Lack of excitement could be a good thing right?

Things have calmed down a bit this past month. With the rainy weather settling in it seems that we are at a loss of things to do without our usual weekend outings of hiking, biking, camping… ya know, that sort of stuff. Instead it seems we fill time grocery shopping and spending money we don’t have! Ha ha! Other than work and normal life stuff we have been staying busy with these crazy kids. Malia has been LOVING preschool and is learning new things everyday. School has made her more sociable with adults she doesn’t know, which worried us a little with the whole ‘stranger danger’ thing. So… Aaron had a good ‘ole talk with her. Malia is quick to tell us now that “ If I talk to a stranger they will take me away and I will never see Mommy and Daddy again. They will take me to their car and spank me LOTS and LOTS of times!” At least she gets the point right? She is always making us laugh with her funny little 3yr-old interpretations of life. My favorite the other day was as we were driving to the babysitter’s house. I was trying to explain to her about why it was still dark on our drive. She was upset that we were leaving before the sun was up. I guess it was time for a conversation about the seasons and time changes and stuff. (Which by the way it is so annoying that she wakes up before 6am most mornings now!) Well, we were talking about the leaves changing colors and falling off and Malia says “I learned this at school! My friend Morgan asked teacher if we can glue the leaves back on to the trees. Isn’t that silly Mommy? We won’t have enough glue to do that!” What a funny little girl. Allie on the other hand has embraced her quirky personality and has become so demanding! She grunts, screams, and points without end at what she wants (usually whatever is in Malia’s hands) and throws tantrums when she doesn’t get what she wants. I really don’t think the word “no” exists in her vocabulary. She has found a love and attachment for beaded necklaces and bracelets; It’s the only thing she’ll play with other than Malia’s stuff. Oh, and she has unfortunately become a binkie child too… ugh. And you’ll most always find her toting around her stupid yellow duck which most often smells like Lola, the dog at Amy’s house. She is such a stinker. On my day’s off we get to have one on one time which has been really fun. On this particular day she was hamming it up for the camera and I couldn’t resist taking a handful of pictures. It still amazes me how blond this girl is! And… it appears she is in need of a haircut…

Last weekend we went downtown (here in Ridgefield) to see what the Birdfest was all about. Since we’ve seen the wildlife refuge a zillion times, the only thing for us were some fun crafts for the kiddos and looking around at the vendor booths. It was a beautiful morning (we were grateful for the break in the weather) so it was most definitely time well spent.

Not pictured is this silly birdfeeder that Malia made using a pinecone, some crisco, and bird seeds. After hanging it on our tree when we got home, that silly girl went and grabbed her camping chair so that she could wait for the birds to come and eat. She kept yelling “Birdies! Come eat your food so you don’t be hungry! Birdies!!! Why won’t you come eat??? Your mommy be’s mad if you don’t eat your food!!!” It was funny. I am sure all the other neighbors thought different… she yelled to the birds for like 10minutes straight! Allie, on the other hand, didn’t have much to do at the Birdfest and was cranky and bored out of her mind!

She even gave us some attitude with rolled eyes and all.

After naptime we got to hang out with one of my friends from work and her family. She must have been semi-impressed with my picture taking skills and gave me the task of taking her family pictures! I in no way claim to be any sort of photographer, but it was fun to hang out with them. We went to the fairgrounds park for the scenery. It was perfect!

Here’s a peak of my one of my favorite shots:

So… just to add to the randomness of this blog post, here are some pictures I took this week of yet another “take a picture of Allie eating while Malia is away at school.” (but hey… it only happens twice a month! lol) It was her first time being introduced to WHOLE olives. We’ve never really done it before since her big sister HATES them. But look at Allie… she loves them!

I know this one is blurry… but I love how much fun she was having while eating them. What a funny girl.

Lastly, here are some pictures from our outing today. We started it with a gorgeous morning run along the waterfront. I’ve finally gotten fit enough (not to brag, but I’ve been working out 5 days a week!) and braved a run plus 55+lbs of pushing weight. The fall colors were beautiful.

I bribed the kids with a trip to the library if they were good. I guess we were probably going to go anyway… anything to get out of the house! It was either that, or we would have gone shopping at Target, but too bad for me… I forgot my wallet! Last time we were here Allie was still crawling, so it was fun to watch her wander around and explore.

Considering the fact that I can hardly capture a smile on this girl, you could probably conclude that she was having a GREAT time!

We topped it off with some snacks on the upper deck and a visit to Aaron’s work which just so happens to be that building in the picture!

I know I haven’t had a whole lot to share, but like I mentioned earlier, we haven’t really been up to ANYTHING exciting. Just some quiet time focusing on and taking care of our family, which I suppose still brings us a lot of happiness too I guess.