John Bloom's Wedding

We had a lovely trip at the end of September down to Charlotte, NC for our friend's wedding. We took our time and drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway and along Skyline Drive... they were awesome! Here are some pictures from our trip.

Tomatoes in strange places...

Gabriel is an awesome little grocery shopping helper! He usually has his own mini-shopping basket to push when we go to the Giant, but if we're in a hurry Clara will sit up top and Gabriel gets to sit in the big part of the basket.

The other day we were in a hurry, so Gabriel was riding in the basket. He was helping me count out veggies, when he spied the tomatoes. He loooooves picking tomatoes, playing with tomatoes, and smushing tomatoes. He doesn't really like eating them, which is weird since he likes them so much.

Anyway, he was desperate to buy tomatoes. Unfortunately for him, we have a ton at home! I grew plum and grape tomatoes, and our neighbor just brought over a bunch of red and green and yellow full sized tomatoes that she had left over.

Gabriel picked up a tomato and said "pleeeeeease?! We neeeeed this tomato," in his cutest little begging voice. I said, "Gabriel, we don't need anymore tomatoes. We have enough at home already. Ms. Karen just brought some over, we just picked some, and there are more that we haven't even picked yet. We have tomatoes coming out of our ears!!!"

Gabriel's mouth dropped open, he dropped the tomato, and then he quickly grabbed his ears! He looked at me and said, "there are some tomatoes in there!"

Later on I told Jake the story. Jake looked at Gabriel and asked, "what's that in your ear?" Gabriel grabbed his ears and yelled, "TOMATOES!!!"

Apology

We went to a BBQ with some of our Stroller Strides friends recently. Our friends had a small bouncy castle for the kids to play in, and Gabriel was in heaven! He got a bit excited and wild, so Jake warned him to calm down and be careful as Gabriel nearly crashed into another kiddo. Gabriel was naughty again, so Jake told him he had to stay out of the castle for two minutes as punishment.

Gabriel looked up at Jake with his sad puppy dog face and said "sorry for not listening."

Jake said, "Thank you for apologizing, but you still have to stay out for two minutes."

Gabriel thought about that for a moment, looked up at Jake again, and then said, "can I apologize again???"

Jake later related the story to me, and as we were laughing about it Gabriel chimed in, "I had to apologize again because the apologize didn't work!"

Here are some pictures of our Firestation outing in August:

Well, I am almost a small business owner... only a couple weeks and it should be final. I taught my first class today and loved it!!! The weather was perfect, we had a nice sized class, and we ended class with an impromptu picnic. Gabriel and Clara were awesome... G behaved and played quietly the entire time, although I think he was fascinated at how much and how loudly I was talking! Clara cried each time we stopped for the first half of class, but slept through the rest. Whew! I was so relieved that my kiddoes are so wonderful :).

Gabriel has been having quite a fun summer so far. We started with a trip to Amarillo, then my parents brought their camper up for a visit. We enjoyed a visit with them here in Frederick and then in Gettysburg, and Clara had her first swim in a real pool! She went underwater and everything!!! We've been on a Thomas the Tank Engine ride through Amish country, and he's experienced his first big boy moonbounce, although he was too busy lecturing the other children to slide down the slide alone (we had to get other children to push him down!). And besides growing veggies and picking tons of green tomatoes, he makes sure the worm population doesn't get out of control... poor worms! And today he learned how to wrestle with his friend Dominic! Even when G got accidentally kicked in the face, he just looked up and said "we are being funny!" I was about to grab him and cuddle him, but instead I was so proud that he was tough and having fun!

Clara is growing in leaps and bounds, and I am amazed at how much she learns each day. She rolled over from her back to her tummy twice today! Her giggles and laughs are contagious, and she thinks her big brother is hilarious :). He still adores her, although he can still be a bit too rough. And she SLEEPS! Hooray!!!

Here are a bunch of fun pics for you. Enjoy!

Gabriel loves to make Clara laugh!

Thomas the Tank Engine!!!

Cranking the Cranky Cars all by himself

The Strasburg Railroad Steam Engine

Thomas made out of Leggos!!!