Abby Meets an Apple

Abby is most definitely in the stage where she wants to eat whatever anyone else at the table is eating. Today's must-have was an apple. Not an apple slice An apple. Benjamin started one and ate about 1/3 of it. I handed the leftover to Abby just to see what she would do with it. I have to say she is a pretty good study. She needed not one direction and finished almost the entire apple.

And maybe not the most exciting of videos, but you do get to hear her 'enjoyment' of her food. (She 'mmmmm's' like this almost the whole time she eats anything.) And it is also a pretty good, "Uh oh". So, enjoy, Grandma.

'Carving' Pumpkins

If you remember last year's carving post, you'll know that carved pumpkins at the Campbell house are not the typical Halloween jack-o-lanterns. Good news is, it is a quick job and not nearly as messy. The boys picked their own pumpkins, we made holes with a screwdriver, and they inserted the potato head pieces. (Maybe not always in the right holes, but in the holes nonetheless.)Benjamin was so pleased, he hugged his pumpkin.And Noah was just happy he didn't have to touch any pumpkin goo.

Boo at the Zoo

It was just boys for Boo at the Zoo since Mommy would rather play with her friends and the sewing machine and Abby loves her naptime. :) We arrived late and found the zoo packed out because the weather was awesome. We struggled into costumes in the parking lot and hustled. Meeting up with the Potts family at the playground we had a reunion of Optimus, Bumble Bee, and the "Transformer Boss".

With the heroes reunited it was time to fight evil. Bumble Bee was down for a minute with a twisted ankle. It's so sad to see your kids hurt and you can't really do anything to make it better. Bumble Bee was much tougher than Dad about it and just walked it off.

Next we hit the trail to see some animals. A quick stop at the haunted Pirate ship to see lots of cannons, skeletions and a giant paper mache shark. There were lots exciting costumes to see. That's gotta be the best part, seeing all the costumes. Benjamin's favorite part was to run up to a group of kids and yell "AHHHH HAAAAAAAA!!!!!". Most kids were just puzzled by Benjamin's drama, but one in particular was terrified. I know it shouldn't be funny but I did chuckle.

At the end of the trail we decided to stop for lunch in the Outback and watch the kangaroos. Joining us for lunch was an entire colony of real bees. We really should have just skipped lunch now that I think about it. No one got stung but Benjamin is still mad that the goose stole he jelly sandwich. I doubt he will ever remember that he actually dropped the sandwich off the deck. Don't ask him about it!

After lunch we did a round trip ride on the train. The boys had a good time eating my apple and checking out all of the decorations.

End of the line! Time to get on with the tricks and the treats! On our way back we stopped at the bone yard to see what the bones of some of the zoo animals look like. The boys didn't think it was as cool as I thought it was. Though Benjamin liked the crocodile skull.

Finally, the trick or treat trail! Of course the boys wanted to open each and every piece as they got it. The trail ended at the Sea Lion home. We got to watch a couple of them play, though I wondered if they were going to throw down. One final treat for the day and for Dad. Since Mom is off goofing around with the other Moms we called in a favor and sent Noah over to the Potts family for a sleep over. He was so excited that he didn't even ask to take his candy with him.

Another great day at the zoo!

My Weekend Getaway

This weekend I had a new adventure. I got to go away. For a whole weekend. Just girls. No kids. All crafting. All the time. It was THE biggest treat. I mean no offense to my fabulous husband or my wonderful children because I do enjoy spending time with them (I even tried to change my mind at the last moment but Christopher pushed me out the door) but it was just a perfect weekend! It was sort of like sorority life all over again. Except, there was no homework. Only crafting. (In case you were of the homework type back then, that is...)
SIDEBAR: When Noah was a baby I attended a breastfeeding support group. Not only was the information shared very helpful, it was also one of very few regular events that we attended out of the house. We were there pretty much every week. There was a large group of 'regulars' who all coincidentally had May birthdays. They all connected over that fact and very graciously included us even though Noah was a March baby. We first got together outside of class for a Christmas get-together in December 2005. We have continued to get together frequently ever since. They are a wonderful group of ladies and I am so thankful to call them (and their children) friends. Now back to the story.
This summer they found out about a local bed and breakfast that caters to scrapbookers. The rest of the moms are big in to scrapbooking so they booked the weekend and included me. Now I have all of our wedding stuff set aside to be scrapbooked but have never started on it. This would have been the perfect time but I had some sewing projects that I really wanted to work on, so I packed up my sewing machine and took that instead. (It actually was a good way to do it because after watching them for 2.5 days I have a better idea of what I need to do to get my wedding stuff organized so maybe the next time we go I will have it all planned out instead of spending the whole time trying to figure out hoe to get started.) As I said, it was wonderful. The first floor of the house was set up with big tables for crafting. And the best part? When we finished at night, we didn't have to put anything away. We just went upstairs to the cute, little bedrooms and slept (for just 5 shourt hours) then came down the next morning and got right back to work. And what could make this even better? THEY CATERED IN THE MEALS!!! Meal time arrived, and meals just showed up. The fine people that worked there even served us! Including drinks throughout the day. Seriously - our only job this weekend was to chat and craft. It was truly wonderful. The crafting was theraputic. The food was delicious. And the fellowship was priceless. So, thanks to Christopher for making letting me go. And, thanks to the girls for including me 4 years ago and inviting me this weekend. I can't wait to do it again!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

As I mentioned in the previous post, this visit happened to coincide with my grandfather's birthday. I was probably more excited than anyone else about celebrating a 94th birthday and wanted to make sure our cake had 94 candles. However, I was a little concerned with how we would light all the candles on one cake without either burning ourselves OR the first candles melting in to the cake before we finished them all. So, I decided to go with five cakes. Needless to say, we had plenty to go around - even some whole cakes to send home with our guests. Grandpa even had TWO pieces! Who was going to tell him no? He was a very good sport in letting us celebrate his birthday in such a big way.And having five cakes meant that all little boys could help with the candle blowing and not cause any problems. (Maybe this is what we should do for every birthday??!!?)

Our Weekend Visitors

This past weekend we had the priviledge of hosting Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa Doug, Uncle Scott, AND Great-Grandpa Bernard. Grandma Dorothy and Grandpa Bernard's birthdays are just a few days apart and I wasn't sure how he was going to handle 'birthday weekend' without her company - for the first time in over 70 years. So, I concocted this plan to have him come to our house. I hadn't worked out the details fully when my parents decided they would come visit also. They picked up Grandpa, drove through the Upper Peninsula to Minnesota to visit my Uncle and his family, then arrived here on Wednesday. We had three and a half VERY action-filled days. The boys were so excited to have Grandpa Bernard here. It was the frst thing out of their mouths in the morning and they were so excited to get to sit by Grandpa at breakfast. He even helped feed Benjamin his yogurt, which I thought was pretty cute and Benjamin appreciated too. Grandma made sure they brought THE Jeep, so Noah got to drive all afternoon on Thursday (until he got a little brave and was driving standing up and flipped the car over in the yard.) Grandma even found these super cute race car driver outfits. Complete with gloves. Noah loved them. While we wanted to spend as much time with Grandpa as we could, I also had some projects that I wanted mom to help me with at home. Friday after school, the Grandpas (as the boys called them) and Uncle Scott picked Noah up from school and took him to the Farmer. We knew Grandpa Bernard would like it out there and we were not wrong. Except he did not understand why they had perfectly fine tractors just sitting around. "If someone refurbished them they would be in fine working condition." Noah also enjoyed getting to show them all the parts of the farm all by himself. Saturday morning the guys were up early again and headed for the World War I museum downtown and daddy took the little boys out so Grandma and I could sew without 'interruption'. We got 3/4's of Abbys coat done before we had to start preparing for the big birthday party. (More on that in the next post.) Sunday found us at church and then the troops headed home after lunch. As we didn't have room for everyone at our house, my parents stayed a hotel and took turns taking the boys with them (as that is their absolute FAVORITE thing to do). That meant we had the evenings to just sit and relax with grandpa. He likes to talk politics and Christopher can usually keep up - I add comments when I can. Mostly it was just nice to sit and visit with him. And because he is a true Randolph with his specific TV shows to watch, Benjamin got to learn a new activity. Who knew you could watch Phineas & Ferb online? As I said, it was a very quick visit but we were so thankful that they were able to come and see us. We hadn't seen them since July - and that is really long time! And I have a sneaking suspicion Grandpa enjoyed it also. Several times he asked to have his picture taken with the children. I don't ever remember him doing that with any of us before. Oh, and for your added enjoyment, here is a dress that Grandma made for Abby. How cute is that?