The Donut Game

On Saturday the kids were excited to get to dress up for a birthday party. Ryan wanted to be Batman and Arianna started out as Belle. She then did a last minute costume change to Cinderella because of the rain and she didn't want to get her long Belle gown muddy. That's my girl. Better to have fun than look pretty!

At the birthday party they had a hilarious game for the kids. They hung donuts from the ceiling and the kids were supposed to eat the donuts without using their hands. It was so funny to watch the kids try to do this!

Ryan chased his around and around in circles.

Arianna was a little hesitant at first to look goofy. My little self conscious child. But she eventually went for it.

Eventually, the judges had mercy on the kids and allowed the parents to hold the string to help.

Look at these donut covered faces. This was a fun game for the kids!

Gearing up for Halloween

Those of you who know my kids know that they love to dress up. They are very excited about being able to dress up on Halloween. Halloween is also one of my favorite holidays! I, like my kids, enjoy dressing up.

Ryan as a Doctor and Ari as Cinderella

Lydia loves Ryan

We did facepainting. Ari wanted to be a Cat and Ryan wanted Spiderman, spider and batman on his face. It is hard to paint a moving canvas:)

Nana sent Ryan a spiderman costume (Thanks Nana). Ari put on the larger size and they fought the bad guy (Daddy) together.

Ari doing a spiderman pose

Thanks Yaya

We got home from the fair with another of my kids favorite things...mail!

They get so excited to get packages in the mail!

Arianna loved her Batgirl! (That is a ring pop in her mouth)
Ryan loved his Superman and Spiderman!

They both enjoyed the jester hats!

Thanks Yaya for sending us some of your love! We miss you and can't wait to see you!

A Day at the State Fair

Today we continued a family tradition that has special meaning to us. We went to our State Fair. My first date with my husband was to the State Fair 13 years ago. Every year we celebrate that time by visiting the fair together. The kids were very excited this year! We rode a lot of rides, ate yummy food and just enjoyed our time together as a family!


This is us riding the ferris wheel.

This is the kids by a cow. It was at the cows 13 years ago that Chris says he knew he wanted to marry me:)

The kids and I rode this spinning tea cup ride. We had it spinning around so fast that Ryan couldn't even sit up straight.

The kids really enjoyed this ambulance. It carried on a conversation with them. Ryan was intrigued and Ari was asking how it could do that. A man was nearby controlling the ambulance. They even hugged their new friend the ambulance goodbye!

Ryan proud to be in the front of a big truck.

This was my favorite part...the petting zoo. I hate that we are so separated from the animals now. When Chris and I first went to the fair, we got to pet the cows and many other animals. Now you are on the other side of a fence and there are signs everywhere that tell you to make sure you wash your hands. Sad world that we live in today:) My kids are those kids kissing the animals so I don't know what good hand washing will do!

Look at this cute face!

This reminded me of Ryan. Always got to be at the highest place!!

This was Ryan's favorite ride...the motorcycle.

They both enjoyed the dragons!

Arianna and Ryan milked a cow. The funny thing is that they had to sanitize their hands before milking the cow. Now that makes more sense to protect the cow from our little germ carrying monkeys! Arianna said milking the cow was one of her favorite things from today.

It wouldn't be a Daltongang adventure without some tree climbing danger:)

Arianna enjoyed collecting stickers from each booth! She had so many stickers on her shirt and now guess where they are...on my van window. She took them off one by one on the way home and stuck them to the inside of the van window. I guess we know what Mommy will be doing tomorrow!

We ended up spending from early this morning until after 5:30 this evening at the fair. We didn't take a stroller in. Amazingly, the kids did really well walking and not complaining. Ryan got a little fussy near the end and Chris carried him. Here is a pic of my worn out baby passed out on Chris' chest.

When I put them to bed tonight, Ari said "I want to go back to the fair!" I love the fair but I am glad it is only a once a year thing!

Pumpkin Carving Party 2008

We had our 5th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. It is one of our family traditions to invite friends over for a pumpkin carving party. We had a great time hanging with friends, carving pumpkins and eating yummy food!

Chris made these yummy Mummy hotdogs. Aren't they cute?

I made this graveyard desert dish.

Ryan digging out pumpkin guts.

Arianna really enjoyed cleaning out her pumpkin and she drew the face on the pumpkin. Last year she didn't want to touch the pumpkin and Ryan was all into cleaning it out. Boy how things change year to year!

Ryan and Ari enjoy their treat bag goodies.

Arianna drew the face on this pumpkin and I carved it out. I was amazed at how great of a face she drew for her pumpkin.

Our friend Momir carved the pumpkin to the left of Ryan.

We saved one pumpkin to carve as a family later. We are excited about our day tomorrow! More to come later...

Crop Around the Crop

I first want to tell you what a wonderful husband I have. I come back in town from taking care of my Dad all week and my sweet husband happily watches the kids so I can go to a Crop Around the Clock.

The crop began last night at 6pm and lasted until tonight at 6pm. I stayed until 2:30am and then returned at 9am. It was so relaxing to just work on my kids scrapbook and have some just me time. It was also a very productive time. I got FIFTY yes "five oh" pages done. I am completely done with all the pics that I had printed over 2 years ago. I still have a long way to go to get caught up but I am excited about the progress made. I am finished up to Easter 2006 for both kids.

I have a scrapbooking retreat coming up in November and I my goal is to complete an album of our recent trip to Disney for Arianna's 4th Birthday.

Now I need to go through my gazillion digital pics and figure out what pics to order next from Winkflash.

I laid all of the pages out on my dining room table to get an pic of my progress. I couldn't get a great pic of all of the pages together so I took an aditional 2 of each side of the table below.

Learning to Care

The kids and I spent this week caring for my Dad. We brought him home last Friday. I am so proud of how much love and joy my kids bring to a situation. Ryan and his grinning face and Arianna and her helping hand.

I didn't know how the kids would react to being around my Dad since he is "different" doesn't have movement on his left side and can be prone to be moody at times. Both kids enjoyed his wheelchair and didn't show any fear to Grandaddy being so different. I think they enjoyed spending the time at Mema's farm with Daddy as much as I did. I hope they are learning a bit about caring for others through this situation.

Three of my favorite people

The kids stayed at the farm last weekend as I cared for my Dad in the hospital. I came home to this sight...Super Dad and 2 sacked out kids!

My Dad is now home from the hospital and the kids and I are going to the farm today to help care for him. I just wanted to share this cute picture of 3 of my favorite people:)