Tim was out of town this weekend on a golfing trip with friends from work, so I set about to fill up the weekend with B&K as much as possible {esp because we were all getting over colds and I'm suspect that K is finally cutting the 2yr molars that B has almost had for a year. I'll save you all the gory details, but let's just say there has been a LOT of bi-polar D-R-A-M-A going on around here these days}.
My friends Jenn & Alicia and I decided to get together at a local apple orchard & pumpkin patch for some good old fashioned apple & pumpkin picking. B&K had never been apple picking and they had a blast. They literally ate their body weight in red apples. Yum!
Ok, prepare yourself for some major cuteness. At one point we were heading back towards an aisle where cars can drive through. Kendyll walked up to Keegan and grabbed his hand. They walked that way until they reached the end of the aisle (at which time she also grabbed Louden's hand, too). So fricken sweet.
At one point the kids were playing in some of the fruit crates.
On our way home, B&K ate yet another whole apple. The funny part is, B eats them from the top down. Core & all. (ewe!)
We also spent some time picking $1 pumpkins (I didn't snap as many pictures there, unfortunately). B&K love their pumpkins. I had them sitting on our ledge of the deck in back yesterday and every time they looked out or walked outside they would go up to the pumpkins, give them a kiss and say "love you, pumpkin". Unprompted. Hilarious.
Today we took a field trip to Target before Tim got home (funny story -- I told B&K not to tell daddy we went to Target and as soon as they saw him they both blurted out "Daddy, we went to TARGET!!"). We bought little sets to turn the pumpkins into a pirate and a witch. They love them even MORE now.
Or a blog! One of my main purposes of keeping this blog up for 2.5+ years is to document B&K's lives because I really don't seem to have the time to jot things down in a baby book. And I've known about sites where you can turn your blog INTO a book (genious, right?!), but again, I haven't found time to do it. (but I actually have sort of started to get things ready to do so). I digress . . . . one of my favorite blogs -- A Few of My Favorite Things -- is having an awesome giveaway right now. And I totally, really, really, really, really want to win it!!
Go check it out:
HERE
Hi. My name is Sara and I'm officially a Dave Matthews Groupie.
I don't think I've written about my love of all things Dave here before (well, besides this post where I claimed Bennett could be my love child with Dave). In the 2.5 years since B&K have been around, I have seen Dave Matthews with/without his band 5 times. FIVE TIMES!!! And three of them were traveling to other locations to do so!!! When B&K were babies we spent a shit-ton of money on tickets to see DMB as VIPs at Crew Stadium. We were sooooo close to the stage and he opened the show with one of my all-time favorite songs. Last year they didn't do our town, so we traveled to Indy (and had my first ever camping experience) and then to Vegas last December to see an acoustic show at Planet Hollywood (by far the most awesome show I've ever been to. Even if there were drunk coked-out whores in front of us who wouldn't sit their tiny butts down and major douche-bags dudes behind us who kept screaming "IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT, DAVID!!!! GET NAKED DAVID!!!". It was still phenomenal!).
This year DMB came to Columbus and played at Huntington Park. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, we hung out with several of our friends ALL afternoon and - as my friend Jodi will attest to - I danced my ass of during the show. Good times.
It was at this concert that we learned DMB might -- just might - play their final two shows of the year (so we thought) at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The band has announced they will not tour in 2011, so this seemed like the PERFECT weekend trip for us and some of our BFFs. We'd travel back to our former hometown, see old friends, jam with DMB and go to Wrigley. And boy, was it ever a fun weekend (evidence: it is now Thursday and I am still exhausted. The fact that B&K&I are fighting colds and haven't been sleeping well might be a culprit too, but I'd like to blame it on the massive fun time we had!).
The pictures from the night got progressively more, um, silly, so I will spare you (and anyone in them) the embarrassment & horror. But here are a few cute ones from the night (please keep in mind all were taken with my phone camera).
The man of honor:
Me & Jodi:
Me & Tim (with Nick drinking in the background):
Cute picture of Nick & Jodi:
The view & ivy from the field at Wrigley. I cannot tell you how freaken cool it was to be down on the "field" (they actually had the grass covered/protected, of course, but it was still cool to look up in the stands):
{our very good friends Dave & Beth -- who live in Chicago -- came with us to the show. But unfortunately when I was snapping these decent pictures they were off getting more beers. And by the time I had snapped pictures of them, well, uh, those more beers had been consumed. So they are dark & not the best.}
When we bought our house 4 years ago we fell in love with two giant trees in the front yard. And if I've ever given you directions to our house, it most likely included "look for the white/gray house with the two GIANT trees in the front yard". Sadly, that is no more the description.
Shortly after we moved in, one of our neighbors told us that one of the trees -- the one closest to the house and that provided amazing shade to the whole place -- had been struck by lightening a few years earlier. The previous owners had arborists come out and treat the tree, thin it out and hoped it would survive. This past year Tim & I had been noticing more often that after a rain the tree -- specifically where the lightening struck through the trunk -- would shed bark. And more & more & more seemed to come down after every rain (and every squirrel fight). Long story short, after having a few people leave cards and come assess the tree, it was determined that the tree was dying and it could take one good wind tomorrow or 5 years from now but the tree would come down. We decided to take control and have the tree cut down (as opposed to having it come through the windows of Bennett's new room).
Who would have thought cutting down a GIANT tree would take all day (and break two pieces of equipment in the process?)? The tree isn't totally down - the guys will be back later this week once the new parts are in - but I thought I would share some pictures of the process. I'll be sure to post before/after pics once the tree is totally gone {we plan to replace it with a new tree, but sadly it will never grow as large as the one we just lost}.
B&K had a blast watching the guys work on the tree. "What is the man doing, Mommy?", "Cutting the twee" and the best was when the guy went up to cut down some dead branches from our other tree. . . after every cut B&K would scream "MORE, Please!!!". Too cute.
The view from the playroom.
At one point B&K were taking pictures, too.
More Please!! (you can sort of see the dude up in the tree)
This is a piece where you can see where it was struck by lightening.
Yesterday was a BUSY day. We started the morning at the zoo having breakfast with a certain little girl named Dora. Very recently B&K have become obsessed with Dora the Explorer. I mean, you want roughly 25 minutes of peace & quiet in the house put on Dora. Kendyll loves, loves, loves her and calls her "Dola the Explorer". Bennett loves Boots a bit more, but he still loves him some "Dora da Playa". We weren't quite sure how B&K would take to real life Dora since they've never been around a character before. But they LOVED her. And told her so. As soon as it was our turn for pictures Kendyll RAN to her full force and planted the biggest hug on her (this coming after another 2ish year old girl in front of us looked permanently traumatized by having her parents hold her screaming & crying next to Dora). Bennett loved her, too, but was a bit more timid. He gave her a high five and later a little hug too. They both thanked Dora for the picture and told her they loved her. Repeatedly.
{The picture that the zoo took came out much better. I haven't had a chance to scan it yet}.
We hung out at the zoo a bit longer and headed to the new Polar Bear Exhibit that we (read: Tim & I) had yet to visit. B&K had a blast, saw both Polar and Brown Bear and then played on the playground (while running into our good friends Jarret & Jackson).
After a quick nap (and by that I mean less than a hour for B and pretty much nothing for K) we were off to a ND Alumni game watch at a local bar/restaurant. We weren't too optimistic given there was almost zero nap and we had already had a full day, but B&K were surprisingly very, good. And even though the outcome wasn't what we wanted (tough loss), the game was still a good one. And the food & beverages were awesome.
All I have to say is God bless the iPad!! {B&K watched "Up" while the adults were watching football}.
I am anticipating this week will go by quickly. Tim left for Istanbul this morning and will be meeting me in Chicago for a fun weekend planned next week. B&K are looking forward to a visit from Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Mark. Good times.
