Kids can’t resist piles of leaves.

And fun-loving adults can’t resist doing things like this.

With minimal arm-twisting, poses are made and captured with my camera.

And then the dog gets involved. I wish I could insert video here because Shiloh’s tunneling and leaf-leaping was absolutely hilarious.

Even the neighbor boy gets involved, because, as we all know, kids can’t resist piles of leaves.

We met up with the Weeks and Kirk families last night to enjoy the Lincoln Children’s Zoo Annual fundraiser, Boo at the Zoo. Livia chose to dress up as Tinker Bell for the second year running, which was fine by me. Halloween in Nebraska is almost always a cold-weather event, so my Tink is dressed in a green sweats. I think that will become my yearly challenge—how can I dress my little trick-or-treater warmly?! As you can see, I dressed up too. I love becoming someone different for one night.

It’s time to play princesses. Time to get out the beads & slippers, the tiaras & boas.
It’s time to share. To trade. To wait five minutes and then be gracious.
It’s time to learn. About bugs, about dogs, about following directions.
It’s time to snack. Slices of apples, slices of cheese. More slices of apples.
Finally, it’s time to go home. Another day, another playdate.

“Game over, man!” the video game hollers when Livia’s round is over. She is sitting next to me at the dueling computers on my desk. Old iMac versus Mac Mini with the iMac serving in its retirement years as Liv-typewriter-and-game-console.

“GAME OVER, MAN!” Liv is pretty good at this game. So far she’s clicking away silently until now. She picks up on the lingo and begins shooting it back to the screen:

“Sweet, man!” my little girl starts to exclaim.

“Whatcha doing, dude?!”

“I’m gonna getcha, man!”

And then the clencher: “You PISSED ME OFF, man!”

Uh. Wait a minute! Hello! A conversation takes place in front of paused screens. Apparently, Livia doesn’t know it was an, ahem, inappropriate phrase. She can’t even recall where she got it from—and considering her elephantine memory, I believe her.

Corrected, she goes back to the game and I return to my own screen, both cringing and laughing inside, knowing full well where she could have picked up the phrase.

Little pitchers, big ears, yada yada yada. Ah, the life of a mom.

So Liv and I took in the final Lincoln state fair yesterday afternoon. (It is moving to Grand Island, NE, next year.) Livia requested her photo be taken in the shot above, so of course I obliged! She was posing and twirling; I loved it. We were excited to be at the fair. I was excited about the following photo.

Mmmm. Funnel cakes with powdered sugar. My body was very displeased with me afterwards, but they were good going down.

We saw a giraffe among other creatures in the exotic animal tent. Liv still recalls with laughter the time Papa tried to feed the ostrich and dropped the animal feed in surprise (two years ago, I wasn’t there but Liv’s recollection makes me laugh)—and we fed the ostrich this time with better results. Still, one gets a bit nervous feeding an ostrich. That bird had some power.

We moved on to the birthing pavilion and got to hold a baby chick. Nothing makes Livia happier than handling animal babies. I had to drag her from the tent. She would’ve held the baby goats and lambs if they had let her.

Sometimes I’m surprised by who I see through my camera lens. Anyone recognize these folks?

We went on Liv’s first ever carnival ride—her choice. The spinning strawberries were just my pace, too. Apparently, you lose your capacity for amusement park rides when you hit 30. I’m glad I rode them all as a kid because I sure as heck don’t want to anymore!

The skies grew darker and the temps dropped as we were leaving the fair. I laughed out loud as I snapped Livia on this bench, hunched over with fingers in her mouth, as there are many times I’ve wished I could do the same thing when I was cold and tired. Five years olds are delightfully free from inhibition (remind me I said that when she’s wailing away in Target).

Sayanora, State Fair!

I am not one of those moms who cry over haircuts. Or at least, I didn’t think I was until I took Livia into a local hairstyling school last Thursday. Looking for a cheap haircut and an immediate appointment, we waltzed in the college and sat in between a few empty chairs and two chatty elderly women receiving conversation and haircuts.

I told our stylist-in-training to cut Liv’s hair “just above the shoulders” and let’s just say the first slice of her scissors made me recoil in horror. After realizing that Livia was now getting more than our money’s worth, I did the only thing a people-pleaser like me could do in this modern age: I grabbed my phone and furiously texted my shock to my little brother.

And no, I did not tell the newbie stylist that I was not pleased. I kept that part to myself (and now everyone else I come in contact with, ha) because you know what? Liv looks really cute.

Cute cupcakes are only a boxed cake mix away. Liv and I like to put some batter in the oven and move on to icing. It’s simple to mix up Wilton’s buttercream recipe and then tint it to our heart’s desire.

Our preferred icing method is to heat the icing in the microwave, then dip the cupcakes in the mixture. Livia’s task, then, is to sprinkle like a mad woman before the frosting hardens. We get a little crazy, sprinkles go everywhere, but the end result is cute cupcakes every time. Need a quick platter of treats for a friend? Want an afternoon pick-me-up? Cupcakes are the answer. The cuteness is just the (ahem) icing on the cake.

Nothing says “let’s paint!” like last year’s Easter hat, eh?

Coming up with fun summer activities isn’t hard. Implementing them, on the other hand, is a challenge. By the time I pull out all the paints, newspaper and other necessary materials, Liv is knee-deep in the activity. By the time Liv’s mommy is knee-deep in creative pursuit, Liv is DONE! and she’s moving on to the next thing. Still, I love doing crafts with Livia and I’m glad my kiddo enjoys stuff like this.

On this particular morning we grabbed some new white tanks from the previous summer and turned them into wearable artwork for my niece Madeleine.