Dart! Beet!

Kennedy has (finally!) started to become more adventurous and uses more words every day. Recently, however, Cadence taught her to be worried when it gets dark, so now when the lights are off or she goes into a room that is dark Kennedy puts her hands to her mouth, crouches down a little, and with eyes wide says, "DAAART! Ooooh dart!", which, around bedtime, is accompanied by "Beet! Beet! Beet!" as she looks for her binky. Silly kids.

Cats and Birds

So the cat we got to get rid of the mice seems to be doing its job because we've only had one mouse in the house so far this fall, and that didn't last long. Last year we had SEVERAL mice indoors, but the season is still young. No, instead our cat feels that her energies are better spent catching birds. Not the birds that I wouldn't mind her catching, the obnoxious magpies that sit and stalk the other pretty little birds in the neighborhood. Instead, she prefers to dine on those same little song birds, posing a double threat to the poor things in our backyard. You'd think they'd learn to stay AWAY, but no, they keep coming back. You'd think they'd develop better hearing, you know, survival of the fittest and all that. But no. Instead, my cat has made lunch out of at least a half dozen this summer alone (and those are just the ones she's brought in the house) but today she really pushed the envelope. I've got her decked out in bells, but apparently she also needs flashing lights, a siren, and to be de-clawed. I'm about ready to invest in a cat 'bib' that purports to be a preventative for bird-catching cats. They look ridiculous, but I can't have any more dead birds in the house.

So, for today's story:

I'm in the bathroom cleaning up the mess Kennedy made by biting off several pieces of apple and spitting them in the sink, and re-rolling the toilet paper she streamed down the hall, when Cadence says, "Woah, that bird just flew in our house" and I say "What!?! What bird? Is is still in the house?!?" and Cadence says, "Ya, it's right there, see? Just flying around - Oh! It went in the kitchen." Sure enough, there's a little song bird flying around from the livingroom window to the kitchen window to 'safety' on top of the pantry. It flew back and forth a couple of times before I could convince it to fly back out the door. I'm thinking, Well that was really bizarre, we've never had a bird fly in before then I actually GO into the kitchen and find bird feathers all over the floor. THE CAT HAD BROUGHT IN LIVE PREY TO PLAY WITH BEFORE KILLING IT. I know. Sick.

So, if anybody wants a sadistic cat... She's really good with kids... If only she would concentrate on small rodents instead... Although I think its cruel to de-claw, I will be trimming her nails so she can't climb the fence as well... sigh.

Fair-n-Dippity! (aka: the Central Washington State Fair 2009)

Unfortunately I thought I had more photos than I do. Fortunately, I'm going to post the ones I do have!

The girls and I headed out for Dollar Day at the Fair the Friday it opened. We saw a jungle animal show (with a tiger, cougar, African serval, Capuchin monkey, arctic fox, and some others), visited all the animals in the barns, petted a pig and some goats, snacked on free Jelly Bellies from an exhibit called Candy Nation, and generally had a good time admiring the rides and watching the heifer and miniature horse shows. Then Cadence went to Grammy's house to spend the night and wait for Pop-Pop and Auntie Pammy (and Dylan and Lily) to show up. Then we went back and did it all again on Saturday! We managed to get in the Sun Fair parade Saturday morning before the fair, then made it a point to see some of the exhibits we had missed the day before. Cadence also talked Grammy into buying her a mermaid doll (her new best friend) and got to go on a carousel ride. Of course, there was about an hour right around dinnertime when we weren't sure if we were going to get to the mermaid and the rides because the power went out (there was a huge fire at the old Boise Cascade mill where thousands of logs were being stored - not very safely apparently), and we missed the animal show, but it was an overall success! I LOVE THE FAIR!!

Fun in CANDY LAND!! There was a roller-coaster gumball machine that the kids all got HUGE gumballs from. This whole exhibit was all about candy - they even had tubes from which milk chocolate and dark chocolate scent were being pumped.

Having fun at the water pump - Cadence kept inviting other kids to come over so she could pump water for them

Golden Eagle on loan from the US Dept of Fish and Wildlife as part of a raptor show - Golden Eagles are HUGE - this guy was pretty awesome

One of two bald eagles (also on loan for this display), this one was older than the other and has to be kept in captivity because he became so used to humans feeding him that he was recaptured after being released into the wild for attacking a family

If I can figure out how to get the pictures off of my phone (and if I can get Jeremy to share his) I'll post them too.

Apple Harvest!

Jeremy's college instructor has 3 acres in the middle of an apple orchard, on which several apple trees grow. The surrounding 40 acres of apples are cared for by Strand Orchards and because Strand doesn't want the privately owned 2 acres of apples to attract disease and compromise his crops, Strand takes care of watering, fertilizing, and keeping general good health in ALL the apple trees (including spraying pesticide). Well, because there are more apples on the 3 acres than one family could possibly consume, they held an apple harvest at their home this past weekend and had friends and family out to their property to pick their fill of apples off the trees, and to have a good time enjoying one another's company, playing around on the property, and making fresh apple cider. Kennedy had a great time playing outside, and Cadence found her place inside playing dress-up and tea party with some other little girls. If I can get Jeremy to share some of the pictures he took I'll post them too, but for now, this is what I have (mostly Kennedy because Cadence was inside):

I can get this one!

I can get this one too!

There weren't very many apples close to the ground, but when there were some, Kennedy was all over them. She love picking apples!!
(Sorry this one is sideways...I forgot to turn it before uploading it)

Hmmm...what to do with this delicious looking apple...

It has a stem on this end...

Maybe I'll just...

Take a bite!!

I found some dirt!

I don't take hitchhikers...this tractor ain't goin' nowhere til you get off!

That's okay - Cadence got to drive the BIG tractor with Mr. McRae (this is his tractor and property - he's Jeremy's instructor's husband - Cadence had a BLAST on the tractor)

The loader goes up...

The loader goes down...

And I can drive it all around!

Whew! All that fun and fresh air does a girl in - couldn't take more than two bites of apple before crashing out!

*Video disclaimer - It looks like I might have gotten a fingerprint on the lens for this first video; I didn't realize it was fuzzy until I got it uploaded - sorry!*

Here's Cadence pushing Kennedy on the pedal tractor

Here's Kennedy picking apples

Last Days of Summer...

So, as long as the sun is shining, my children feel it is appropriate to go outside in their swimsuits to play. Actually, if it were up to them, they would go out stark naked to play, but I absolutely insist on them wearing at least a swimsuit. If water is involved, so much the better. Cadence has been hard to convince that just because the sun is shining doesn't mean that it's necessarily warm out, let alone warm enough to go swimming in the lake or play on the slip'n'slide (which she asks to do almost every day). So, last week we had a really nice day and after lunch, before quiet time, the girls managed to get into their swimsuits and head outside. They even convinced me to turn on the hose. Here's what happened:


They started out washing rocks in the bowl, but apparently washing rocks got old, so they decided to wash one another...

Twins

(No, we are NOT expecting.)

Cadence came up to me the other day and told me that she and Kennedy are twins. I said, Oh really? And why do you say that? Well, she responds, Me and Kennedy are two sisters and we came from the same mom, so we are twins!

Oh, the way a three-year-old puts things together...