Laps, Kilts, and Spiderman abuse

Our countdown to relocation is at 6 weeks!  A few videos of life around our house:

First, Hannah seems to be in training for Nascar lately...

A tea party at the hotel in Knoxville during our final interview trip:

One of our best impulse buys ever.  Other things in the house (people, animals, breakables) have been much less abused since there's another outlet:

And this is just awesome...

Parade and visit to ML

The St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Akron was a whole new adventure in candy acquisition.  The kids discovered what chickens have known for ages: it's more fun when someone scatters your food all over the ground.

And this is why nothing in our house lasts that long.

A sliding innovation while visiting Aunt Mary Lew - can you guess what it is?  Hint: it came from the diaper bag.

I crack myself up - Emmett's watching a video of himself dropping a book onto his own head.

And our first attempt at family pasta making!  We got enough to eat for supper, there was only one major fight, no fingers went through the machine, and we got a good 90 min of entertainment out of it.  Success on all fronts.

E's birthday and such

Hello friends,
Emmett is now 4 years old!  Here are a few photos of the birthday night cake cutting.  (Emmett got the first "stab" at it.)

Was this really a good idea?

Our child?  Or samurai movie poster?

Apparently, the standard through-the-center cake cutting method is learned, not inherited.

Conrad asked for a small piece, and he got it.

Big smile!

They play the games that they see us doing...

Just a dinnertime video






Brooke had a 2-week rotation in San Francisco, so here are some of the fabulous parks (and weather) in walking distance of Ryan, Jeannie, and Clara's house

Saturday morning antics

Some of you may not recognize these kids, seeing how infrequent are our posts!  Yet here they are, playing with balloons from the library today, and making some music together.

 

 

Dancing for the holidays

Here's a holiday dancing extravaganza at the famous dining room theater!

More couch jumping, complete with the appropriate soundtrack.

And cooking pizza!

Halloween and couch-jumping

Hannah is getting faster and faster, as you can see in this first video.  She's now reached the important milestone where I can no longer catch her at a fast walk - I now have to jog. 

We also had a good Halloween, which was Saturday before the big storm came through and knocked out our power overnight.  Emmett's costume evolved from being a tiger, to a saber-toothed tiger, to a saber-tooth lion, until the final: T.Rex, the saber-tooth dinosaur. 

The saber-tooth dinosaur continues to make appearances - mealtimes, and occasional attacks on unsuspecting Mommies.

Being the hands-down favorite food, the strawberry was a natural costume choice.

Reading the ingredients on a mega-pixie stick: just a bad idea.  He ate about a fourth of it, and then gave it all back sometime around 3am.  Happy Halloween!

Here's what sibling influence can do - they spent lots of time jumping off the couch.

And then, we have some dancing - kind of a mix between martial arts and dance, I think. 

And a video showing the tense stand-off as Hannah wants to feed Georgia a treat, but is a little intimidated at the same time.

Emmett's first jack-o-lantern!

"Emmett, can YOU make a face like the pumpkin?"

First day at the new preschool

Emmett started going to a local preschool - seems like a great place.  We don't have any videos because there were full meltdowns at any attempt (I think there's some anxiety about school coming out there...)  But I did get a picture, smiling even!  He had fun on his second day, and has begun meeting some friends.  We rode home in the bike trailer, and celebrated with a mini-picnic in the backyard.