An Evening Trail Ride

For the first time, we took Shorty for a walk along the trails up above the house. He's such a good boy.

Miri and the Moon.(doesn't she look older here? yeesh - my baby is growing up!!)

Latest Walk-On

A new guy has entered the mix. He just showed up in the back yard one day. We call him "Smokey Mystery Miller". He's not full grown yet. Very friendly and people-savvy. Where did he come from??

He's very sweet. Heavily in need of attention.

And he gets plenty of it from the girls, naturally.

BearCat, on the other hand, is not so sure he wants to welcome Smokey to the family. Just a bit of jealousy happening here.

Going to Mommy's Work

It was Take Your Child to Work day, and Aleaha wanted to see Mommy's (messy) desk.

She had this  look on her face most of the time. Of course, other kids were sort of making faces too. I guess that's the norm.

She really liked making snails.

She was a little hesitant about dressing up in the ink chemist's garb, but it turned out fun.

Weekend Fun

We went to Woodburn to watch Daddy race. Miri points out where he is, in One Hot Chili Pepper! (yes, it's far in the distance. What, you didn't want a shot of the back of these 2 kids' heads??)

The kids had a rousing good time. I tried to get a "smiley shot", but not everyone complied. So we went with "crazy shots".

Gramma and Grampa stopped in a couple of places on their way over to buy peaches, so we canned them on Sunday. It takes a while, but it's a great feeling to put up the harvest!



Lately

It's harvest time! The grass seed fields around the house have been cut, threshed, and baled. It's been fun to watch. It's not been fun to clean up after, however. (lots of dust blowing around)

Miri in a recent let's-go-feed-the-horses outfit.

Gramma Patty entertained the girls with many rounds of "This Little Piggy" on their toes.

Sharing a moment.

Miri had a dentist appointment, and she was a very good patient. She was allowed to pick something special from the treasure chest of jimcracks, and she chose ruby stick-on earrings. They don't last long, but they are fun!

Fair Fun

Miri's first go-to ride was the ponies! For some reason, Aleaha didn't want to ride this time....probably because she sees the irony of a pony going in a circle, when she has graduated to horses that she can steer herself.

They took on the big green dragon again this year. Miri loved it. Aleaha liked it too, but you just can't tell from her deadpan expression. She is a serious rider on these things.

Another view of Miri with a gigantic smile and Aleaha with her serious face.

Miri was all about the 4-wheelers!

More serious face. (But she swears she's having a good time.)

Gotta take in those spaceships. They studied the ride ahead of time to learn which ships are not fully functional. Cuz that's no fun to get in one that won't go up and down on command!

More of that serious face.

And here's what we get when we request a smile. (It's worse!)

The helicopters were fun for the kids....

But not so much for the parents! (notice the safety inspection tag expired over 10 months ago  - WTH??)

The honeybear ride has a turn bar inside to make it spin. Fortunately, our kids didn't make it go too fast. (Also, it takes a special tool to unlock the gate and get kids in and out. Bet that doesn't work well in an emergency, when a parent needs their kid out pronto.)

Facepainting is always fun. There was an interesting difference in speed between the artist who worked on Miri (who made 5 drawings) and the one who worked on Aleaha (who made 1 drawing in the same amount of time.)

This was the biggest hit of the visit -- the bungee jumping! While we stood and listened to Blue Oyster Cult, the girls spent all our money on this contraption. And they loved it!

Waaaay up in the air (funky colors because the sun was setting and I had to lighten the pic)

Hmm, how much do I entrust my delicate little 4-yr-old to a kid with blue hair?? Mommy was saying her prayers the whole time, naturally.

She didn't weigh enough to make it really go up like Aleaha did, but this was high enough!

Makeovers

The girls have been asking me if they could do "makeovers", like the fun that they've had when playing with cousin Ella. I have hesitated, because I don't want this Make-Up Thing to start too soon. But then, like the Princess Thing, I'm realizing that if I just let it run its course a bit, it might lessen the strength of the hurricane, so to speak. So, I dug out the little samples I've been saving (apparently for this purpose!), and I let them revel in playing together. Nicely. For 20 min. While I made dinner. Such peace!

The results are sometimes a bit interesting. Application is fun, so it often goes overboard.