Ice Cream Sandwich Day 2010

Some of you may remember that I discovered a worthwhile tradition last year in the form of Ice Cream Sandwich Day (you can head over to the blog post about it here). It was such a hit that I got really excited about doing it again this year - so I had the ice cream sandwiches already in my freezer and strictly forbade anyone from getting close to them until the appropriate date finally arrived, which if finally did. I was so excited about taking pictures of the fun we would be having that I didn't properly check my camera settings and ended up with a bunch of pictures that looked like this:

Definitely not as lovely as the pictures I captured last year. *Sigh* There was also the fact that the girls just weren't as excited about the ice cream sandwiches this year.

Thankfully I did manage to change my settings as still capture a picture or two of the girls enjoying their sandwiches.

While I didn't get the fabulous pictures of the rapt enjoyment over this little holiday that I had been hoping for I did manage to take a picture that I absolutely love. Of course my favorite picture for the evening wasn't one of the kids or anything I would have expected it to be but rather the one of this dismissed (rapidly melting) frozen dessert. Just goes to show that you never know how things are going to turn out and while something may seem like a complete bust you usually walk away with something - you just might have to change your perspective a bit.

Party!

Because it's always a party at our house...

Arduous Task #128

Because I overwork the girls by making them sit in the shopping cart while I push it through out the store it's easy to see how this could happen. However these pictures succinctly describe why my Thanksgiving grocery shopping was incredibly easy. Honestly I've never had such an easy (read quiet) shopping trip. ;)

Happy Halloween

I hope you all had an enjoyable Halloween. Ours was really nice - especially since the weather preceding it had been rainy and cold it was extra nice to have a very warm sunny day with which to celebrate. Here are a couple of highlights from our holiday: The pumpkin patch we stopped by also had a petting zoo. Of course Emmuska wanted to get some of the food pellets so we could feed the animals. Surprising was that after we got the pellets she still wanted to feed the animals. I think this might be a first when it comes to actually feeding animals. Usually she gets the food then changes her mind and Mycal and I end up feeding the animals. This time she carefully set one pellet at a time in her hand and fed the goats. Liberty was another story - this picture accurately shows as close as she ever got to the animals.

This was my favorite picture from the pumpkin patch. I love how it turned out. We got there right as they were closing on Halloween (yeah we like to cut these sort of things close ;) ) still the girls had a good time picking out their pumpkins - something they put an impressive amount of concentration and effort into.

Ever since we got their pumpkins Emmuska has been asking me when we can cut them open so we can make soup and count how many seeds are in her pumpkin. Yes she apparently knows what pumpkins are for.

A couple of days before Halloween was a Fall Festival on base. It was the usual fun chaos that one can expect from having many children waiting to play a bunch of age appropriate games that are rewarded with plastic bobbles. Needless to say the girls had a ball and are still talking about their 'prizes'. Classic Halloween picture: Child eyeing her haul.

Emmuska walking a gymnastic beam for a prize. I just love how she is holding her dress. She looks like such a lady. (Image later dispelled by the chili dribbled all over the front of her dress...still nice to see she can be a lady for half of the holiday).

Yet another classical Halloween picture: Dad surveying loot for his 'tax'.

Emmuska enjoying a sucker between festivities (I think they got to do trick or treating of some sort at three different times during the week...at any rate they made out like bandits.)Samuel in his adorable clown outfit. He almost looked as good as the other individual who wore this outfit this year. (Pictures to follow of that later...)

Just a few fun pictures of Samuel in his froggy suit. Love the eyes on this one.

Seriously the hood was kind of massive which is what his expression seems to be saying here. Well that or 'help I'm under attack!' And surprisingly enough I managed to get one of him smiling while he was in one of his costumes. I love his smile and was super excited to get one when I was holding a camera and could actually take a picture. Since having a camera in my hand when I really want it happens so rarely I am still celebrating this victory.

Just a final shot - a 'Happy Halloween to all and to all a good night!' sort of photo. Hope you all had a fabulous 31st and enjoyed celebrating it as much as we did!

To Avoid an Early Demise...

Because I like living and I'm quite certain Bonnie has access to the kind of resources that might hinder that hobby I've been working for the last day and a half to get some pictures of baby Samuel up. (Sometimes I think blogger wants to create discord by NOT allowing me to upload pictures necessary for familial happiness...) In any event here they are! Pictures of our oh-so-handsome little boy! He really is a handsome boy - especially when he smiles (something I've been graced to receive a few times this week...) that's when his dimples show up and I've got to tell you my heart was melting like butter on a hot sidewalk. This boy isn't going to have any problem stealing hearts.

Emmuska absolutely LOVES her brother. Here she was 'watching' him while he took a nap to make sure he was safe...

but as we know when Emmuska hold still for too long she generally falls asleep. Can't tell you how excited I was to get this picture - love that their positions mirror each other. I can't wait to see how this relationship develops.

Here is Samuel a few days after he was born. I love his wide eyes, chubby cheeks, skinny hands and fingers.

Trying to take some photos for announcements (that I might eventually finish...). This is what this kid does best...sleep (well that and eat...and poop...he's really good at those too) but seriously he sleeps great right now. Of course he tends to sleep really well during the day and then need to eat a bit more during the night (go figure he sleeps better when the house is crazy with children running around screaming and dogs making all sorts of noise than when it's quite and all are resting...) but it's not too big of a deal because I'm able to get a bit done and can literally feed him in my sleep. Yeah we love this little guy. As always it's fun to see his personality start to show through (yeah my heart is still all a flutter over his little smiles) and I can't wait to get more of it!

Emmuska with her little brother - she is always eager to tell him a story if he gets a little peckish and I'm trying to finish something up. He loves her voice and I wouldn't be too surprised if before long his favorite story is 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' as that is the one Emmuska likes to tell the most.

Pool Play

After a couple of really hot days I decided to pull out the kiddy pool we have that I had recently unearthed in my never ending quest to get all of our household goods put away. Of course it was the kind that you have to blow up so I set to work filling the thing with air. Thankfully my bicycle pump has an attachment that fit the pool. More than two hours later, my arms about ready to give (despite the help I received from my two favorite helpers) we had managed to fill up the first two layers. Good enough for me!

So I sent the kids into the house to change into their swimwear and went about the much easier task of filling the pool with water. By this point in the day it was pushing five o'clock and large clouds had started to roll across the sky. What had been an incredibly hot day when we started out on this venture was quickly turning into a cool evening. Still the girls (read Emmuska - Liberty wasn't too sure about this whole deal for most of the time she spent in the pool...) enjoyed a bit of time in the pool. As the pictures may convey Emmuska had a ball - she was incredibly reluctant to give up the joys of the pool even though her teeth had started to chatter and there was a blue tinge to her lips.

Turns out that the ominous looking clouds rolling in did indeed carry a storm and as it would happen it was the storm that carried in fall. After that storm one could tell that the weather had shifted out of summer. It was pretty chilly for the next few days putting further use of the pool out of the question. By the time it was warm enough (at least during the day - the nights are still definitely cooler) to play with the pool I think the neighbors cat had tried to see what it was all about as one layer was flat even though it was still plugged up. I've since let the air out and am trying to decide if I should pack it away for next summer (maybe I can find the hole and fix it?) or just throw it away. Despite the fact that the two plus hours of work resulted in play time of maybe thirty minutes the pictures are priceless. It's good to know that Emmuska will make my hard work feel worth while in the long run.

Nauvoo Pictures and some extra Details...

We didn't get to Nauvoo until three in the afternoon and everything closes as six so we jumped right into seeing as much as possible until everything closed. After seeing as much as we could we went to a park and had a picnic lunch. I was so proud of myself as I had packed up all the food we would need on the trip so we wouldn't have to buy anything (in an effort to keep the trip as economical as possible.) After dinner we headed over to the temple grounds to take some pictures of and in front of the temple. I don't know why we parked where we did as it was much farther than necessary (there was tons of parking on the street in front of the temple) but it turned out being a good thing photographically if nothing else. I was able to get some great pictures coming across the field that blocked out cars parked in front. Also we had fun jumping over ditches (Lib's jump is especially fun to watch - I don't think it will be too long before she is actually getting off the ground...) After seeing the temple we wandered over to the outdoor stage and watched some Polynesian Fire dancers as well as another show called 'Sunset on the Mississippi' basically a campfire variety show. Starting off the show was a parade that all children were invited to join in - where they were given hats to decorate and flags to wave. Emmuska took decorating her hat very seriously and did a marvelous job. Liberty took wearing her hat very seriously and also did a top notch job. (Seriously you should have seen the way she wore her hat - as if this most important responsibility could not be properly by anybody else.)

After the shows we decided to find our campground but ran into a few difficulties. I couldn't find the paper I written down all the information on and we were having a hard time calling anybody as our phones didn't get very good reception. Eventually we found the site and began setting up our tent. It was after dark by that point but given how the ground felt around the car and the fact that we were pitching on a very grassy area I thought that it would be a pretty good night. After getting all set up I tried to find the electric skillet we had so we could quickly cook some hot dogs and go to bed. I knew I had set it aside to come with us but I couldn't find it anywhere. We didn't have any firewood and it was too late to start a fire anyway which was why I had packed the electric skillet - a sort of just in case measure. Who knew my just in case would fall through too. Thankfully the people next to us were very kind and let me roast the hot dogs on their fire. After a few hot dogs and getting cleaned up we finally settled down into our sleeping bags. It was already after midnight and I had had several short night before as it was so I was very ready to sleep. Unfortunately my girls idea of making a long car trip shorter is to sleep much of the time...so they were well rested and excited about the new arrangements. It took a very long time to get them settled down enough to sleep. After everybody was asleep I spent the night tossing and turning punctuated by brief moments of actually sleeping. Apparently Illinois grass has evolved to being able to grow on solid rock. It was ridiculously hard. I tried sleeping on my stomach for about ten seconds but that wouldn't work (it barely works on my marvelous mattress anymore...) I couldn't sleep on my back as whenever I did I could barely breath. So I was left to switch from side to side - thinking every time I did so "People do this for fun?" Mycal's experience apparently wasn't much better (though I note bitterly that whenever I looked at him he was asleep...) He asked me the next morning how I could possibly sleep on my side 'didn't that hurt?' I gave him a rather dark look and informed him that my options had been limited and that yes it was uncomfortable. The kids however seemed to have a lovely night.

Important lesson learned - if we are trying to be frugal look into campsite cabins (actually would have cost us less than the campsite and renting tent...)

Something I'm very glad we did - rent the tent...I don't think we will need one in the foreseeable future.

I will end on that but want to share a few pictures with you - okay it's quite a few so don't give up too soon. I know it's more than I usually do but trust it's far less than I would love to do. Enjoy!
Not too much to say about this photo - here we are in front of the temple. I wish we had had more time - enough to let at least Mycal go through as I was able to during the open house. Still it's special just being on the grounds. As we are trying to remember the things we do as a family we strive to ask somebody to get a shot of all of us everywhere we go. The guy we asked here was really into it - most people just point and click - he made sure he was in the best positions, kneeling down and framing the shot and what not. I'm glad he did as it turned out rather well and I don't know that others would have worried about getting the entire temple in otherwise.
I took this shot as we were walking over a field up to the temple grounds. The lighting at the moment couldn't have been better. Everything just looked beautiful for us that day (even though it had rained less than an hour before...)

This was in the Family Living Center - a place with a lot of hands on demonstrations of how different day to day tasks would have been done in the mid 1800's. Emmuska listened very patiently as somebody told her all about making bread. I was fascinated by a chart I saw that showed the process necessary to make flax into a fiber. As the sister was describing the process of making wool into yarn she let us look at a sample of wool. Emmuska was too bright for ordinary though. She spied the bucket of black wool under the table and asked if that was where they put the spots. Apparently she believes that some sheep have spots like cows and that once shaved you would separate the spotted wool from the regular. She is now on the hunt for a spotted sheep.

I just liked this shot - we were driving through the park and I happened to see the temple. I liked the way the tree in the foreground framed the picture.

Mycal explaining who Joseph Smith was and what he did. It was a perfect 'father' moment. You don't get a chance to capture the moments where we teach our kids all that often on film so I loved this shot.

Emmuska diligently looking for the price tag. She recently learned how to look for prices and figure out what things cost. Mycal was surprised when she came up to him with a toy and said 'This is six dollars - can you buy it?' When Mycal looked at the tag she was right. She didn't get the toy as a reward but it's hopefully a good start in teaching her the value of money. On that note they had horehounds (hooray!) I was very excited as I hooked myself up with a bag.

Our 'prairie diamonds'. Liberty had one too but decided to chew on it rather than wear it so it isn't in the picture. Emmuska noticed that it wasn't like my other ring (wedding ring) and wanted to know why they didn't give us those kinds. When I explained that they couldn't give everybody a ring like mine she just said 'Oh, well someday I'm going to get a ring like yours.' The girl knows what's worthwhile. ;)

Nice shot of Mycal and the girls looking at some horses. Emmuska couldn't get enough of the animals. If every display had had animals we would have been better able to hold her attention (hence our new determination to make it to the St. Louis Zoo soon...)

A mouse trap - I had to take a picture because this was the sort of thing Mycal used to catch Rutabaga months ago - some ideas are great no matter how old.

This shot was just too funny - Mycal took it in the bathroom mirror (I had no idea until later when I was looking that photos...) I love my camera! My point and shoot would have destroyed this shot - and that would be tragic.

I'm not sure what this was - her excited face maybe...who knows still too hilarious not to share with all of you. Just a fun way to show all of you how much fun we have!