weekend helpers

mom asked if we wanted to bring the kids up for the day on saturday, so we all piled into the van and went off to spend the day at the farm.

the weather was nice- not too warm, not freezing cold, and this time there was no pure white snow glinting in the sun to give cole a migraine.

(yes, our preschooler gets migraines. it happened last summer too, when it was hot and muggy and he ran hard all day. the weekend we brought remington home and the kids stayed with my parents, cole played outside all day in the sun and snow- it gave him a migraine so bad he puked. poor baby!!!)

my dad's been working on cutting up and splitting one of the trees by the house, so kelvin and cole were able to help him with that.

cole was MORE than happy to help!! he even helped pick up the piles of sticks and leaves that were raked up- i was watching him through the window, and it's evident to me that even at a young age, he has a strong work ethic (as much as a small child can have, anyway) and he's so eager to jump in and do what he can. i can see it in the way he carries himself and the enthusiasm with which he goes about doing his little part to help out. makes me teary thinking of his willingness- i hope he can keep that in all parts of his life, he'll grow up to be an upstanding young man. and then the mere thought of him being a young man makes me tear up all over again. (say it with me: silly hormones!!) madison wasn't left out of the activity- she helped grandma rake up the yard debris left over from another winter up on the windy hill. she wasn't really sure what to do with the little rake, but she sure had a good grip on it, carrying it all over the yard, happy to follow grandma wherever she went.

umm, yup- sometimes using your hands is by far the easiest way. having a rake in the other hand for good measure helps too. :)

the kids had their baths in grandma and grandpa's tub so they could get clean and ride home in their pj's.

madi was less than impressed that bathtime was over, and sat in the empty tub with an empty cup, sobbing her little broken heart out.

she survived and forgot all about it eventually...

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i've been meaning to get to madison's 2-year photos for several months now... she turned two the middle of january, so today's shoot was long over-due. fortunately we can get away with it since kids don't change so drastically from month to month at her age. between being exhausted and the size of a small county (hello, can i get my own zipcode, please??) and the fact that madison isn't the most graceful little person around so we had to wait for some bruises and scrapes to mend and then wait again for some more, we didn't get to it until now. that's ok- she was happy to cooperate today, which REALLY surprised me!!

remington had a little time being an itty-bitty model too... you can see more by popping over to blink studio. i made a very airy crocheted square for a photo prop... by gathering up the ends and sticking a wee one in it, there's great potential for the ever-popular-can't-go-wrong suspended cocoon photos. however, remington wasn't into it, so i didn't get any (good) shots using the cocoon. maybe another time... but we did get several good ones, a few of which are over at blink. now i have to get hopping and decide which of madison's shots to use and get prints ordered. i also have to hustle on reminton's announcements, now that i have some useable photos :)