Apple Picking

Caroline and I went apple picking yesterday. We drove out to Markham, VA to a little orchard--Stribling Orchard Caroline learned the very important skill of twisting the apple before pulling it off the tree. We ate an apple right off the tree, yum. (Sadly, as a city kid, that is a novelty for her. I miss my parent's trees). We saw a cow and a donkey too. And Caroline even got a small pumpkin. We came home and made apple pies with our spoils. We still have a bunch more still. I see apple butter and applesauce in our future. Mmmm...

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Are you ready for some football?

We are!!

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I have no idea what these are

Every so often our daycare stays open until 10 pm. For a nominal fee Jack and I get a date night and Caroline gets chicken nuggets, a movie and to stay up way past her bed time. (She clearly thinks she gets the better en o this deal.)

Between work and Caroline staying at daycare, she and I went to the Natural History museum. She saw the dinosaurs (pointing out which one looks like the one from Danny and the dinosaur), we saw a whale and a number of lions and gorillas (stuffed of course). We also saw this rather strange but interesting light display. Caroline said they were flying gorillas. I think they may have been swimming octopus (octopi??). Either way it was mesmerizing for a two year old. She went back and watched Curious George and had chicken nuggets. Jack and I went to Zytania for Turkish week and saw Midnight in Paris. It was a good night all around.

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Carousels are serious business

You would think that doctors visits, medicine or other Yuchi things were being contemplated. But no, a carousel ride instead. It was supposed to be rainy Monday and in celebration of (so far) successful potty training we went downtown to the carousel. Caroline was really serious for the first few minutes, had a fleeting smile, the started talking nonstop. When we had to get off she then showed how much she enjoyed it by breaking down and crying. Poor thing. But she did have fun going up and down on her horsey.

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What would you during a "hurricane"?

Well it was quite a week here. Nothing like an earthquake (I know, a tiny one) and a hurricane in 7 days. It turned out that Irene was basically just bluster. But rain all day still means that we had to be inside. We did what all reasonable people do--made treats. Caroline is now big enough to actually stir (as opposed to sending flour all over the place) and did a pretty good job with the cake. We then played with the icing (Caroline spent most of the time licking the beater, but who can blame her?) We can confirm that hurricanes (or in our case, tropical storms) are more fun with orange cake with buttercream frosting.

Here's hoping that we have a quiet week this week!!

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Conquering $12 doll clothes

What better use for my seeing machine than turning old scraps into doll clothes. This dress turned out too small for Caroline's favorite doll. But it fit on the smaller one. Whew. I think it turned out pretty cute. And, I have not fallen prey to the doll clothes aisle!!

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Mmmmm

I think there are pancakes in my future. The cook is pretty cute.

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Vrooooom

Before leaving town, I took Caroline (with Nana, Aunt Laurie and Abby, of course) to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We rode the carousel, played in water and sand, saw an Egypt exhibit (which included a ride on an "airplane"), and even got in a train. But Caroline was not as impresses with the race car. She got in (as you see) and almost immediately got out. Upon trying to make it go (and finding the car permanently stationary) Caroline pronounced "it doesn't work. It broken" and hopped out a bit disgusted. Hilarious.

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Fun with Nana

We had a great week last week in Indiana. The first part of the week I got to hang out with my mom, dad, Laurie, Mike and Abby. Jack came on Wednesday. Then he and I left Caroline at "Nana's house" and went to South Bend to celebrate his parents' 70th birthdays. As you can see, Caroline was broken up by our departure. :)

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Tutu!!!

We are in Indianapolis for the week and Aunt Laurie and Nana had a great surprise for Caroline--a tutu and the shoes to go with it. She, of course, napped in it, wore it to Target, and generally refused to take it off until bath time. She was particularly cute when she danced in it!

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