To the Farm Again

Earlier this month we all went to Vertuccio Farms. It's only 10 minutes from our house!  What a fun place it is!  And the best part is that it is never crowded.  (Although, we have only gone on the last day of the season so maybe that has something to do with it.)

This year they added these huge slides.  They were seriously fast!

(Joy would only go down on my lap.)

The girls milked the fake cow,

played duck races,

and rode the bike racers.

But their favorite thing to do there is jump.

  

and Paige was an angel the whole time!

Both times we have gone we've had so much fun!  It will definitely become an annual event.

Halloween

Earlier this week we did our annual caramel apple pictures at my mom's house.  None of the pictures really turned out, someone always looks terrible.

 

It's probably not very practical to give your kids caramel apples and expect them to be photogenic.

Later, we carved our pumpkin.  Joy found her courage after a little while of crying and saying "NO no! Yucky!" and stuck her little hand in to help pull out the guts.

Claire drew the face for Dadda to cut out, Joy was ready for bed apparently.

This year our costumes were cheap and easy.  My sewing machine broke about 4 months ago and has been deemed "unrepairable", so we found everything at Goodwill. Even though I didn't have my creative fun making them, I am still pretty pleased with them.

So here they are.

Claire the mermaid.

Claire's needed a bit of adjusting and adding of tulle but I really love the way the flare at the bottom looks like a fin and gives her plenty of leg room to run and jump and be her crazy little self.

Joy.  The Chicken Farmer

Oh my goodness.  My mom was with me when I found this costume and we were literally dying with laughter in Goodwill.

Joy HATES trying on costumes but for some reason she let us put this one on her and didn't seem to mind it too much.  When she sees herself in a mirror she is totally confused.

You can't fully appreciate this costume until you see it in action, so here you go.



and Paige.  The Banana

I so wanted to find her a caterpillar costume ever since a stranger told me she looked like the caterpillar from Bug's Life, but caterpillar costumes are hard to come by.  So, alas, she was a banana because it fit and it was $3.99.

You can see the disgust in her eyes.



We went trick or treating around the neighborhood and then went to church for the Harvest carnival.

We had a lot of fun!

Self Soothe

She has found her fingers....



Praise. The. Lord.

Meet the Creature

We had a the pleasure of going to another Meet the Creature.   Last time we went I didn't bring my camera and couldn't get a picture of the armadillo.  I was so glad to see that he was back again. 

I don't know why but he is the most amazing thing to me.

With  exception of Spud the armadillo and the guinea pigs, all of the other animlas were new to us.
Joy adored the ducks. 

 

There was another armadillo but it was annoying and screamed (loudly) when it got mad.  I can't believe how quick armadillos are!  Both of the are constantly moving. I don't know if they are capable of just standing still.

This is a mara.  It is in the guinea pig family but it kind of acted like a dog. 

There is a guinea pig in there.

The creepy, drooly, opossum was only to look at.  It was evil.....

   and so was this pigeon.  (as are all birds)

Look how huge this rabbit is! It is about as big as Joy if she would get on her hands and knees.

Oh, yes, the gecko was the same as well but Claire got to spend more time holding it since there were far fewer kids in the class this time.

What a great time we had!  I need to sign them up again so Josh can have a turn taking them - It's no fair that he hasn't had a chance to go yet!

Bad Attitude

It's been a while since I've written about Paige and her ongoing fussiness.

When she turned 2 months I took her to a chiropractor.  A friend had recommended one that worked on her baby with fantastic results so I figured it was worth a try.  After the first adjustment there seemed to be a huge improvement in attitude and ever since Paige has been sleeping through  the night for 10 to 12 hours! She went for one more adjustment the following week but her fussiness returned, however, she is sleeping 10+ hours at night so we are quite pleased with that.




Her malcontent got more and more out of hand and uncalled for so I broke down and took her to a pediatrician.  The Dr. said that she sees this in some babies and finds what helps the most is for the mother (if breastfeeding) to not eat any dairy at all.  I protested that I had already tried this but she insisted that it would take 4 to 6 weeks to see real results.  I clarified what "no dairy" meant.   No milk, yogurt cheese right?  Nope, it means anything that was a dairy product, in any form.  That includes cookies or other baked goods that have butter or whey.  If you know me at all then you know that cookies and baked goods make up about 96% of my diet. Luckily, my Trader Joe's chocolate chips don't have dairy so I can still eat those by the handful.


This is the way Dadda comforts her and puts her to sleep.



It took a while but Paige started to be a little less fussy.  It really helped her with her spitting up.  She hardly spits up at all.... compared to how she used to.  She is still a grouch, but it's manageable now.  I am no longer scared of her and dread her waking up.   She is also just getting older now, smiling, laughing (occasionally) and almost able to grab toys in front of her, which helps a lot.

She still is not a happy baby by any means.  I didn't realize just how rotten she was until I started working in the church nursery.  Mothers come in, plop their 3 month old babies in a swing or leave them in their carseats and the babies just sit there the whole time! Meanwhile, I have held, swayed bounced, fed, sat Paige in a swing, set her in an exersaucer, fed some more to calm her down from the outrage of being put in such devices, rocked, shushed and talked to her just to keep her at a moderate level of unhappiness. WHY!?

 Is it colic? People ask me.  "No." I say, "I think she just has a bad attitude."

Dyeing Crocs

Crocs.  I hate them, they are world's ugliest shoe.  BUT they are super nice to keep by the back door for the girls' "outside, but not in public" shoes.  I found some in Joy's size at Goodwill for $1.99 awhile back and they were great ...until they were left on the back porch in the 108 degree sun.  They shrunk so much that she couldn't fit her foot in at all.  I read online that I could boil them in water for a few minutes and then while they are still hot, stretch them out so they fit her foot again.  I tried it and it worked perfectly!

Claire was super sad that she didn't have a pair and we have been looking diligently at very thrift store.  Finally we found some, again for $1.99.  Disney edition no less.

  

Dirty and a gross, barely pink color but in good shape otherwise.  They were a size too big so I used my new found shrinking knowledge to my benefit and boiled them today.  I also threw in some RIT dye to attempt to change the color.

It worked!  (those obnoxious decoration things came with them....yay)

Joy thought she was being hilarious by moving her feet right when I went to take the picture of them.

Now we have 2 pairs of ugly shoes, but they fit!

Goats

 Goats

 are

terrifying.