Violet's Birthday, The Chicken Massacre of '09,& Other Ramblings...

Violet is two. Everyone asks where does the time go and so do I. We celebrated her birthday last weekend with some family and friends. She got a whole bunch of awesome new stuff. I took the occasion as a reason to buy a new Weber grill. Below, Baby Lila demonstrates her obviously sophisticated tastes.

For her second birthday, Violet had a Dora cake and some Dora balloons. She is big into the Dora scene.

Elsa and Gracie enjoy the party...

Violet was a perfect sweetheart for her birthday. She knows how to put on her game face for company.

Here is an impromptu shot of Gracie and Violet-- as she ponders another year in the books. I guess we caught Violet in deep thought.Henry talked momma into buying a stuffed animal. It is a puppy and he calls it Spot. He has been accumulating stuffed animals at an alarming rate. He is the preschool equivalent of one of those weird old ladies that you hear about on the news with a trailer house filled with one hundred and seventy cats. I think his heart is in the right place though.

We had a minor catastrophe with the chickens. The neighbor's dog ate and or maimed seven of our chickens. I think we have six hens and a rooster left. A couple of the survivors have some battle scars from the Chicken Massacre of '09. The remaining rooster we have taken to calling Bubble Gum since his wing was chewed up so bad. They all seem to be pretty well recovered. I thought it would be in everyone's best interest to get my remaining chickens an enclosed run so they could enjoy the outdoors with some sense of security. The minute I had the run enclosed, Henry had shimmied through the little door and claimed it as his new home. Somehow, he coaxed Violet close enough to the hole and yanked her through.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing, but Henry always seems to be dragging along a chicken with him outside. A couple days back I was trying to round them up and one was missing. I thought we may have another casualty until I realized Henry had stuffed a chicken into a plastic crate in the sand box. I believe I saved that chickens life.


More family fun...

I guess it's a good way to keep track of them.

Grandma Judy gave Violet an old doll crib as a birthday gift and both of the kids seem to get a kick out of playing in it.

Henry performed a few dance numbers with his troupe in an open practice session as a treat for Mother's during Mother's Day week and as a sneak preview to the big dance recital next weekend. Below, Henry accepts a medal for achievements and excellence in dance. Henry has an obvious sense of rhythm and the ability to improvise on the dancefloor. I don't recall if I've mentioned to my readership that I had one year of formal breakdance training back in the mid-80s, for what that is worth.

For my birthday, me and momma took Henry to his first Twins game. For the most part things went pretty good. However, next time I try to take a young one to a game I would opt for a matinee game instead of an evening game. It just so happened we had four super drunk college age kids that were unable to manage drinking a beer without significant spillage. I think they may have also managed to teach Henry a new word or two. The breaking point ended up being the guy right in front of us almost getting charged with a hate crime. A young asian fellow who ambled by with a footlong hotdog was having trouble locating his seat when the guy in front of us made a snide comment. Basically, they ended up nose to nose and yelling "F-You" at each other for about two minutes straight. That was around the fourth inning. Henry was starting to get antsy anyways so we called it a day.

Henry is now a big fan of cotton candy.

At least Henry will be able to say he saw a game in the old Dome. Here we are at Gate H.

Sometimes we use time-outs to discipline the kids. Violet has actually gotten to the point where she will put herself in time-out if she knows she has been misbehaving and sometimes she will put herself in the time-out chair if she is really upset. We were confused the first time it happened but just kinda went with it.

In the picture above, she has her purse. Her favorite thing to carry around in her purse is a handful of rocks from the driveway and a pair of sunglasses. I like that she keeps it simple.

I'm not sure what to say about this picture. Violet was just in a goofy mood and was taking of clothes and putting on jackets and glasses and hats. I guess I like the posture.

Violet has gotten into the habit of taking off her diaper at night. Most of the time she ends up with soaked sheets. Amazingly, the other morning she woke us up in the morning with screams and she was nude in her crib but it was totally dry. Momma put a diaper on her which she quickly saturated with pee to the point of soaking through to her pants. Maybe she is ready for potty training.