Labor Day Weekend

We went out to Moe's for dinner on Friday night and had our first "I don't want to leave" meltdowns. It wasn't too bad, mostly just what I like to refer to as the pink strike. You're holding their hand and walking, and they just stop and sit on the ground. It happens all the time on our way out of daycare. There was a bit if yelling involved, too, partly because I sat them on regular chairs when we were trying to put the high chairs away, and they love sitting on chairs and did not want to get down. They were ok by the time we got to the car.

Julie and Greg were supposed to start swimming lessons this week, but it got canceled, so we did our first family Costco run in a while on Saturday morning. The girls sampled some chewy granola bars and liked them. Can you believe we bought everyone winter gloves while we were there. The girls' match mine.

The weather has just been so nice lately. Greg says he can tell a difference in the humidity levels because he's had to pull out the chap stick again. Anyhow, since swimming was canceled, we took the girls to the park on Saturday morning (and ran into another mom of multiples) and they had a blast. Emma and Becca both took almost identical spills where they took steps down that they thought they could make. Emma and Becca are loving the slides right now. We are working on getting them to sit on the slide. There's a slide that you have to step up maybe 2" to get into, and they can't figure out how to sit down once they get in. A few times, Emma pretty much walked and tumbled down the slide. Becca tended to get her feet caught under her and do some sideways tumbling. Julie, in the meantime, is much more interested in collecting pieces of mulch and carrying them around in her fists.

Aunt Jen and Uncle Elliott came to visit us over Labor Day weekend. I think we showed them a crazy, er, I mean, a good time. We went out for pizza on Saturday night, and for the first time in a long time, the music man wasn't there, so we had to make due with the 80s XM channel.

On Sunday afternoon, we went apple picking again. It was another gorgeous day, and the place was packed. We brought both wagons this time, and luckily there was more riding than pulling. After a little while, Emma ended up in my wagon with the basket of apples. She got VERY upset when we had to take the basket inside and put all of the apples in a bag. She was ok when she got the big bag of apples back, and then we also got a small bag on another variety. She was diligently taking the apples out of the bag, and putting them back in. We let the girls run around for a bit, but Emma DID NOT want to get out of the wagon. She wanted to stay with her apples. She also got very upset when Julie came over and wanted to play the "taking the apples out of the bag and putting them back in" game.
E and the basket


J, more interested in taking shoes off and putting them back on.


R


E and the apple game


Monday morning brought another trip to the playground. Lots and lots of sliding (and some more mulch collecting).
J and Dad


J


E


E, sliding!


Getting ready for another slide


Sweet R


Mulch? For me? Really?


E trying out the other slide


R and Aunt Jen


R, balancing


I put some ribs on to cook for dinner, so we stayed around the house during the afternoon. We pulled out the water table and let the girls run around the back yard for a while. We also got out a small inflatable pool that my parents had brought down, but they wanted nothing to do with getting in the pool. They always fight over the little "cup" that came with the water table, so I had the brilliant idea of getting them some plastic solo cups. So now I have an afternoon of pictures of my kids looking like they're at their first keg party. Yeah, they started trying to drink out of the cups more than anything.

E


R


J


J


R


Attempt at a group pic

J dumping water

Another attempt at a group pic, but I kinda like how this one came out.

What's that, daddy?

Woulda been cute except for that water drop on the lens.

The ladies


We did have ribs for dinner on Monday night, and they turned out really well! Our last experience with ribs was pretty bad, because I didn't know what I was doing. But I think we've got it down now. Becca and Julie just inhaled them. I think the two of them got more than Greg and I got, since we fed them first. I was telling Greg that I always used to look for the small packages of meat at the grocery store, and I've got to start looking for the bigger ones.

We've had a hard time getting back into the swing of things this week. I crashed in bed at 7:30 on Tuesday night. I was up and down all night. The long weekend just wore me out. Sigh. I'm thinking of trying to schedule myself a vacation day to mentally try to catch up.