Blog Neglect.

I think it's the "agh!-it's-september-and-school-has-started-and-we-are-all-tired-all-the-time" syndrome that has been causing the blog neglect. So here is a little photo journey of what we've been up to.
Miles went big time and crawled into the dining room! Whoa there big boy.

We hung the decorations from the kids' party by their beds. Sam wanted his pic taken with his baseball "flags."

Maggie has been lining up her many dolls over and over and over. In case you can't tell....here's what's going on in this pic: She lined up her foam puzzle pieces by number (we'll work on that left to right thing later), then she put the Cars ones underneath- she tried to match the colors somehow....that's why Pocohantas got Mater, Mulan got Sheriff, and Mermaid got Red..., she then started placing the dolls by the matching puzzle piece and any of the Cars she could find on their pieces...if you waited another 10 minutes she lined up her headbands to match the dolls too...oh, and I think she added her My Little Ponies somehow also. Busy busy busy.

Today we got our catapillers in the mail. There are FIVE of them. Eric asked them what to name them, here's their response:
Sam: Adda (the name of the catapiller they found in the yard two days ago)
Maggie: Judy! (what!?)
Sam: Rudy.
Maggie: Trudy!!
Eric: What?! Judy, Rudy, Trudy, and Adda? Okay, that's four, we need one more.
Sam: Foodie!

Maybe we've seen too much SuperWhy.....

Or maybe it's too much Sid the Science Kid.
Eric had the kids sit at the table and draw observations while watching the catapillers. I think it's now safe to say (as if it wasn't obvious before....) our children will be dorks. We know no other way to raise them.

More Birthday Fun.

Very cute pic of Miles- taken by his Auntie Andrea.

The cousin crew (minus Maggie & Miles).

A rousing game of duck-duck-goose. Thanks for supervising this one Andrea. Sam and Maggie LOVED it. I suppose it really is more fun with more than just your sibling....

VERY serious boy, working VERY hard at his new McQueen laptop at the end of the day.

Happy 4th Birthday Maggie (yes-you are older Mags!) and Sam (yes- you are taller, Sam)! We love you and are so So SO thankful for you in our lives!

Happy Birthday to the Twins!

No, not THESE twins... (no they didn't match on purpose...in fact they ususally pride themselves in dressing differently, which made it even funnier that they were dressed alike.)

Some cake. Sam had a "Baseball-Mountain Birthday" (in other words: BASEBALL. He's been calling home plate the "mountain", and yes, I did make little baseball cake things too...). Maggie wanted a "My Little Pony Birthday"- yes, Ma'am- comin' right up. I was proud of my pony cake- I think it might be my best one yet. :-)

Birthday boy.

Birthday girl. (how did Kari make it into BOTH these pics? Nice work, KLM.)

oh Baby!

Miles has made several advancements this last week: he can scoot (slowly) around the room to get to things he REALLY desires to get to, and this morning he actually pulled himself up a bit- yea baby! Keep it up kiddo!

Oregon State Fair 2009

We haven't taken the kids to a fair yet, and I've never been to a state fair (turns out they are just like any other one....just with more food)....so on Monday we went! $36 later we left the fair. Here's some of what we got for our money:
:-)

The kids hadn't really seen farm animals up close and personal, so they had their first real chance at the fair. It was funny on several levels:
1. We had to stop Maggie from touching the animals too much and in places that aren't the safest.
2. We had to talk Sam into actually getting near an animal- forget touching it
3. Later in the day when Eric commented on his son was being a wuss (referencing Sam's response to the animals...and the issue of that moment: a kiddie fair ride) I asked Eric how many animals HE touched in the 4-H barn that morning...? His answer: a sheepish "None."

Here's us enjoying our homemade (err, CHEAP) lunch in the back of the van. The kids loved it, thank goodness!

Of course we had to climb a tractor...it is the fair afterall....

And finally: SAM ON A RIDE!

We learned some things about Sam that day: he likes animals that are SMALLER than he is and he likes rides that are LOWER to the ground than he is. The ride that sat up about 5 feet (on a platform....!) was a NO GO for him. Now we know we'll be getting a cat someday and he's gonna love the scrambler.

Fun, Fun, Elefun!

Eric's Grandparents are so SO wonderful. We love having them be such an important part of our kids lives. We were lucky enough to have them over for dinner one day last week, and here is the photo documentation. :-)

A rip roaring game of Elefun with Great Grandpa.

Miles working on those walking/crawling skills with Great Grandma.

And lastly, their FAVORITE GAME EVER: ZooMatch. (I think Maggie won....again...).

Thanks for coming to hang out with us, G&G! We love you!