Clara and her books

Clara decided to go through all of her books last week. She sat in her
big red chair right in front of the book shelf and after looking thru
a book she tossed it back.

First Campout

Adam and Christopher spent the night at Lake Kincaid State Park last weekend. Among the highlights were S'mores and Hot Chocolate. Christopher had a pretty good night of sleep except, "The trains and the owls [which were actually crows] kept waking me up."

Takes One to Know One

(Annette here) Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am so proud! While hanging out in the livestock tent at Pendleton County Woolfest this past weekend, we discovered proof that Adam's practice with his turkey call and instructional CDs is paying off... Maybe he'll bring home the big Tom this fall. Turkey season opens on Oct. 24 for those of you playing along.

Apple Festival

Went to the Apple Festival on Saturday in Batesville. No photos here
of apples but rather the kids playing at the park where the festival
took place. We ate pulled pork from a Catholic Womens organization
and apple cobbler from Boy Scout Troop 634. Seriously. Haven't had
cobbler this good since Ted Kleier was making it back in my scouting
days.

Christopher is usually the reluctant one at playgrounds. Generally
he's worried about falling but yesterday he took the bull by the horns
and charged across this chain obstacle thing. We were very proud.

Happy Birthday

I snapped this photo of Annette shortly before the two bigger kids blew
out the candle. It was cute to watch her compete with them. We just
finished the cake tonight - 2 days later.

First Day of School

I'm sure many of you have been waiting for this... here are a few photos from Christopher's first day of school. Pre-school that is. He was brave and seemed to enjoy the classroom. He's not sure why he's still going the next week, but we're gettin' into the groove.

Real Deal

One of us was more excited than the other to be in this photo ... I'll give you two guesses as to who that was (but you'll only need one ...)



On Saturday, Sept 19, the 501st made a guest appearance for a Star Wars event at our local library. Christopher, Clara and the gang grabbed their lightsabers and went for the fun. We missed the lightsaber duel at the beginning, but the storm troopers made it an awesome experience. Seriously - these guys are cool.

Night time reading

Wanted to share with you an image of a normal evening around the house. Recently Christopher has taken an interest in chapter books ... that is, books without photos. Here he and Clara are listening to one of his favorites: "The Magic Tree House Books." Clara waits patiently (most of the time) for her turn.

More from Oktoberfest

As promised, below are two photos from the weekend. Clara on her
second ride which she thoroughly enjoyed and Sabrina asleep on my
shoulder. This is the only time I can remember when she has done this
so I asked Annette to snap a picture.

St. Tim's Oktoberfest

(Adam here...) Took this quick photo on Saturday night at St. Tim's
Oktoberfest. This was the only ride where both of the older kids rode
together. I'm not sure what either of them were thinking when this
was snapped, but I'm pretty sure Clara was excited and Christopher was
only along for the ride because of his sister. There are two other
photos to share - one of Sabrina asleep on my shoulder and another of
Clara on another ride by herself. Christopher did go into some kind
of preschool-er maze thing but didn't make it all the way through and
abandoned ship.

Then and Now

Now ...



and Then.

(Some things just don't change much...)

Two photos

Annette and Sabrina were learning comminication together sometime last week. Sabrina does this silly thing with her mouth and Annette tried
to mimic it. Nothing profound, just good old plain fun.

(By the way, is mimic spelled correctly?)

Morning at the Howards

From last Saturday morning...

Sabrina doing her morning exercises...


Christopher doing what he enjoys - blowing bubbles with his straw...


And Clara reaching for the bran.

Geocaching #2

Here is kiddo #3 as promised.

Geocaching

Here is a photo of the older two kids rifling thru some geocache loot.
We went to a local park and searched for this treasure. Look for a
photo of kiddo #3 in a future post.

Pillow Fort

The kids built a pillow fort yesterday. They go aroud the entire house
and gather all the pillows they can find then pile them onto the
couch. At some point they climb underneath the pillows to enter their
fort. Good times.

Glamour

Photography is not a glamorous job, as evidenced by Annette here.

Annette and Jeff

Brother and sister in the backyard of Hoebenland from Saturday night.

Kids in Backyard

In case you haven't seen Sabrina in a while, here's what she looked like on August 12th in the backyard. She's hanging out with Mama in the hammock. Christopher and Clara are playing in the new sprinkler gizmo they just got. The summer has been too mild to play outside in the sprinkler, but it's gotten warmer recently.





In this photo, Christopher is carrying the old sprinkler while running away from the new one.

Funny photo

(Adam here...) Back in late July, Annette had the studio lights setup for a photoshoot she did with the Brown family. While everything was still setup, I decided to have a little bit of fun. This is what we came up with. I like the fact that even though everyone's doing their own thing, we're all still together. What do you like about it?

Expressions

(Adam here...) Do you know what expression from a little voice in the bathroom gets a mother moving quicker than any other?

"I have poop on mine hand, Mama."
-Clara

Summer Birthday Water Fun

Summer birthdays are so much fun. You get to combine all the things that make summer time special - ice cream, slip 'n slides, etc. - with the special celebration of a birthday. Today it was not one, but TWO birthday celebrations for nephews, Zachary & Eli. The cousins played it up big and had a ball - even the youngest ones! As uncle Adam sat on the couch holding the camera, Eli approached and said, "Cheese," Not so much as a statement, but as a request. Take my picture please! Makes for a cute photo, don't you think?

Sculpture Park '09

We figured it's been about 2 years since we've been back to Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. Just as last time, the art was subject to all kinds of fun interactions with we viewers - but this time Clara was old enough to enjoy it and Sabrina was traveling cozy in the front pack. Even the pavement was seen as art through the eyes of our kiddos! Life is Beautiful!

Boone County Fair

Went to the Boone County Fair tonight with the kiddos. We watched the
horse show, ate a funnel cake, and eventually got to ride a ride.
Here's a photo of Christopher and Clara doing their thing. Afterward,
Clara said she wanted to ride again bit this time on the yellow one.

Owensboro

Two weeks ago we headed down to Owensboro for the wedding of Alex and
Beth (Alex is a cousin on the Howard side). While in Owensboro, we
hit the highlights of the John and Sharon Howard Tour and took in a
little Moonlite BBQ. The burgoo was delicious.

Here is a photo of Clara and Adam at the Moonlite buffet. If you've
never been, Moonlite is one of those places you simply must visit in KY.

More info

Babo and Sabrina have a special kinship. Every time Adam takes the
kids there by himself, the older two manage to spend most of their
time asking for cookies or on the potty. Therefore, Babo and Sabrina
spend time together.

Sent from my iPhone

Night at Babo's

Took this from the iPhone the other night at Babo's. This is the first
post from the iPhone using it's remote post ability.

Loophole

So, we've started a behavior jar with Christopher to encourage good behavior. When he does something good, he gets a token for the jar. When he does something bad, we take one out. Whenever he lies, the whole jar is dumped out and when it's filled up, he gets to go on a "date" by choosing a place to go and the person he wants to go with (on Friday we went to BassPro per his request).

This morning I discovered he's found a loophole. He got up before Annette and I were functioning and went out into the kitchen to snag some M&M's leftover from the weekend. Annette asked him what he did this morning and he replied that he had eaten a little snack. Annette said we'll have to take away one of your behavior tokens because you're not supposed to sneak food in the morning to which he replied, "But I should get to keep it for telling the truth!"

Your Mama's Tutu

My parents are fond of periodically cleaning out their basement and sending whatever 'treasures' they find from my childhood over to my house. When some recent nuggets made there way into the dress up box, Clara took no notice of the 30 year old tulle - a tutu's a tutu, no matter how old. Isn't she cute?! (Doesn't the yellow band-aid make the perfect accessory?) I guess there really are some treasures that come from Grandma & Grandpa's basement!

Your Father's Corn Hole

What a wonderful group of dads we have in our family! All the men seemed to have a ball with their little ones. Congrats to Paul on his first Father's Day! Whada ya say we celebrate with some corn hole? So the kids didn't quite get the idea of the game... or maybe they improved it?!

Father's Day

So I suppose you could say it was a new Father's Day for Papa this year, as he is a father to three for the first time this Father's Day. Here is one proud Papa with his beautiful children!

Indiana Holiday

We wanted to share some of the images of the fun we had a recent trip to Indiana. Wonderlab, in Bloomington, was a particular favorite... second only to the s'mores. But I suppose that's as it should be!

Master of Her World

Sabrina has pretty much mastered grasping objects - and even manages to help them find their way to her mouth most of the time! What will she master next?

More Claraisms

"Dis BROH-en" (This broken - usually whenever holding one of Mama's necklaces in her hand.)
"You pit me up pwease, Daddy" followed up by, "Dat too hi."
"One, two, fwee."
"Yewoh is mine favrit tolor."
Where are you shoes? "I don know; dey're hidin."
"Let get on road toad."

Clara-isms

I (Adam) have been meaning to post this for a while. Clara-isms are those little sayings that are unique to Clara. I know of a few, but I'm curious what you've heard. This past week, according to Clara, we stayed at Ratoon Rids (Raccoon Ridge). Here are some other Clara-isms:

"Me otay" (I'm okay)
"Me do it mineself" (I'll do it myself)


I know there are more, but I've misplaced my list. So, add a few of your own!