Here is George at his birthday party at the Kangaroo Zoo. He was surprised to learn that he had turned 3. (Sort of turned 3. His real birthday is on Tuesday. So technically his surprise is entirely warranted.)

Not yet officially 3, George has already found his Purpose. 

And that is: wearing a cowboy hat and riding this red pony. Trick riding, in some cases.

You’ll notice that a few days ago George was all set to be a lion for Halloween. BUT NO MORE, thanks to cowboy-themed birthday presents.

He even got real cowboy boots.

His hat keeps falling off because it’s a little too small, even though Bappa bought the largest kid-size hat there is. Which means that George’s head is actually adult size. Bappa says we need to get his hat fitted with a stampede string.

There is a lot else going on, including a visit from Conn and Linda. Stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy this video of George, our awesome little dude, determined outlaster and snuggle master. I’m so glad he’s channelling some of his monster energy into a bouncy red pony, and bigger, realer horsies too.

I WILL NOT STOP with the late-season Pineview pics.

There was a long session of acting out Sleeping Beauty one person at a time on top of this block while the others waited backstage behind a bush. Fights over who would play Maleficent. George especially wanted to be Maleficent because others’ portrayals of the villain were too scary for him.

Here’s George, waiting in the wings.

Training Della to take my selfies for me.

Here’s Della’s picture of a ladybug.

George can only get three skips across the water, sometimes four. Just kidding. He threw in three rocks at once. And he still wears diapers. 

It was a beautiful day for a raccoon burial.

Monday…

Sunday…

Saturday…

Please enjoy this video of George singing.

George walked by this bush and was like, you guys, we need to play hide-and-seek. This turned into a game called Bush Fairy Princesses. There were also Bush Fairy Hunters involved in this game.

I offered to curl Della’s hair yesterday, and it blew her little mind. Which I guess is why we have kids, to blow their minds with our everyday adult skills. 

She was very fixated on how this hairstyle made her look like her sister-cousin, Annie. She said to George, “You can call me Annie.” She told Steve to send Grandma Linda a pic, and she asked him to please write her name on it so that Linda didn’t mistake her for Annie.

George sometimes sleeps like this, next to his horse Sparky, which he pronounces Pokey. 

Della sometimes sleeps like this, out on the lawn, because she is dead tired when she gets home from school. 

George likes helping Bappa with chores, such as collecting sticks.

He would like to get more involved with the motorcycles.

Della bonked a front tooth on a kid’s head while jumping on a trampoline and now her tooth is dying. 

George continues to cut things despite our crackdown on running/jumping/sitting in precarious places with scissors.

And finally, Liz invited us over for a fancy tea party. She served apple cake with honey yogurt, which Della sprinkled liberally with wasabi peas. She likes to call them “sabi” peas, and to declare which ones are the most and least sabi. 

Note that Della is wearing blush and has tricked out her high heel Cinderella slippers with dangerously long, decorative nonfunctioning ribbon laces.

It’s getting ridiculous, all these vistas. But you already know what George and Della look like, right? I will try to show some self-restraint with all the scenery documentation. Starting soon. For now, here are some more mountain views and selfies of myself and Steve. As a compromise, I will also throw in some infos about the kids.

George was in the kitchen begging us for some “Nebraska cheese.” We were like, what. Della finally clarified, “American cheese, George.” 

Della was in the bath with George, and she said. “I have a ‘gina, and you have a penis. See? This is my ‘gina. It’s like a little penis. It’s kind of cute, isn’t it?”

Della and George watch a lot of TV, but they never see ads because everything is on Netflix and what-have-you. The other night they watched The Simpsons on network television, and Della was taking the commercials really seriously. She pointed at the TV and said, with puzzlement and concern, “That woman on TV said something about October, and then she said there’s something we can not miss. What is it?” I told her we don’t always have to do what TV tells us to do. She said, “Okay. Not always. But this thing, I really want to do.” And then she saw a pizza commercial and said, “Mom! That pizza on TV looks really delicious and really good. I want some of that pizza.“

Della and George both wore star shirts to school, and someone asked if they were twins. Now, this person was a 6-year-old girl, but still. 

George says he has five magic biting horses that can fly. 

Sometimes we think, foolishly, that we can put them in the stroller and go somewhere, get some exercise, cover some ground. 

But it just becomes another ward to mind (George + Della + Walter + Stroller). Who is in the stroller up ahead? No one.

They like each other.

I was trying to get some pictures of the sandhill cranes.

Here we have Snowbasin, in technicolor. This is the first year in a long time I’ve actually been excited for winter.

George, pissed that no one will carry him. (But what about the stroller?)

Ignore, ignore, ignore. There – he’s happy again.

There are so many ways to not really get anywhere in this stroller.

The End.

P.S. I should also mention that Della’s shirt says “Love My Style,” and her sweatpants are tucked into her knee-high socks.