Fall

Let me tell you a little something about myself. And I'm not proud. I may need medication. Or an intervention.

Every year in August the kids go back to school. Like clockwork. And sometime shortly thereafter I go to "Back to School Night". This year I went to four "Back to School Nights". And I, like clockwork, feeling delightfully rejuvenated and full of myself after a nice sunny summer, was ready to conquer the world.
 Halloween Party? Sign me up.
The kindergarten Harvest Festival? Sure, I'll do that. Sounds fun.
Yearbook? Why not? - I already take a million pictures.
Volunteer in the classrooms? Yes.
Help with the Golf Tournament. You bet.
You need an Airband Chair Person? I can do that.
Team mom? Yes.
Brownie leader? Of course.
Anything else? Oh, yeah. This year I thought it would be fun to teach the fifth graders Spanish. (I don't even have a fifth grader.) You know what? Throw in the fourth graders, too. (I don't even have a fourth grader.)
And, then like clockwork right about this time of year, every year,  it all starts falling apart and I start sprouting new gray hairs as I realize I can't be in two places at once. Or three. Like the Third Grade Halloween party and the Kindergarten Harvest Festival and taking pictures of the Halloween parade for yearbook.
When will I learn? But now you know what I've been doing instead of Blogging.

But I will tell you this. Our urban farm has reached a new "egg"cellent level of existence.

I'm so pleased. Happy Fall. 

And here are a few more pics just because I love you and who knows when I'll be sitting here again...

 We went to a beach wedding. 

  Took the kids to Disneyland. Name that ride.

 I'm pretty sure I had those exact sunglasses when I was his age. Loved 'em. 

 We grew this singular, darling fig on the fig tree we planted last spring on our "farm". (Disclaimer: the fig was already on the tree when we bought it so I don't know if we can really take credit for "growing" it. But we did ripen it. And it was yummy. 

Look at my "tough as nails" 8 year old daughter going head to head with a big ol' 7th grade boy!

You wanna know where she gets her toughness? I'll give you one guess...

 Ahh. How sweet is he? He gets that from his dad. Thank goodness. 

Another one from "Team Mom". Feisty as they make 'em. But such a great kid. (Warning: I'm about to brag. Feel free to avert your eyes.) He got almost straight A's on his first report card in high school including 3 A+'s (P.E., Geometry, & Biology). We won't talk about that B- in English. 

 Another one from the Happiest Place on Earth. Name that location...

And to round out the family - another one for "Team Dad" so sweet and gentle (usually). How cute is she at the Harvest Festival? 

Now I'm really going. Hugs, H

Random Back to School News

*The kids went back to school last week. Bittersweet.

*Dave is going to Sayulita for a guys only surf trip to celebrate his birthday. And missing all the back to school F.U.N. Povrecito.

*Evie got a soft a-line haircut...and bangs. And she recently informed me that she is "totally over" all things pink, including her room.

*We adopted a new cat from the shelter. He's four. His name is Jasper. He's all black. We picked him up on Friday the 13th. We think that means he's extra lucky. Although he pooped under my bed tonight.

Now we think he's an extra lucky "outside" cat.

*Soleil visited our school district's speech therapist today. She doesn't need speech therapy. That's good -- like we need one more activity on the calender. She'll be starting preschool next week.

*Cole got the "star" jersey for most improved at football practice yesterday. And, as I type this, he's "chatting on line with babes all day". (Name that movie).

*I splurged on, not one, but two Yankee candles the other day to try and fill the void created by sending the kids back to school. And you know something? It nearly did the job. And now I'm feeling the urge to paint something. You know, like a wall.

*Emerson is single handedly bringing the "mullet" back into style.* I'm so proud. And his STAR test results were smashing even though we spent most of the school year in Mexico.

*Hope your back to school is as delightful as mine. Salud.

*Emerson's mullet was a temporary fashion statement as you can see from the above pic of the first day of school. Stinkin' funny while it lasted, though. He kept cruisin' around the house saying, "I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew!" (Bonus points if you can name THAT movie.) 

What to do with all that artwork that comes home from school.

In our house, every piece of artwork that comes home from school is a masterpiece. But, really how long can you display it on the fridge? And then what do you do with it?? If you're my sister, you throw it away. But if you're me you may try recycling a master piece or two only to be seen, three days later, sprinting to the sidewalk in your bathrobe at 6AM, to rescue that glorious assortment of finger paint from the bowels of the recycling bin just as it's about to be hurled into the back of a dump truck. (Our trash man has no patience for me). Here's a much better idea:

As you know, most of the artwork that comes home is themed for a specific season or holiday. Save the best of the best and store it along with your holiday decorations for that season. Then when you go to decorate you will have some darling, homemade touches that are oh, so sentimental. The kids love it because you're displaying their handiwork, and you don't have to keep them up all year. Everyone's happy. See the jack-o-lantern? Cole made that in kindergarten. Be sure to put names and dates on the back. Happy Fall!!

*This idea brought to you by Mom, who every Christmas hangs the cutest handprint Christmas tree from when my sister was in preschool...20 years ago.

Nie and Caramel Sauce

First, let me just say that our darling Nie is "Out of the Woods". This is the official word coming from her sister, cjane. This is such stupendous news! She still has months of recovery and then many, many months (maybe years?)of physical therapy. But, we'll take it. Never before have I been so emotionally invested in a perfect stranger! (Nie is a fellow blogger for you newbies.)

Secondly, I have a fabulous (and ridiculously easy) recipe to share:

My Favorite Caramel Sauce

2/3 C heavy cream
1/2 C butter
1 C brown sugar

(only 3 ingredients - now that's my kind of recipe!)

*Heat cream in saucepan. Set aside
*Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
*Remove from heat and add cream
*Refrigerate. It also freezes well.

This delightful caramel sauce was a gift from my dear friend Marci when we were in Guatemala for Christmas two years ago. (Remember Marci and her caramel sauce, Angie?)

The kids and I love it most when used to make caramel popcorn (which is how we became addicted to it in Guatemala). We also love it for dipping apples and adding to hot apple cider. Enjoy!

Thanks, Marci!

Now, if I could just think of something to make for dinner...suggestions?

Lovin' Fall,
Heather

Look...

At what the cat dragged in...

He got home Friday night. So glad to have him home safe and sound. Now just to fatten him up...

View from the car on our snowy drive home from MT.

Does that say 20 degrees?

Burrr!

I've been meaning to post these pics from when Cole got home from science camp a couple of weeks ago. Brace yourself...

"I hope none of my friends are watching."

I missed my Bubba!

The boys were glad to see each other, too. I found them cozied up together the next morning watching a movie on Cole's PSP.

Ocassionally, one of the kids will get a hold of a camera and take about a million pictures of...well...everything. You know the ones - couch cushions, piano keys, sister's toes, people's butts, etc. Here are a couple of my favorites from one morning when Evie was in charge of the camera. Above -- a self portrait.

Mommy and Daddy - glad to be making breakfast together on a leisurely Sunday morning.

We grew pumpkins in our garden this year. Here's one of the six we got from our "pumpkin patch" (which, by the way, took over almost the whole garden and a good portion of the lawn).

Happy Fall!

Nothing like a rainy Saturday to inspire me to do some baking (even if it is Pumpkin Bread in a box from Costco - love that stuff!!). I bought these darling silicone muffin pans, and today seemed like the perfect day to try 'em out. Oh my - too fun!




P.S. What's better than a perfectly clean kitchen floor?

Answer: A perfectly clean kitchen floor with muddy footprints leading from the back door. Love it. Special shout out to Nie who reminds me always to see the beauty and innocence in my children (and their muddy footprints).

Click to make bigger for full effect.

Mom of the Year

My sister forwarded me an email the other day reminding all of us to appreciate every single day we have with our kids. You know the ones: "Forget house, play with kids". And being that it was the first day of fall, this email inspired me to make an attempt for the "Mom of the Year" award. I thought to myself, "Today, I am going to grab the kids out of school early, put on a darling orange vintage apron (inspired by Nie) and bake cookies with my kiddos." (confession: This idea was born when I found, in the very top cabinet of my kitchen, a bag of those little candy corn pumpkins....from last year! Shhh - they'll never know and anyway, I'm pretty sure the shelf life on those puppies is like a hundred years.)

So after lunch I headed to school to fetch my kids. I stopped at the office to sign them out. When I got to the "reason" section of the sign out sheet, I paused. I glanced at the what the other moms had written, "dentist, dr's apt, sick". I thought to use one of those but then thought better of it and wrote. "Cookies!" I left the office feeling rather proud of myself, and I wondered if I'd be hearing from the principle later. Bring it on baby.

For some reason it took 45 long minutes to gather up my kids (and their jackets, and lunch boxes, and homework, etc.). So by the time we got home we were only an hour early. Oh well, an hour, I thought to myself, that'll do to make cookies. I had no sooner turned on the oven to preheat and donned my darling vintage apron than the phone rang. It was Dave, and he needed my approval on a change in the tile design for the shower at the cabin. I was confused by the change and wasn't ready to part with the original idea (which apparently I had grown rather attached to). Long story short, 45 minutes, some less-than-nice words, and several tears (What can I say? I was hormonal) later we agreed that the change was unavoidable and I reluctantly gave it my blessing. And at what cost? My cookie window was just about closed and my husband was totally irritated with me. The kids had long since tired of asking when we were making cookies and, seeing that mom was not in her "happy" place, had wondered off to safer corners of the house. So much for "Mom of the Year" (not to mention "Wife of the Year"). With tears dripping onto my vintage apron, I hardly felt like June Cleaver. I certainly did not feel like making cookies. But I had promised. So I blew my nose, sent a quick note of apology to my husband and called the kids down to bake cookies. We had fun, and the cookies turned out pretty darn cute.

"Mom of the Year"? Not really. Maybe just "Mom in the Moment".

P.S. I should've just told Dave right when he called that I trusted his judgement and would love whatever he decided to do with the tile. And that's the truth. Thanks for the great advice, Mom.

Fall in Yosemite

We took the kids to Yosemite the last weekend in September. It was just beautiful and so much fun. We rented one of the cabins at Housekeeping Camp (why they call it that, I just don't know). We grabbed the kids after school on Thursday and spent 3 nights in our cement cabin. It was really more like a tent with 3 cement walls and a canvas curtain. It had a cement floor, a double bed, and a set of bunk beds. It was rough but very cozy. Cole and Dave climbed half dome on Saturday and the other kids and I rented bikes (and a bike trailer for the girls) and cruised the valley floor. We had a great time and we're excited to get back there in the Spring.

Emerson - 7, Evie - 4 1/2, Soli - 17 months, Cole 10 1/2

Soli standing on her own...sure to be walking any time!

Breakfast time!

Emerson making friends with the locals.

Evie learning to ride without training wheels.

I love this picture of the the two of us.

Dave and Cole on the way up the Dome.

Peering over the ledge of Half Dome.

Soli and Mommy on dishes duty!

Gettin' ready to cruise the valley.

Half Dome in the afternoon sun. Dave and Cole are up there somewhere!

Evie and Daddy tossin' around a fly line.

"Bouldering"