Level breech

Things they are a changin.

Gone are the days where we can assume she isn't tumbling head over heals down the stairs.  We will be on high alert until she learns how to go back down.

Unfair advantage

I know I am her mother...

and it isn't PC to say...

But I think she is the cutest baby. 

Ever.
ly.

Beautiful

It was one of those perfect days. 

Cider Hill

I still have these fantasies of living on a little farm. 

But I am barely able to feed my children 3 times a day....so it's possible that the farm animals wouldn't fair too well in my fantasy life. 

We'll stick to picking apples at Cider Hill today.

And even better...we have the Magnussons here to enjoy it with us.

What is this supposed to be?

No matter. I was going to put it in my mouth anyway.

I love fall.

My idea of heaven is a place where we have 1 month of winter (for snowmen! And Christmas Eve!), 5 months of spring, 1 month of summer (for swimming! And snow cones!) and 5 months of fall.

The buddy system

One Saturday, we decided what we really needed was some HUGE brownie sundaes.

So we went to BD's Mongolian Grill and we ordered 4 big bowls of amazingness.

And you should have seen the looks of jealousy on the faces of several kids in the restaurant. I know that they would have ordered one of these for dinner if their mom's would have let them. 

We paired up the kids so they could share...in the hopes that 

    a) they would actually finish it someday

    b) there would be a big kid/little kid balance to the whole thing

So you know that I couldn't put the boys together and Laney and Anna together. The boys would be done in no time and clamoring for more while we all waited for the little girls to finish their whip cream layer. 

There's definitely a science to this.

So the pairs were.... 

Ethan and Anna:

Mathew and Laney:

Me and Megan:

Dad and Everly:

wait....

Where's your buddy, Mark?

I see how it is....

It's this.

There are some really great things about the scouting program. The boys learn and they grow and they are challenged.

But mostly....I love the friendship.

The Great Pumpkin Negotiation

The Pumpkin Run celebrated it's 15th year, so we decided to try to run/walk as a family. Mark and the 3 oldest ran and I took the 3 youngest and the double stroller with the goal of running as much as possible and walking the rest.

I put Anna and Everly in the stroller and me and Laney started out with gusto!

After 20 minutes, Laney decided this was the worst thing we have ever done and she started the Great Complaining Campaign of 2013. 

Luckily, Anna has energy to spare and ran/walked the rest of the way. She also refused to wear her jacket (it was freezing) and so everytime we passed by any other responsible adults I made sure to say, "Are you sure you won't wear your jacket?" just to ward off any parent to parent judginess. 

Everly clocked out.

She's a very smart baby.

Dos Mudders

Mathew Hufford (the elder) is in town and it is time for The Tough Mudder. This year I will tag along and take photos.

Arctic Enema:

Balls to the Wall:

Walk the Plank:

Sleeping Baby:

The Funky Monkey:

Two time finishers!