Thursday, August 30, 2012

This Boy...

 - is growing fast.


(Please understand it's little Sour Cream I'm referring to, and not his daddy.**)

- is a happy baby.
- has been on formula for a month and a half now, and is doing great with it.
- still has stick up hair.
- rolls over.
- is near the top of all the growth charts. "He's proportional," is what the doc said - 85% or more
for head, length, and weight.
- scoots backwards, but not on purpose.
- is loved.

**Many of these do, in fact, apply to Kidney Bean.  But not all.  That's all I'm
going to say about that before I get cooked.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Pierce County Fair & Reading Prize

Last Thursday, we took advantage of the Pierce County Fair's military discount
and went to the fair.
Kidney Bean was free, since he has a valid military ID,
it was $5 for me, $5 for parking in their lot,
and kids 5 and under are free.
So we paid $10 for our family of 5 to see the sights.
It was great!

The theme this year was "Psychedelic Summer" - one I've never seen
used before.  The theme was found all over, in decorations,
exhibits, and a whole lotta tie dye.

Out by the horses, we happened upon a groovy photo booth, so we stopped
and snapped a few pictures.
Kidney Bean wasn't interested in sticking his hole in the board, but now we all know
what the girls and I would look like as hippies...or not.

 Noodle & Olive
 Noodle & Tomato

We also allowed Tomato to go on one ride.
I thought about taking a picture of the fairway here, but didn't.
But I will say that it was the nicest one I've seen in quite some time.
The grass was well-kept, booths were very organized, and 
ALL of the Carnies were neat and tidy.
Seriously, no long hair, visible tattoos, matching white uniform shirts and black pants - 
can you really call them Carnies??
Old and young, male and female - they were all pleasant.
It was great.
 
 Tomato checking the view from her helicopter.
 While she was waiting in line, a little boy came up and asked if
she wanted to ride together.  She agreed.
I thought it was great, since Olive is too short for any of the rides.
It always helps to have a buddy for a new experience.

On the way back to the car, we found another photo stand,
this time near the Fire & Rescue booth.
 Officer Tomato & Firefighter Olive
 Officer Tomato
 Officer Olive

AND we finished our summer reading program from the library!!
In late June or early July, we signed up for the
reading program.  I was a little intimidated at first, since to complete it
required FIFTEEN HOURS of reading for 4-year-old Tomato,
with prized at 5 hours, 10 hours, and then the final one.

Olive's chart had between 20-30 lines,
and you could mark one off for every day that she read a book,
or one mark for a library visit.
When we had reached the 5 hour mark, we were really excited.
We headed off to the library to claim the first prize,
and I was pretty disappointed.
It was a temporary tattoo.
For 5 whole hours of work, that was it.
And since we don't do tattoos around here, it was even worse.
But I asked Tomato what she wanted to do with it, and she suggested taping it up
on her chart like a sticker.  So we did.

And when we reached the 10 hour mark, we tried to remember
the paper to claim the prize, but I kept forgetting it.
So we took the 10 hour sheet and the 15 hour sheet in together last week.
And the final prize makes up for the tattoo - 
she earned a sticky hand & $5 off library fines (for 10 hours),
and a zoo pass, free food at Applebee's, free pizza from Round Table Pizza!  
Woohoo! 
Talk about great rewards for
hours and hours of work!
We are excited to use the zoo pass especially, and the food will be great, too.

Thank you library!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A Couple Firsts

The girls enjoy the stairs in our house.
They have invented a way of going down that I have never seen before,
and it's pretty entertaining to watch from the bottom or the top.
So here you go.
Tomato is a little faster, so if you just want to watch one video, I suggest the 2nd.



 Also, I am the only one in our family who has seen the ocean in real life.
So we thought we'd head to a beach on the sound,
since it's close.
I know it's not really like being at the ocean, but we're planning
a trip to the coast after we get the backyard done.
 Kidney Bean's having a great time.
 We found a teeny, tiny green crab under a rock.
Can you spot him?
Don't feel bad if you can't - he was pretty small.