Fall is in the Air

So off to the fair we go. While we enjoyed gawking at a 757 lb. pumpkin and barnyard animals, the main attractions for the Toads and Co. were the RIDES...

(even the really freaky scary ones)

And Games! Yeah Abizella! She popped 2 balloons for this fabulous puppy.

Superkid flexed his muscles and swung the giant carnival mallet to win this fabulous guitar which he has already written and performed some original pieces including, "Chocolate Milk Birdie" with Abz on back-up (tweet tweet).

Some of us were not impressed with all of the noise and height restrictions. Better luck next year Tadpole!

Fine Feathered Friends

Here is a post for you Ornithologists out there (which may only amount to Bampa, Glama, and Grandpa Bob)...  We have picked up a chicken sitting gig. The pay is perfect, 3 weeks of unrestricted swimming. I can't think of a better currency.  Here is Abz with our charges.

 We have actually enjoyed seeing what every new day brings (how many eggs, what color the eggs are, which chicken is digging holes to sit in...) But we were all surprised to see TURKEYS when we arrived today for the daily chores!

Which reminded me of another feathered friend that paid us a visit this summer. Correct me if I am wrong Dad, but isn't that a turkey vulture?

Sassy.

Abz is not happy with the paparazzi (her mother) these days. But can you blame a girl with a camera? She is stinkin' cute even when she is a stinker. ...or maybe I'm the stinker. She asked me not to take her picture earlier, so I shrugged and figure she would forget by the time we got to church. When I pulled out the camera after she jumped out of the car and said, "Say cheese!" She gave me a big cheesey grin and the a split second later remembered her picture ban.

Can you blame me? I HAD to get a picture of those piggies (which I wouldn't dare call piggies lest she rip them out. They are of course ponies) with her preppy little outfit.

You Say It's Your Birthday! It's My Birthday Two!

Guess who else had a Birthday this week?!

Tadpole caught on to the birthday scene pretty quick after going through a day of celebrations with Abizella. All day long he gave himself warm birthday greetings saying, "Happy Birthday!" 

and then we would all say, "Happy Birthday!" back to his delight.

Being the third kiddo around here Tadpole has learned to take his queues from the big bro and big sis. Like his love for Lucky...

His Love of Lego's...

And rock climbing come from his big bro Superkid...

I don't know where he got the crazy idea to feed a baby cookies! for breakfast! That never happens around here.

But one trait is absolutely innate in Tadpole. His love of all things wheeled. He is a especially crazy about cars. While his vocabulary has snowballed in recent weeks, he persists calling cars "Broom Broom". I suspect he has the ability to say, "car", as he can say more complicated things like, "motorcycle". Perhaps he reveres cars too much to utter their actual name. Recently he has started calling trains, "train" instead of "choo choo". I hope he holds on to "Broom Broom" for awhile yet. Can't you just hear the soft humming of "Brooooom! Brooooom!" in his dreams?

So figuring out a cake that would have appeal was a cinch. Pops whipped up this fancy "Broom! Broom!" for Tadpole. Here Tadpole is teasing us all by coyly saying, "Don't touch!" and then pretending to paw at the cake. Teasing is also innate.

While everyone sang "Happy Birthday" Tadpole was shishing us. For some reason instead of putting his finger at his lips, he thinks it goes up his nose while making the noise.

Happy Birthday Tadpole! We love EVERYTHING about you!

The Perfect Pony Party...

...for the Perfect Pony Girl who just turned 4yrs old!

And what better gift for a pony enthusiast than a pink and purple pony play land painstakingly put together by her OCD mother!

A friend gave us this dollhouse about a year ago. It was plain wood upon arrival, but I knew Abz would love it even more with a few flourishes. So I put on a few coats of paint, some "wallpaper" lots of Mod Podge, a few stickers, and many many hours of love. And now you get to admire my workmanship. I am very proud as I don't consider myself very crafty at all. But with a little consultation from some of my talented blog readers I pulled through. Now for the tour...

Upstairs we have the purple flower room, below the beachy room...

On the other side is the ballerina room, and below the birthday party room...

Special thanks to my assistant who gave the "Pony House" a test drive on birthday eve!

The Pony House was well received. The birthday girl ran out on birthday morning and declared that is was EXACTLY what she wanted. I must be a mind-reader!

Abz and Superkid (who happily inherited the old doll house) played blissfully all day long.

And of course we had a PONY birthday cake. Okay, I am going to be struck down on a technicality, it is a UNICORN cake. I got Lucky to pose for me (*wink*...Jeni, you know my real secret).

Here the birthday girl is modeling the brithday crown that she insisted that we make on her birthday eve. She proudly wore it on all of our morning errands graciously accepting all of the birthday greetings.

Hmmmm... I wonder what she will wish for?

And there were lots of fabulous presents!!!

And we ended the day with a twirl on our favorite carousel. 

Which is fun for the whole family...

On the way home from a a fun-filled-pony-packed day, Pops asked Superkid if he had a good day. He replied, "Not as good as Abizella." That pretty much sums it up.

We love you Abz! Happy Birthday!

The Beach is Our Canvas

Mass of Ketchup

It is about time we grab our laptops and get to work! Normally, we do a mass of blog posts at a time and then release them one per day... but why be normal? Enjoy!

Cousin Love

I was just looking through my June pics and came across these cuties...

Don't you just want to chew on THIS booty!

Born to Boat!

Here is a pic for Superkid's Grandpas... 

You should have seen these kiddos rip it up on the Bump 'R Ride!

Not to mention my wild (okay not so wild) stunts!

 Woohoo!

The water was unbelievable. Not only was it like glass (we were the ONLY boat out there for a good portion of the day) but it was actually WARM! I was truly out of my element.

This is why I LOVE summer! Thank-you Craig, Melissa and Aidan! You guys are THE Coolest!

Now Abz and I are putting our heads together to come up with a scheme to spend more fun days like today...