First Place Chickens

I don't have any good pictures from last night's pageant, because everything was so hectic. I took the boys and my mom to the local community costume pageant and my little chickens won first place in their age group for their category. It was tough to get good pictures of them in their outfits on the highest hay bale. Here they are holding their ribbons.


Here is my proud Lk in his costume. He did not want to take it off once we got to the car, but he wouldn't fit in his carseat otherwise. He loves wearing it and if he sees the outfit, he brings it over to me and says "on!"

And here are their ribbons...they had so many cute and creative costumes there.

Tonight we are just going to the houses of a few people we know in the town of D and our own neighbors. I think if we go to fewer than 10 places that will be best for the first time out. They don't need too much candy and we're mostly just going to show off their outfits and as a chance to say hello to people.

Tomato Pickers

This weekend Grandma and I took the boys to a public library book sale (now they are stocked up on books until they reach manhood), then went to the park. They had a great time, and were not even too bad in the library. Lm as usual was charming the pants off of everyone, going to up to strangers, tapping them and smiling. I wish I could break him of this habit! Lk wanted to be near me the whole time holding my hand.

At the park, Grandma catches Lm from climbing up the wrong way on the tornado slide...


Lk does not need me anymore to help him down the tornado slide after the first pass.

And Lm flies down it like a speeding bullet...

Lm was not as happy on the swingset.

He preferred to be "in jail" at the slide entrance.

Lk loves the swing, and he wants to go as high as it will take him. He says, "Grandma, help!" when he's not going high enough.

Once home, Lm took my laundry mesh basket and climbed in!

He thought he was the cat's meow...

He had some other tricks up his sleeve, like rolling around in the basket and putting it on his head.

After naptime, the boys were a huge help to their grandma and mommy by putting the picked tomatoes in the basket.

An action shot of Lk retrieving the tomatoes from Grandma to put in the bucket that his brother was carefully guarding.

He took his job very seriously.

Lm made sure no intruders came forth to steal any...

He, too, was very earnest about it.

My boy in action...

We got em all before the freeze.

Later in the day, Lm broke my sunglasses. I had 2 pairs, and broke one myself a few weeks ago by stepping on them when they fell. Then Lm broke the second pair by pulling off the earpiece. I have one final pair that are my "nerd" glasses and use only for a holdover until I can get another pair. Couldn't even find those! Went outside where Grandpa was in the yard with Lm and lo and behold, there they were...

I said, "Lm, those are Mommy's. You have your own. You have to give them back." It looks like he gave me the finger, but actually it is his index finger he is waving...whew!...didn't want him to copy my bad habits this early!

Cool as a cucumber...

Drama Kings

This weekend Lm just had to wear his shades in the afternoon and evenings. He thought he was pretty cool stuff, too!

"Come wid me to ze Casbah!"

Lk kept saying "Oh, be careful" as I took them around on the tractor mower. Would that he would heed his own advice!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...suddenly Lm started crying, thinking he'd suddenly gone blind. Turned out he had so many sticky fingerprints on his glasses that he could not see! We got 'em cleaned off and soon he was a sighted person again.

Momma bear and baby bear in our shades.

Lk got some new sleepers and here he is showing one of them off. "Lions!" he roars when I put this on him.

"Bear!" he growls until I put his special bear in his crib with him.

Lately I think Lm has been yanking my chain. He has started crying once I put him to bed, and he only rarely did this since 6 months of age. I thought it was the staph infection and I coddled him and catered to his every whim. Well, he's long since healed, the antibiotic taken, and he's feeling fine, but he has been crying every night on and off for a couple of hours after I put him to bed, sometimes even longer. Then he would dive right out of his bed and I worried he would break his neck. I didn't want to invest in a "tent" as he should be transferring to his toddler bed soon.

So my dad helped me come up with an ingenious plan. Since he won't stay in the toddler bed, I put the mattress on the floor and he helped me arrange a tall gate all the way around, so it's "like" a crib but lower to the floor and he can't crawl out. It's not easy to stay a step ahead of these guys...

A Bull and a Buckaroo

I shouldn't go into the Gymboree store, because it's almost impossible to walk in there without buying something. But that is just about the only store that carries cute items for boys. I like animals, trains, etc for them. Naturally they don't look as cute in the sports, superhero and car crap that is marketed for little boys. I want my guys to be gentle, loving creatures, and dress them accordingly. Friday my mom and I spent the day shopping, and I got their Halloween costumes and these shirts. (They are going to be chickens for Halloween...pics on that later!)

The shirts are 3T even though they are 2 now, so they are a little roomy (trying to get 2 seasons out of them!)

Last night was our parish soup supper and I brought the boys. It went better than the August picnic, because I kept them in the stroller most of the time.

I let Lm out for a short spell and he was running all over the place. The woman I was chatting with said, "At least here you don't have to worry about him running like that as much. It's safe in here and you know everybody, so no worries that someone will run off with him."

"Oh, I'm not worried about anyone harming him," I said. "I'm just worried what he's going to do to others!" LOL. He'll go up to anyone and start grabbing stuff off their plates, etc. He got away from me at one point, but unbeknownst to him, his grandmother was working the bake sale and he ran smack into her! She picked him up and he started crying b/c he was "caught."

Afterward we came home and it was still light out and seasonably warm, so my guys played outside for awhile...

Lk is in that stage where he wants to do everything himself, including working the camera...

"Oh, no!" cried Lk. "It's stuck!" He loves to operate the wagon and gets upset when it topples or he catches it on a fence, tree, etc.

Lm just likes to climb in and say "Go!"

And here is Lk pulling him.

Naturally someone has to push the wagon from the other side, but Lk is so proud of himself that he can haul his brother around.

This year for Halloween I'm thinking we will just go to houses of people we know that are in the two towns near us. So beware! If you live within a 5 mile radius of us and we know you, two chickens may be showing up on your doorstep on Oct. 31...