Happy Halloween!

Kai has vacillated between wanting to be a cowboy and wanting to be an astronaut for Halloween this year.  By this, I mean he changes his mind daily.  These are the tough decisions that occupy the mind of a 4 year old.  Ruby just goes with the flow.  And Pla Shee, though much too cool for Halloween, can't seem to make a complete break from the sheer joy that comes from hoarding and consuming ridiculously large amounts of candy.  Happy Fall, y'all!

Girls' trip to Washington, DC

Ruby and I had a great trip to Washington, DC for the American Evaluation Association Conference last week. She was a trooper at the conference, and we got to spend some time exploring the city and visiting friends and family as well. It was so different having the opportunity to spend time with Ruby by herself, and we had a blast. We definitely missed all of our boys A LOT though!

Eating a cake pop for breakfast. 

At the butterfly garden at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The giant elephant and other larger than life exhibits were a bit intimidating... butterflies were much more Ruby's speed. 

Ruby was not interested in posing on the Mall, despite the fact that I had to ask three different strangers to attempt a decent shot. We failed. 

Riding the carousel on the Mall. 

CHEESE!

Hanging out with cousins Grayson and Barrett.

Fun at the State Fair of Texas

We visited the State Fair on Monday, a family tradition many years in the making.  I have such great memories of visiting the Fair every year when I was growing up, and it seems like it really hasn't changed at all.  Aaron, on the other hand,despises just about every thing about the fair, but puts on a happy face and comes along because he loves me.  What a guy.  Pla Shee opted to hang out with Pu Lue and Paw Moo this weekend, so he missed out on the Fair this year.  He was pretty disappointed that we refused to bring him a turkey leg.

What visit to the Fair would be complete without some crazy fried food?  In addition to a corny dog (a required item  for all faithful fair-goers), we tried the Fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (pretty tasty) and the Fried S'mores (sickeningly sweet).

Amanda joined us for our fair day, much to Ruby's delight.  She adores her "Aunt Jean."

Posing in the monkey cutout thing.  The Fair is very fond of these cut out things, and we took full advantage.

Here are Kai and Ruby posing in the midst of their favorite fair activity, the simulated farm.  This is always the favorite, despite the fact that we have a REAL LIVE farm at home.  For some reason, feeding the plastic goats and sheep and planting seeds in the fake garden at the fair is tons more fun than feeding real sheep and goats and planting a real garden at our house.  Whatever works.  It is one of the only free activities at the fair, and it holds their attention for a good 20 minutes, so all in all it's a winner in our book.

Ruby in her pumpkin shirt posing with the pumpkins in the livestock barn.  Unfortunately we chose a day that there weren't many animals around, so we did a lot of walking around looking at empty stalls.  But they did have a cute kids area with some longhorn cattle and baby chicks that made it worth the walk, especially since there were hardly any crowds in that area.

And we always have to go to the petting zoo, despite the insane crowds. It's worth it to see the adorable baby animals and some of the more exotic animals like zebras and a giraffe up close and personal.

First haircut and a sick puppy

Ruby got her first haircut last week, and loved the whole process.  The boys needed haircuts, and since Ruby was along for the ride, I decided to see if we could try and turn what little hair she has into something less scraggly.  I'm not sure how successful we were, but she was definitely thrilled with the pampering.

And speaking of pampering, our miniature schnauzer George has been treated like a prince since his run-in with a coyote last week.  He was attacked after sneaking out of the backyard, and was in pretty rough shape.  But after a $500 vet visit and quite a bit of TLC, he's on the mend. Ruby's been feeding him his dog food one kernel at a time, and bringing him her baby dolls to keep him company as he recovers.  ;)