Monday, October 31, 2011

Pumpkin Patch Day!

Not to out do Pumpkin Carving Day, but we also had our annual Pumpkin Patch Day!   I was, to be honest, a little worried.  Outdoor pumpkin patch and crutches...a bit scary.  It was the first time she would really get to enjoy the pumpkin patch and run all over the place.  But not to worry.  We did just fine.

I gimped around after her while she ran all over the place with Russ.  We had a really hard time getting her away from the life-sized Candyland set.  She felt it needed a little re-arranging and tidying.
First she moved around all of the gumdrops, which really hacked off some of the other kids.

Then she reorganized the lolly pop forest, one stick at a time.
This was a bit time consuming.  As they were immobile. 

She explored some new housing options.
Turns out that a cupcake house, while delicious in theory, leaves a bit to be desired in the interior decoration department.

Russ and I thought we would never move on to the next area.  But we shouldn't have worried.  As soon as she saw this guy...
...she seemed to be all too ready to take off.  On to the next!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Pumpkin Carving, Part Deux.

We had some seriously amazing pumpkin carving happen in our house.
 
What was, perhaps, the most amazing was the fact that Todd carved his entire pumpkin while letting Noah and Vivi "help" him.
Todd is a very patient guy.

Noah and Vivi would wait for him to hack a piece out of his design, and then retrieve it from the inside of the pumpkin and cart it off to the trash.

Vivi found the waiting very difficult.  While Noah was smart and would wander off while waiting for a piece to fall, Vivi stalked Todd like a very small, patient, hawk.

AT LAST!  Her turn!

And how did they all turn out?

Fabulous, of course.  Here's Vivi's masterpiece...

...and Russ's

...and mine.  Too cute!
Happy Pumpkin Carving Day, yall!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Pumpkin Carving Day!

...was last Saturday!

Sorry, blog world.  It's been a bit of a mad week.  However.  Last Saturday we had our annual pumpkin carving day, and it was awesome!  Pumpkin day really is one of my favorite of the year.  For me it really signals that fall is here, more than the weather, the leaves turning, or the really unfortunate tendency to get dark at 6:30.

And this year, Vivi was old enough to really participate!  Well, not in the carving.  We had the littles paint their pumpkins...except for Noah, who insisted on both carving AND painting his pumpkin.
He was really excited about it.

Aunt Kate was thrilled, too.
Who doesn't want to carve two pumpkins in one night?  Just makes it doubly awesome, in my book!

Noah finally did calm down and paint his freshly carved pumpkin.
He took it very seriously.

Our buddy Parker brought TWO pumpkins, clearly understanding the advantages of quantity over size.
Both masterpieces!

And Vivi really got into it, putting every color in the rainbow onto her "Perfect Pumpkin."
They all turned out beautiful!  More pumpkin-related fun to follow!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Snap, snap.

Sometimes, hanging out with Vivi is like hanging out in a small hipster cafe.

Tonight, while reading:
Me: "...and that's the little lamb. The lamb is white."
Vivi: "You said it, sister."
Me: ???

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Little Swimmers

Last month, our friend Silbaugh rolled in to town to come to a wedding with me and Russ.  He was a saint, helping me about (and driving me all the way to Des Moines as I was not able).  He also brought Vivi something very exciting...a mermaid.
Vivi loves her mermaid.  A lot.  I love how she says that word, a weird combination of cow and person that comes out sounding like "moo-made."

Ariel really enjoys swimming.  Vivi seems to enjoy helping her.
The best to place to swim is, clearly, under the table.  Mermaids love to swim on brick floors, and loathe carpet in any form.
Amazingly, they also like to nap there.  You know.  When you're tired of swimming.

Thank you, Jason and Rowan! 

Monday, October 10, 2011

The Great Outdoors...

We're totally taking advantage of the nice weather.  I'm getting to the point where I can hobble around outside, following Russ and Vivi as they explore the world.

Currently, Vivi is obsessed with crickets.  She is constantly trying to get Russ to "scare some up" (her words) so she can touch them.  Unfortunately, crickets are rarely scared up from shallow cracks in the ground.

According to Vivi, if you just be "reeeellly quiet," and sit "reeeeellly still," the crickets might just come out.
Unfortunately, this did not pan out.  Wily, wily crickets.  This has, however, led to A LOT of conversations about bugs.  Vivi will tell you right away that it is okay to touch crickets (even if it does make Mommy want to alternately vomit and run away screaming), but WE DON'T TOUCH SPIDERS.  Because they might be grumpy.  Or related to the enormous barn spider who has made its home right at face level on the garage door.  BAH!

She is also, for some reason, convinced that crickets might be hiding in the hose.  Because they get thirsty.

When no crickets came rushing out of the hose, she gave up and watered the garden...
...with invisible water.  Dear winter: please skip us this year.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fun With the I-Pad

Sometimes, I am hard-pressed to say who likes the I-pad more, Russ or Vivi. Sure the pad does have an ESPN app, but it also has a Curious George app, and many, many books for small people.

I think Noah likes it too.
Turns out there is an app that will distort your photos on the I-Pad. Noah and Vivi LOVE it. And while I find these a little disturbing in a circus-freak kinda way, they could have done this for hours.
Here, we feature Russ as "The Eye of Sauron"...
I find this one strangely disturbing/compelling...
Hurray for technology!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

There's a Vivi Jo in Trouble...

Vivi and Noah have invented a game.  What was interesting was that they never talked about it, never discussed the rules, and they never talked about how they would go about playing the game.  However, it was absolutely darling.


We now play "Help" quite a bit.  If I could only get the Beatles to soundtrack my life...