Pony Rides and Mini Farm Animals

With Todd heading back to work today, we wanted to take Lauren out for the day yesterday to enjoy the end of (our) summer. We all needed to get out of the house and into the fresh air, so we headed over to Tanglewood Farms with the Crunkletons to see the miniature farm animals. As a bonus, admission included a pony ride!

Beaming the entire ride, Lauren LOVED being on the pony! She even told Mommy not to hang on (fat chance, kiddo!).

Lauren's hair is finally long enough for braids. I can't believe she sat still long enough for me to french braid her unruly curls. Of course, by the time this picture was taken she looked like a total ragamuffin! :)

Lauren was VERY nervous in the variou animal pens, so she had to be held. I think it freaked her out to have the animals coming right up to us, and in the case of the goats, even jumping up on us, vying for the bread pieces. Here we are going to see the mini-jersey cows and the mini-llamas. I thought she'd really dig the llamas, especially since the LLAMA LLAMA RED PAJAMA book is her current fave. No such luck. Maybe it's because they were taller than many of the other animals we saw, with their long necks...?

Here she safely feeds the goats from behind the gate. We also saw mini-sheep (including black ones in honor of her oft-sung song "Baa Baa Black Sheep"), pigs, donkeys, shetland ponies, goats, bunnies, manx cats....all "mini" of course! She loved hearing the sheep bleat, the pigs oink, grunt and snort, and the donkeys bray. But...only from the safety of mom or dad's arms, naturally. Quite a load in 95 or so degrees to have to carry her around!

Riding on a rocking horse.

Mommy makes another rare appearance on the blog, as we two were total "rock stars" in our shades. Lauren's have little strawberries on them. How cool is that?!

A family portrait on the only non-mini thing at the whole farm-- a GIGANTIC chair.

Total Chunkaroo!

Todd weighed Davis with his certified fishing scale yesterday and he was a whopping 15 lbs!!!! Just check out those chunky little thighs...

He's full of smiles and giggles now, and still as sweet as can be.

Caught on Camera...

His Very First Smiles!

Like a Butter's Dream

Lauren's version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat this morning went a little something like this:

Row Row Row Your Boat

Gently Down the Stream

Merrily Merrily

LIke a Butter's Dream

She was pretty insistent when I tried to tell her the correct words that, well....I was completely crazy and completely wrong. That's my child, certainly. :)

Davis- 7 weeks

Davis, seen here at 7 weeks today, is such a blessing to us. He's a mellow baby, really only fussing when he wants his diaper changed, when we aren't feeding him fast enough, or when the toots just won't come. :) He's a natural addition to our family and we can barely remember life before his arrival.

Boy Bonding

Daddy and Davis are cashed out after a tough morning of golf (Daddy) and life (Davis). I love D's little navy shorts. He already dresses like his Pop!

Our Little Big Leaguer

Our Davis at 6 weeks old, in 3 month size clothes already...I think he might eat us out of house and home before he's full-grown! Here he is in a baseball outfit, compliments of Nana and Umpy. Sadly the shortall covers the multiple fat rolls quickly becoming a semi-permanent fixture on his chubby thighs! He even has baseballs on his socks. Overkill? Perhaps. Todd and I have decided that "Starting Pitcher, Davis Marschke" has a nice ring to it... :)

Lauren let him borrow "HER BASEBALL" as a prop for the photo shoot. :)

Always one to be in the mix, Lauren wanted to "help" me take pictures. She pushed the button on several shots and actually did pretty well on centering the photos. A budding photographer, perhaps?? Then, naturally, she wanted to see some shots with her face in the frame.

Couch Potatoes

Lauren just loved her Baby Einstein videos when she was a baby. She even made sounds to let us know the video was over...at a very young age! We thought we'd see what Davis thought and he was mesmerized by the music and visuals. Lauren wasn't in the room and a few minutes later I returned to see her STILL mesmerized, years later (even to the Baby Bach video, designed for 3- 6 month olds). It gave us a nice and quiet 20 mins or so. I loved that she was holding his hand while they sat entranced by it all. awww. I pray she will always love him so.

Now. The real question is why didn't WE think up the concepts for these videos so we could be now resting on our laurels. oh well....

The Marschke Make and Model

I have had many of the blog faithful ask me if Lauren and Davis look alike as babies. The answer is yes and no, in my mind at least....here are pictures from the same timeframe (4 weeks old). They have some features that are very similar, and I think in the end will definitely look like siblings, but not twins. Just in case anyone out there is confused, Davis is in the red/white stripes and Lauren is in the pink/white stripes...with a skirt on. :)

Davis- 1 Month

Our boy continues to grow like a weed! We had photos taken while my parents were in town, and then he had his 1 month Well Baby visit on July 6th. All indications are that he will be a strong healthy boy with stats that rival his Big Sister's!

Height: 23 inches (+2 from birth) 95th %
Weight: 11lbs 14 oz (+5 from going home weight!!!) 90th %

We couldn't believe how big he's getting. We pulled out Lauren's stats from the same appointment for a frame of reference and she was only 22.5 inches (90th%) and 10lbs even (75th%).

Guess we just make 'em big! :)


Such a serious face on our sweet boy!


Getting a nuzzle from Mama


Eh. Still can't QUITE focus the eyes....

Little Lovin' from Big Sister.

Of course Lauren had some photos taken too, lest our Ladybug feel left out!

Lauren, 28.5 months

Little Sassafrass

This one is my favorite. It captures so many things that I love and cherish about my darling girl.

4th of July 2009

This year we spent the 4th of July at Mimi and Papa Fish's house with the cousins. Jamie and Steph also brought Haylie over (they might as well be cousins/family too!). We had fun splashing in the blow up pool, spraying silly string, fishing, and glow sticks. And, we (of course!) grilled out some brats and enjoyed a great meal. Later in the day, Jamie brought over some ribs he had been cooking all day--- BBQ and Buffalo style, MMMMMM! Everything was so good. On our way home we caught the Loganville Fireworks from the car. Probably best as Lauren felt "safer" watching them without all the noise! We got stuck in awful traffic, but fortunately the kids fell asleep. It was a great day filled love, laughter, family and fun.

Fun in the Sprinkler

We finally have our water ban lifted (somewhat) so Lauren had a chance to frolic in the sprinkler on July 3rd.

Here she helps Daddy get everything hooked up

Checking out the {sad brown} yard and enjoying the sun. It was a beautiful 80 degrees! I think her favorite part of it all was that she didn't have to wear a diaper/pull-up and could just wear her swimsuit like a big girl. Mommy didn't have the heart to tell her it was only because her swimsuit doesn't fit with the diaper on...needless to say we asked her about every 5 mins if she needed to use the potty yet!

She wasn't so sure of the sprinkler once we actually turned it on. She has the same sentiments about the shower, so no surprise there...

It's very safe when the sprinkler is on the "downward run" (i.e. sprinkling away from her)!


AAAGH! Mommy it's going to GET me again!

Taking a break with Mommy on the porch where it's safe and dry!

Lauren Reads to Nana

Lauren loves her books, and loves to "read" to us. One special favorite is "Llama, Llama Red Pajama". Here she reads to her Nana.

Meeting the Grandparents- Part II

Nana and Poppa Umpy came for a visit from Wisconsin to meet their new grandson and love on their Ladybug for a bit



Enjoying their first grandson before Ladybug wakes from her nap.


Nana beams with joy at snuggle time.



William Davis in the arms of his Nana.


Lauren enjoying the cradle made by her great-great grandfather for Nana. Nana got a tickle out of Lauren playing inside the cradle, as she can remember doing the very same thing as a child!

Getting Davis ready for his 1 month photo shoot...only had time for a quick spong bath. Can't say that he was a huge fan. We averted near disaster as he took naked time to mean potty time. Good thing Mommy is quick on her feet!

At the portrait studio, Kate and the kids. Still a little strange to talk about kids (plural) sometimes.

We had lots of fun during their visit. We took Lauren and Davis to their first Gwinnett Braves game, where Lauren was thrilled to see Chopper, the groundhog mascot. I can still hear her shouting, "Choppah, Choppah. Come back here and see me!!.....". Alas, Chopper could not hear her in his costume! We went to Swallow at the Hollow for some Southern BBQ. But mostly we just hung out and enjoyed spending time together.

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One morning, Lauren wears Umpy's ball cap and Nana's shoes while tucking her teddy bear into his stroller.

In full show-off mode, Lauren put on her Princcess Dress to twirl for Nana.

We enjoyed the Norcross Farmer's Market and the newly re-opened city park. Mom/Nana got the best fresh peaches, and made us a home-made peach pie! I am almost ashamed to say that the 4 of us ate the whole thing. Almost. But it was too good....

Lauren is SOOOO CLOSE to mastering her trike. Her legs, long though they are, are just not QUITE long enough. Another month or so and she'll be cruising!

Coloring with sidewalk chalk along with Nana.

Reading with Umpy. I have a great video clip that I will post soon that shows Lauren "reading" Llama, Llama Red Pajamas to Nana. She's got it down pretty well, I must say!

The Crunkletons met us out for dinner one night so they could see my folks. Lauren and Haylie are the best of friends.

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Mom and Dad helped out so much with both kids, and Lauren, especially, enjoyed their visit. We love you guys! Thanks for everything, and we look forward to our next visit! XOXOX