Family Xmas 2013

I know it has been quiet around here, but there are a lot of cute xmas pics to share... Some made it on Twitter, some haven't, but here's how our Christmas is going so far. I hope yours is wonderful!

T liked picking out trees this year.

So did E, especially since we were looking for one his size (more T-proofable).

And E got to pay for it.

Posing because sometimes I win.

E hamming up his excitement at Santa's arrival.

T loves his meat stick (don't know what's with his hair!)

Donut just lovin'.

Boah? Boah? (book!)

 Socks that might pass the chief pilot and still be fun.

Girl scientist lego mini fig. Scientists, staring entranced at liquids...

YES, a skateboard!

Yes, a haul!

Wishing you all the joys possible this Christmas and into the new year!

The Baumzingers

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you! Here are a few highlights from our Christmas season.

CLICK FOR MORE CUTE

Happy Halloween Part 2

Trick or treating went well.. E avoided the spooky houses in the neighborhood - several houses went all out with the haunted house thing (animatronics, people on stilts, fog, sound tracks), one even to the point that Ray didn't think I'd like it. However, much candy was procured, and many houses attacked by the horde that is our neighborhood (10 kids three to nine years old=ravening horde).

Here's the picture rundown...

T got a mask and candy from daycare. Somehow Ray now has a bag of candy..


E got to go trick-or-treating at daycare, but he does like T's mask.





Little dude will only smile if he can see my face. I'm learning to literally shoot from the hip.


E is fully in the spirit. He's still handing out candy as I type.
Anyway, we circled most of the neighborhood, just cutting back through the park when E was DONE.
This is one sweaty monkey.

Hope you all had a great halloween!


P.S. My parents were asking about a picture Ray posted elsewhere - everyone at my work dressed like my boss, who is a bike racer and has a jolly roger tattoo (made for easy costuming). Here's the group tattoo shot (my calf is falling off the left side of the picture - darn student photographers). My boss is in the middle in the green/black plaid shorts (and with the real tattoo and much better tan than the rest of us). Despite Ray's label, this was imitation as flattery-  and it was a darn fun day all the way around. Again, happy halloween!

Happy Halloween!

At some point life will calm down and I'll get all the awesome pics up from our MN trip. Until then...HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



Some other views, more to come...

(note: LED, not candle) (Also note: no pumpkin picking pictures because we grew our own - although E did pick out his pumpkin via the daycare pumpkin patch trip. He's very proud of his "different" pumpkin (it's a little tilty).)

Hope you all have a great day!

Happy Easter!

Our block did their own party last weekend in lieu of the big crazy town egg hunt. It was awesome. The pics are edited to avoid showing anyone else's kids, so I apologize for the weird crops and blurriness, but still.. awesome.

One of the parents is really good at party games (same one who suggested the fishing game for E's party). She kept all the kids entertained while eggs were being hidden.

Duck race (racing with your hands on your ankles) - E came in last but was the only one near his age who actually tried to do it right, so hey, I'll take that!

He didn't quite get the rules on the whole egg race. But he did run faster this way.
The kids also played duck, duck, goose (that's right, Minnesotans, GOOSE) - E and the other littlest boy kept getting up and running at random and were pretty much counted as hazards. When someone "goose"ed E, he did try to chase, but then he lost it when it was his turn to walk the circle. One of the dads got video and I hope to show it at E's prom... several hours later he told me that he was upset because he wanted to be chased, so... still working on how the game works, apparently....

When it came to the actual egg "hunt": we did two separate hunts, and the hunt for the three year olds was all the eggs laid out on our lawn, so... more of a "pick up". E was enthused, though - off from the start:

But apparently he just wanted this one special speckled egg. Ray had to convince him to grab some more...

...and ended up having to help him. Now you see what type of parents jump the rope at the egg hunt.

E did figure it out pretty quickly.

I think we had almost 500 eggs, 11 kids, and everyone was entertained for a couple of hours. Particularly us parents who got to match all the eggs back together..
Hope you all have this much joy in your Easter!

Tracking

So.. that track back there is a good metaphor (and was Jimmy and Ray's way of amusing themselves while not getting to watch the Daytona 500), but it is also a sickness.

It began at my parent's house over Christmas.

My mother was very tolerant about having her living room look like this for two days...
Of course mine has looked this way for the better part of the last month.

It does keep people entertained, though!

Can you see the fascination?

I can. :)

Happy Holidays!

For most of you out there, that's really Merry Christmas!  Regardless, happy holidays to you and yours. We wish you warmth and love this holiday season and a happy, wonderful new year!


(And yes, as usual, this is all the holiday card I can manage. We've really enjoyed getting all of yours and I hope you don't hold it against us!)

Patience

All of my brother's family love E and are great with them. However, my niece has a near-infinite reserve of patience and wonder that makes her particularly good entertainment (and me over-inclined to abuse her as a babysitter).

Consider the game of leaf races.



Endless. But pretty from a distance, no?