture of him crawling or clapping yet, but when I get those, I'll add them to this post.

Help Wanted

Hello blogosphere friends! I'm coming to you humbly to seek your advice. I LOVE my children, but one of them (really hard to guess which one, I'm sure) is driving me crazy. I would really like to have more positive interactions with said child and not feel like every moment is either a battle or about to become a battle. We deal with tantrums over minutia daily. But we also have issues with obedience (e.g., Please don't go in the road or please come in the house). Will you please post your recommendations for the best parenting books or tips? It's kind of hard to admit you need help, but I really do, so please comment away.

P.S. Happy Columbus Day everyone!

Susanna Grandma Hunter

We've recently been teaching Annie about full names. She loves to repeat everyone's full names to us. I guess she realized that the cadence on hers was a little off because everybody else has three names in their full name. So she adapted and now calls herself "Susanna Grandma Hunter". Annie is named for both of our moms and rightly so, she ADORES those women. I guess she figured that adding Grandma to her name was a great way to be like them. :) After she said it the first time, I commented to Brad that she had two grandmas who would like to hear that story. She heard me and informed me that she had TWO grandmas who miss her and TWO papas who miss her and that she needs to fly on an airplane to see them. So the four of you need to know that you are loved and missed and talked about. A lot.

How cute is my neighbor?

Around lunch today I got a call from our friend (and next door neighbor) wondering if Annie could go over to have a tea party at their house for lunch. Yes please! The pictures are priceless!

Love living by such great friends!

http://danlisa.blogspot.com/2011/09/tea-party.html

Elizabeth and Sam Visit

Elizabeth and Sam came to visit!!! It was so much fun to have them here! We miss them so much already.

I started telling Annie they were coming a little too early (as in days early). One morning before they got here, she told me that she wouldn't get dressed until they arrived. Shoot. Luckily she caved and did wear clothes for the next few days.

They got here late Sunday night. Lucky for us, the next day was Labor Day, so Brad got to spend the whole day with us. We went up to Niagara Falls. A couple of months ago (in anticipation of this visit) we got the kids cards that let them go across the Canadian border. Don't be fooled, these cards are not passports! These cards only work when you walk, drive, or ride on a boat into another country. Somehow the border control people in England would know just what to do with the kids' cards if we arrived on the QEII, but not have a clue what to do with them if we flew in on Delta. But I digress . . .

So we walked across the border to the Canadian side of the falls. People told us it was better, but I sort of thought to myself, "Yeah right. It's the same falls." I was wrong. It really is better in Canada. Elizabeth and I were convinced it actually felt like a foreign country. Brad and Sam were not so sure. I think it was the manicured gardens that gave me that foreign feel. I was really hoping to parle a little francais, but the closest I got to this was interpreting a landmark sign for everyone. It was a good thing I was there to interpret because it would have been really hard for everyone to walk around to the other side and read it in English. We also had a sub-par bear claw on the Canadian side. Watch out for that trap if you go, they look and smell way better than they taste.

Unfortunately, Niagara Falls was the only place where I took any pictures, so unless Elizabeth sends some of their photos my way, this is it for pictures.

The next day (my BIRTHDAY) was great! I spent the whole day feeling so grateful for all the wonderful people in my life! We started out with blueberry pancakes and then headed to Palmyra. Sam had never been to the sites before, so it was fun to show him around. For the most part we had great missionaries to show us around. The major exception was at the printing press. The kids had both had it by this point and the missionary would not end the tour. Sam (politely) said several times, "We need to get going", and she'd say, "No, just look at this." We stopped the Pittsford Wegman's for bread and cheese. Delicious! All the way home in the car, Annie kept saying, "Mommy, I'm terrified." It was cracking Elizabeth and Sam up. She said it all the more because they laughed. Then after Brad got home and the kids were down, we all went out for pho. (Thanks to Katie and Eric for monitoring/babysitting!) Pho is a Vietnamese soup that Brad and Sam LOVE! Elizabeth and I think it's pretty good too. Mostly, it was just fun to be out on a double date sans enfants. We came home and had some Heath cake. It was a great birthday. So far, I'm loving being 28!

On Wednesday we had a Rochester day. I introduced Elizabeth and Sam to the Museum of Play. They were such good sports to put up with Annie's whims at the museum. Eliza and I had tons of fun doing the tongue twisters. We had some garlicy lasagna that night (sorry Elizabeth) and rushed off to an Eastman concert. It turned out that the concert was pushed back to later, so we headed to the cemetery. We love the cemetery; luckily Elizabeth and Sam love it now too. It's so beautiful. We got a little bit of cake from Phillip's and then we went back to Eastman for the concert. (Thanks to the McGowans and the Smiths for the help with our kids during all this!) It was honestly the best violin music I've ever heard. I love living by Eastman! We ended the night playing a whole lot of TransAmerica. Elizabeth was a-mazing! She never lost. Not once. Crazy.

We loved having Elizabeth and Sam and hope they are coming back soon! Or better yet, that we're heading to Irvine soon!

mud pies

Annie LOVES to get in the mud with her friend James (and others, but these two seem to get the dirtiest). Often when I'd see them heading for the mud, I'd try to distract them or at least limit the places the mud came in contact with their bodies. Very rarely was I successful. But as it turns out, mud washes out pretty well. :)

Big time bummer

I think James is skipping my favorite stage. :( Life doesn't get better than when your kid can sit, but not crawl, and I'm afraid James will never do that. He still only sits for a minute or two at a time, but he's already getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Sad.

In other news, we had his 6 month appointment today and he is "perfect". (I think it's a mark of a good pediatrician to tell me that about my children.) He's in the 75th percentiles for height and weight, so he's still big, but not quite as giant as before. Brad swears he can see James' face slimming down.

My sister, Elizabeth, and her husband, Sam, just came for a quick visit and are now gone. We are missing them so much already! I'll post pictures of that trip soon!

Success!

Yesterday was a rewarding day. Annie and James were both pretty good all day. Even when Annie had little (normal) obedience issues, she fixed them pretty quickly.

But family night really made my day. We did a lesson about the importance of scriptures. After it was over, she was thumbing through the story book version of the New Testament and found a picture, pointed to it, and said, "That is Jesus Christ. He died for the people." So sweet!!! She's remembering what we're telling her. I know she doesn't fully understand what that means yet, but it was so great to know that she's learning it. Then for a little while after that she kept finding "Nephi" and giving little talks and closing, "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen". It really made me so happy.

James also loved family night. It's pretty cute how content he is when he is laying right in the middle of all of us. I really think it's his favorite thing. I think he feels like he is really a part of everything. It's been so fun for me to see recently how much Annie loves to include him in everything and how he relishes that. He adores her.

One other cute story, just because I don't want to forget it: Annie has become quite observant at church. I didn't know it until the other day when we had some friends over and she told me she wanted to bless the sacrament. (I should insert right here that I wish I'd handled this a little differently so she didn't imitate a sacred ordinance, but I didn't want her to get mad and have her have negative associations with the Sacrament.) She proceeded to get out a white wipe, lay it on the table, kneel down and say a (real) prayer, move the wipe as if uncovering the bread, pass pretend bread out, go back and move the wipe like she was covering the water and repeat the process. I had no idea she'd paid such close attention. Even though I wished I'd help her understand the Sacrament is too sacred to do pretend games about it, I'm proud of her for watching so intently.

Wave your little hand and whisper "so long, dearie"!

I feel like I'm about to say "So long, dearie" to the world. My worst fears are coming true: James naps from about 10 to 12 or 12:30, Annie goes down at 1 or 1:30, and James naps again sometime between 2 and 4. I will never see anyone again!!! I will never shop, visit teach, go to music time, play at a park, or leave my house again! And I will never have a free minute to myself again!

I know I'm being dramatic, but I just can't figure out a good napping schedule. Are there any suggestions out there from moms who have had one child on a 2 nap schedule and another child on a 1 nap schedule?

Despite these worries, isn't this the cutest picture in the world? James is learning to sit all by himself for 3 to 5 minutes at a time. :)

(I have a friend who used to make a lot of her posts song titles and make people guess the song. Does anyone know the song of this title?)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

It's been 4 years today since I made the best decision of my life! I love you Brad! Here's us 4 years ago in Mexico!

little things

Since my last post was so negative, I feel I owe it to my children to document a day where they made me so happy. I felt like both of them were full of cute things all day.

Annie and I played outside together for a long time. In a rare moment for a Whipple Park playground, there were no other kids on the playground, so it was just us. She loved playing with just me. It was really fun. She would poke her head through little holes and tell me she could see me. She invited me to "visit" her in "rocking chair swing". We ate a LOT of pretend chocolate chips. Probably my two favorite parts of the day with her were when she played with the spices and with the pens. She got out a whole bunch of spices and then had one spice say to the other spice, "Are you going to be a nice sharing girl today? You're such a good sharing girl!" And then with the pens she had a similar conversation where one pen said to the other, "Can you play so nicely with your friends? We don't hit our friends." It was cracking me up.

James was also so cute today! He had a great nap and woke up so pleasant. Tonight after Annie was asleep, I put him on the floor next to me to roll around. I was feeling so tired, so I was hoping he'd play contentedly by himself. However, about one minute later I opened my eyes and there he was RIGHT next to my face with the biggest grin on his face. He looked like he'd just won the Price is Right Showcase because he'd made it all the way over to me. I played with him for a little while and he laughed and laughed. I think he is going to need Brad to roughhouse with him a lot as he gets older - he already loves physical play. He thinks it's the funniest thing in the world when I pull a shirt over his head and it gets stuck. He loves being tickled. He likes to roll around on the floor. Also, he's learning to sit up. He can sit by himself for very short amounts of time already. It's pretty cute. He's also making lots of crawling type motions with his legs, which makes me nervous. I love the sitting stage; crawling is not my favorite.

I love my kids! I think they are the best kids in the world!

Possibly the most ridiculous battle(s) of my life

So the blogosphere is getting this little rant because my husband is in class and my mom lives in Brazil. My apologies, but if I don't write it down and laugh about it, I'm very likely to yell at my wonderful child and I'd rather not do that.

All morning long, Annie and I have been having irrational battles. The first occurred when she wouldn't eat her oatmeal that was "too hot". I had made the oatmeal an hour and a half earlier. It had been cooling off ever since. I tried several rational approaches - "Feel it with your finger", "My oatmeal is not too hot", "It's been out for over an hour". Then the irrational approaches (something about stooping to a 2-year olds level) - "I'll blow on it and it won't be hot anymore", "I put it in the fridge, so it's not hot", "Wait 20 seconds and it will be cool, and then you can eat it". All of these conversations happened minutes apart as she cried and cried. After a long and frustrating morning of this we had to leave to our appointment (sans breakfast). When the appointment didn't go quite as planned, we came home quickly and started the battle again. Finally, I gave up on the oatmeal and ate it myself and made her some cinnamon toast. Despite telling me this was what she wanted (except for the part where I ate her oatmeal), this caused another slough of meltdowns. This time I couldn't even follow the nonsensical requests. By this point we had to turn around and go back for another appointment. In the parking lot she all of the sudden stopped and began yelling that she didn't want me to eat her oatmeal, she wanted me to simultaneously put it in the fridge and dump it out.

We got home again and she happily played in a puddle for a little while (by FAR the best part of the day for all of us at this point), but then it was lunchtime. I thought I'd successfully navigated all the requests I knew were coming (taking the yogurt lid off by herself, helping to make the toast, and facilitating her putting the cinnamon on by herself), but little did I know I'd made a crucial mistake: I brought the cinnamon from the counter to the table instead of letting her do it. She then spent 30 minutes crying and begging for me to take the cinnamon from the table back to the counter.

***Important caveat: Our pediatrician told us not to let our 2-year old get something by crying. We are trying really hard to either avoid the battle entirely or not give in. Ergo, I spent 30 minutes of my life trying to tell her she could take the cinnamon back herself and then bring it over or she could just put it on her toasts at the table. Finally, my pediatrician's advice got run over by my daughter's iron will and I put the cinnamon back on the counter. Only to have her insist that I hadn't put butter on the toast . . . You get the idea.

Any ideas for dealing with irrational toddlers? (You can't suggest going inactive and skipping our 1-4 church meeting for the next 5 months, even though I'm fairly certain no nap yesterday had something to do with it.) I'm heading off to the fray again. Wish me luck!

Stony Brook State Park

We're still capitalizing on Brad's temporary break from school and research, so we headed to Stony Brook State Park yesterday. It was a totally delightful trip.

I noticed on this excursion that several of the state parks here have very similar landscapes. There are gorges with sedimentary rock (I think - it's layered at least) with trees all around. It's really beautiful.

Stony Brook was really fun too because the brook was tame enough that we could let Annie walk in the water for a lot of it. She LOVED it! We had so much fun exploring together. I loved seeing her delight in discovering our world. We found several tadpoles and chased them, and then we saw a stranded caterpillar on a rock in the middle of the brook. We rescued it by getting it to crawl on a leaf and putting it on the ground. Annie thought it was great! James loved it too. He likes nothing better than being close to one of his parents in the Bjorn and facing out so that he can see the world. I feel so grateful to have such great kids!

Photo dump time:

Not sure this is appropriate

But I'm going to post it anyway because it's too funny not to.

During my shower this morning, I left Annie downstairs listening to a story. However, when I emerged from the shower, she was right there to greet me. As I was about to get dressed she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I like your bottom! It's so cute!" So now I have it on good authority that I have a cute bottom.

I thought I'd dispense with the pictures this post. :)

Otherwise

Just last night we discovered that Annie not only knows the word "otherwise", but she also knows how to use it correctly. We were pretty impressed! There she was just jumping on our bed and then she busts out the word "otherwise". She used it correctly three times in an hour. We were pretty proud parents at that point. And then we went swimming, OTHERWISE I would have blogged about this last night. :)

Thousand Islands

Brad's research has been on hold this week, so, after moving, we thought it would a great time for a day trip to Thousand Islands. Thanks to our friends the Bowmans for helping us plan the perfectly timed day.

We left early and arrived just in time to hop on Uncle Sam's boat tour of the St. Lawrence river. The St. Lawrence river divides the U.S. and Canada and in the gilded age and just after was THE hot spot for millionaires. The region is called thousand islands because there are literally 1800 islands on this stretch of the river. They are fairly small, but many are large enough to put opulent "cottages" on them, so during the late 1800s and early 1900s this is where the who's who of America built their summer homes. The boat tour highlighted several of these island cottages. Many are still there, but a few are gone because during the Great Depression the owners burned them down to collect on the insurance. Much to their dismay, the insurance companies were also broke and they just ended up losing their homes and their money. So much for arson.

After a couple of hours, the boat dropped us off at Boldt Castle. This was the largest of the cottages and was actually intended to be a castle. The owner of the castle was the man who owned the Waldorf Astoria hotel in NYC. (Interesting tidbits: He popularized using flowers in decorating and introduced the policy that the customer is always right.) He was an immigrant who worked his way to the top. He built the castle for his wife (even had the island reshaped so that is was in the shape of a heart), but sadly she died before it was completed. So he sold it to the state for $1 with the condition that no one ever be allowed to stay in it and it cannot produce revenue. It was GORGEOUS! Annie and James were really good the whole time.

When we finished with the castle we hopped on one more boat to go back Alexandria Bay, grabbed an ice cream cone, and got back just in time for Brad to do a shift at a free clinic for people without insurance. If Brad wants, he can post about the awful disease a patient THOUGHT he had. Let's just say that it's a good thing Brad is the one in the family who'll be the doctor. He LOVED working at the clinic!

I heart Olive 4!

I know I've been absent from the blogging world for a while. I had an emotional trip to Utah with my parents leaving on their mission(I think I'll post more about that later or I'll at least post some pictures) and then as soon as I'd recovered from that we moved from a two bedroom townhouse to a three bedroom townhouse. It seems like moving just down the street shouldn't take as much out of you as moving across the country, but it does. Brad and I are both totally exhausted, and but for the help of some great friends, we would not even be close to moved in. However, the dust is finally settling and we're almost there. For the most part the three bedroom townhouse is very similar to our old one, with a few key exceptions.

1) We have a full basement!!! YAY! They don't mention when you sign up to live in Whipple Park that there's a chance you'll get stuck with a half basement. We had a half basement in our old apartment, but not anymore. Now we have a great area for the kids to play during the long winter months.

2) There are THREE bedrooms, which means James no longer has to sleep in our room. Here's to a better night's sleep for all of us. This also means we can easily accommodate guests (hint hint).

3) We painted! I grew up with mostly white walls, so painting is a big deal to me. I was really unsure if I would like it, but I LOVE it! We did a neutral color on most of the walls (Sand 3), but we have a green accent wall that I simply adore. After we painted (and that was no small feat - this was my first time and it took all day with tons of help from Lisa, Kira, and Celeste and Kim watching my kids and feeding us), I could not stop exclaiming to Brad that I love it. I'm so happy with my Olive 4 choice. It was bold, but it was fantastic! I <3 Olive 4!

Rib Fest 2011

So while there are lots of things I should post about like our Washington D.C. trip or Brad's major award, I'm skipping those (mostly due to a lack of pictures) and jumping to today. We just got back from Rib Fest 2011. I'd never had ribs before, but now I'm sold. The best vendors come from around the country and congregate on the shores of Lake Ontario and sell ribs for a buck a bone. :) It was delish!

The lines were ridiculously long, but the kids were good and the bones (I swear every vendor had "bone" in their name) were worth the wait. There was music and a couple of cockatoos to keep the kids entertained. And Brad and I entertained ourselves by people watching. We saw our fill of mullets, dirty theme park love, and tattoos.

At the end we found a bounce house area for Annie to play in. She was in heaven. It was a great outing and we excited for next year. . . Any takers?

P.S. These are just a couple of cute pictures of the kids from earlier. Annie loves to make this colander her hat. James is super happy all of the time.