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Halloween - October 2010

(After face painting and bounce house jumping)

John arrived home yesterday after being out of the country for a little over a week. The boys and I did great while he was gone but we are so happy to have him home.

Daddy surprised the boys by picking them up from daycare (usually mommy does it) and we all went out for half-price burgers.

This little boy couldn't be happier...

Welcome home daddy!

So far he's just commenced to playing upon his exit. I guess we know what we're doing over Labor Day weekend...bed shopping!!

It's actually a good thing. I'm tired of looking at that missing crib skirt. My entire male audience is asking themselves, "Cribs wear skirts?" Yes gentlemen. At least ours did.

Several months before the boys came home, my mom and I carried fabric swatches (little scraps of fabric) around looking for just the right coordinating pattern. We toiled over measurements and made a beautiful crib skirt making it appear as if we bought matching bedding for the nursery.

It took about a month for the boys to rip it down while playing hide and seek. It's become one of their favorite hiding places (second only to hiding behind the door). I've put it back up more times than I care to admit. I've given up.

And just in time too - big boy bed - here we come!

A few weekends ago the boys and I spent the day with our friend Heather. We went to see Clifford. It's a favorite show around here and going to see Clifford was a big treat for Seth (he could go if he rested during nap time for one full week).

Here are a few pictures of the event.





Colin gave this little girl a flower.



Then he smacked Emily Elizabeth in the face.







Thanks Heather for the pictures and for spending the day with us while daddy was away.

John has a couple trips planned this month. One for fun and one for work. I needed a break from being a mommy for a bit. It took 14 emails and 3 babysitters to get one night to ourselves. It was well worth it.

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Robinson, Aunt Kelly, and our pastor's daughter for watching the boys. They had fun playing, swimming, and watching movies.

John and I hung out in a quaint little town nearby. We ate at restraunt that required a reservation, slept in the next morning and went to the WWI museum (something John's wanted to do for a long time). My dad let us borrow his cute little convertible.

A view of our fair city from the top of the liberty memorial.

Every day when we pick the boys up from daycare, we get a "day sheet" with useful information like what subject they're learning, how much of their lunch they ate, etc.

Seth's teachers mentioned in passing conversation that they've been having "a little trouble" at nap time lately. I didn't know how much trouble until I picked up today's day sheet.

Apparently, he likes to take his shoes and socks off and jump on the cot like a trampoline. I may not have given this boy life but we share this common trait. I also got in trouble as a preschooler for causing a rucus during nap time. I don't think I did any trampoline tricks but I did twist the arm of the boy laying next to me because he wouldn't participate in my nap time antics.

Seth is so full of energy (not a trait he shares with me) that the transition between awake and asleep can be a challenge...for everyone.

Oh and just for the record, his "level of participation" is always "3-active"...always!

I found a toy wheel barrel at a thrift store and just knew the boys would put it to good use. Today they used it to collect the apples that have fallen off our tree. Pardon the play clothes - it was Colin's 5th outfit of the day and I lost motivation to match. And I don't know why Seth insists on sticking his tongue out whenever I ask him to smile for the camera.

Before the boys came home, I would try to picture them as part of our family. What would it be like to have two little people running around our house? Or how would they look sitting on my dad's lap at a baseball game?

The picture below is one of the images I pictured in my head...almost exactly.


Here are a few more pictures from our trip. A big thank you to Aunt Kelly who came along for the ride. I wouldn't have survived without her help and I wouldn't have any pictures to share with you.

...all of us!

Thanks to everyone who made this trip a special one for...well, me mostly. It was important to me that great grandma could meet the boys. And she, in true form, made the trip a memorable one for them. It will take me weeks to undo the spoiling that took place. It's okay though...that's what I remember most about her house. We got to do things and eat things we couldn't do anywhere else. She has a gift of making her family feel special and loved.

Hi mom! Here's the video we tried to send. Maybe this will work.

For everyone else - me, my sister, and the boys are visiting my Grandma in California. We're sending this video to my mom who isn't here with us.



We love you and wish you were here.

We got to see a brand new calf (born just the night before).


There was plenty of four-wheeler riding.

There were also dips in the river, trips around the field in the tractor, and a late night watching dirt track races. We have no pictures to prove it because I temporarily misplaced my camera.

We had a great time and the boys took full advantage of all the ranch at to offer.

Welcome back to the old digs, loyal readers. It's good to be back to the land of writing about whatever I want to. I have a few ideas lined up and stories to tell. It won't be, all boys all the time, but there will be plenty of pictures and stories about them too.

Like this one...

John's employer hosted a Family Fun Day at our local amusement park yesterday. We survived. We spent most of our time at Camp Snoopy, the kid friendly section of the park.

I forgot my real camera (amateur!) but here's a phone shot of the boys first ride. It was a thriller as you can clearly see.



Seth progressed to the more daring rides throughout the day. If he was tall enough - he rode it fearlessly. Thanks to Chad and Katie for hanging out with our brood. Katie stepped in as "the accompanying responsible adult" (that was the requirement for children under 48") on the spin-in-a-circle ride and Seth had a ball!


It took some fancy parenting to entertain Colin, who met the height requirements for very few rides. He loved the ones he rode though. He paid close attention to the sounds other riders were making and imitated them for the duration of the ride. Lots of ooooo's and ahhhhh's.

I funnel caked myself sick. I've already told John, Chad, and Katie that I hold them responsible for reminding me during Family Fun Day 2011 of how badly I felt after Family Fun Day 2010. No more funnel cakes for me.

It’s been awhile since I’m written a “Life in the Country” post. When I first moved out to this wide open space, there were so many new things to experience and I tried to document them here.

I’m still experiencing new things but haven’t been as diligent about putting them into words. So here’s the first of three “Life in the Country” updates.

It’s been almost a year ago since this particular event but I’ll never forget it. It was my day off and I had spent most of the morning in the basement refinishing some furniture. I had worked straight through lunch and finally stopped sanding and staining around 2:00. I settled down in the living room with my soup and sandwich for a little break.

Just as I sat down, I caught a glimpse of a large figure running through our backyard. It’s not alarming to have dogs or rabbits or a squirrel scampering through the yard, but what I saw was definitely bigger than a dog. I got up to check.

I walked through the patio doors to see four horses munching on grass in our backyard. There aren’t any wild horses out here so it was obvious that these particular horses had escaped from wherever they belong.

I didn’t know what to do. I thought I could leave them and maybe they would just wander onto the next yummy yard or get homesick. Our horse, who was locked up safe and sound in our field, was getting agitated (probably jealous), which made the four escapees jumpy and agitated too.

One of our neighbors has four horses who have run away from home before, so I figured that’s where they came from. I knew the neighbors weren’t home during the day, and I was worried the horses would wander off even farther away from home. I took a deep breath and told myself, “It’s up to you. You have to do this!”

I went into our barn (yes my dear college friends I have a barn), for what - I didn’t know. I just figured I couldn’t use my persuasive personality to get them home. I had to use some horse accessory or country-living tool and what better place to find that than in a barn.
I found a rope looped up on a hook and grabbed it. I walked into the yard with my rope and just started laughing. Who did I think I was? What in the world was I going to do with this rope? What about my life experience up to this point gives me any idea what to do with a horse and a rope? Did I think I would suddenly garner the ability to lasso, and if I did – then what? Any one of those horses could have dragged me to Michigan if they wanted to.

I reassessed the situation and returned to the barn. In a moment of inspiration I had it. I grabbed a rusty old coffee can and dipped it into the bucket of sweet feed (that’s horse food for those of you like me who are “country clueless”).

I walked out of the barn shaking my coffee can to entice those four massive beasts to me. It worked. They suddenly were willing to see things my way.

I was able to coax three of them through the yard, up our drive, down the dirt road, down the neighbor’s drive and into their own backyard. The fourth horse was the most stubborn and powerful and remained in our front field. I couldn’t worry about him at the moment though. I was too busy sweet talkin’ these three.

I had seen John’s mom scare a cow back into a field once by waving her arms up and down like a big bird and squealing like a pig. I tried it and turns out it works on horses too. I got all three horses corralled and locked up.

The fourth one decided he didn’t want to roam the countryside all alone so he came home on his own. I opened the gate and let him join his friends.

And then I took a deep breath. I was filthy, scared, hungry, and gosh darn proud of myself (you have to say “gosh darn” when you’ve accomplished a country-living feat of this magnitude).

And then I called John to have him guess how I spent my afternoon. He didn’t guess but when I told him, he was gosh darn proud of me too.

Next up on "Life in the Country" - The Possum Trap