More zoo time. We love the sandbox (and we’re excited that we’ll be getting one of our own soon in our backyard!)

Two cheetahs on two rocks… and Avery looking for the moon.

This is how we grocery shop…

We got ice cream after our flu shots. Avery didn’t even cry!

Wednesdays are science days at school. This week we were learning all about cicadas.

Farm fall festival! Mommy asks for smiles and she gets funny faces instead.

We did the fairy tale path in the corn maze. It was Jack and the Cornstalk.

<3!

As you can see, after the maze we really enjoyed the hay ride back to the farm.

Still refuse to look at the camera…

Popsicle time after all that hard work.

Avery isn’t too sure about pony rides. Aurelia loves them.

Avery has really been working on his coloring. Pretty impressive!

Saturday’s hike. We got to feed the geese!

Sunday was Dinosaurs in the Desert day!

The brachiosaurus was really, really tall.

We were especially excited about the T-Rex, and it had a baby!

Digging for fossils

The goat spa, where the goats stand around and wait for the human slaves to groom them.

Back at Omi’s, washing rocks.

Rounding it all out by being silly.

At school the kids do themed activities based on the season. This month has been focused on the harvest, especially apples. They picked apples, baked them and made a pie, did apple art, and finally had an apple party with apple cobbler, and apples painted on their cheeks.

They also got to take home some worms, and it was their week to take home the compost bucket. When they brought it back they got to choose a prize from the prize basket. Aurelia chose the only stuffed animal in there (an alligator) and Avery chose a shark that he named “Sharky Bruce”.

Face painting fun at school

They are getting so good at their letters. And Aurelia has started drawing faces!

We are such good helpers.

Having lots of fun at Denise’s!

Mommy walked in to find that we weren’t using the bathtub crayons on the bathtub. And no, Avery was not upset at being caught. He was upset because he wanted to draw on Aurelia and make her a tiger and she wouldn’t let him.

Fun with Omi and Papa as usual.

Birthday preparations! Avery’s on the left, Aurelia’s on the right.

Out shopping for daddy.

We met Omi and Papa in Flagstaff to celebrate Daddy’s birthday.

We ate crepes and got some candy for later.

Went shopping, on a hike, and to Barnes and Noble! Whew!

Time for presents!

The next day we met our other grandma and our aunt for lunch.

Now we are playing outside while Daddy puts his new shelving unit together.

We are still so cute when we sleep!

Since the blogging took a hiatus, some cute sayings of ours had been written down but not recorded in our blog! Oh no! Here are some of them from when they were two:

Neponim = m&m

Neposim = medicine

fido = spider

foon = spoon

Oh goodness me!

Oh I suck! = Oh I’m stuck

Poor mommy/daddy

fooky fooky = spooky spooky

Fike the goggy = Spike the doggy (Avery’s “s” sounds are “f”)

gragrin = dragon

fit = spit

beegoo = booger (Aurelia)

Now they’ve got their pronunciation down pretty well, but they are saying the funniest things! They still mispronounce a few things, like:

Swilver swamon = silver salmon

swamich = sandwich

foo foo = shoo shoo

And the way Avery says Oreo is the cutest, although I can hardly represent it in writing.

On to the funny things… Avery was upset on the way home from Omi’s last week. When I asked him why he was crying, he said “Because Avery can’t get Avery’s tongue out of Avery’s mouth!” (Yes, they still refer to themselves in the third person. Like royalty.)

Every night, while getting them ready for bed and brushing their teeth, I usually sing. Lately I had been singing “Oh My Darlin’ Clementine.” I consider it a family tradition, since my grandmother sang it to my mother and aunts and uncles, and to her grandchildren, and of course my mother and her siblings sang it to us cousins. I know the words are sad, but I never really paid much attention to them as a child. I just liked the melody. One night this week, when I finished the song, Aurelia half smiled and said “Mommy, that boy better keep Clementine. He losed her.” I was a little shocked that she kind of got the gist of the song, but didn’t really think much more about it. She repeated it again, and they kept asking for the song, so it was obviously making an impression. Later that night, as it was time to go to bed, Aurelia was crying. I asked her why, and she said “Because that boy losed Clementine!” Oh my goodness… then the first thing she said when she woke up the next morning was that she was sad about that song. So… now I’m making up some new verses for her. I’ve decided Clementine is going to be saved by the ducklings. And maybe she’ll teach that boy to swim!