Another Tag...this one's neat too!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Buddy Town and Country
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream and favorite cookie) Cookies and Cream Chocolate Chip
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) NHem
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)Purple Dolphin
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Renee Southfield
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Hemna
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Pink Pina Colada
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)- William Charles
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Beautiful Snickers
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Allison William

PIcture Tag (Thanks Hil!)

I wasn't tagged, but this one was too fun not to do. This is Sofia at about 1 week old with Grandpa Hardie.


Here are the rules:
Go into your picture files and post the 4th picture from the 4th folder onto your blog. Then tag 4 friends.

I'll Tag: Rachel P., Kirstynn, Becky in Brazil (you don't need a camera for this one!!), & Jen B.

Blackmail picture (hee hee!!)

I swear I had nothing to do with this except the picture taking.

Sofia decided to play dress-up.
She dressed up Grayson too.
He added the indian feathers.
and then fairy wings and heels.
Aren't they cute?

Family Fun Day

Angie and I took our kids to her church's family fun day on Saturday. They got to feed the farm animals, watch farmer John's show, and paint pumpkins. It was a cute little church in kind of a scary neighborhood with lots of diversity in their congration. Lot's of fun though.

This was our best try at a group shot. All 5 kids are at least in the picture.
feeding the goat

Farmer John spraying goat's milk into his dogs mouth. Kinda gross. He sprayed the audience too....I'm glad I was standing in the back.
The kids were actualy sitting still for the show.
painting pumpkins

Detroit Science Center

I haven't been to the Science Center in about 4 years. I'd never taken the kids there until last Friday. We went with my friend Angie and her two boys, David and Andrew. We had so much fun!! They remodeled it a few years back and just recently add their "Kids Town". It's made for kids under 5 and is fully equipped with a water table, dress up and stage area, tricycle/bike room, ball room, play kitchen, art room, and baby room. It was a BLAST and I think the kids spent about an hour and a half just in this spot. We decided to buy the family pass for the year so we can go back a lot more and do all of the other fun stuff too.

We started of here trying to flip our sails the right way to move across the table. No one got it to work. Angie and I were in college together and should have know many of these scientific things but now have mommy mush brains. Pretty sad, but I think we learned more than the kids.
Sofia demonstrating how incline planes help work.
The kids using a may pole to simulate how a screw works.
Grayson spent an hour at this water table. Don't let the smock fool you. He was SOAKING wet by the time he finished.

The fun little kitchen/diner in Kids Town.
The dress up area and dance stage.
Arts and crafts room
Grayson "cooking" with a fire hat on.
Scarlett only liked the baby room if someone was in there with her the whole time. Otherwise she came to the gate and pounded on it to be rescued from "jail".

The Ball Room

That old lady can run?!

Go Olga, Go! At work yesterday there was a mini celebration going on at the office. I thought it was someone's birthday. I was treating my patient and instead of hearing that typical monotone office singing of Happy Birthday (think "Office Space"... I'll sing the stupid song just to get cake), everyone was engaged in a round of applause. It turns out that our oldest and dearest fellow therapist, Olga ran the Detroit Marathon on Sunday. Ok, just the half marathon but still 13 miles!!! The lady is 65 years old ( I think... she only actually told me she was in the 65-70 age category). She took 1st place in her category, running it in 3 hours and 9 minutes!! I was blown away. She's twice my age and clearly in MUCH better shape. This is motivation to amp up my game. Although I am STILL tasting the hot fudge ice cream cake I ate at Big Boy an hour ago. Maybe I need a little more motivation. Hmm.

Peas Please!

Scarlett's favorite baby food from a jar was peas. I thought that I'd try the real thing today. I cooked up some frozen baby peas and served them for lunch and then again for dinner. Someone else liked them too...

Scarlett was happy eating peas until she saw what the other kids were getting.
This is what Grayson did to his dinner. Peas on Pizza!! Yum!!
Silly Boy!
I gave in. Scarlett got pizza too.

Falling in love with Fall

Sofia's preschool took a fieldtrip to Blakes Apple Orchard and Cider Mill yesterday. It was just the PERFECT Fall day. The air was crisp early on, but it turned into a beautiful 65 degree day and the kids took of their jackets. We had so much fun picking apples and pumpkins, riding the tractor train, eating doughnuts and drinking cider, and playing in the petting zoo and playground.

Sofia met her friend Zoe on the first day of class. They've been inseparable ever since. She came home after her second day and said that she and Zoe would be "best friends forever". Even the teachers get their names mixed up and always expect that they're together. I got to know Zoe, her mom Valerie, and baby sister Mia on the trip. They're a pretty fun group. FELLOW SKIERS! We'll be planning Pine Knob ski trips all Winter I'm sure.


Here are the girls on the tractor train ride.
Picking their apples...
showing of their apples (Valerie with baby mia too). I had Scarlett in a backpack. By the end of the day, Valerie and I were both in a lot of shoulder/neck/back pain.
Grayson searching for the perfect pumpkin.
Showing of the pumpkins. Grayson lost interest in his pumpkin and showed off his apple instead.
Cider and doughnuts.

Scarlett with her doughnut....yum!
The kids climbed a gian haystack. They cold have done this for hours, but we had to get home.

AHHHHH...

I got my birthday present spa massage tonight. 60 minutes of bliss, followed by a relaxing aromatherapy steam and dual head shower. AHHHH. Need I say more?

Fall Colors

I ALMOST sold this outfit to a resale shop the other day because I didn't think it would fit Scarlett. I was so heartbroken because it was so cute on Sofia. Well, Scarlett's got her beat. I tried it on this morning while crossing my fingers that it would fit. HOORAY! With the red hair and blue eyes, she just looked like the perfect picture of Fall. I guess I should have taken her picture outside with the leaves. Maybe next time.

Mom, we're hungry.

So I usually get up with my kids EVERY morning and make them breakfast. Sofia is old enough that she should know how to do this on her own. I remember pouring my own cereal when I was 4. However, we keep our cereal up high in our pantry. It's just been there since we moved in the house 5 years ago, childless. This morning I was SO tired after having the YW activity here last night. Both kids came to my bed at 7:15am and complained that they wanted breakfast. In a sleepy stupor I told them to make it themselves. This is what I found when I came downstairs 10 minutes later. I forgot to run the dishwasher last night, so even the bowls and spoons they got out for themselves from it were dirty. Yuck. By the way... they reached the cereal by standing on a chair with a stool on top of it... YIKES. Not one of my better parenting moments I guess.