I almost forgot...

It's Aron's 30th birthday today. If you see him, wish him a Happy Birthday!

Yeah, I got to give credit where credit is due...

I forgot to mention that my Dad hooked up the lights on the firetruck. EVEN THOUGH, he was busy with 10,000 other things that day and EVEN THOUGH, we went to him in the 11th hour for help. I remember when I was little, my Dad always liked watching the show McGyver. I think he secretly envisioned himself as Richard Dean Anderson but I digress. Watching Dad work to put things together is a bit like watching that old TV show. He takes a little bit of this, a little of that and KAPOW! all the sudden you've got working lights. He even let us take along a few extra batteries as back ups.

Poppy rules!

The Great Outdoors

The day was too nice to spend indoors today so we all went outside and did some yard work together. Ella helped to plant some tulip bulbs for a little while then both kids helped Aron rake the leaves. The kids really enjoyed jumping in the raked leaves (of course).

Side trip

We made a little side trip to the town's fire dept to get their reaction to the fire fighters/dalmatian/fire truck. They enjoyed it quite a bit. They even let us put the kids on the real fire truck for a quick photo op. We got quite a few compliments on the truck and kids (especially about the working lights) and one of the other parents said somethiing to the effect of "Way to go, Overachievers, way to make my kid think I'm a slacker." It's hard to humble when you've got working lights on your firetruck.

Halloween!

Last night was trick or treat for the kids. This year's theme was firefighting. Ella and Myles were firefighters and Luke was their dalmatian. I made Luke's costume which wasn't too hard. What was hard was getting him to keep it on. He kept trying to take off the costume especially the hat which was the furry head and ears. I put it on his head and he instantly ripped it off and said "This offa here." Needless to say, he was less than impressed with the hat.

The firetruck that Aunt Robin built was pretty incredible. It featured Ohio license plates (reading "HTSTFF" yes, that's "hot stuff"), a hose, and a working (yes, working) set of lights on top of the cab. The only thing that was missing was a siren. Yes, the siren would have been nice but seriously, do you think that a couple of 3 year olds and a 2 year old could use one responsibly??

For the Great Gourmand...

The birthday menu went a little something like this:

Kolosrvari Kaposzta (Hungarian scalloped pork and rice),
green beans,
bread with garlic-chive butter (all homemade, of course),
and
this cake--2 layers of dark chocolate cake with a layer of almond
cheesecake in between and a semi-sweet choc frosting.

Shiny, happy Ella

Oh Aunt Robbie...you've done it again. You've made Ella so happy with a girly item. This was supposed to wait for Ella's birthday (Nov 19) BUT here's the thing. Ballet class is on Halloween and all the girls are invited to dress up that day. Ella and Myles are going to be firefighters for Halloween this year and Aunt Robbie just couldn't let Ella be the only girl in class that didn't have a girly costume so *poof* in swoops Aunt Robbie with the perfect fairy costume for Halloween ballet day.

You gotta fight....for your right.......to parrrrrrrr-tay!

Today was round one of Luke's birthday parties. We had my family over to have a meal and some cake. Everything went very well but GG and Pawp (my grandparents) couldn't make it due to the flu.

Ella says the darndest things

Scenario 1:
We were riding in the car the other day coming home from ballet practice. For those of you who don't know, ballet lessons are approximately 1/2 mile from our house and at no point are you (legally) allowed to go more than 25 mph. Sometimes I get a bit silly while driving the car with the kids. Heck, I've been known to jam to the radio in the car without the kids, too (who are we kidding?). Anyhoos, the other day we were coming home from ballet practice and I happened to be playing air drums (a variation of air guitar but obviously, with more drum-like results) to a song. Ella looked at me and said "Mommy, shouldn't at least ONE of your hands be on the wheel?"

Scenario 2:
Ella likes to punch numbers into a calculator for fun. Everyone needs a hobby, right? She knows how to punch in the number 2 for Luke's age and the number 4 for her (future) age. She alreadys counts herself as 4. Then she'll usually just punch in random numbers. The other day, she turned to Aron and asked him how old he was so she could put it in. He told her 29. She asked him how to enter it. He told her put a 2 then a 9. She looked a him kind of confused and said "Wait a minute....you're two numbers??"

Update on Ella's World Beautification/World Dominance Tour

The finished product How do you say no to this face?
Ella continues her attempts at making the world a more beautiful place (aka "Ella's World Dominance"). This week's adventure included making Luke's tool bench prettier with flowers. I let her pick my marigolds from the back yard and bring them in to make a gorgeous display in his bench. She was convinced that he would enjoy working there more if it was pretty. Maybe there's a future for her in interior design? If you ask her what her future career will be, she'll tell you she wants to be a pirate. When I ask her to do something (like pick up her toys), she looks at me and says "yes, cap'n" or "aye, aye cap'n."

It makes me feel like the Captain Crunch cartoon.

Extra pictures

It's no corn maze but...

They had a maze of boxwoods at Kingwood. The kids had a blast running around them trying to find their way out. Maybe we'll have to venture out to a corn maze this year with the kids. Maybe...Luke tends to dart off and it would be a lot harder to find him in a maze of really tall corn than short boxwoods.

Feeding Peacocks?!?!

While at Kingwood Center, we happened upon a peacock. The kids and I bought some corn and fed it. I think it was scarier for me than the kids. Mom's a wimp, I guess.

Kingwood Center

Yesterday, Aron and I took the kids to Kingwood Center. It's a wonderful place to let the kids run around and play while looking at beautiful flowers and other outdoorsy things. When they weren't running around like crazy, they were holding hands. How cute are they??

He's HOW old??

That's right everyone this little guy is 2, today. He went to visit his good buddy, Dr Brown, for his 2 year check up. When she came in the room, he said "Doctor Brown! Right here!" and jumped up and down with delight. He is now 34 1/4" tall which is the 50% and is 24# which is the 3rd%. It boils down like this--he's average height and skinny. She quizzed me about his eating habits (little does she know that he eats anything that isn't running away or bolted to the ground). I told her that I think he takes after Aron. She wanted to know his height and weight so I told her. She made note that Aron is very thin (yes, Aron, she did say "very thin") and that she would keep that in mind when she looks at his growth curves. She said I could give him whole milk or otherwise try to boost his calorie intake but that it just may be that he's meant to be thin.

Otherwise, he looks good. He's got all of his age appropriate skills and is doing well. He earned a sticker at the end of the exam and she gave him a book. No shots and we went and had a playdate in the park afterward. Does it get much better than that??

Break the fast, man....eat breakfast!

Breakfast, as we know, is considered to be the most important meal of the day. To Aron, it's 10x's more important. He is a HUGE breakfast eater. Loves every single kind of breakfast food known to man. I, on the other hand, barely like breakfast foods. We are the yin and yang of the breakfast world. Aron was dying, DYING I tell you, to eat breakfast food on Sunday morning. We walked and walked and walked and walked trying to find a diner type place that was serving breakfast food. After many mini-tantrums from Aron when we couldn't find a place, we happened upon a nice young man sitting on a set of steps smoking a cigarette (bad young man, bad for your health!) and asked him where to go . He directed us over a couple streets to a diner called Sabrina's on Callowhill Ave.

It was so crazy tasty.

Aron and I both had the same thing (which is very, very rare for us) which was the food pictured above. It was 3 pancakes with chocolate shavings, white chocolate chips, black raspberry butter, and strawberries.

If you ever go to Philly, you've gotta stop by.

Aron likes food (an understatement)

Aron like food. Period. He decided to start taking pictures of the food he ate while on vacation. Here's a little known fact about Aron...ask him about any vacation we've ever been on and he can tell you exactly what he ate for each meal. Seriously. Every single vacation, every single meal. He's some sort of food savant. The meal above was his favorite (I asked him and he said his fave meal of any vacation ever). We went to an Italian restaurant and (I think) were served by the owner himself who was very Italian (kind of reminded us of Poppy from that one Seinfeld episode but hopefully, he washed his hands, aye?). He asked us how our meal was and Aron told him it was excellent, the best he's ever tasted. Instead of the server saying thank you, glad you enjoyed it, he merely nodded his head and closed his eyes as if to say "Yes, I knew it would be." Modesty was not high on that guys list of qualities but, man, could he make a tasty dish.

Ranger Rick

(no that isn't his real name)

We toured Independence Hall. I don't really remember much about doing this when I was a kid but I don't think it was as organized back then. Now it's run by a group of Park Rangers because the area has been designated as a national park (who knew?). The ranger running the line of people waiting to get in clearly enjoyed abusing his ranger powers for evil and not for good. He was quite crisp with you if you had a ticket for the 3:15 and tried to muscle your way into the 3:00 show. I think the world would've ended in his eyes if Aron and I would have busted into the 3:00. The man above was our guide/ranger. I believe he may have been the crabbiest ranger I've ever run into. He could've used a glass of the old ale at The City Tavern if you know what I mean.

PTSD

Tsk, tsk! Lookie no touchie!
Aron Hamilton on the 10
I had already been to the city of brotherly love but it was a new experience for Aron. Since the trip was partially for his birthday, I let him drag me around to various historic places like the Liberty Bell. Anyone who knows me probably knows that I didn't really want to re-live the historical magic that is Philly but I did anyway just cause I'm nice. Ahem. I said just cause I'm nice (I can hear you laughing, Con!). Here a couple photos to spice the history up a bit. The top one is me looking and not touching the Liberty Bell. Back when I first went to Philly back in probably 1988 or 1989, you were allowed to touch it. Now, it's roped off with a guard standing by it making sure you don't get too close.

Phil-a-del-phia here we come!

Aron and I took a little trip over the weekend to celebrate his birthday/our anniversary/we needed a break from the kids (disclaimer: not that we don't love our children but sometimes you gotta get away). Grandpa Steve, Granny Lindy, U Jeffy, A Robbie, Grammie, and Poppy all took turns watching the kids for us from Friday to Sunday. We had a smooth flight from Columbus to Philly. When we got to Philly, Aron decided to take the train from the airport to the city. Here's a good picture of him looking confused. Seriously folks, I don't think he could find his left arm without me standing by his side saying "there it it....there it is...seriously, there it is....IT'S RIGHT THERE! WHY WON'T YOU LOOK IT'S RIGHT THERE! SERIOUSLY! LOOK!" It's kind of painful but I *heart* him anyway.