Dooley Dog

Yesterday was a bit of a sad day. We had to say goodbye to Dooley. She was put to sleep after battling bone cancer for the past few months. Dooley, if you don't know, was the dog of Grandma and Popop. She hasn't really appeared much in this blog, but she was almost always there behind the scenes.  What should you know about her? She loved to swim, even to dive through the waves. She was a fan of pancakes and all other food treats you would share. She was often an over-licker - once she got started, it was hard for her to stop licking! She could eat her dinner very, very fast. She would greet you at the door with as many toys as she could fit in her mouth. She was an awesome dog!

Dooley Dog

blending in with the Christmas presents

They got her just a few months after Blizzard joined the family, a roly-poly fuzzy happy yellow lab puppy. (I wish I had a picture to share but my digital files don't go back that far.) She and Blizz quickly became fast friends, though Blizz made sure to always remind Dooley that Blizz was the alpha dog. But Dooley didn't mind.

at the beach (with the almost indestructible alligator)

in the snow

Dools and Blizz play

 She loved Blizzard, other dogs and all kinds of people, anyone and everyone. I think everyone in my parents' neighborhood knew Dooley by name and happily greeted her.  The grandkids all loved her, even as they learned to walk holding their hands over their faces to prevent a walk-by licking. Even Molly would greet Grandma and Popop with great enthusiasm, to follow up with "where dooley?" when she was starting to talk.

Blizz and I were snuggling on the couch - Dooley decided to join us!

chasing her doggie ice cream at Blizzard's 10th birthday party

 Dooley made trips to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia. She would have traveled to Oregon and Idaho if Katie could have figured out how to make that work. She and Katie had a special bond. Dooley was her "princess" and they both wagged their tails like crazy when they got together!

Dooley kisses (yes, Katie is holding her 80 lb princess off the ground!)

Dooley love

She let Blizz stay with her when we went out of town and we happily hosted her whenever Grandma and Popop went traveling. She loved to give kisses and be petted. She was forever patient with the grandchildren. She was always up for a walk or a hike, ready to explore the woods or play tug-of-war with Blizzard.

grappling with a frisbee

waiting patiently for pancakes

It seems a bit silly to me at times to post about a dog, but Jason reminded me that Dooley was indeed a family member. She was well loved and she will be sorely missed.(PS. Her name comes from one of the best children's books of all times - Dooly and the Snort Snoot. Look it up!)

family photo with Dools, 2006

Dooley, March 2013

Halloween Stuff

As you might imagine with three little kids in the house, we did some Halloween stuff at the end of October. We went to a festival, we marched in a parade, we carved a pumpkin, we dressed up for school activities and we went trick-or-treating. Throughout it all, we had fun! Not much I can say about it, you just have to see the silly costumes!

the weekend before Halloween, we went to the fall festival at church/preschool. The kids dressed up for trunk-or-treating. a dragon, a cat, a butterfly.

Hayden doing a dance at the end-of-quarter showcase in ballet.

a pumpkin at the Farrington Village Pumpkin festival. where EVERYONE in Chapel Hill went the night before Halloween! the take away? neat pumpkins, WAY WAY too many people!

Molly's school costume. pink skeleton fairy!

Molly loved joining Eliza's class for the Halloween parade after her class was over.

Halloween parade at preschool! They walked all around the church. E is the butterfly!

the skeleton fairy even flew in the parade (at least for part of the time). 

even Jason got into the Halloween spirit. How many mustaches do you see?

dressed up on THE night for trick or treating. We now have a cat, a dragon and a fairy princess!

casing the neighborhood. All the girls had fun, H especially had a blast!

the loot!

 Molly still talks about Halloween and somehow it's become linked to her birthday in her mind. So we'll talk about Halloween, and then she'll say "my birthday?" and I'll say, your birthday is in August, but I don't think she gets it. Also, we've been letting them have one piece of candy for dessert some nights and Molly actually requested one BY NAME - butterfinger! Of other note, Hayden dressed up as Angelina Ballerina for Camp Read-a-lot at school on Halloween. E got hot while trick or treating and was ready to strip down naked while in the middle of the street. The girls got 5 large size candy bars between them (they are tucked away for grownups). Grandma and Popop did a great job helping with trick-or-treating and candy-handing-outing. It was a good Halloween!

Pumpkins

This past weekend we finally got out to the pumpkin patch. The weather has been so gray and rainy here that tromping around outside hasn't been too appealing. But Sunday was beautiful and sunny so we headed over to our favorite pumpkin patch.

 

Mainly it ended up being a lesson in the futility of taking lovely pictures when you have three wiggly little girls. I love pumpkin pictures for some reason, one of my favorites of the cheesy seasonal pics, but man, a good one was hard to come by this year.

shadows, bright sun, silliness, hiding faces, starting to get up - a MESS!

closer but backlit, silly smiles (not just the jack-o-latern shirt!) and M not looking

had potential but the kids wouldn't look at me, that sun is still too bright and there are port-a-potties!

Luckily we were much more successful in picking out pumpkins, both edible and decorative, and just generally having a jolly good time outside in the sunshine. And THAT is what is important anyway! That and finding an edible pumpkin to cook up for pumpkin puree!

picking out the perfect baby pumpkin

flying in the patch

how about this one?!

where's the baby pumpkins?

here's another one!

playing on the tractor

everybody all aboard!

There were some pretty cute pics. I just need to work on the right settings of my camera. Still learning! 

no halloween shirts, so we went with halloween costume head bands!

H was the only one willing to pose with the pumpkins

lil pumpkin, big pumpkin!

just doing her own thing in the patch, love it

notice the pile we were amassing, M still just wanted a baby pumpkin

watch out for pumpkin bugs!

smile!

Those were cute, but these are my favorites... 

look! all three! looking at the camera (ish)! smiling! yay!

Happy Pumpkin Hunting!

Swimming

One more summertime post. Another activity we did pretty much every week was go to the pool. The kids started out the summer barely putting their faces in, and by the end they could jump off the side in the "deep" end and swim to me without help. Both H and E were working on getting their arms going. Hayden is a powerful kicker and can streamline kick very fast. Both of them can now dive down and get things off the bottom. Even Molly had fun splashing around in the pool - asking to "swim" and have us carry her around on her belly in the water as she kicked and moved her arms. There weren't too many pictures taken - we were too busy swimming and being wet - but I did pull the camera out one day.

H liked to try and help E (when E didn't really need any help!)

just floating away, easy peasy

H could float too, though not quite as easily as E. I think her body mass is different!

my little fish

Hayden demostrates her swimming ability

E shows off her diving talents.

Taa-daaah!!!