Pumpkin Patch- Round 1

Declan and I had a great morning at the pumpkin patch today.  It was a beautiful day, but so hot we may as well have been picking pumpkins in the Middle East.

He went for his first pony stand*.

Fed some goats one blade of grass at a time.

Then took our treasures home.



*pony stand-  wherein one mounts and sits astride a pony, but panics and asks to be removed from pony before such time as the pony begins to move.

Is someone about to declare Jihad on my blog?

So I happened to look at my blog's stats today, and I had 11 page views from Iraq and 7 from Iran.  More than from the US and Canada put together.  I don't know anybody in Iraq or Iran, and I'm completely flummoxed as to what part of my blog might have attracted the scrutiny of the Revolutionary Guard.

But if I had to guess, I would say it was probably that outfit Declan put together last week. 

Mr. Independence

So Declan decided he wanted to pick out his own clothes for school today, starting with his red "Lil Slapshot" hockey shirt.   My sister bought it for him, and its not really my thing, but this is the second time Declan has insisted on wearing it to school.  He is half Canadian after all.  Then he picked out a pair of shorts in just a *slightly* different shade of red.  It was all very cute until he insisted wearing socks with his sandals and I died a little inside.   

His socks also say "Wingman" on them. 

I'm expecting a visit from Child Protective Services any minute now.                                  

Retroblogging: Declan and Mikayla

Declan has crazy love for his cousin Mikayla, but I have yet to get a good picture of them together.  I attribute this to the fact that they are both constantly in motion.  But Declan likes to look at the blog, and he likes to look at his cousin Mikayla, so there you have it.

Phoebe's new haircut

Her love of mud left us no option- take it all off!

James' birthday party...



Turning 3 is serious business...



Ready to party!

Is your cupcake better than my cupcake??

(too many mimosas)

Taking it to the streets...

That time of year again.

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Fall in Arkansas! Love it. The weather is so fabulous.  We had a great weekend in Fayetteville, outcome of the game notwithstanding.  It is so much fun staying with the James' family.  Their kids are lovely and Declan is in heaven running after them for hours on end. 

  

Jeepin around with Alex

He shoots....

Let's say he scores!





Including this one for Becca- two boys and their iPads!

Camping Redux

Liz sent me this pics of Declan chilling in the girls tent, and they were just so cute I had to post them. My boy likes to camp.

Camping. No, seriously. I went camping.

My idea of roughing it is a hotel without a bellman, so I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to take Declan camping this weekend, but away we went. I had never been camping before, and neither had he. There was a bunch of other families going so I figured it was a good way to start out- surrounded by people who knew what they were doing.

We went to Lake Ouchita state park in the Ouchita national forest, about an hour and a half away from home.

We went boating and swimming in the lake. Declan appreciated how muddy the swim beach was.

Nellie came with us and was a camping champ- letting the kids "take care" of her, and guarding the campsite from critters. She stayed up all night keeping an eye out! Phoebe stayed home with Shane as I don't 100% trust her off the leash yet, and I thought it might be too much for me to handle on my first time out in the Great Beyond. She would have been all over that muddy lake though. Next time Phoebe!

Declan got to go for his first bike trailer ride- Arno took him along when he took Amelie for a spin around the campgrounds.

Lonnnnnng after the ride was over, Declan stayed in the trailer, waiting and hoping that Arno would come back.

As night fell, the kids all gathered in our tent to tell each other ghost stories.

Or maybe they were just watching the iPad.