Ali is 8 months

Hank the Cowdog

On long car trips growing up we listened to Hank the Cowdog. Hank and Drover were always getting into hilarious predicaments.  Our family has inside jokes regarding this book series that still come up today.    For the past couple of weeks Caroline and I have been reading Hank the Cowdog at night.  Some of the jokes are way over her head but she laughs because I am laughing.

Yesterday Jacee, Caroline and I went to see John  Erickson the author of Hank the Cowdog perform a reading and play some of the songs from the book.  The concert was a the Ranching and Heritage Museum on the Texas Tech campus.  It was a perfect setting.  Caroline and I set at the back so she could play in the dirt but still listen. 

A couple of memorable moments:

• Erickson is hilarious in person & does all the voices for the audio book.
• Caroline and I sang the "Rotten Meat" coyote song all the way home.
• Caroline didn't get all the jokes he was saying but she laughed when everyone else laughed.  
• Caroline kept asking when we were going to meet Hank and Drover.  She was expecting them to come out.  Poor kid waited in vain.

Jacee got the newest book #65.  The last book I read was somewhere in the 50's. Seems I have some catching up to do.  We waited with Jacee to get her book autographed.  

A little Hank Wisdom

Daddy and Ali stayed home and hung out together. Love them both!

Sleeping baby-

 In the words of Caroline "Ali is squeezey"

She dressed herself Monday....

Pickin' Apples

Today the Prather family went to the Apple Butter festival in Idalou. All the proceeds benefited the Boys Ranch.  I've been wanting to take the girls out there- just glad to have a good excuse. There were lots of families out there.

 Caroline got a chance to pick apples for the first time. 

Fun Fact:

 We found out that this orchard was the only certified organic apple orchard in Texas.  

The apple trees seemed more like apple bushes.  Caroline had no problem picking from the trees.  There were about 200 rows with about 30 trees on each rows. The guy handing out plastic bags told Caroline that if she picked a bad apple to throw it on the ground.

Caroline took this very serious and chunked any apple deemed bad as hard as she could.  Her and her daddy played a funny game when we got home where she picked up pretend apples and either kept them in her basket or threw them across the room.

Ali squealed with delight when Caroline threw the apples.  She really wanted to get a hold of one of those apples. 

Some other things we did:

• Ate homemade hot apple turnovers with ice cream,
• Jumped in a bounce house
• Had fresh squeezed lemon aid
• Pet animals at the petting zoo
• We saw snow white  & Caroline would not take a picture with her.  She kept asking if the that scary lady was going to be there.  The evil queen really scared her when watched the movie at Lolly's house.  
• Took home about 7 organic handpicked apples

It was a fun afternoon.

3 other Pictures from this weekend:

Aunt Jacee bought Ali the cutest little onesie.  Ali really is the best baby sis.

Little bike ride for these two during the Tech game.  We had the park to ourself.

Homecoming Parade

Monterey celebrated homecoming this week.  On Wednesday there was a parade after school.  All the different student groups had a float, all the middle schools and elementary in our feeder pattern had a float too. It was great turn out.

I picked the girls up from their school and we hung out in my office because it was really hot until the clouds went over the sun. Caroline loves Monterey and told me she wanted to go there when she got big.

The other counselor's kids were there too.  They all played chase while we waited for 6:00.  I noticed Caroline runs with her tongue out and her right elbow sticks out like a chicken wing. She was one of the youngest kids but is scrappy &  the other kids had a hard time catching her.

At the parade lots of my high school students on floats threw candy to Caroline & some handed her pieces.  She had a blast! We ended up with a gallon zip lock bag full of chocolate, nerds, gummy candies, sweet tarts & several bags sugar babies and tootsie rolls. She immediately ate a small bag a gummy bears. Ali hung out in the baby bjorn and was excited because she got a little Monterey football to play with.

After the parade they had a prep rally on the football field.  We walked around, gave Montey the mascot a high five, listened to the band & did some cheers.  There was food trucks in the parking lot- We ate quesadillas, corn and strawberry lemon aide for dinner. Caroline and Ali slept great Wednesday night! They were worn out!

Sisters

I didn't realize how similar the girls were until I put them side by side in the same outfit. They have the same nose, mouth and kissable checks.  Ali's eye color is closer to Chris's light blue color and Caroline has a different chin.  They look like sisters.

Here are some sister pictures from this weekend:

Saturday Morning Lego Building

Caroline loves to help feed Ali however; Saturday at lunch most of it ended up on Ali's head.

Playing together at the Science Spectrum 

Sweet girls ready for church

Pink Blanket

 At the start of Caroline's life we had 40 blankets and have slowly sifted through the masses and have settled on one blanket- Pink Blanket .  We leave it at home unless we are traveling overnight so it has stayed intact for the most part.  Since starting at her new school Caroline has requested to take her pink blanket. At first I didn't let her but after a week I gave in. It really seemed to calm her down and let her go right into class without tears. Ms. Deborah is so sweet and lets Caroline hold onto it during breakfast and then again at nap. The rest of the time ole' pinky stays in her cubbie. When I pick Caroline up everyday she runs to get that  her blanket, grabs my hand and we go home. After a month and half of daycare that blanket is starting to look rough.

Every other day Pink Blanket gets washed right when get home otherwise it smells aweful.  Our new washer has a great feature where I can wash a small load for 15 mins & the dry time is 20 minutes.  I throw in a few of the girls clothes so those don't get piled up.  When I start the washer Caroline watches to make sure Pink Blanket is safe.  She does this EVERYTIME. 

Pink Blanket is usually finished washing by dinner and Caroline will put it on her bed so it is ready for bedtime.  Not sure how long she will need Pink Blanket or how long it will stay intact.

Other pictures:

Ali is climbing on everything & has the bruises to prove it. 

Another wagon ride for Ali pulled by big sis

Ali is thinking she likes that baby in the mirror.

Hello Fall

Chris let me put up all my fall decorations.  I feel like when school and football season start -summer is over.  It's time to think pumpkin flavored everything.  I did leave my Halloween jack-o-lanterns in a box and will get those out closer to October 1st.  

My Dad and Aunt Jacee's birthdays are this month.  Caroline picked out the best card for her granddad. The front is a cat in a tiara- probably the most girly card in the store- She was so proud of it I decided to get it. The girls put their hand prints in the inside & Caroline added the smiley face stickers. 

Also this month Caroline, Ali, my dad, Jacee and I are going to a Hank the Cowdog reading by John R. Erickson. Jacee brought me a copy by my office {Also a J&B- Chai Tea Latte- because she loves me} My plan is to introduce this book to Caroline.  She is probably too young to fully enjoy/ appreciate the hilarious situations that Hank gets himself into.  Hopefully one day she will. 

From Yesterday:  Caroline spent the night at Nana & Papaw's house so Monday morning Ali and I ran to the park.  Like her sister is she is a great little running partner.  She blew raspberries, and "talked" the whole time.

Ali was funny Monday morning because she was looking for Caroline.  It probably seemed so quite. Ali was happy to see her sis.

Mid-Morning we spent it playing at Jump-N-Jungle. There is one bounce house Ali can play in. Caroline played over there most of time so Ali could play too. She is sweet to her baby sister.

Lolly and Granddad came by on there way home from Stratford and they bought the girls some treasures for their baby dolls.

We ended the day with all Caroline's stuffed animals/ dolls getting a check up.  Chris held the babies as Dr. Caroline checked all their vitals.  There were a lot of babies that needed shots. The Dr. also found an old flip phone that she put in her white coat and pulled out in a dramatic fashion to answer all her emergencies. Caroline and Ali were worn out from such a fun long weekend -both babies were asleep by 7:10 PM.