Planting Day

Ella got lots of gardening things at her birthday party last Saturday, and we spent this morning planting tomatoes, peppers, pansies, sunflowers, and pumpkins. The boys mostly enjoyed splashing in the water and throwing dirt. Nico was also a fan of eating the dirt. He was so convincing about its yumminess that Egan even tried it once. From the dirty look he gave N after he spit it out, I'd say he wasn't impressed. :)

Baby, it's cold outside!

But that doesn't keep the little ones in the house. Last weekend, we got out the giant slide that we bought before Ella's birthday last year. It's a little worse for wear after having been stored since summer, but still makes for lots of fun, especially when you have a dad like Dijar who doesn't mind throwing you over the top. Enjoy the pics of our good time.

:: These kids were absolutely flying over the top, and enjoying every minute of it. ::

:: Yes, this is little Nico, about to do a flip with full leg extension. He's prepping for the summer Olympics 2028. ::

:: These smiles kept pushing the "somebody's going to get hurt" thought out of my head. I still flinched a lot though. ::

:: Egan's hair is really growing out now. I've been trying to convince him to at least let me cut the front, but he's not interested so far, and I figure it's his hair. ::

:: Sharing the first dandelion of the year. ::

:: Cold but happy. ::

Playing in the sunshine

We took a trip to the park last week to enjoy the sunshine and the good kite-flying wind. The glowy sunlight made it a perfect occasion for pictures:

(Please ignore the crazy spacing...blogger is being a punk this morning.)

I know, I'm a slacker...

but it's been a busy month. Here's one picture to brighten your day--I know it made me laugh out loud. (This is Ella's Dora wig from a couple of Halloweens ago, btw.)

Your Cute Halloween Fix

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. These kiddos certainly did. We only trick-or-treated on our street, but still ended up with gobs of candy between Ella and Egan. Luckily they're not old enough yet to care too much about it, so they ate a few pieces and then we put it away in the pantry. Out of sight, out of mind. Enjoy the photos!

:: Egan the monkey, Nico the cow, and Ella, aka Fifi, the French poodle ::


:: Think this might be my favorite costume yet ::

:: A little blurry, but a lot cute ::

:: Love those ears, love those lashes, love that Nico ::

:: Egan wasn't at all interested in paparazzi this Halloween. He actually even took a swipe at the camera. I think maybe he went easy on us during those so-called "terrible twos" so he could really slam us throughout age 3. :) ::

:: Ella is the complete opposite in terms of taking photos--a total ham ::

:: Showing off the loot post-trick-or-treating ::

Hiking last weekend

So it's fall, almost Halloween, and that usually means a trip to the pumpkin patch. But D & I weren't especially looking forward to it since we've been for the past four years. I suggested a hike somewhere we hadn't been before and the Es thought that sounded like a good idea, so we headed to Great Hills Park in northwest Austin. We had gorgeous weather, tasty snacks, and a playscape midway through the hike that EEN were very happy to play on (well, Nico really spent more time practicing climbing the stairs than playing, but he still had fun). Here are some pictures (those of you on facebook have already seen some of these, but there are new ones too.)

:: The best of the posed group shots ::

:: Egan crossing a creek (notice his tongue and the foot that is already in the water--we crossed so many little creeks that at some point he just stopped caring about whether he got wet) ::

:: Ella jumping off a huge boulder--she said this tied with the playscape for her favorite part of the hike ::

:: Egan jumping--he said he was pretending to be a bird ::

:: Sweet smiley Ella ::

:: Dijar checking out the creek ::

:: Nico stayed awake for the whole hike (and Ella typed this whole sentence--yay, Ella!) ::

:: Egan wouldn't let me take his photo in this little cave unless he got to hide behind his rock ::

:: On the trail ::

:: Rock climbing ::


:: One of my personal favorites ::

:: Another good one ::

:: Crossing another creek, this time via roots instead of rocks ::

:: Checking out a really neat limestone-sinkhole-kind-of-thing ::

I forgot about these pics...

I just realized I never finished posting the rest of the Colorado vacation pictures. Here are the last set. We spent one day hiking, wading, fly fishing, etc, along the Chalk Creek. This place is a couple of hours from Colorado Springs. We would never have found it if D and I hadn't been channel surfing and seen photos of the place on Dateline (the story was "The Murder at Chalk Creek"). We didn't find any bodies, but we did find a very nice waterfall and a cold creek to play in.

:: The best of about ten photos Janie took trying to get five people to look and smile at the same time...four out of five ain't bad ::

:: A series of photos with approximate dialogue--It's too cold ::

:: Okay, we'll go without you ::

:: Wait for me! ::

:: Fly fishing like Daddy ::

:: Our in-house photographer ::

:: Back in the car ::