PUDDLES!

We've had a lot of rain in the past two days. A lot. The drainage in our driveway isn't the best.

Erich and the kids turned Lake Mueller into River Mueller. Progress!

Farmer's Ball

The Farmer's Ball is an annual event that benefits Healthy Food For All, a low-income farm share program. It was last night at the Farmer's Market Pavilion.


Wolfie found another puddle. Splash!






















Lily on the climbing tree over the lake.













Lily dancing to the music on top of a stall. Erich took a photo instead of telling her to get down.














Wolfgang and Greta holding hands and dancing. Wolfie likes to say "G-eta p-etty." They're pretty good buddies when he isn't attacking her.

Everyone had a great time, until Lily fell and hit her head, then puked down my shirt.

Apple Harvest Festival

We spent the afternoon at the Apple Harvest Festival. The kids had a great time.

Wolfie found a puddle to jump in. It was right in front of the obligatory drum circle. What do drum circles and apples have in common? Who knows, but you can't attend an event in Ithaca without tripping over one.

















Lily found the big slide. Zoom!

Erich's Birthday

Poor Erich, when you turn 34, your birthday is no longer just about you. We had a really busy day, and very little of it was devoted to Erich. I got up before dawn and drove out to Meadowsweet to bottle and deliver milk. As soon as I got home, Erich left and bought a tiller (I think he's just trying to keep me from getting a pig) from some guy on craigslist. Then he grabbed the kids and went to buy a motor from some other guy on craigslist. Apparently, that guy has a really great backyard full of old amusement park toys. Then, they went to an alpaca farm and petted alpacas. After that, they went and (Lily) picked out a birthday cake for daddy. Sadly, they didn't have the camera, because I had it at the sewing class I was teaching.
Fun! Lily came and helped for the last half hour. She can't wait for her spoked wheel to come so that she has her own sewing machine and can learn to make things for her duck.
After class was over, we all went to the Apple Harvest Festival, which deserves a post of its own.

Home!

Monday morning, Lily woke up crying that she didn't want to go on an airplane, she just wanted to go HOME. Poor girl!
We said Goodbye to Kalliopi and Aunt Sarah at the Denver airport. They were having trouble getting back home to Maui, so ended up spending the night in LA on Monday.








The kids cheered up once they found out there were fried at O'Hare.Plus, watching planes come in is FUN.






The flight home was uneventful, and our luggage was waiting for us in Syracuse (both the luggage we had lost and the luggage we purchased in Denver). The kids were very happy to be home.

Chicharrones

After the wedding, we all relaxed for a little while, those of us who had clean clothing changed into it, and we went for a walk. Not far away, there was a HUGE Latino street festival. In we went. The food was really terrific.

Lily bounced in the El Vaquero bounce house.












Sarah and I watched a vendor put together a cup of corn, mayonnaise, lime juice, grated cheese, and Parkay. Sarah asked "What are you making?" and he looked at us like we were idiots. "Corn."
Of course, we are idiots, so what could we do but order some corn. It was pretty tasty.
We also had some tamales, tacos, a mango on a stick, and a bag of chicharrones with lime. They weren't the pork cracklin's, but a cheaper flour version. Delicious fried goodness all the same.
Wolfie fell asleep in his stroller, mid-mango, on the way back to the hotel.

Wedding Day!

After a frantic trip to Target at 8AM (because Lily woke up at 7, even after going to sleep at 12:45) to buy underwear and clothes for the wedding, we were ready to go. Wolfgang and Erich missed the wedding because they were napping, but made it to the reception.

The big excitement was that the kids got to meet their cousin, Kalliopi. Since she lives in Hawaii, they had never met her (and my sister had never met Wolfgang).
Go Kalliopi, go!













Doug and Tara got married.













Lily REALLY liked playing with Kalliopi and Aunt Sarah.











Lunch!















Monkeys eat lunch, too!








Lily was exhausted after lunch, and she and Erich went back to the hotel to nap. Wolfgang stayed to play with Kalliopi and to try to convince people to give him their shoes. He really wanted Uncle Doug's shiny wedding shoes, but had to make do with mommy's heels.

An Epic Journey

As many of you know, my brother Doug got married this weekend. We left on Saturday for a quickie trip to Denver, via O'Hare.

The kids were pretty upbeat when we left Syracuse - Lily was excited to be going to Denver and to the wedding. The last wedding she went to was Dave and Jenny's, so she doesn't really remember what a wedding is. She did know there would be cake.







Wolfie nursed and napped his way to O'Hare. There had been a 2 hour delay in leaving Syracuse because of weather/radar problems in Chicago. We tried to rebook ourselves, but the airline agents assured us that we would have no problem making our connection (cue ominous music).






We don't have any photos from O'Hare because we were too busy running from gate to gate. Chicago got the most rainfall in 24 hours that it has ever gotten, thanks to Hurricane Ike. The runways were flooded; people were jammed into the airport because the roads were too flooded for arriving passengers to leave. Our connecting flight had, of course, left a loooong time before we arrived. Initially, we were told that there was no way to get to Denver before the wedding (Sunday noon) so they scheduled us to head back to Syracuse on Sunday morning. We weren't very happy at the prospect of spending the night in Chicago and missing the wedding. Erich called back and asked the rebooking folks to get more creative. Then we started running - maybe we could make it on the flight to Dallas, and get to Denver that way. Maybe Sal Lake. Wolfgang was extremely unhappy with all the running - I eventually had to pick him up over my shoulder and just go, despite the fact that everyone looked at me like I was kidnapping him (why would you kidnap a kid that loud? I don't know). We finally made it on a flight to LAX. The agent at the counter was very nice and scooted us ahead of all the people on standby. I like to think the weeping helped.



Crazy eyes set in on the flight to LAX.













Flying coach is so cozy.

We made it to LA, where I was able to call Kelly, who kindly looked up the closest Target to our hotel so that we could buy clothes to wear to the wedding (our luggage was long gone). We finally made it to Denver around 11:30, filed our luggage report, and had the kids in bed by 12:45 AM Denver Time (so, you know, 2:45 AM Eastern). They were sure to be well-rested and happy for the wedding the next day!

zoom!

Miss Lily has been working hard on her rollerblading. It's paying off!
Bronwyn - you'll be getting a dress *just* like this in a few days. Lily wanted me to make the two of you matching dresses.
Vroom! naked butt shopping cart patrol.

First Day of School!

Lily's first day at UCNS was today. She had a wonderful time, and met a couple of new friends. Of course, she took duck with her - he stayed in her cubby. Lucky duck, he got to hang out in his "hammock" all morning!



Thanks to Grammie for the new outfit - Lily loved it so much, she couldn't wait to wear it.

Zoo!

Another day, another excellent pose from Lily.

We had an unexpected third kid with us today, so we decided to make a trip to the zoo in Syracuse. The kids had a blast. Wolfgang was feeling inexplicably proprietary about the lions. Every time Greta would get near the glass, he would throw his hands out and yell "no, No, NO!" - maybe he was protecting her? He looks as confused as I was.





Greta was a big fan of the elephant. It was getting a bath.















- Mom, what's that?
-Those are bison, Lily. There used to be lots of them, but now there aren't that many left.
-Why did they die?
-People killed them.
-Why?
-They taste good.
-They ate them?
-Yep.
-When are we going to eat that one?

And that's when the families around us fled. Lily should probably stick to her Dippin' Dots.

Penguins! Wolfie and Lily loved the penguins. They scared the bejeezus out of Greta. Which is strange, since she wanted to pet the tiger and the lion.

Cucumber of the Year Award

Think we should have picked this guy a little sooner?

Finding los patitos real

The kids like to hang out at the Farmer's Market and look for ducks at the edge of the lake. Usually, they can find a few that are more than happy to eat some cheerios or stale bread. I keep meaning to go buy duck food, so that we aren't killing them with kindness, but it hasn't happened yet.Lily likes to climb on the trees overhanging the water.


And Wolfie likes to dip his toes in.

there she is with the gang signs again...

Naked Street Luge

It's real, and fun, until you get road rash on your bum. Lily and Wolfie like to take their bikes, scooters, and skateboards to the church next door. Since we don't have sidewalks on our street, this is their only opportunity to ride around like maniacs.






Wolfgang particularly likes riding the skateboard. What he doesn't like, is pants. Or any clothes, really. Good thing we live in the middle of nowhere, and that the church isn't busy all the time. That might be awkward.










Lily's new favorite thing is to pose when we take her photo. She looks like she's throwing gang signs, no?

Welcome to our Blog!

I've been posting photos of the kids on Facebook for a while, but am just not satisfied with the format. So we're trying this. Welcome to the online home of my little beasts, Lily and Wolfgang. As of this post, Lily is a brand-new four year old, and Wolfgang is a feisty eighteen months. Photos and stories to follow in subsequent posts.