Did Adam have a bellybone?

Once again, folks, it's time for cute sayings from and pics of my kids that you could care less about (unless you are a grandma, aunt, or close friend)...

(We call these two the twins. I think you can see why.)
Shrimp: Domba, are you always going to play my best-friend?
Domba: Yes, I’m always your best friend even when I say no.
Shrimp: And when you say yes.

Example of Shrimp’s nightly prayers:
"Dear Heavenly Father, please bless Dad to be nice to me and not to give me a shot, because he’s not a doctor and is not supposed to give me shots…"
and just tonight:
"Please bless Daddy when he goes to work to come back" (it's been a long week for Dh...)

Shrimp/Domba: “Alerk, alerk, bad guy attack!!”

The Wicked Witch of the West (aka, Mini-Me)

(After Mini-Me hits her head on ceiling on loft bed for 4th time that night)
Domba: Why does she keep doing that?
Mom: Because she’s a poor dumb baby.
Bub: She’s not a dumb baby! You shouldn’t call her that!
Mini-Me: “I a dumb baby! Ha, ha, ha, ha!!”

Words:
Brynn
Marshellows=marshmallows
Mac’n’roni’n’Cheese
Alerk, alerk=alert, alert
Flump=lump
bellybone=Bellybutton

Sedona
“Chill up, Dad, I can’t eat that fast.”
Nimples=nipples
Ca-marshellows=commercials

Ash
Person=purse
belly-butt=Bellybutton

In other news, we've been slogging into the winter season with mucho travail... Not all bad travail, mind you. We've managed to have some bit of fun raking leaves, and jumping into the piles from the 4 foot tall retaining wall. (Check the action shot of Mini-Me who could not be contained. Yet another example of dumb baby-ness.)

We also acquired a loft bed off freecycle. I didn't realize it was a full-size when I committed to it, so it's much bigger than I expected. Of course, the kids and Dh were emotionally invested in it (after so many hours dismantling and building), that the bigger kids bedroom now more closely resembles a monkey paradise. I wanted to ditch it, but I guess I got vetoed on this one...

After Halloween, we gave our pumpkins to the wildlife and found this little guy enjoying himself one evening. Dh tried not to quiver in fear (he has PTSD w/raccoons after having to fend them off so many years in Family Housing...)

Miss Bub had her first harp "concert" when she and another girl and her harp teacher played "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" in the Primary Presentation in November. I got in trouble for taking a pic in the chapel. Hmmm...

Yesterday we went to one of the best Children's Museum's in the nation: Port Discovery in Baltimore, MD. It's only about 45 minutes away and well worth a day trip. We feel lucky to have a great membership through the Dayton, Ohio Boonshoft museum that allows us free access to MANY museums across the nation through THREE (not two or just one like many other local museums) reciprocal agreements: AZA (Association of Zoos & Aquariums), ACM (Association of Children's Museums), AND the ASTC (Association of Science & Technology Centers). We paid a little more for the $100 membership through Boonshoft to get these three (instead of two) reciprocity agreements, but I think you'll agree it was worth the $30.

We love that we can stop by just about any zoo, children's museum, aquarium, science center, hands-on museum in the nation and get in free or for half price. We use it a lot when traveling too and make quick stops at a museum here or there. Anyway, here is a photo-walk of our day yesterday.

Self-face painting: obviously thought up by someone who's never cared for small kids...

The fruits and veggies where frighteningly realistic feeling...

What children's museum could exist w/o a water room?
(While Dh had them in the water room, I took Bub & Domba to the Egyptian exhibit where you have to find clues to uncover the Pharaoh Neferhotep. Very cool exhibit even if some of the pieces were freaky beyond reason. Like the one where you shut yourself in an upright coffin and then a light comes on and there is a "mummy" standing right behind one-way glass against your back. I forbade the girls to do that one 'cause I don't want to pay for the counseling.)


While I took Mini-Me for a break at the ballpit/toddler room, Bub, Domba & Dh checked out this house where you have to solve the mystery of what happened to a family of four. It was Tim Burtonesque with all the planes and lines of the house skewed, and the oven you crawl through to come out the bathtub drain.


We got to cut our own horses from die-cuts in the manufacturing display.


Dh found this cool room called the Oasis. They had circle time (note guitar guy), books to read, art/craft activities, etc. But most importantly, they had a shrine to Little Baby & Mama Dog...
This was the only thing that would get Mini-Me out of the ballpit (the first time)...


Of course, everyone wanted to hit the ballpit next (Mini-Me literally dove in for her second round), though we decided Bub was a little too big.

We finally dragged the kids out, but I have a feeling we'll be back again soon...