HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to the best daddy around. Who else would take them on adventures in "rock canyon", tickle them till they can't breathe, be artistic enough to draw anything and everything they ask him to draw on a magnadoodle, and as Henry said in his card.... "cook us good dinners"

We all love you lots.

This is what I turned around to see this past weekend as I was mowing the lawn. 3 peas in a pod!

Thanks to grandma and grandpa Affeldt for a yummy pre- birthday dinner last night.

Hers and his

Bryn is something else. The second she see me doing anything that involves carrying something at least a 1/4 of her weight, she is a non-stop machine of "Mommy, let me carry it." She is known to have tried hauling in 2 gallons of milk, one in each hand, but quickly had to set one down and heave up the one with both hands. It doesn't even pay to tell her something is too heavy cause she refuses to take any suggestions.

Because our leaves are mostly the messy walnuts leaves we went in search of neighbors' leaf piles to add to our compost bins. We had them stuffed full and of course she demanded to carry one herself. Following are the stages of frustration when she realizes it may be a tad too heavy!

Since daddy is a tie wearing man this year, he's got a fan in Henry. Henry was spying on Jay in the process of getting dressed and went to his bedroom in search of his own tie, albeit a smelly dirty version.

Early risers

I've come to the conclusion that we will probably never sleep in again (by that I mean waking up after 6:30am). Since I have always been a "morning person" myself, it didn't really matter except for those times when we find ourselves hanging out with our kidless friends or those people that have kids that actually sleep in... anyway, this was just a bit too early, even for me.

I heard them chatting this morning on the monitor and rolled over in bed to see the time. It's a record breaker.... 4 am! I got out of bed and saw light peeking out from around their door, and found them sitting in their beds deep in conversation. I tried to convince them it was the wee hours of the night and layed in each bed for a while, not falling asleep myself as I used Horton the elephant as a pillow.

This is from roughly an hour later.......

Transcript:

H: Tinkerbell can run.

H: Bye Tinkerbell.

B:Bye

H: I'm going to my work

B: Bye, OK.

H: Cause I need to give Bruce the Spartan a high five.

B: Henry, I need to go to my work running.

H: (pant, pant, pant) I'm trying to catch up to you.

B: Henry, Henry, don't don't.

pant, scuffle.... H: I fell over the surfboard.

When asked why they were awake so early B said "I needed some exercises!"

and this is when I just gave up............

How early can I call Jay in Atlanta?

This and that

Bryn's new do, thanks to Brianna at SuperCuts!! This pic was taken before the bloody nose that she suffered from jumping on the bed.

Garage sale anyone? I was searching online for some new recipes for dinner tonight while Henry and Bryn played in their room. They asked if they could use my wooden drying rack in our bedroom. I didn't ask why but soon found out. They called me to come into their room to come shop at the "garage sale". They unloaded their beds, took wall hangings down, and found all sorts of toys, hats and what not to hang from my rack. You need some serious cash to shop at this sale. Henry was selling a kitchen towel for "35 bucks".

Now imagine the fun we all head cleaning up this mess while Bryn held a kleenex to her bleeding nose and Henry cried each time I asked him to put something away. He did finally run downstairs to put a car back in the playroom but after about 5 minutes and no Henry I went down to find him laying on the couch with a blanket over him. He figured he would nap in a place that didn't need any cleaning. Nice.

I was digging up our carrots and Henry came over to watch. This year we had a couple varieties, one that was round and squat and other a normal long carrot. He asked me if I could give him some carrots to put in his lunch box for preschool on Tuesday. "Could you give me the fingertip carrots Mommy?"


Guess they do look like finger huh? Here is our version.

Kite chasin'

We decided to let Jay have some time to himself to work on yet another house project. We tore down the old ugly green siding on the ends of the house and bought cedar shakes to match the garage. Jay wanted to get something done while the weather was gorgeous and we had a weekend at home. I invited our friends to join us at the Kite Fly For Peace at a park in town so we could leave daddy alone for a couple hours. All four kids loved the show as did us moms. The coolest part was the candy drop from one of the kites. Kids covered their heads as candy poured down and they all scrambled for the treats. Bryn even brought a piece home for Jay for a job well done.

Run for the candy!!!


Here is Jay up on the porch roof hammering away.

We did learn another interesting fact about our kids. They take after Jay in the sleeping through anything department. We have never kept the house quiet when they sleep, even when they were little, so it's not unusual for them to sleep with noise but this was unreal.

For those that don't know our house, Henry and Bryn's bedroom is the room you see with the two windows. Their beds are actually pushed up against the wall and we were basically pounding the heck out of their wall as they slept away. I had to go wake them up and when I walked into their room Jay was still going at it and it was loud. I asked Bryn and Henry how they managed to sleep (there is no way I could have). Bryn said "Mommy I just put my ear right here on my pillow and it didn't sound as loud."

Weekend in Suamico

Of course everything Halloweenie that my mom put up for decorations was a hit with these two. I don't think they missed a single jack-o-lantern at their house. I will call it a success if we get pumpkins carved before the big day. While Henry was in the bathroom he noticed a cute pumpkin hand towel hanging by the bath. Later on, while I was busy with guests, he ran inside grabbed it and the two of them proceeded to cover it in ashes from the stove and rocks from around the garage. According to Bryn, they were "making a sidewalk and concrete". They were covered in soot and so was the new towel. Sorry Grandma. Thank goodness for spray and wash.....

Carrying the wood to the sauna. One piece is surely not enough for Bryn.

Pre-sauna

In true Finnish spirit, they climbed up to the top bench when the temp got to about 100 degees and sweated for about 5 minutes before heading back inside. Jay and I headed out after they were in bed when it was a steamy 120 degrees. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The red "after sauna" face!!

What deprived children we have. Can you believe they had never had a donut? Well, grandma and grandpa decided we needed to change that and fry us up some donuts for breakfast. Here they are at work making the holes.

The climber

Bryn recently started climbing the Magnolia tree in the backyard. Lately they can spend hours playing in the dirt pit beneath the branches, pretending to make pies, coffee or whatever the special is for the day. I was inside the house a recent Monday and looked out to check on them but I didn't see Bryn. I ran out on the deck to find her pink and orange outfit peeking through the leaves of the tree.

She has only fallen out once, that I know of, but she was softened slightly by Finn who was laying in one of his holes.
She also was the first to climb a pretty unstable wood pile and play on top of the stack of wood slices.

This Monday while I was picking more basil for some pesto, I found her scaling Finn's house trying to get up to the canoe on top! Watch out world, here she comes.

Lately our Wednesdays start out with a trip to the Hilldale Farmers Market. Ever since I brought home the load of fall/winter clothes (thanks to the multiples resale) complete with their Halloween costumes, they usually go on errands dressed up as someone or something. A few weeks ago they both decided to go as chefs but of course I forgot the camera. This past Wednesday Henry wanted to be a baker and Bryn was... well ...Bryn.

Henry still doesn't get why everyone at the market knows his name when he doesn't know theirs. It's about the only time he's at a loss for words.


I needed to stop by Sentry to get some milk ( I swear we go through at least 4 gallons a week) , and Henry was the hit of the store. Nancy who works in the bakery came over and asked him if he would mind helping them out with some bread making. He thought that sounded good. I felt a little odd taking pictures in a grocery store but I couldn't pass this one up!! Enjoy.