Scenes From A Weekend Day Trip

packed and ready

soymilk plenty

something tiny

bright and shiny
*

younger brother?

not sure where he's gone...

but yes, iron pirate. you may come along.

Starting 'em Young

Here's a shot of Princess A at the skate park this morning. Truth be told she doesn't actually know how to pedal, at least not that I've seen. Younger Brother just sort of gave her a shove; to which J and I both responded with a harmonious, "No!" But she loved it! Thrill seeking is kinda her thing. I think we have a definite daddy's girl on our hands.

Barn King

Tommy has a bit of an awesomeness problem; he can't help it really.

;)

Fish Therapy

Younger Brother has been through it a bit lately. I think, I assume anyway, that most people with multiple small children can vouch for the fact that siblings brought up in the same home environment are still distinctly different people...and some seem to need just a wee bit more intensive parental interaction than others.

Well, Younger Brother has definitely been in need of a little extra attention (or an application to West Point)! So he came with me to work at the farm on Monday and then I took him fishing for the first time, just the two of us. He was in LOVE! He caught five fish; 4 decent sized carp, and 1 bluegill. The animal lover in me has a seriously hard time fishing in the first place! But the Mama in me knew it was just what he needed. So I tried to get over it for just a little bit. I didn't take my camera, and the few cell phone pictures that I took don't seem to want to load on my computer. But apparently I don't need them. He was so excited about his outing that he ran straight to his desk the minute we got home and drew me this picture...

Thanks, "Buggy!" That's better than any picture I could have taken!

:)

Barber Shop

J decided that he wanted to do something to make Big Sis's 5th birthday extra memorable. So he invested in some clippers and shears and gave her free reign of his head for a real live barber shop experience. It turned out to be quite the event!

The Before Picture

The Sylist Extraordinaire!

And so it begins...

Whoa, these things really work!

Dad was a little worried about losing an ear, or a piece of one.

Oooh, lookin' NICE!

You know J and I have to have photos and video between us!

Such concentration! She worked steadily and most meticulously for a good 20 minutes at least.

Very 1990's Big Sis!
I like it.

If only she knew how to cut little hearts in the sides!

But for now nearly bald patches work just fine.

She made sure to repay him with a kiss for an ill-aimed snip.

And then it was time for the clippers.

All of this was great dinner theater style entertainment for Princess A, who was parked on the deck in her high chair eating Oreos.

(bzzzzzz)

Clippers are hilarious.

Alllllmost done.

Ooh la la!

Oh baby, what have you been waiting for; you should have adopted this look years ago!

:)

I especially like the little long patch right over your right temple!

Oh that's nice too!

Great job, Big Sis!

It's the very best haircut Daddy's ever had!

(And you know it is. For different reasons than hers I'm sure.)

:)

Thursday Morning

It was a lovely, cooler than usual morning this morning. So J and the oldest three spent it as they always do, at the skate park. I thought it might be fun to see Biggest Brother, Younger Brother, and Big Sis animated since it's still photos that I post all the time. Here's a video snippett of their adventures today!

p.s. Our video is the skate park video. I noticed that an, "Up Next" option shows up once it has finished playing. I guess YouTube links it to other videos with similar names, but those are not ours. Just fyi. :)

Birthday Breakfast

Hey hey, guess who's 5?!!

It's become a tradition that the birthday girl or boy gets a special breakfast out alone with Daddy. And thus far Cracker Barrel is always the establishment of choice.

And of course I have to take an honorary pre- Birthday Breakfast pic!

But when I went searching for the file to upload, I just so happened to find last year's picture as well. Oh how the time flies!!

"skwippers"

The M girls are serious about their footwear. Just this morning I stood in the bathroom doing Big Sis's hair when Princess A came and sat down in the hallway with a pair of high heels. After several failed attempts to get them on her feet, she let out a scream of pure rage and I witnessed the heels go flying past me and slam into the bathroom door.

As Princess A's unbridled passion would show, she and Big Sis share a small obsession with shoes that began for both of them around 17 or 18 months of age. And they both have a rather impressive collection.

Little Sis on the other hand is a simpler girl. Well, okay there is nothing *simple* about Little Sis. She is 24lbs of pure TNT iced with unflinching opinion. But as it pertains to shoes, she will wear three things and three things only; purple sandals, eskimo boots, and slippers. None of which actually match anything - often not even each other. But any of which she staunchly insists on wearing with everything! This morning? A sundress style outfit and the eskimo boots...well, that is right after I got her to part ways with the, "skwippers."