Sunday, October 10, 2010

Sunday Best

Sunday mornings are chaotic at best. With Scott at church early attending to his Bishoply duties, and me being a "not at all morning person", I find it hard to get out of bed early enough to get the children and myself fed and dressed, the church bag packed and literally wrangle the children into the car with enough time left over to breath. This morning was no exception, except that Scott was home to deal with Rex's major temper tantrum that lasted at least 30 minutes...probably longer. So, in order to get it all done, it is necessary to pass some responsibilities on to the children. One thing in their jurisdiction is dressing themselves. This morning, this is what they proudly donned.

Felix is wearing a V-neck sweater with a neck tie. He didn't think it necessary to wear a collared shirt. For Felix, a necktie is a matter of function, not formality. It gives him something to play with during church...i.e. roll it up around his finger and pretend it's a gun. He is wearing his Chuck Taylors because his church shoes "mysteriously" disappeared. (The photo at the top is another '"fashion forward" Sunday look of his.)

Rex is wearing his favorite (so he calls it today) sweater with a plunging neck line. He refused to zip it up. He is also wearing his Batman socks.

Daphne looks cute now, but it didn't take long before her white sweater was covered in purple puke, so that had to be removed at church. She did have ruffled socks on, but those didn't last long either.
And I don't know why I bother to wear black...I was covered in muck before we even left the house.

I guess what's important is that we made it to church. Regardless of how hard it is to get there or even with the circus act that ensues while we're there, at least we go. It would be so easy to stay home in our jammies and watch TV all day, but who said life was supposed to be easy? Plus, if we did that, we'd never get a picture like the one above.

Kids in Action

It's constant motion in our house. Here are the kiddos doing what they do best...



Felix loves playing in our First Aid Kit. In this photo, he clipped the CPR mask bag onto his undies and couldn't get it off. He asked me take it off for him, but I had to take a picture first.
Rex is having a blast at the dinosaur park on the twirly squirly thing.

The boys were playing a game with this frame where they were pretending to be pictures.

Scott snuck away in the afternoon to enjoy the beautiful fall weather at the park with us.
Doing what Daphne does best...eating and looking cute

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Wheelin' Through the City

Rex, Daphne and I went on a wonderful bike ride. I wanted to take the trailer for the kiddies to ride in, but Rex insisted on riding his own bike. On our 4 hour adventure, he ended up riding 4 miles round trip. A man we passed a few times on our ride said Rex made Lance Armstrong look like Pinocchio. Strange comparison...but fully complimentary...I think. Our mission on this trek was to feed some ducks. We did this in addition to:

- stop for snacks along the way
- learn where many homeless people sleep at night
- check out some local artwork
- watch a big fish being caught out of the Allegheny River
- play in the city water steps
- walk downtown wearing nothing but underwear (Rex only) to look for a porta-potty
- enjoy nature through ladybugs and giant leaves

It was a super day.


Little Lance Armstrong
Cute chick coming along for the ride

Feeding ducks under one of the big yellow bridges as seen in the background
At the water steps before the clothing started coming off
Still mostly dressed...
I knew it wouldn't be long before he was in his underwear despite the 65 degree temp
Daphne was just interested in the dirt
Maybe I should teach my kids to keep their clothes on...especially in public, but if you had seen the smiles on passerby-er's faces, maybe we'd all be running around in our undies.
Our city
Rex under a big orange sculpture thingy
This pile was just off the trail
Local art and shopping cart parking spot
Under the bridges you often find a colorful array of local artisan's work
Our friend the ladybugSomeone's kitchen
Almost at the end of the ride
It's just like our city to have beautiful cathedrals on any given hillside...even right in the backyard of an ugly industrial area
Plotzed

Giant leaf
A view over the Allegheny
The home stretch