Spilled milk

Why cry over spilled milk when you can finger paint with it?!

He was very proud of his new found craft. 

In the past 3 days, Riley and Jude have become close friends.  Even when they are around other kids, they find each other to play with.  They've recently started wrestling (or wallering) all over each other.  Not just a certain time of day, but all the time.  It is so fun to watch.  It seems like they are playing pretty rough, but they both laugh and giggle the whole time.  They aren't malicious about it, they just want to beat on each other and play all over the house.  I'm so glad they are interacting in such a sweet and fun way.

This morning Riley came running into the kitchen to tell me that Jude just said her name.  We went into her room, where he was standing on her bed...awesome, and I asked him if he said her name.  He responded with a huge smile on his face, "Ri-eee".  Oh these moments make my heart melt.  I'm so blessed to be at home with them and not miss this.

Here they are, ready for church in their Sunday best, complete with their own backpacks filled with pull-ups, diapers, and wipes.  I love not having to carry a diaper bag on Sundays and Wednesdays (for BSF).  I have to keep the backpacks hidden on other days of the week because they both want to wear them around the house.  Jude will say "ba-pac" and chase me until I let him wear it.  He looks like a little bug with a blue shell on his back, too cute.

Camping

In the last weekend of September, we went camping at Devil's Den State Park with the Smiths and Penturfs.  We were the first to arrive and quickly started to get everything set up before the kids got bored with sticks and rocks.  Riley loved dancing in the tent before we got our bed set up.

We have a modest little tent.  It fits our blow-up bed, Jude's pack-N-play, and Riley's mattress.  There is a little bit of room at the foot of our bed for our bag of clothes.  But the kids fit in there great!

Riley in the doggy door.  When we first got the tent, we thought that was such a cute idea...until the dogs refused to use it and when they did, drug dirt, leaves, anything else stuck to themselves into the tent.  The dogs don't get to go camping with us right now. It's hard enough to keep up with 2 kids, we are not adding 2 dogs to the mix.

Bryan is a genious and brought his 2-man backpacking tent along for the kids to play in.  The best idea of the weekend.  Look at Sarah, "Mom, can I play too?"

I'm just noticing that Jude had his paci in his mouth apparently all weekend.  Weird.  We've been saving pacis for bed and carseat only.... except for camping I guess.  Either way, the tent was the coolest place to hang out.

On Saturday we went to the park and had a picnic lunch.  The kids (and adults) had a blast.  This is Jude climbing to the slide.

This was a huge slide, Riley was a little intimidated at first, but soon warmed up to it.  Then her hair went crazy. :o)

As much as I just love sleeping in a tent on a cool night, tripping over a bag of clothing to get to the bed, sleeping on top of Woody (figuratively) because there is a leak in our blow up bed, sharing the bed, and hearing multiple coyotes in the middle of the night, this trip has me wanting a pop-up camper. This is my current mission, which will probably be quenched when I realize that we just can't afford it.

I thought our first formal camping trip with two kids was a success.  Besides Jude sleeping with us on Friday night, (we guessed he was cold and of course he got quiet as soon as he got in bed with us.  He slept great, we on the otherhand did not), the sleeping arrangements worked fine.  The families had a great time and the kids wore each other out playing so hard for the whole weekend.  It left me looking forward to our next family camping trip, tent or camper.

Corn for Days

The Corn Maze.  We had so much fun last year that we decided to make it an adventure again this year!  A more prepared mommy was armed and ready for our trip.  The Ozark Corn Maze opened their farm on a weeknight for area churches.  The fee to get in was canned food.  When we got there, Riley helped me carry the sack of food to put in the van that would be taken to a local food bank.  I explained to her that we are very fortunate and have plenty of food.  Then I told her that there are people in our town that don't have enough food to eat, so we are going to give them some of ours.  I got so choked up when she got excited to put the food in the van.  That started a strong desire to help more, donate more, give more, and set that example for the kids.  God is so faithful and has given us several opportunities to give since then.

First photo op, the scarecrow. I was afraid that the girls would be scared of him, but noooo.  Not at all.   I love Millie's hand here.  She's so curious as to what he is made of. (Did I mention we met the Smith's there?  I knew we were blessed when Brooke and I were pregnant at the same time.  Little did I know the amount of blessing that would continue to flow because of these two little girls.)

"What do you have under there?"  Riley is eyeing the mulch pile to her left. Wait for it...

The girls got to feed baby goats and lambs.  They heard the noises the animals really make, and got to feed the animals hay.

Again, I thought they might be scared of the animals.  Again, I was wrong.  They loved it!

Poor Jude.  He had to sit on his Daddy's back through the petting zoo.  No worries Jude, you'll be in there with the dirtiest of them next year.  On the bright side, you might have had the best seat in the house.  You can see everything from up there.  Did you notice my model husband?  So hot.  I'm pretty sure he model for any clothing company that highlights good Daddy's.

You heard me right, mulch pile.  Who knew you could pile up some mulch and call it an attraction?  Riley was all about it.  She talked Millie into going with her.

Then she so sweetly let Millie go first, you know, just to see if it was safe.  Note to self: when the girls get into trouble together in the future, it was probably Riley that talked Millie into taking the action first.

Brooke's photography inside the corn maze.  We did go through the corn maze.  This time, Jude wrote in his Daddy's back (just like last year), but Riley got to walk.  She wanted to do whatever Millie was doing, whether it was walking, being carried, or riding on a mommy's shoulders.  The guys led us through the maze and did a great job of getting us through and out safely. 

Well, except for a trick they played on us and the people behind us.  Bryan was leading, girls in the middle, Woody in the back. The guys realized the group behing us was just following, so Bryan led us in a circle 3 times before anyone picked up on it. Yes, I am directionally challenged when surrounded by 7 feet corn stalks.  I still don't know how Woody knew exactly what Bryan was doing without them even talking about it.  I wondered by Woody was laughing behind me for those few minutes. Boys.

After we made it through the corn maze, we tried to get a picture of the kids.  This is how it went... Riley was singing and shaking her booty.

All in the same shot, now the girls are singing, jumping, and shaking their booties while Jude stood there with his camping flashlight.

Not quite sure what was going on here, end of a sugar rush?  They weren't being still at this point, maybe it was Jude making all the moves here.

Take 24?  I lost track.

Not too bad!  This is as still as we could get them.  Forget trying to get them to ALL look at the camera at the same time.  That would just be a miracle.

Daddy love.

The family pic.

Smith Family pic.

So funny.  When we were taking the Smith's family picture, Riley decided she is part of their family.  I love it!

So much fun!  Thank you Ozark Corn Maze for providing great entertainment for our families!

Lion King

A couple of weeks ago, "The Lion King" was release for 2 weeks in the theatres.  Since that is one of Riley's top two favorite movies (next to "Finding Nemo"), we thought this would be a great opportunity for her first feature film at the theatre.  Nonna and Poppi watched Jude so we could make this a special date with Riley.  Her Daddy got her some popcorn and her Nonna packed her a cornflake chewy to snack on. I packed the juice, and she was set!

She refused the 3D glasses.  Refused.  Instead of a screaming toddler in the theatre, we let her watch the movie in fuzzy form.  She didn't seem to mind.  And since it wasn't meant to be 3D in the first place, it really wasn't that fuzzy. 

Before the movie, she ate her cornflake chewy.  During the movie, she consumed two-thirds of the popcorn by herself (I am not exaggerating, believe it or not), and all of her juice.  I'd call her first theatre experience a success!  Since then, we have watched The Lion King at home probably 4 times a week.  Hmm, maybe I should be limiting her TV viewing!