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Posts published in “Galleries”

Pumpkins 2024

Our pumpkin patch plans were a little messy this year. We had an idea to take the girls to a new place (sorry, Mr. Peppers) and organized a bunch of folks to join us and Sarah took the day off of work… without checking if they were open that day. Whoops!

To save the vibe, we got some pumpkins at a garden center, brought them home, and painted them so it wasn’t just a complete bust of a day. The children never knew anything was wrong and the adults understood and everyone had a nice time.

The next week, we correctly scheduled our outing to the pumpkin patch. It was another fun day, until the children completely ran out of steam and moods soured. You can see the shift in the later photos. It was pretty funny and yielded one of my favorite photos of Penny as a vengeful Japanese ghost.

Enjoy the set after the jump.

A Trip to the Playground

I realize I am just a bit behind on posting photos of my children here. To rectify that, here is the first of a series of gallery posts from last year.

It was a beautiful day in September and it made sense to drag the children out in their finest rainbow dresses to the playground. Well, Cheeks didn’t wear a rainbow dress; she was dressed like a tiny Mrs. Roper. As one does.

Enjoy the photos after the jump.

Happy first birthday, Cheeks!

We also got to celebrate Mina’s first birthday this March. She’s proving to be an incredibly pleasant little girl, all smiles and laughs with very little unprovoked freaking out. If she is melting down, something is wrong.

Fortunately, he birthday was free of freak outs. We were also dealing with lingering daycare plague, so we delayed her birthday party until the second half of April. This nice thing about tiny kids is that they have no idea what “time” or “dates” are, so making them wait to celebrate their birthdays until it makes most sense for everyone is totally fine. Parenting!

Enjoy some photos after the jump.

Happy third birthday, ladies!

Hey all! It’s been pretty quiet here on the old Black Laser front for the last few months. And there’s a very good reason for that which I will get into in a later post. For now, let’s rewind the calendar dial way back to January 2024.

Penny and Bea turned three this year and we threw them an age-appropriate party. They had cake and ice cream and got presents. And that’s pretty much it. They had a great time. We took some photos. We made some memories. All in all, a successful third birthday for a couple of little girls.

Enjoy the photos after the jump.

Mr Pepper’s Pumpkin Patch 2023

It was a slow Monday close to Halloween when we finally made it to the pumpkin patch this year. We did manage to get some cute photos which is, really, the point. You can get pumpkins all over the place. You go to the pumpkin patch to get cute photos of your kids having a good time.

This year marks Penny and Bea’s fourth visit to this particular pumpkin patch; once in utero and three in cute outfits. This also marks Cheeks’ second visit; again, once in utero and once in a cute outfit. It’s become a bit of a family tradition, I suppose.

You’ve seen a bunch of these on Instagram already, but if you wanted to see the full pictures in a place that’s not your tiny phone then have I got a treat for you! The full gallery is after the jump.

Sarah & Mina

A few weeks ago, there was a short opportunity while the two older girls were napping to take some quick photos of Sarah and The-Baby-We’ve-Come-To-Call-Cheeks. I’m sharing them now because I spaced on posting them and there are some good ones in here. I mean, just look at that baby’s cheeks.

A Trip to the Zoo in New Jersey

The girls love an adventure. Who doesn’t, really? Sometimes “adventure” means a 2 hour long car drive to go to a doctor appointment, which is really stretching the idea of what you think about when you hear “adventure”. But sometimes it also means taking a ferry to New Jersey and going to a zoo.

Sunday was that second type of adventure. We loaded Penny and Bea into the van, left the baby home with a sitter, and got on the Lewes-Cape May ferry. After a boat ride and snacks, we loaded back into the car and took the girls to the Cape May County Zoo. They got to see lions, bears, monkeys, camels, goats, cows, pigs, alpacas, wallabies, kangaroos, and, coolest for dad, a bald eagle.

A bald eagle! Neat!

Of course, as one would expect with toddlers, the most interesting part of the zoo was the acorns and fallen leaves covering the ground. They behaved well, no one melted down, and Penny didn’t get motion sick a single time. Overall pretty successful adventure.

Enjoy some photos after the jump.

Half Birthday

The 20th of the month was the girls’ half birthday and Sarah thought it would be fun to have a half birthday party. She was right. It was fun!

She made them a cake and put them in cute outfits. They got a couple of communal gifts (all gifts are communal at this age for a couple of kids who share a birthday) and had a grand time running around being two and a half. Also, Beatrice is really working on her stink eye.

I took some photos because that’s what I do. Enjoy a pretty big gallery after the jump.