I heart Autumn!

I heart crisp cool weather.

I heart leaves changing colors.

I heart hayrides, corn mazes, and pumpkin picking.

Heck! I just plain old heart all things pumpkin

(jack o' lanterns, pie, cookies...mmm).

I heart sweaters.

I heart hats.

I heart shorter days.

I heart autumn hot-air-balloon-festivals

that-are-too-windy-for-hot-air-balloons

and

autumn birthdays-pretending-to-be-summer-luaus.

But I especially heart princesses and cowboys,

or rather,

one particular princess and cowboy.

(I also heart adding photos in backwards chronological order

...you know,...on purpose...

just to see who is paying attention.)

This cowboy needed a little shut eye on the way to the hoe-down!

It's amazing what a hankerchief and a tinfoil belt buckle
can do to transform a boy into a COWBOY...
but he came up with tough guy look all on his own
-- by taking a tumble a couple weeks before! Augh!


If you know Lily well,
then you probably didn't bother
asking what she wanted to be for
Halloween. :)

This is what happens

when you ask two small children to
"not touch the flags," "stand still,

and

"look at mommy and smile"

on a very windy day --

was it too much to process?

Here's a picture of our happy boy pre-shiner!

And, of course, our happy girl hamming it up!

The weather was beautiful for the luau.

We even had an active volcano!

Our little ballerina

Just a few pics of Lil's last dance classes,

then a few more from her recital.

Isn't she lovely?

And,

YES!,

half the fun of a recital

is:

wearing make-up!

She looks so confident!

Here she is fresh off the stage!

It was so cool to have our family there, too --

Auntie Becca, Uncle Ia and Cousin Marleigh

made a special trip out to be there!

Thanks guys!

(And a special thanks to Grampa

who endured a very LONG ballet recital

just to be there for Lily's

five minutes

on stage...

we only heard snoring a couple of times! :o)

Special hugs with Gramma!

Lily was so proud to have her there

and to show her the award she'd received.

You did a beautiful job Lily!

Phinn's 1st Birthday

The family all came together

to celebrate

Phoenix's

1st Birthday

in May.

We had a simple dinner of

lasagna, garlic bread and salad.

It was so good to see

uncles and aunts

from near and far

on this special day. He was fascinated by the balloons.

(and a little overwhelmed by all the company

thus the serious face)

Lily, on the other hand,

fell in love with Great-uncle Richard

and stayed by his side the whole time!

Cake, schmake...everyone else thought it was great!


He was happy to feed cake to Mommy however.

He knew JUST what to do with a toy truck!
Many thanks to Great-Uncle Phil who provided Phinn
with his first gender-NOT-neutral gift! :o)
It was a hit!

Can't believe my baby is a year old!
So happy he is part of our family.

Better late than never

Some spring photos of my babies on the farm:

Farmer Frank

Frank has kinda taken to this rural life.

He helps with the mowing,

the tilling,

the fowl-ing

(is that a word?)

Here he is letting some of the chicks stretch their legs.

And here he is holding Festus hostage.

Don't worry - he deserved it!

Twinkle Toes

Lily has been taking a

ballet class

since January.

She LOVES it!

Every week

they get to dress up

as a different character.

Did you just say

"ballet"

AND

"dress-up"!?!?!?

Oh yeah!

The Little Mermaid

Sleeping Beauty

Olivia and the red shoes

"Angelina Ballerina"

Phinn's Evil Laugh

Enjoy!

The Return of The Sneaky Bunny

I dont know what

EASTER

and a rabbit

have to do with each other

so at our house

"that sneaky bunny"

hides eggs

while we

sleep peacefully.

Lily was only expecting an egg hunt.

Then she found this: "Mom, that Sneaky Bunny

is just like Santa Claus...

he brings presents too!"
(side note:

YES,

the Sneaky Bunny brought

peanut butter cups...

not everything is for the kids, ya know!)

Phoenix was all over those eggs!

Then Grampa came in

to tell us that

he had just chased

some crazy huge rabbit

out of the yard.

Whaaaat?!?!?

Heehee.

Can you spot the egg in the wall?

Now let me just comment...

this is Lily's new favorite outfit...

which is why it might look so familiar to you...

you know how it is!

This is my favorite photo of the day!

Aren't they so sweet together?

Or maybe it's this one.

Phoenix crawled over to give Lily a hug!

He loves her SO much! And the feeling is mutual!

The following photo

is of the new chickies

that Grampa brought home

when he was tired

of waiting

for our chickens' eggs

to hatch.

So cute!

(except to some...you know who you are!)

Cherry Blossom Festival

I have always wanted to visit DC

during the annual

Cherry Blossom Festival.

This year we packed up the kids,

the stroller

my bag of tricks

and headed into the city.

It was Good Friday

so Frank had the day off too!

Did you know that the cherry trees

were a gift from Japan

to the United States

as a token of friendship?

And that they were sent twice?

3000 trees in 1912

3800 in 1965

That's a lot of blossoms!

I had the whole day mapped out:

check out the Japanese ceramics exhibit at the Smithsonian,

listen to Reggae music by the Washington monument,

participate in the "Bloomin' Junior Ranger" program for kids,

and maybe even get in some paddle-boating.

Here's what actually happened:

We walked all over DC.

Lily and Phoenix loved having Daddy close by.

Daddy loved spending time with his babies.
And we all kept walking.

We posed our kids in trees to get cute photos.

Even if they didn't want to.

Then

we found a nice shady patch of green grass

under the cherry trees,

plopped our bums down

and pigged out on my bag o' treats

while enjoying the scenery.

We made new friends

with our picnic neighbors

including this little girl and her family.

Turns out they are originally from Buenos Aires

so I hable un poquito espanol con ellos,

but are also professors at a local university.

Translation: Frank participated in the conversation too.

And

that was

pretty much

IT.

But then something magical happened:

Beautiful blossoms falling

floating like snowflakes through the air

people smiling, laughing, posing for photographs

and children dancing, twirling

mesmerized by pink breezes

It was so worth all the walking.

What's In A Name?

My little treehugger!

Is it strange that

Lily

is named after

a flower

and she loves...

FLOWERS?

She even took some of these spring flower photos!

Look what Phinn found!!

Is it strange that

Phoenix

is named after a

bird

and he loves....

BIRDS!

His first real sign was "bird"

and he says "burrrrrr"

and signs "where" when he wants to go look for them

-- which is ALL DAY LONG!

Some of his fowl friends include:

guinea hens,

a grey rooster,

a red rooster,

and of course, Phoenix's favorite,

Festus -- the turkey!