Bowlin Beige

Halloween is so much more fun with kids around, especially since they are young and I can dress them up in whatever I want. I have to savor these years because pretty soon they'll just want to put on black clothes and say it's a costume.  Since we only get one year's use from these costumes, I'm determined to get the most out of them. Last weekend was our neighborhood fall festival, which Ainsley dressed up for. Last night we took them to Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Today they have a costume parade at her school.  And I'm really looking forward to trick-or-treating with them tonight. But in the midst of all the fun and games, Halloween also brings a twinge of sadness. It was October 31, 2010 when we took our beloved Duke Dog to the vet for surgery to remove what we thought was a benign fatty tumor from his ribcage. He'd always had a small lump on his side and we'd had it tested over the years to confirm that it was a simple fatty mass - extremely common

For those of you who don't follow our many Ainsley-isms on Facebook, here are some of her recent thoughts: On Intelligence: Me: "Ainsley, how'd you get to be such a smarty pants?" Ainsley: "I practice a lot." On Marriage: "You and Daddy have to kiss each other every day because you're married. If you don't kiss each other then you aren't married anymore." Uh-oh... On Being a Big Sister: "I love being a big sister. Except I don't like it when Parker pulls my hair. Or when he bites me. Or when he takes my toys. Or when he yells really loud. And I don't like his penis. Girls don't have a penis." On Patience: Ainsley (after interrupting me): "Mommy, it's just so hard to be patient! I'm really trying, but I have to tell you things that are more important than what you're talking about." On Winning: Ainsley (showing off her soccer trophy to me:) "Look Mama! It says 'Congra

Our new neighborhood has a lot of great kid-friendly events throughout the year. Today they had a fall festival at the clubhouse. The kids were encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes. They had hay rides to a 'pumpkin field' (the park in the neighborhood, filled with pumpkins) and each kid got to pick a pumpkin. They brought them back and painted them. They had a fire truck and an ambulance for the kids to explore. Ainsley and Owen played games, had sack races, and simply ran around like the crazy kids that they are. And I was thrilled to get some additional wear out of her Halloween costume.  Beautiful Fairy Princess Taking a tour of the fire truck. Hayride with her best buddy Owen Picking pumpkins Good choices Painting their prizes Sack races - that's our little fairy athlete! Bobbing for donuts Since Parker didn't join us, he got to paint his pumpkin at home with his buddy Jake. He's a budding little arti

Thanks to those who supported Ainsley in her preschool's Trike-A-Thon fundraiser last weekend. As promised, here is a video of her riding her bike. It wasn't meant to be a race, but of course my competitive daughter couldn't handle being behind anyone. Parker was extremely jealous that he didn't get to ride with her. He spent several minutes playing "Goldilocks" and trying out all of the bikes that were parked along the sides. The kids also enjoyed climbing in the fire engine and police cars (and thankfully Ainsley refrained from mentioning my recent speeding ticket). Parker discovered motorcycles and the word "ride" quickly followed. Overall, a beautiful sunny fall day for a school festival and fundraiser. Thanks again for your support!

Almost daily I find myself happy, but also a little sad, that my little boy is getting older. On one hand, he's starting to be a lot more fun.  We can take him more places and do more things with him. But on the other hand, he's not a baby anymore. He'll never be this age again. I don't think we truly appreciated these little milestones when Ainsley was little. With your first-born you are just so anxious for them to start doing new things. You are always looking at what's ahead, and why aren't they there yet? With your subsequent kids, you know what's coming. You know they all get there on their own timeline - there's no sense in rushing them, and you should enjoy it while you can. I've always felt that way with Parker. He's met all milestones later than Ainsley, but I really didn't care. I've been so happy to keep him a baby as long as possible, because I know we'll never go through these stages again.  Like I've heard from ot

It all started very innocently. Ainsley's best friend and classmate, Julianne, told her mom that Ainsley was going to marry Tanner (a boy in their class). Apparently Ainsley invited Julianne to the wedding and she wanted to make sure her mom knew that she would be attending. This story made its way through Facebook to me during the day, so in the car on the way home I decided to get my own version of the story: Me:  "Ainsley, what did you do in school today?" Ainsley: "Umm... nothing."  (sigh... does it really start this early?) Me: "Julianne said that there is a boy in class that you want to marry." Ainsley: "Yes, I'm going to marry Tanner." Me: "Why do you want to marry him?" Ainsley: "Because he's so sweet!" Me: "Okay... I think you're a little young to get married." Ainsley: "And he's nice. And he's my friend. You should always marry a friend, right?" Me: "Yes, tha

When Skip and Reva were visiting last weekend they discovered the Lincoln Logs in the playroom. I had put this box in the bottom of the chest because I knew Parker was still too young for it, and wasn't sure if Ainsley was quite ready. But she and Grandma pulled out the box and spent a lot of time building a log cabin (which Parker quickly came by and knocked over). While they were playing I took some time to study the box. I had seen it many times before. It used to be at my Grandma and Grandpa Ayres' house when I was younger, along with many other toys from my dad's childhood - Grandma Ayres kept everything !  I have many fond memories of building log homes with my dad. And these logs have seen some wear and tear. They're a little faded, but still strong and sturdy. My dad thinks that he received this set as a gift when he was about 4 or 5 years old. Not to give my dad's age away, but that means this set of logs is over 60 years old! They were stored in a

Want to know what makes a 4 year old laugh hysterically? Ask Grandaddy (formerly Tootsie the clown). He continues to entertain all the grandkids with magic tricks whenever they visit. But 4-year-old Ainsley is at the prime age to really appreciate it. She's seen his carrot trick before but it still gets her laughing every time. Parker actually sat and watched for a while, before he decided he really wanted to help  Grandaddy with the magic and then had a meltdown when he couldn't get his hands on everything. Ainsley was captivated, and she spent the rest of the day trying to re-create her own magic tricks for the rest of us.  Magic was just one highlight of the visit with Grandma and Grandaddy last weekend. Ainsley was thrilled to score 9 goals at her soccer game to impress Grandma. We made a trip to the Children's Museum, and of course had a lot of play time at home. The kids have been so happy to have back-to-back visits from the grandparents, and we had the opportun

My parents are headed out west next week. Dad is going on a mule deer hunt to the same place he hunted elk last year. Mom is tagging along to hike and paint the beautiful scenery. Before their trip they came for a visit to Richmond. The real reason for coming, of course, was to see the kids. Reason number two was to drop off their dog Lila, who will be staying with us while they're gone. The third reason was to see the new house. Fourth and finally, yes, they also came to see Eric and I. We tried to pack as much fun into the visit as possible.  They watched Ainsley's soccer practice (and entertained Parker.) We went out for dinner.  Ainsley and Nana made pancakes for breakfast.  We played hide-n-seek. Ainsley decided to help Nana 'hide' by piling clothes on top of her.  Parker and Papa watched football.  Nana and Papa also took the kids to the zoo so I could get some chores done around the house. A fun, but quick, visit. We look for

Those of you who have visited our old house on Heidi Place may recall the time 3 years ago when we built a play set. We bought it from Costco and hauled it home in the 4Runner. Eric invited some friends over and started assembling the playhouse structure in our garage. When it got too big/heavy we moved it out to the yard. One night when Eric was out of town I assembled the slide in our living room while watching Blade Runner (I'm not sure why I remember that little detail.) Several weeks and many many many hours later, it was finished. We then built a frame and filled it in with wood chips. It was a lovely playset that we enjoyed for 2 years until we moved. Fast forward to last month when we decided it was time to get a play set at the new house. The neighborhood has a nice play ground but it's a little walk from the house, and we wanted something the kids could play on in the evenings and with friends. We spent some time shopping around but ended up back at reliable Costc

Every year our church preschool has a fundraiser - the Trike-a-Thon. The kids ask for pledges to see how many laps they can go in 10 minutes. It's a fun event, open to the whole community. They have a bake sale, raffles for gift baskets, moon bounce, fire trucks - all the usual things that you see at a fall festival. It's the biggest fundraiser of the year for the preschool, and usually allows them to buy new playground equipment, or supplies for the art room, or any number of other school-related things to get through the next year. Now, I don't want this post to sound like a rant, and I'm not trying to complain. As a preschool parent I am more than happy to help out with this event and support the school's efforts. Everyone is asked to bake something for the bake sale, donate something for the gift baskets, work a shift at the event, AND help their child collect pledges for the Trike-a-Thon. So next weekend I'll be baking something, shopping for a gift item,

While Parker has been busy with his tractors, Ainsley has developed a very girly obsession with fairies. She's watched Peter Pan quite a few times, but there is this new Disney movie that is all about Tinkerbell. We made the mistake of taping it when it was on TV a few weeks ago and it's been all downhill from there. I didn't help the situation when I found a big box-o-fairies at the consignment store. Yep - a whole bunch of them (15 or 16 I think). I hid them all in a box on the top shelf of her closet, and every night while she's sleeping I get out a new fairy and hide it in her room somewhere. This has been going on for a few weeks and every morning she is delighted to find a new fairy somewhere in her room. Of course I'm not quite sure what I'll do when I run out of them... but at that point I can probably just start re-hiding the same ones and she won't know the difference. Ainsley lines them up in a big circle in her room every day to count how many