Apple Picking

This past weekend was full of activities--one of which was taking the boys to pick apples at a local apple orchard. It sounded like a fun fall activity, and it turned out to be very nice--it was a cool morning and the minute I stepped out of the car I could smell all the wonderful apples. We brought home the Red Delicious variety(doesn't look like it in the picture, but I realized later that they are not WAXED when you pick them straight off the tree, so they don't have that high gloss...but they sure taste better!) The apples smelled and tasted wonderful (Lucas had one on the drive home) and later he "helped" me make Grandma Schuldt's recipe for homemade apple sauce (basically he stood there and ate apples while I did all the work). The same orchard sells peaches and strawberries in the Summer, so I think we might have to make this an bi-annual tradition.

Bye Bye Mullet Man

As per usual blogger is pissing me off and loading my pics in totally random order and I am too sleepy to do battle with an inanimate object tonight, so...Alex got a haircut. If you look at the pics (in reverse order) he was a total shaggy baby. People were saying "oh, what a pretty little girl you have" in restaurants. Friends (Leigh) were begging us to get rid o'the mullet. So we did. To make it special, I took Alex to Pigtails and Crewcuts--a cute barber shop specifically geared to kids. They get to sit in their choice of vehicles/chairs. We chose a flying plane for our little dude. He did really well at first, but the longer the cut took (and lets face it--he had a nasty mane to tame, so it was a lengthy hack job) the more fidgety he became. To avoid a meltdown, we gave in and let him have his first sucker. After that it was all smiles. Notice how much he enjoys staring at his new do in the mirror. He's such a little narcissist.

On a completely different note, am I gonna have to build an Ark? What's up with all the rain. Did Mother nature smoke some crack and get her seasons mixed up, cuz it's FALL, not spring....no rain showers should be crapping all over my day. Where are the crisp fall breezes and pretty hues of changing leaves?

Inappropriate Snacks

It's been a while since I've posted and I've got good excuses lined up. The computer has been acting crazed and only lets us online for several minutes at a time, so that's one viable reason I have been AWOL lately. Second, our schedules have been horrid--for a couple weeks Josh and I only saw each other for moments at a time as we passed off the kiddos. And the final reason...I'm just lazy. Good reason, right?

Both kids have amused/horrified me with inappropriate choices in food lately. The first incident occurred after a birthday party last weekend--Lucas brought his party favor bag into the car and asked if he could eat the candy while we drove home. I should have CHECKED the bag first--the party was for a four year old, so I just assumed (ass, u, me!! DUH!!) that everything in the bag would be Luc-friendly. A few minutes later he is crunching on something and he announces "this taste's funny" and Josh and I look back to discover he is consuming a LEAD PENCIL. I guess it does vaguely resemble a pixie stick or twizzler, but how he mistook it for food I do not know. Further more, he had taken at least four bites out of it--you would think after the first one was so untasty he would have given up. Apparently my child is not discriminating in his food choices. The only reason I can even be remotely amused by this situation now is that he didn't actually SWALLOW the pencil. In my horror I screamed at him and he immediately pointed out that he had spit the pieces onto the floor. I diligently climbed in the back of the car and found every piece (He ate off both ends, including the eraser...yummm, rubber?!?!?) I still debated calling poison control, but we monitored his behavior for the rest of the day and he seemed normal (for him). But we did have an intense talk about NOT ingesting non-food items. And asking mommy if in doubt. (And I learned my lesson...always check the friggin' goodie bag!)

The next incident was less heart-pounding scary for Josh and I--we were just plain grossed out and I am really just documenting it here so that one day I can use it as leverage/bribery against Alex with his future girlfriend (or boyfriend). I looked around this morning and he was happily munching on something in the den...since I hadn't given him a treat, I raced over to open his mouth and discover he was eating a giant clump of cat hair ball. Gag!!! I still want to retch just thinking about it. And Alex loves to give sloppy wet kisses....