TV

Ben and Mollie are watching Bob the Builder on our new Black Friday TV. Wednesday and Thursday were busy days. Ben, Mollie, and I headed to Jackson Wednesday morning to meet Fran, MV and Janey for our yearly cousin picture. Mollie was the difficult one this year. We spent the night with the Elders. Thursday, we ate lunch with the Elders and then headed to Jena for supper with MawMaw and PawPaw. After supper, Ben and Mollie went home with Mama while I went to Wal-Mart. The sale started at midnight and I really wanted to get a TV so I got in line at 8:30. I was the 19th person in line and there were 32 40" TVs. I made a few purchases after midnight and got back to Mama and Daddy's house around 1:15 a.m.

The new TV is currently sitting on our sofa table until we get a new entertainment center. Our original plan was to wait until we got the entertainment center to set up the new TV. John had barely unloaded it when he started thinking about how he could watch the Mississippi State v. Ole Miss game on the bigger screen if we set it up. It didn't take much to convince me. Ben on the other hand, found changing TVs "charmastic." (I think he meant traumatic.) He does not like change.

Rubber Boots

When Ben was Mollie's age, I had to teach him how to wade in puddles. He wasn't sure about it. Mollie watched Ben for about a second and then waded in.

Mollie is wearing Ben's first pair of rubber boots.

They are wearing long sleeved shirts just because it is late November. It was in the mid-70s while we were outside. We didn't stay out long, though, since they got themselves wet pretty quickly.

This is why I literally dumped water out of Ben's boots into the sink after we came inside.

Mollie had lots of fun and did NOT want to come inside.

Laundry Helpers

Tuesday is laundry day. I have lots of help.

Accesorized

After I got Mollie dressed for church yesterday, she accessorized with her pink camo cap and purple Mardi Gras beads.

Hunting Camp

We made a family trip to the hunting camp this weekend. I bought Mollie's cap at Wal-Mart last weekend after she cried to wear Ben's cap. I put it on her in the store and she smiled at everyone we passed. She thinks she's really cute in it.

Sitting on Grandaddy's 4-wheeler waiting for her turn to ride with John.

Mollie's first ride on the 4-wheeler. She was a little hesitant so I rode with them.

John and Ben.

Ben found a big dirt pile to play in.

Mollie joined him at the dirt pile, of course.

Haircut

Mollie got her first haircut today. Although it wasn't too noticable because of her curls in the back, she had developed a mullet.

Amanda cut Ben's hair first and then gave Mollie a quick trim.

Snip, snip.

I didn't even think to take an after picture because it really doesn't look much different. It will only really be noticable when I wash Mollie's hair.

Happy Birthday

Ben announced at breakfast that after nap was Cat's 2nd birthday. (Ben thinks that every time he goes to sleep he wakes up to a new day. His weeks have 14 days.) We celebrated wtih a birthday party for Cat. Ben shook Cat at the candles to try to let him blow them out himself.

We hung the traditional "Happy Birthday" banner.

Ben and the birthday cat.

Mollie trying to eat her cupcake with a fork.

Mollie

These are pictures of Mollie that I took last week.

One morning we had muffins for breakfast. Mollie kept saying, "poon, poon, poon." I finally handed her a fork. She jabbed it in her muffin and tried to eat it like a lollipop.

Putting on her makeup while I was putting on mine.

Three times last Wednesday, she drew on her closet doors, dresser, and bookshelf. First with a pencil, then with a purple crayon, then with a brown marker. I was thankful for the person that invented the Magic Eraser.

Raking Leaves

Ben wanted to play "rake the leaves" this morning. He inherited his sense of fun from John. As young children, John and Jim considered digging a big hole in the backyard a fun-filled Saturday morning. Ben was very proud of this pile of leaves he raked up. You can tell he's working hard because he's got his tongue stuck out. He does that when he's concentrating.

Mollie preferred riding in the wagon. We just loaded leaves around her and hauled them into the woods in the backyard.

When I headed towards the woods with the first load, Ben called out, "Don't dump Mollie in the woods!"

Zoo Day II

Saturday we visited another zoo. The four of us went on the yearly nursery zoo trip to the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans with our church. John asked why I had taken Ben and Mollie to the zoo on Friday knowing we were going on Saturday. That is because Zoo Tots only meets once a month and this was the last class for the year. If we missed it, they wouldn't get to go again until January and it's something Ben looks forward to.

The Audobon Zoo is much bigger than our local zoo. This was Mollie's first trip to a big zoo and she loved seeing the animals. We don't have elephants.

There was some overlap, though. Petting snakes and . . .

goats.


John and Mollie watching the monkeys.


I think the reptile house was the favorite exhibit of all of us.

Riding the Endangered Species carousel. Mollie rode an ostrich.

Ben road a jaguar.

Ben walked this year and Mollie rode in the wagon. We had a lot of fun, but it was a long day. We loaded onto the charter buses and left the church about 8:30 a.m. We got back to the church about 4:30 p.m. Mollie napped about 20 minutes on the way home. Ben didn't nap at all. I had both Ben and Mollie in bed by 8 p.m. and we all enjoyed the extra hour of sleep.

Zoo Day I

Friday was our monthly Zoo Tots class at the local zoo. They began the class by petting Monty the python that lives in a glass cage in the education building.

The theme for the class was animals and the alphabet so the zoo educator read them an animal alphabet book, they played Animal Bingo, did a craft, and played a game similar to musical chairs with letters and animals.

Mollie was mainly interested in snack time. For craft they colored a picture of a forest and glued animal crackers to it. I kept having to pry glue covered animals crackers out of Mollie's mouth. She was stealing them off other people's craft projects.

There "animal encounter" was with two animals not found at the zoo. A chicken named Pepper and a . . .

pygmy goat named Brown Sugar.

After all the kids had petted the goat, they let it go and let the kids chase it. It would go under the table to escape but the kids would just follow it under. Mollie loved this part.

Halloween

When I uploaded pics this weekend, I realized that I hadn't posted all our Halloween pics. Ben and Mollie enjoyed trick-or-treating, but what they loved was handing out candy. Ben is watching for trick-or-treaters. One time I was in another room and Ben came running to me and said, "Come unlock the door." I followed him saying, "But no one rang the doorbell." He was right. There were trick-or-treaters standing patiently outside our door. They had seen him and were simply waiting without ringing the doorbell.

We get lots of trick-or-treaters and everytime Ben would see one coming he would call for me to unlock the door and he would run get the candy and hand it out telling the trick-or-treaters, "Happy Halloween."

Mollie would say, "Bye, bye" and close the door after each group of kids.