"The Pumpkin Patch"

For those of you who know that childrens book, "The Pumpkin Patch", read it to your kids with delight. It is one of Missy Monkey Feet's favorite stories and demands it at bedtime every night. Here are pictures of her field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Here is a baby calf they had for the kids to pet and feed. Everyone knows how our girl LOVES the cows so guess where we spent most of our time?

Here she is with some baby bunnies.

This was our view from the hay wagon. Wheeeeee!

Just like Katie, the character in the story, MMF went in search of "the perfect pumpkin".

Here it is! Hurray! The most perfect pumpkin, Mama!

Here she is back on the hay wagon holding her prized possession. After we got back to the barn there was a snack for the kids, more playing and petting animals, then finally goodbyes to everyone at the farm. Our pumpkin cleaned up pretty nicely and is currently in a spot of honor in our kitchen.

I'm NOT tired!

So much of the time I hear the argument, "I don't want to go to bed. I'm not tired!" Well here we have caught Missy Monkey Feet in the throes of grand protest until..."Not tired. Not sleepy. Not...gonna.....lay............(snoring happily)..................down. It looks like she was doing something one minute and fell asleep mid task. She is such a character. She was a little under the weather last week, but we made it to the zoo on one of the last really hot days of the year to take in the "aminals". Luckily for us, we caught a few really good shots. Enjoy.
MMF with the sea turtle in the manatee tank.

Mr. Tiger taking a nap close to the water and coincidentally, the glass.

Now here's a character after my own heart. Reminds me of a certain little monkey-foot girl. This guy (or girl, if applicable) is just relaxing taking in the humans who have come by to visit.

This penguin was debating jumping in the water. He would look right at us until I would start to snap a picture. Then out of what I must assume was extreme modesty he would politely turn his head. He did this several times. MMF and I really are easily amused.

Clickety Clack, Don't Talk Back!

Life is as busy as ever with Missy Monkey Feet. School is in full swing. She's taking a ballet/tap class, playing with as many friends as she can, playing outside as much as she can, and visiting family whenever possible. Hunting season has also begun and I've lost my husband to the woods. I miss him and worry about his safety, (he insists on always going alone) but I have the house to be concerned with. I have to finish up all the warm weather-requiring projects soon and start crafting for Christmas. It is just around the corner now.

Here is MMF in some recent photos. We have GOT to get another camera! My phone pics are great to have but the quality isn't so good. Sorry. I've also had a lot of technical difficulties lately so I haven't been able to add photos to the blog for a couple of weeks.

As you can see, my baby girl is growing up so fast. She thinks she is sooooo big! Enjoy the pics.



Here are her "clickety-clack shoes" as she calls them.
Getting ready for ballet and tap class

MMF with the other girls in her class. They are beginning ballet by "flapping their butterfly wings".

Just thrown in because she's so stinkin cute! Here she is sleeping in her big girl bed for the first time.

She looks so small in that big princess bed.

B-O-O-T-S Boots!

Monkey Boots!

Hard to make out but this is MMF and Papaw at the last fair of the season. He took her for a pony ride. Big excitement for her!

Riding/driving a truck at the fair.

Driving a car at the fair. Bye-Bye!

New Beginnings

Last wednesday something amazing happened. Actually, a couple of amazing somethings happened. First, our sweet baby girl started preschool. She did pretty well- no crying when we left her, just a bit uncomfortable. I can't say as much about myself. I cried all the way home. All the baby stuff is fading away quickly. Missy Monkey Feet is struggling so hard to be grown up. I'm struggling to hold on to the last bit of her "babyhood". It's so hard watching her inch farther from that phase of life. I suppose it's because it takes her farther from me. At least for now she still needs me quite a bit and counts on me to be there for her.

I mentioned 2 amazing things happening last wednesday. Exactly 1 hour after Missy Monkey Monkey Feet walked through the classroom door Baby Ethan came into the world. He is the son of one of my closest friends. MMF and I traveled down to see him the next day. He is beautiful. MMF was quite taken with him as you can see below. Some of her comments about him included, "I'm the mom to him"; "Mom, he's sooooo cute!"; "Awwwh, he has a teeny teeny tiny butt". She held him several times. Surprisingly, she was never jealous while I held him. She was too busy trying to take him away from me so she could have another turn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Well our baby girl isn't such a baby anymore. We ended our summer by bringing in little Missy Monkey Feet's birthday with a big ole barbeque. We had so many family and friends that day. It was great! We had nearly 40 guests in all. We are so blessed to have so many important people in our lives and we're thankful to every one of them. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves. We sure did!




"I'm a big, big girl!"

Missy Monkey Feet testing the icing right before blowing out the candles.

"Daddy can you play kiss the frog with me?"

some of my rowdy cousins :0)

"I don't want to say cheese! I just threw up for pete's sake!"

our aunt, mamaw, and some random guy... whose side of the family is he from again?

duck, duck, duck, GOOSE!!!

"How do you guys get your tiara to stay on straight?"

Baby E. "I use a little bit of grape jelly"

Do penguins wear pajamas?

Hello to everyone. We've been at it some more. We bought a zoo membership this year and have really taken advantage of it. MMF asks us every day to go. We've been able to take her every week and she loves it! The zoo has been open late on wednesdays all summer so for the past two wednesdays we've closed it down. Tonight as we were driving home she was asking about all the animals going to bed. She saw some penguins going into their shelter and wanted to know if they were going in their house to get their pajamas on. We answered, of course! We can't get enough pictures of the animals so here are some for you to enjoy as well, along with a few pics of our little animal.

A very playful penguin and Missy Monkey Feet. He followed her back and forth in front of the tank copying all her moves. It was very cute.

my name's Flipper. What's yours?

a pair of monkeys

one very big snake- yes I'm shivering with the heebee jeebees just blogging it

mr. okapi (can't remember the proper spelling)

mother gorilla in deep thought

"mr. stinky hinosserus"

we caught mr. leopard in a playful mood

her favorite thing at the zoo- the horasell

her favorite animal at the zoo lately- the manatee

thrilled to be riding a pony

having her face painted on family night at the zoo

I'm a beautiful butterfly

fun with cousins

a day in pigtails