Thanksgiving 2010

 This year, Thanksgiving was with the Hastings at their new place in Virginia.  And, while it appears that Rob and Anna are now living a real-life episode of Sister Wives, it was only the Aunties--Anna's sister Katy visiting from Houston, and Rob's sister Courtney who now lives in Virginia too.  The whole thing was awesome.  If there's anything good about living far from family, it's that we get to celebrate with good friends instead. 

Adam did the turkey (with much use of scientific method).  It was as delish as always.

Katy did the centerpiece.  (When did Katy grow up?)

 I'm hoping that she wants to come visit us for a week next year.

I don't know about everyone else, but I always have to take a picture of the food at basically any event.  This year we had two different dressings (because you can never have enough dressing, and everyone has their "traditional" recipe), the classic Taylor cabbage dish with some Russian name I can't remember, roasted veggies, rolls, and a sweet potato dish that sure tasted like the recipe was basically one part sweet potato/one part butter and sugar.   It's probably all Saul ate for dinner, and who can blame him.

Pre-dinner activities

Silly little feasters.

Little Feasters with post-dinner sillies.

Good times. 

Merry Christmas

This is just a random picture of Mr. Saul since he's been severely underdocumented in the last 6 months.  And it's also to record that he's actually eating something (that's not a bottle of milk or a cheesestick...or candy) without being coerced.  Oh, and to show that he finally got a "big boy" haircut too. 

So, it's now the first day of December and I am realizing that I haven't written a blog post in over a month. 

Recently I participated in a fitness challenge that a friend organized.  It meant that for eight weeks I had to give up eating sugar, soda, etc., and then exercise a certain amount during the week, among other things.  It made me work hard--and in the end, I did it, and it felt really great.  100%.  Honestly, I didn't feel more healthy or fit or I didn't lose a certain amount of weight, but none of those were my goals.  My goal was to see if I could make time for exercise when I am constantly sure that I am too busy.  My goal was to see if I could pass up the lousy storebought cookies that are being passed out and the end of Pack Meeting or the canned frosting on the cupcakes at Olivia's class party.  And I learned a few things about myself--like that I can say no to an open bulk-sized bag of peanut MnMs in the cupboard and all of those other desserts, and that I can actually run more than 400 feet without deciding to take a break.

Yes, thank you, thank you....I am really happy about getting through the whole thing. So, armed with all this new-found empowerment (is that a word?), I thought that I'd take a break for Thanksgiving pie and such, but then I would go back to skipping the sweets.  But, so far, not so much.  I would list off the amount of sugar/fat I've eaten today, but it would be embarrassing.  Instead, I've learned something else about myself:  that I don't have much discipline unless it's my reputation and/or money on the line.   

Which, after I finished a second piece of lemon cake that a friend brought me tonight, made me decide my newest challenge.  And unless I make it public, I won't feel any obligation.  So, for December I'm going to try and do a post a day. Well, maybe this will all end up like my announcement that I was potty training Isabel...

If anything, it might get me to stop feeling like I have to "catch up" before I can actually post anything that I'm currently doing.  Or it might get me to stop thinking that I have to mop the floor first so that I feel like I did something that was actually useful.  But more than anything, I'm sick of not having a record of what our family is doing, or what funny things my kids are saying (i.e. Isabel: "Frick-or-Freat!").  And, in the long run, this blog is for me.  And, well, maybe for my mom too, since she's been dilligently checking the blog everyday hoping more more pictures of Saul and the promised announcement that after 21 months, he finally is walking!  So, if it means I have to make it into a challenge for myself, then it's about time I embraced who I am. 

Oh, shoot....It's 11:59.....PUBLISH POST!

Post Edit...Well, dangit, I was two seconds too late, and according to Blogger, it's now December 2nd.  Why didn't I think of this at 9:30 instead of 11:50! Well, I'm still counting this for December 1st post.  And, then perhaps next month's challenge: time management. 

Halloween 2010: Lion and Miner and Bunny (with a Picnic)....Oh My!

Every year it's the same story.  I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween and it goes something like this.  For the weeks leading up to Halloween I spend a lot of mental energy stressing about what seems like an obligation to come up with a spectacular costume for each child in the non-store-bought-clever-and-unique-variety, but (equally importantly) that is also a costume that doesn't require any actual sewing or that will keep me up late at night or cost me more than $3 to put together (oh, and one that Max and his serious aversion to all costume-wearing activities might actually be willing to wear).  To make matters worse, the kids' school doesn't allow actual Halloween costumes at the parade, but instead they have a silly "StoryBook" character parade, which is really just code for making parents now come up with another creative costume.  Fantastic.

So I deal with all of it the way that I deal with lots of stress-causing activities:  I ignore it.  Then, suddenly, it's the last minute and then--wait-a-second-- now it's REALLY stressful.  You think that I'd learn, but so far, no.

So this year, while I abandoned Adam and the kids on the night before the school parade and ward party to go see Bobby McFerrin as the guest on  Wait Wait Don't Tell Me in Philadelphia (thanks to my very lovely and generous neighbor), SuperAdam saved the day. 

And, it all came off smashing!  See how I got to have my cake and eat it too!

Olivia's class was doing the book Where the Wild Things Are, so she's got a mask like a "wild thing." Max's class had to choose a vocabulary word and dress like it, so he and Adam chose onomatopoeia and the corresponding descriptive words for decoration. Clever, eh! 

As for the costumes for the other events....

The "Chilly" Miner

The Lion

 (A costume now sucessfully worn by all four kids at this age....

best $5 I ever spent at Sweet Potatoes)

The Bunny Rabbit

(A costume she has now worn for two years in a row....and just about constantly for the last two weeks....pretty much everywhere we go. Best $5 I ever spent at Old Navy.)

The Picnic

(Adam came up with this costume a few years ago for me to wear.  It was fun to revive it.)

And by the end of it all, I love Halloween.  The ward party and games, the neighborly-ness of Halloween night, the chili dinner, the pumpkin carving, the super happy kids, homemade doughnuts at our friends' house, the excuse to have candy in the house and eat larger-then-usual quantities of it, etc.  Maybe next year.....well, I won't even pretend that I'll be better next year, but I can dare to dream. 

Daddy weekends

With a trip to Utah and a girls weekend in D.C. Jennette has missed out on some beautiful fall weekends with the kids. Unfortunately the good camera went on her trips so the photos were sporadic and don't really do the halcyon moments the justice they deserve.

A few weekends back the kids and I went to one of the local orchards. The weather was perfect and we took part in all the activities. Corn mazes, hay mazes, hay rides, spooky barns, apple picking, apple donuts, we did it all. The only thing we lacked were cider spigots. Growing up we used to stop by a farm in northern New Jersey which while it lacked all the amenities of the orchard we went to it did have an all you can drink cider spigot. Yup for 10¢ we could get a plastic cup which allowed you to have all the cider you could physically handle. Eventually this price increased to 25¢, but even then I think it was a losing proposition.

Last weekend we decided to make the trip downstate (yes Delaware is large enough that we can actually drive an hour and still be in the state) to the Bombay Hook National wildlife refuge. This is a salt marsh that is on the flyway for the migratory birds. As we were getting close I was worried that we wouldn't see any birds. The sky was clear and not a bird was seen. We were definitely too early for the snow geese which should be coming next month, but there were still plenty of birds to be seen and the salt marsh was surprisingly beautiful. The kids enjoyed the board walk trails, climbing the deer stands and observation towers, and looking for birds with their binoculars (oh and blowing bubbles from their birthday party souvenirs from the previous night). We topped the day off with dinner at one of the kids favorite restaurants and a movie party in Mom's bed where the kids went to sleep to wait for Mom to return later that night.

Seriously hydrated

I thought it would be a good idea to clean up the house this morning so Jennette wouldn't come home to (too messy) of a house (she's down in D.C. for a girls weekend out) and this is how many kids water bottles/sippies I found lying around the house.

This is not including the three water bottles I found in Max's room:

or the one I later found in the car. This is not even all the kids water bottles we own, just the ones that were not put away in the water bottle bin or the sippy shelf. I have no idea how growing up I survived in a family of five with two leaky green army surplus canteens.

Catching up: School Starts

I'm a few weeks late on this post.  And a few months late on all the other posts that I kept thinking to/meaning to/wanting to/should have put up.  But, no matter, I've got to get started somewhere.  So, even though I ended summer kicking and screaming inside, here's how the kids started off the school year.

 

Max started 4th grade, which means that now not only has he moved to the second floor of the school, but he's clearly too old to wear the specially-color-coded-first-day-of-school identification-note pinned to his shirt. That, and I got to witness some new level of personal confidence when we went to back-to-school-night and he walked down the hall greeting students with high-fives and fist-bumps.  I kept waiting for him to tell me that I really needed to walk several paces behind him so as to not be identified as his mother.  

Olivia started 1st grade, so we felt that we better graduate her to a flower-bow clearly too mature for a kindergartener.   She also gets up in the morning without hassle, practices the piano without complaint, has been very intent about doing her homework, and, so far, is a crackerjack speller when it comes to those new word-wall words.  I think I love first grade.  Or else her teacher is actually Mary Poppins. 

They have a new bus driver this year. 

Summed up, it means that they went from this:

to this:

At first it was bemusing; now, not so much.  

Anyway, here's the group at the bus stop (plus Isabel).   

Ok, only 9 more months until summer comes again. 

When I grow up . . .

Isabel is obsessed with two things. Cats and growing older. For the past 6 months we have fielded questions as to when exactly her 4th birthday would finally arrive. Now she is on to when will she turn 5 and how long will it be until she's a teenager. So it came as no surprise when her preschool group asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up that she answered the following:

So if she's going to be a cat when she grows up we better start practicing now. She and Olivia designed a routine based on one that they saw at the circus last month. They were the hit of the pool talent show.