In the golden afternoon

RIP Nemo

9/15/10 to 9/22/10

You are missed. (But not enough to replace you.)

Irish Dancin' Machine

This weekend we made our annual visit to our local Irish Fest, where Monkey had a fantastic time dancing and running and just generally festing. We have a little bit of video from this event, but, like almost all the video from the past 12 months, it requires some editing. The problem is not with our video recording, per se, it is in the desire to make our video postings as concise and adorable as possible, and we have been having some software issues with making that happen.

So, stills:

Pinecone!

Our newest move: wings

The classic double wing position

Some Aunts, a Cake, and a Football

Here is a long story with many parentheses: Aunt B took Monkey to the grocery store (she has since moved back to where she came from, but with a fancy new job). In addition to the "new car" that she bought him (it's orange), she also brought home a cake. Why did we need a cake? We did not need a cake. However, since we do not have cable she was spending her days watching Cake Boss on Netflix, and decided that we really had to have a cake. Also, it was on Manager's Special. The best part of this cake was that it was nothing like any cake that Cake Boss Buddy has ever made. It was a 'tres leches' cake, which in Kroger-speak apparently means 3 inches of whipped cream icing for about 3/4 of an inch (a single inch) of cake. It was also airbrushed blue, for a certain football team, and came with football shaped rings stuck in the deep cushion of icing. It just so happened that this fantastic cake made its way into our home a day before Aunt L made her way into our home, where we greeted her with an impromptu birthday dinner, complete with cake and candles. Mrs. Z and Monkey did not consume any cake. Oh no. We had big spoonfuls of icing scooped off the top. Monkey insisted (INSISTED!) on eating his icing by scooping it with the football ring.
Lest you think we feed him icing and only icing for dinner on a regular basis, here is photo proof that vegetables were involved in this meal. In this particular instance, an icing-dipped "tree" (broccoli):

Never fear, it didn't work. He is not so easily fooled.

Yesterday he said (totally out of the blue), "Mom, I want cake."

Monkey in an Apple Tree

On Saturday we took Aunt B, Aunt A, Uncle N, Cousin R and Grandma and Grandpa T to an apple orchard right outside of town. Monkey loved picking the apples off the trees and racing through the orchard with Cousin R. We picked many more apples than were perhaps strictly necessary, but it was a fun time.

Highly suspicious children.

Inevitably, there was a tractor!

Monkey Up a Creek

Thankfully, paddles were provided. Monkey had a fantastic, if exhausting, day and was a rugged outdoorsman. He was so excited to 'go in a boat!!' and throw rocks. Lots and lots of throwing rocks. A good time was had by all - and pictures were taken by the rather daring Aunt L (thanks!!).