The Houghs: Papa, Nana and Sandy

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Papa, Nana and Sandy

Our patio room - recently 'mega-lit.'

I'm sure you guys already know this, but the Houghs don't really have a whole lot of family down here in Florida. None, actually. So whenever we get the chance to import relatives, we're always pretty pumped up about it.

This weekend, Dad and Cindy flew down to spend the pre-Halloween warm-up weekend with the grandkids (and us, I suppose). We plan on rounding up some pumpkins later, but here's a little of what we've been up to thus far - enjoy:

Flashy, personalized hand bags/trick-or-treat bags, courtesy of Nana.

Papa admires Abby's fancy headgear.

New My Little Ponies = crack for preschoolers.

"GOLDFISH"

Heroes (at right) and Redneck, White-Trash Villains (at left)

Abby marks her territory on the living room floor. . .

Ukulele lessons with Yours Truly

The Cannonball can play a C chord well enough. Abby's doing well if she manages to hold it the right way.

Papa and girls

A Tea Party (. . .that doesn't make you want to off yourself with a shotgun)

Yet another Lemon harvest. . .

Diva parade.

Checking out the scrapbook Cindy made for Abby. . .

Nana taking the girls for a stroll through the 'hood

Peering into the Study

The Cannonball in front of Monster Bush

Photo courtesy of Alayna

Duelin' cameras

Not sure what's going on in the foreground here, but is that blood on that chick's coat (on the TV)?

This is a pretty standard afternoon in our house these days. . .

Watching Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure. Like a bunch of gangsters.

(Papa was really trying to follow the plot line)

We walked the girls down to the park later on in the afternoon. The playground equipment sucks, but it's only a block away from the house so we said 'screw it.'

Swingers.

Alayna recently figured out how to swing, so now she's a big fan of it. Before you couldn't even sit her down in a swing without her throwing a major bitch fit.

Abby still doesn't know what she's doing, but she's still a big fan of being pushed.

Damn it.

Papa gets kicked off the playground.

Hurricane Sandy is beating the bejesus out of the East Coast, but all we got out of the deal was some bad winds. . . which I'll take any day over flooding, gas rationing, and power outages.

Abby fancies herself some tunnel slides. Mucho.

Abby about to push Alayna down from the top of the slide. . .

Shoulder rides on the walk home. . .

We never had a formal 'couple-in-front-of-their-first-home' picture, so this is the best we could come up with.

This captures our kids' personalities perfectly.

After the park excursion, we (the girls) began whipping up some Halloween cookies (Yours Truly was too busy playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.)

Kris shows off the Hough Family Rolling Pin

Sugar!

Abby brings in another citrus harvest (this time off the tangerine tree)

I don't know what the hell this is, but it's blooming.

Watching another Hough Girls 'stage' production on the shed steps. . .

The Lemon Tree

The Orange/Red Pepper Tree/Bush

These things are awesome - a little spicy, but also sweet. Only thing that sucks is that they're about the size of a popped kernel of popcorn.

The Tangerine and Pear Trees

Taking the Stage

Hugs

Discussing the current human rights situation in Syria and what it means to the politico-social integrity of the Middle East

Hough gals

~~Decorating Halloween cookies~~ eating frosting.

Adult supervision required

Kristina's. . . witch?

Every Halloween cookie batch needs a sad manatee cookie. Right, fellas?

Halloween Cookies - finito!

Dad and Cindy were nice enough to take all of us bums out to Azteca de Oro - a really awesome Mexican restaurant across the street from our subdivision - for dinner. . .

(. . .of course, having a few preschoolers in tow isn't necessarily the sort of ingredient one would want to throw in when planning a 'nice dinner out.)'