BOO!

Happy Halloween!

As soon as we started planning for Halloween this year I knew that I wanted Hailey to be a monster.

Probably going to be the last year that I get to decide what anyone wears and it needed to happen.  She's my little Hailey Monster so it was only appropriate.

Hannah had a harder time choosing what to be this year.  She started with Dorothy, thought about a Marshmallow, back to Dorothy, well-maybe Cinderella again, or a movie star.  Then one day while at Target she saw a costume that had a light up skirt.  That was the winner.  A friendly witch it would be!

We have been Trick-o-Treating with the Busta's and Sumner's the last few years and now it is something we look forward to so once again, we packed up and headed over to their Ramsey neighborhood to eat dinner and trick-o-treat.   For now this works really well.  I love spending that evening with our friends and I love that our kids have others to experience this with.  However, when they get older it's going to become more stressful.  I hope when they get older they have kids in the neighborhood they can hang out with.  I hope they can actually enjoy their own neighborhood in the future. 

After dinner, the kids were situated in back of their Halloween Limo and were ready to go!

Hailey wasn't too sure of this so she decided to walk with mom and dad instead.  We brought a stroller for her and as expected, she preferred to push it.  A few blocks in, she realized that she could get to the candy faster if she rode in the stroller so she did end up most of the night in it afterall.

We had a great night!  The weather was great, the company was wonderful!  There were kids everywhere!

Happy Pre-Halloween!

Grandma Judy always likes to see the kids in their Halloween costumes so every year, usually the weekend before Halloween, we have a Halloween party at Grandma's.

Tonight was filled with arts n crafts,

Sugar cookie and cupcake decorating,

Costume parade (you can see how excited they all were to get their costumes on),

and more arts n crafts.

Tonight was the 7th game of the World Series.  Grandpa, Jennifer and I were watching the game and Judy was upstairs with all 5 kids.  When the game was done (St Louis Cardinals won) I yelled to the girls that it was time to get ready to go.  I came upstairs to find Hailey sitting in the middle of the table cutting her papers.  I remember Hannah started using a scissors at this age too and once she figured out how to cut papers, that is all she wanted to do for a while.  You could sit her on the floor with a scissors and a peice of paper and she would be content.   She sure was happy up there!

She wasn't paying much attention to me but when I finally got her attention, she looked at me out of the corner of her eye and gave me a huge grin.  She knows she's getting away with something because she is at Grandma's.

Let me out!

I was at St. Joe's today for the clinics LDI Day 2.

As always there was a line of cars waiting to get out of the parking ramp.  Each car had to stop at the payment station, enter their parking ticket, then their payment, then wait for the receipt to print, the arm to raise and then they could leave.

  After waiting in the downward spiral I finally got my turn at leaving.

I drove up to the payment station and inserted my ramp ticket.

The ticket was spit out and the following message appeared on the screen.

Are you kidding me?!  What in the world does that message mean?

I pushed the call button to tell the operator what was going on....after all, I work for HealthEast and had a parking voucher, I am sure that the operator can just raise the arm and let me out. Right?!

WRONG!

I pushed the button and nothing happened.  NONE of the buttons worked and now when I tried to put my ticket in the machine it wouldn't even attempt to take it.  I quickly called the HealthEast operator to see if she could get me out. She claimed that she would need to call the engineer to come and let us out and it could take a few minutes depending on where he was in the hospital.

It took about 5 minutes before he arrived but with a line of cars about 20+ long, it felt more like an hour.  A couple of nice gentlemen got out of their cars and walked to my car to see if I needed assistance because I obviously didn't know what I was doing and we needed to get traffic moving.  When he was able to see for himself that it was a machine malfuntion he decided to try to lift the stop-arm that was the only thing standing between me and freedom.  :-(  he couldn't lift it

The engineer finally came to raise the arm and let us out.  Whew!  Now, off to spend the next 45 minutes fighting traffic to get home to my family...

You make it worth it

Happy Birthday Jennie!
When I started blogging I vowed that I wasn't going to blog about my family members on their birthdays or about my mom on mother's day, or dad on father's day.  It felt like too much pressure to make sure that I didn't forget anybody and I hated the idea of feeling 'forced' to say something nice about someone because the date on the calendar says I should.  It's not that it's hard to think of nice things to say, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't like doing things because 'it's the thing to do or someone thinks I should' so I have intentionally stayed away from it all.
Until today.

Today is my sister Jennie's birthday.  My girls adore their aunties.   All 5 of them.   But Jennie is the one that seems to pull them out of their shells.  Especially Hailey.  Hailey gets into these moods where she doesn't want anyone but mom.  Typically during these times she will bury her head in my shoulder if anyone looks at her or tries to take her from me.  That is until Jennie shows up.  She typically goes to Jennie without any trouble.

Before I had kids I would always tease my family that they'd better watch out because I wasn't planning on sharing.  At the time I wasn't kidding.  I worked hard for these little girls and I wasn't really excited about passing them on for others to hold and snuggle with.   One of the great things about having a baby of your own is that you don't have to share it with everyone.  You don't have to 'share' and give everyone a turn to hold the baby.  If it's yours, you get dibs, right?

I will never forget the night I had Hannah.  Both sets of parents were there, grandma and Bob were there and Jennie was there.  To be fair Kim and Kristin were in St Cloud so the thought of them being able to be there was out of the question and I know that they would have been there if they were in town.  But anyways, back to the Birthday girl.....I remember laying in the hospital bed, it was late on a Sunday night and one at a time the family started turning the corner to come and meet the newest addition to our family.
I still remember when Jennie turned the corner and saw that newborn.  The look on her face and tears in her eyes were a sign that she loved that little girl even though this was the first time they had ever met.

Jennie is a great auntie- always willing to do hair, paint nails, sing and dance along to whatever the favorite song of the month is, always willing to hold a conversation over the phone with whatever kid wants to call her 'just because'. 

My sisters adore my children and it is obvious how much they care about them.  It's awesome as a mother to sit back and watch their relationships. 

When the girls woke up today and I told them it was Jennie's Birthday Hailey clapped and Hannah said " Awwwww, it is?!  We better call her and tell her to have a good day."
We didn't call but instead we recorded messages to text her.

Happy Birthday Jennie- I hope your birthday was a good one.  My girls sure are lucky to have an auntie like you!

P.S.  This sharing business.....you make it worth it

"No Ah-ha"

The morning routine is pretty consistent.

Wake the girls up, make toast, finish getting ready while spending the rest of the morning yelling at Nash to leave the girls alone.

This morning Hailey was gettind down from the couch and I could hear her telling Nash no, "No, Ah-ha.  No."

Then I heard Hannah say "it's ok Hailey, I will protect your toast when you get down.  I won't let him get it."

I came in the living room to get Hannah ready and couldn't find Hailey's plate of toast anywhere.

"Hannah, what did you do with your sister's toast?"

Hannah replies "I was just protecting it mom, Hailey hid it from Nash."

I found it under her blanket.  Smart little one!

We are in for it

I was in the bathroom getting ready and finishing up my hair.

The girls and I were going to go out shopping to get Hannah her Halloween costume.

As I was straightening my hair I was joined by 35 lbs of beauty.

Hannah stood next to me on her step stool, brushing and styling her hair for about 10-15 minutes straight.

She would put in barettes, headbands, clips, take them out, brush her hair again and start all over until finally she was perfect!

(those are Justin Beiber tattoos on her arms....)

What the....?

Got a text from Brian today.

"Can you pick up the girls?  I am in the middle of a digging project."

Came home to this.  A tunnel dug from the house to the garage that contains pipes and cabling.  A day later we have a heater in the garage and the ability to hook up cable to a TV in the garage.

Seriously?! 

For real.

Is there anything he can't do???

Justin

Tonight we had to go to the mall to the Apple Store to fix the iPad and my iPhone.

While Brian was busy with the tech the girls and I went for a little walk.

We walked past Claire's and Hannah looked inside to see a whole rack set up with Justin Beiber stuff.  Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pens, notebooks, pillowcases....

We spent about 5 minutes looking at everything and she talked me into getting her a Justin Beiber necklace.   I don't really want to be one of those parents that can't say no but you should have seen her face. 

She later informed me that she received a message from 'Justin'.

Me:  "Oh you did?!  What did it say?"

Hannah:  "It said, 'I love you too'."

I have to admit, I kinda love watching her with this little crush of hers.  Probably because it is for a grown up kid that she will never meet.  It would be a different story if this crush was for the neighbor or a boy she knows.  This will only be the first of many, I am sure.

Coffee Cat

Hannah:  "Mom, why does Hailey always want to coffee me?"

Me: "Hannah, she copies you because she loves you and she thinks you are pretty special.  What did she do that's copying?"

Hannah:  "She always wants to wear a headband like me."

OF COURSE SHE DOES!  LOOK AT HOW CUTE SHE IS!!!!

And the award goes to...

 Today was our system's LDI (Leadership Development Institute).
It is a day where all of the leaders of HealthEast get together and have presentations, learn about how to be better leaders, reflect on the goals/accomplishments of our organization, etc.

During the afternoon there was an agenda item titled: Rewards and Recognition
There would be two categories of awards.
The first category would be for the person who showed the most accomplishment/improvement.
Each VP would chose a receipent of this award.  In the case that the VP oversaw multiple areas, they would choose someone from each area.  We were informed ahead of time that the winners had no idea that they would be winning an award so this would be a surprise to all.

The awards started with St Joe's.  It was obvious that the winner didn't know that she was going to be expected to come to the front, walk across the stage to shake hands with Tim Hanson, President and CEO.
The awards continued with St John's, Woodwinds, the Clinics, and then moved to Corporate Services.  All of a sudden my picture was on the huge jumbo screens and they were calling me to the front of the room!
I still am not totally sure why I received this award because the whole time I was walking to the front of the room my legs were shaking and I was focusing so hard on making sure that I didn't fall or trip.  I couldn't hear what she was reading over the claps and cheers. 

I am pretty sure that it was probably something about the Gallup Survey (employee satisfaction) and the results that my team produced for the clinic users. We have some of the highest numbers across the organization and they greatly improved since last year.  Yay us!

I was told that I would get more information directly from Mac at LDI Day 2 (which will be a seperate LDI with just Corporate Managers).

Then Category 2 started.  Category 2 was all about Supporting Departments.  Again, each VP would choose one person/department that they would like to recognize for supporting their business unit and helping to improve outcomes, etc.

I was still smiling from ear to ear when the leader's for St. Joe's, John's, and Woodwinds  moved to the front of the room to get their much deserved recognition.  The ladies at my table were congratulating me.

Then as they started announcing the winner for the HealthEast Clinics Best Supporting Department my picture came up again!  The crowd started clapping and cheering and once again me and my rubber legs walked to the front of the room to accept the award.  This time I heard some of the 'reason'.  "Amy has partnered with end users, clinicians, and clinics admin..."  Again, I hear that I will hear more specifics about this this week at LDI Day 2 for the Clinics.

It was quite the day.  Since then I have been receiving emails, phone calls, high-fives in the hallways, etc.  It's been extremely flattering and was actually exactly what I needed to remind me that my expectations of myself are WAY bigger than they need to be.  People are pleased and I need to just continue to move in the right direction.  Change is happening, even though it is slower than I like. 

After the awards it was time to wrap up the afternoon. 

As we were waiting for Roger Green to get up and give his presentation, Mindy stood up to look around the room to see if she could find him.  Then a few more people stood up and started looking for him too.  Then the song, "I've Had the Time of My Life- by the Black Eyed Peas" started playing and the 8 or so people standing broke out into dance.  At the part where it said "and I owe it all to you" they all pointed to Tim Hanson.  Tim is retiring at the end of this year and a flashmob just broke out in his honor!  By the end of the song about 1/2 of the people were standing and dancing to the song. It was awesome!

Roger made his way to the stage and then presented Tim with the One of Our Best award.

The day ended with a champagne toast, video send-off for Tim, and a 25-year Anniversary video for HealthEast.

It was a wonderful afternoon!

I should probably cool it

You would think that you could at least take a shower at 5:30 am and be by yourself in the bathroom, right?

Well, not at this house. 

About 1/2 of the mornings, Hannah wakes up and hangs out in the bathroom until I am done with my shower.  Most mornings I can hear her get up and stumble across the floor.  The other mornings I can usually hear her open the door and come into the bathroom as she slams the door closed, etc. 

Every so often she sneaks in and I don't know she is there until I turn the water off and open the curtain.

Today was one of those mornings.

I got out of the shower to find her changing Emerson's diaper.  You can see the 'dirty' diaper all wrapped up next to her left leg and the bottle of hand sanitizer (the bright white round cap).

I always tell Hannah that I don't want her to grow up.  I want her to stay little forever because she is getting too old.  Recently I asked her 'Hannah, what am I going to do when you get bigger?" (I didn't need a response- I was purely making a statement)  Her response was "You'll cry. But you shouldn't cry mom because I will have a baby for you in my tummy when I get bigger.  Do you want a boy or a girl baby?  Anyways I want to get bigger.  I want to get big and do big kid things.  I can even go to the store by myself without you when I am bigger."

I should probably cool it on the "I don't want you to get big' talk. 

I think it is making her sad.  I do want her to get older and I want her to grow up, she is going to have so much fun being a bigger kid but I sure am going to miss them at these ages.

Kids say the darndest things

Hailey has been using her words more and more lately.

A few of her new phrases include:

"I'm right here!"

"Hanny (Hannah)"

"Ah-ha (Nash)"

"Hoo Hoo (Monkey)"

"Wa wa (water)"

When you are playing with her and 'getting her', she will run away from you and then turn around, stick her tongue out, shake her booty and say something that sounds like "Nah-Nah-Nah-boo-boo".  It is the cutest!

Hannah is always good for a laugh or two.

Today there were at least four.

Hannah had a pretty bad day today.  Her attitiude was horrible.  She was sassing back to us and whining pretty much all day.  She got a few time outs and even had her necklace, headband, and Dankie taken away.

During dinner tonight she was asking everyone how their day was.  When she was done Brian asked her how her day was.  She responded with "My day was kinda rough."

After her nap she came downstairs to snuggle with me on the couch.  I was watching football (the Redzone).  She was asking Brian which team he wanted to win.  When she saw the white team had the ball she yelled out "Homerun!"    We tried to tell her that it would actually be a touchdown but then the more she saw us giggling about her homerun cheer the more she said it. Later on she asked if Joe Mauer was playing in that game today.

As part of our nightly bedtime routine I sing the girls a few songs while I rub their back while they lay in bed.  Tonight Hannah chose Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Rock-a-Bye Baby.  As soon as she heard the first note coming out she said "Hit it girls!"  Cracked us both up :-)

About 40 minutes later (when she should have already been sleeping), Hannah was calling for me.  When I got upstairs to check on her I asked her why she wasn't sleeping yet.  She responded with "I can't sleep because my nose is making a rattling nose.  I tried to blow it but there isn't any booger juice in it so I have nothing to blow out."

Why must you....

smell so strong? :-(

Brian sent me flowers to work on Tuesday for our Anniversary.

They are beautiful and very fragrant.

A little too fragrant, I'm afraid....I had to cut the insides out of the lillies today so these pretty little guys didn't have to sit outside.

If the shoe fits- or even if it doesn't

Hailey LOVES shoes, especially if they are her sisters!

Her most favorite pair are these $2 Old Navy flip flops. 

She walks around the house with these on all the time. The girls get home from daycare, pulloff their shoes and socks, Hannah stays barefoot and Hailey goes running to get the flip flops.

It's hard to know what she sees in these things but one thing is for sure....she's a FAN!

Spookley

Last year for Halloween Nolan (from daycare) gave Hannah a book about Spookley the square pumpkin. 

Spookley is a square pumpkin in a patch where all other pumpkins are circles.  Of course he is like an outkast and the others are mean and call him names.  One night there is a storm and a hole is made in the fence.  Since most pumpkins are circle they are getting tossed around by the wind and some of them have rolled right out of the hole in the fence down into the river.  Spookley sees this so he turns himself over until he plugs the hole in the fence and saves the day.  The other pumpkins accept him and talk about how being square makes him special, etc, etc, etc, etc.

While watching the Disney channel earlier this week we saw a commercial for an hour long special "Spookley the Square Pumpkin".  Hannah and I were both thrilled so right away we set the DVR.

Few days later Hannah was watching Spookley....

"Mom, why are my eyes dripping?"   as she is wiping tears from her face
Me: "Not sure honey, what happened?"
"I thought Spookley was going to die.  Everyone is so mean to him and it makes me sad."  more real tears
Me: "Oh honey, it's ok."
"I wish I could be in that show so I could hug him all day.  That would make him feel much better."

What a sweatheart!

Table 6

Today was the day I have been working my ass off for. (pardon my language)

This morning at 8:00 am I kicked off the Order/Charge go live at the Vadnais Heights Clinic.  One step closer to a fully implemented system.  Enough about work...

Although working late means another night of take-out.  Tonight's choice- McDonalds

When we were getting the girls plates ready and I was starting to pour the chocolate milk, Hannah said "Ma'am, can I take that to table 6 for you?"

Eight is Great

Happy Anniversary to my love!

I'd marry you all over again.

Happy Wedding

Tonight was my mom and Tom's wedding celebration!

I am not going to lie.  The timing was not very good.  But, this day was not about me so that's all I will say about it.
The reception was held at Gulden's in Maplewood. 
Guests included : Jennie, Tom, Kim, Joe, Kristin, Bobby, Grandma, Bob, Mike and Mary Holmgren, Mary Weller (Rodriguez) and Carmen, Carl and Wanda Hurtgen, Tom's mom, aunt, cousin, sister, sister's friend, Amy, Kyle, and a few others that I didn't meet. 
The food was really good.  We had veggies, salad, potatoes, stuffing roast beef, ham, chicken, rolls, and meatballs.

Mom and Tom both looked really good and really happy!

Congrats on your wedding and hope this coming year brings you all you have hoped for!

Bubble Monsters!

The Busta's came over to watch the Vikings game today (we finally pulled out a victory!)

It was getting late and my girls needed a bath before bed so we asked if Maddie wanted to take a bath with them, she could just wear a pair of Hannah's jammies home.

I think it went something like this....

"Girls, do you want to take a ba (they were already naked!)"

We went through our normal bath routine.

The girls got in the tub, played with the cups, dumped water on their heads, closed the curtain so they could splash, washed up faces, wet down hair, girls put hands out for shampoo so they can wash their hair and as mom is squirting the soap in their hands it starts to squirt all over their bodies, laughter begins, we try again but this time the shampoo makes it in their hands, they suds up their hair while mom squirts more soap on them, then they make silly hair while mom gets mirror, we make a few different hairstyles, giggle in the mirror.  Girls stand up and we make bubble monsters- suds them up until they are covered in soapy bubbles.  We then start the rinse process, few buckets poored on the shoulders/arm/back then they stand up and spread their legs so mom can 'toss buckets of water' in their 'area'.  Rinse rest of body and hair and get out of bath.  Start with a face dry, then the ears, then a little bit of the hair, work the way down to the feet, stop at the armpits, do a little tickle, proceed to toes.  Wrap in towel, spank little booty and send to room to start getting jammies on. 

 It's quite the process :-)

"Is Amy Parmley there?"

We have an important 'Go Live' coming up at work this Wednesday so that means I have been putting in more hours than I would like to at work.  This morning I headed to work around 6:00 am and knew that I wouldn't be coming back home until close to suppertime.

Brian sent me a few pictures and videos throughout the morning so I could see what they were up to.

Around 4:00 my phone rang.

"Is Amy Parmley there?"

Me:  "Yes, this is.  Hi honey (Hannah) how are you guys?"
Hannnah:  "Good. So, um....when you coming home?  In like 40?....50?....60...?  82?  When you think?"
Me:  "Hopefully soon.  I am just going to finish up here and then I be there."
Hannah:  "Ok because we are in my room waiting for you, because we hab a surprise for you but I can't tell you what it is."
Me:  "Oh really?  I will be home soon."
Hannah:  "I have a pretty dress on with a black belt. Daddy made a huge pile of leaves and me and Hailey jumped in them.  We had pizza for lunch and I had two pieces, Hailey had one.  What did you have for lunch?"
Me: " Wendy's"
and before I could get another word in she went on and on..............

The rest of the conversation was pretty much a blur.  From the moment I heard her voice my eyes filled with tears.  I was obviously feeling the stress of my job and the needs of my children/family and although I thought I was handling it ok, it was obviously affecting me more than I even knew.  At that moment I was 29 miles from home but it felt like 29,000. 
I have been struggling lately with this whole full-time-working-mom-also-a-wife thing.  I have to work.  I am not sure in the big picture if I would actually be cut out for staying at home.  It's one thing to have a job that you can control but it's another to have a job that controls you. 

I really enjoy what I do.  There are aspects of my job that I don't enjoy.  But there are many more things that I love about it. 

One thing that I struggle with the most is that I have a need to please everyone.  I spend most days looking for a way to be a hero, make a change that will improve outcomes, help a user learn something that will change the way they do their work or help alleviate a frustration or take on 59 new things a week so that I don't have to say "No or Sorry we can't".

Along the way I have been forgetting to please myself.   It's time for me to think.
Not think in the 'I need to quit my job' sense (although I would be lying if I said that thought doesn't cross my mind a lot) but more along the lines of think about how I can change my current course.  I need to make some changes.  I will lose my mind within the next year if I don't do something different....

A night out on the town

Not sure if it means we are old but Friday nights for us aren't full of parties and friends and very seldom these days do they even consist of pre-scheduled plans.

Nothing like they used to be.

This night, as we were finishing up dinner, Brian asked the girls if they wanted to go and get some ice cream.

Of course none of us turned down that offer so after the dishes were done, we packed up and headed out to this new little adorable donut and ice cream shoppe in Champlin.  Cafe Donuts and Kaleidoscoops.

Brian had Strawberry.

I had Pistachio Almond.

Hannah had Chocolate.

Hailey wanted the buuuue (blue) kind (Cotton Candy).

I don't think it makes us old or boring.

I think it makes us lucky.

Love spending time with you guys and love that these simple little things mean so much!

Budding Photographer

Hannah: "Mom, can I use your camera quick?"
Me:  "Sure."

Hannah:  "Say cheese baby!"

Hannah : "Awww, baby, you look so cute and pretty."

*click*

Hannah: "Baby (smiling from ear to ear)!  You were moving baby.  You need to hold still.  You silly girl."

Fall Colors

I drive by this tree everyday.  Just beyond that stop sign, off behind that red truck, to the right is the turn to Jackie's house.  I come on the road that is beyond that stop sign (the road that is perpendicular) to that sign.

Everyday I pass this tree and have never noticed anything special about it. 

Today I found out why. 

I stopped at the gas station for gas and when I got out of the car I saw this tree, split down the middle.

No wonder I never noticed before.  I always drive past the green side. 

It was so much more breathtaking in person.

Pretty Girl

Hailey is pretty fond of the clothes she wears.  In the morning she likes to pick out what she is going to wear and when she thinks she looks pretty she is so excited to show daddy when we get upstairs.

This makes jammie time especiallly diffcult.  The days that she REALLY loves what she wears...those are especially hard for her...

I swear, all I did is ask her to get her jammies on...

Treasures

Stacey, Shane, and the kids got Hannah a caboodle filled with hairstuff for her birthday.
She loves that it's pink, she loves that there is a mirror inside but she is especially thrilled that it has it's own lock and key.

We got home from Target, Hannah grabbed a box of Kleenex from the bag and said "Mom, now that I am a fourteen year old kid grown up I should have Kleenex on my ledge.  Is that ok?  I will put it next to my treasure box.  And we should get a wastebasket for my room now that I'm a big kid."

So, I guess in the world according to Hannah you've grown up once you have your own wastebasket.

Treats

With the risk of sounding like a bad mom (for reasons to be explained a little later), I have to say I am NOT a fan of treat time.

When Hannah was little we started the 'after dinner treat time' routine.  Every night after supper, once things were cleaned up and the jammies were on off to the kitchen we would go where we would get Hannah a treat.  This routine has really taken off and now that Hailey is old enough to understand what is going I have a feeling it's around to stay.

It's not really that I mind that the girls are having a treat it's the fact that it takes them  f o r e v e r  to choose what they want.  Usually by this time of the night I am starting to get tired.  From the moment I get home from work it's 'on'.  Brian has already started dinner, the kids are getting hungry, mom is home and they turn on the attention-craving behavior.  When treat time comes we are so close to heading downstairs to start relaxing and getting ready for bed that I just want to get downstairs to sit down.

The treats in the basket don't change very often and every night it's the same thing....How many things can we pick?  What should I have?  Mom, what's this?  No, Hailey you can't have that, it's too hard.  Hannah, you probably won't like that, you tried it the other night.  And so on....

Most nights Hannah wants something chocolate.  Peanut butter cups or kit kats.

Hailey usually goes for whatever her sister picks but she tries for the suckers and hard candy almost every night.  Usually I can talk her into something that is a little less sticky.

I know that one day I am going to miss the 4 minutes that we spend waiting for them to find just the right treat for the night but for now, I would appreciate it if they could make their decisions a little bit faster.

Sorry....that was kinda rude :-(

A is for Apple, P is for Pumpkin

Today we spent the day at Afton Apple Orchards.

We all met at Jennifer and Tom's and then headed to the orchard from there.  The orchard is located in Afton and is pretty close to Hastings.

We started with sampling some apples.

After playing at the playground it was time to visit the petting zoo.  At first Hannah was scared to feed the animals but then after we did it together she was an old pro and $4 later (25 cents per feed = 16 feeding times) she was getting pretty up close and personal to these little guys.  People waking by could hear her saying "Here you go little fella.  Take this, it's good.  It's for you.  Good job!"

It's always a struggle to get a picture of all 5 of the kids at the same time.  At least one of them gives us trouble almost everytime.  This was the closest my camera got to capturing them all.  As you can see, Hailey- the one who started off grump-a-lump-a-gus- got really good at it (thanks to Daddy's help).

Then we took a hayride.

Off to pick Apples and Pumpkins.

Hannah found a smaller sized pumpkin.  She made sure he was round.  Orange.  Clean.  With a stem.

Check!

"Mom, he's perfect!"