Fun Campaign Buttons

Here are some fun buttons we ordered online recently, you can try guessing who goes with which button.  

The website is www.democraticstuff.com/  if you want to order stuff or just get a kick out of the catalog

Pumpkin Patch

So there is this great farm just outside of Tucson that has a fall festival each autumn.  Pumpkin picking, hay rides, petting zoo, food, music, and a hay-bale maze.  We went last year too and decided to make it an annual tradition.  Here's Griff chasing the goats around:

We also got Griffin on the pony ride.  He had been telling us for a while he wanted to ride a horse, but we didn't even know it was going to be an option, they didn't have it last year.  It was pretty safe, helmets and even a seatbelt.  He loved it.

Here's us just after we picked some pumpkins right off the vine, we chose smallish ones because they are primarily for jack'o'lanterns, and we don't want the rotting too quickly.  Plus we had to carry them.

Matilda slept for almost the entire time, here she is on the hay ride looking groggy:

Next post will probably have us carving them.

New interests

Here are a few more recent pictures.  We took the kids to a mini golf course which was very fun for Griffin.  He's not really into the rules and such but he really liked the holes where you knock a ball into a hole and it comes out on a lower green.  He kept running back and forth dropping the balls down and racing back to get there ahead of it.  Here are Griff and Brie: 

A couple days ago Griffin decided Matilda was hungry.  He went into the pantry, took down her rice cereal, put it in a bowl, added water, grabbed a spoon, and mixed it up all by himself.  He came to get me and told me he had made Matilda's lunch.  I was so impressed I let him feed her.  Now if we could only teach him to change diapers.

Griffin gets on these "kicks".  Lately he's really into knights and castles and dragons.  He saw the movie Sword & the Stone (not bad..) and got a book on it too.  He makes up scenarios and uses a drumstick as a magic wand.  He said he now wants to be a knight for Halloween and we were going to make him an outfit, but then we found this set for 7 dollars at a thrift store.  It seemed like a no-brainer.

Here's Griffin and his friend Max having a sword fight outside.  They are using foam swords that are actually pretty safe.  

Sometimes Griffin can't decide whether he wants to be Spider-Man or a knight for Halloween.  Yesterday he said he wants to wear both costumes.  Spidey on the bottom with the knight helmet and chest plate over it.  Pretty creative I think.  There'll be pictures.

He also saw Wall*E (twice) and he's really into that.  He quotes the movie and calls me Eva, and tries to imitate the voices.  YouTube has a bunch of promotional shorts and I made the mistake of showing them to Griffin one morning when we were just sitting around.  Now whenever he sees me on the computer he climbs up and request the Wall*E movies.  Very funny.  Incidentally the movie was great, so I'm fine with it.  At least it's not Shrek or Scooby-Do or something inane.

Griffin likes to feed the ducks

Here are a few pictures:

Water fun

Someone gave us a slip'n'slide back at Christmas.  Didn't think about it again untill just recently.  We thought it was a lot of fun!  Griffin wasn't all that keen on running and diving onto the slide, he's still somewhat cautious, but he liked to hang on my back while I did.

Matilda liked to get into the action too.  We used the outlet hose from the slip'n'slide to fill the pool to maximize water usage.  And we didn't water our lawn for about two weeks after this.  The last picture is Spider-Man scaring Matilda.

Wednesday

We bought another computer last week.  It's a lot like our previous one (Mac laptop) but has tons of cool new features, like a camera built in to let you take pictures of yourself, or web chats.  Also has a DVD burner so I can finally put home movies on a disc.  Here is Matilda and I.  Seeya soon.

birthday party

So yesterday we had a birthday party for Griffin at a local park, it's been two weeks since his actual birthday, but there are tons of kid parties at the beginning of September, so we waited awhile.  Here is Griffin with a few of his very good friends:                                                               

Here is our friend Rachel holding Matilda, she just loves to hold babies:

Griffin's ice cream cake:

Towards the end of the party, after most people had gone homeGriffin and three friends couldn't tear themselves away from the rocket launcher.  They had tons of fun:

Overall it was a good party.  We found a park that was centrally located, had good shade and a playground, and we told people to forgo presents and come at 9:30 in the morning, pretty easy for families.  We brought a couple dozen bagels, some cream cheese, veggies, chips, and juice.  We also brought our wagon, and a bunch of soccer balls and park toys, and other kids did the same thing.  Overall there were probably about 25 kids there at most, and they entertained themselves while the adults could just relax.  Much easier than having a party at the house where you have to clean before and after, and figure out activities to entertain the kids

Griffin's Birthday !

Hello everyone,  thanks for hanging in there I know it's been almost two weeks since the last entry, but I'm taking an advanced algebra class and it's monopolizing way too much of my free time.  Anyway here's picture's from Griff's birthday on the 1st.  We'll have an actual kid-party for him this weekend, so stay tuned for more pictures:

He wanted to open presents as soon as he woke up, here he is with a foam sword:

He also got a new puzzle that he loved:

There's plenty more presents but here he is helping to make his birthday cake (note all the shredded carrots)

He also got this cool rocket launcher that shoots air into these foam rockets and causes them to fly into the neighbors yard.  He likes it a lot, and it's something he can load up and launch without help.

Here he is opening up a cool book about a boy that eats books:

Griffin with a new toy, Henry The Talking Gnome from Denise and Andrew.  It records what you say into it and plays it back in a high-pitched voice.  Very cool:

Who is that masked boy?  This was a present from Robin, Brie's mom.  I guess we're all set for Halloween now:

Here he is with the finished carrot cake:                                                                                                   

And of course, blowing out the candles:                                                                                                  

He also got some games like Chutes & Ladders, a Darth Vader Mr Potato Head (not from me, I swear) and a cool building structure that marbles roll down.  It's hard to describe, I'll post a picture.  Also a set of blocks that make castles, and some knights to go into them.  He's a lucky guy.

CSA

We are members of the Tucson CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  It's a pretty good deal.  You buy a share at the beginning of the season and then you  own a small portion of a local farms' output.  Each week they harvest whatever is ready and each member gets an equal share.  We've been getting a lot of squash, carrots, corn, kale, arugula, potatoes, cucumber, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos, dried beans, okra, peaches, melons, apples, oranges, and whatever else happens to be in.  It's all organic, and even better it's all local, so we could safely eat tomatoes and jalapenos while the rest of the country was freaking out about salmonella. People often talk about how important it is to eat local, but very few people actually do it.  Seek out local farmer's markets and see if your area has a similar program.  It's totally worth it and it's fun to be surprised at what your getting each week so it gets you to try different foods.

This is about an average one-week portion:

For more information follow this link:

 www. tucsoncsa.org/

Better Late Then Never...

As many people reading these entries already know, in May my sister Denise got married to her boyfriend Andrew on the island of St John in the Virgin Islands.  Of course, I'm just getting around to submitting an entry about it now.   Everything was perfect and it was a small affair with just immediate family.  Here is a picture of our group on the wedding day:

Here are Denise & Andrew as they are exchanging their vows

Griffin on the beach not sitting still for a sunset photo

After a few days with the family on St John; Brie, Griffin, Matilda and I finished the week on St Thomas, the bigger and more touristy island.  They have this cool place called Coral World where we spent an afternoon.  Lots of underwater viewing of tropical fish and shark feeding and stingray touching and whatnot.  Griffin liked feeding these tropical birds best,which oddly enough aren't even native to the Carribbean, they come from Australia

Our hotel on St Thomas was up the hill from the downtown shopping and dining district.  They have the famous "99 Steps" that make coming and going easier.  Actually there are two big flights of steps and all together it's more like 150 steps.

It was a great trip and we thank Denise and Andrew for picking such a lovely spot to have their wedding, which also turned into a short family vacation.  I have tons more pictures, I may do more entries in the future.