A Week or So

Flipping through pictures as usual here and once again marveling at how many little moments and memories are packed into the most ordinary weeks, and I just love it. Does make for an eclectic blog post though, if I don't keep up with it.  Here are some themes of the last week or so - the kids have had a few days off for Veterans Day, conferences and such, and I'm never quite sure if having everyone home makes a day more busy or less. Anyway, without further ado, I present:

Butterflies:

Figs (from the tree in our backyard!):

And Beans, also from our own garden:

Dentist: 

Super-cute, Super-busy Girl, who is closing in on her first birthday.  What? 

Rainbows, three in one day!: 

Tree, Christmas, up already! Not decorated, just lending a bit of light and warmth to cold evenings: 

We even sneaked in a Nutcracker viewing. It was lovely. And later in the same weekend we tried out our fireplace for the first time! 

So just add in some swimming lessons and you pretty much have our week. I think I finished Christmas shopping today, for the kids at least, so I'm hoping to shift to a season of fun and festive making without feeling as busy and stressed as I've been with these last few busy weeks. And maybe I'll get around to blogging more than once a week! 

Inside and Outside My Windows

We've had a delightful spell of clear sunny days here, a chance for us all to soak up some sunshine and fresh air. I've spotted some interesting creatures from my kitchen window; they seem to be shape-shifters of sorts, Jedi with light sabers and helmets/head-tails one day, butterflies the next. 

The cats spend a lot of time in the windows, keeping an eye on the outdoors. 

Even inside, the sunshine has been most welcome. 

And then there was yesterday, when a commotion out front caught my eye - none other than the rehearsing high school marching band! Ha!!

I think high schoolers look younger than they used to.  Does that make me old? 

Hope everyone is enjoying their own lovely autumn weather! 

Seven. Seven?

I tend to round up, when it comes to the kids' ages. The month or two before a birthday I'm already referring to them as the next age. But when it came to picking out a candle at the grocery store the other day I had to really think hard. My first baby girl... seven already? My own seven is pretty fresh in my mind. I suppose a bit of that comes from starting this Mommy gig at the tender age of 24. And seven is a lot of years, too. A lot of moments, memories, places, milestones. Quite the little life with this pretty girl so far. I'm so proud of you my dear, keep up the good work! 

(PS, also worth noting that D and I celebrated the birth of our first on a breakfast date this morning, just us and C! Made possible by the rare weekday off for him, coinciding with a morning of school for both big kids. We haven't been on anything resembling a date since June, so it was quite exciting.)

More notes on sweater, birthday gifts, costumes, etc. coming soon - so much to share!

Halloween, the Condensed Version

Wanted to share some pictures from Halloween, before Halloween is really old news. In another post I'd love to write about how I made Amy's costume... hopefully I'll get around to that before, oh, Christmas. This year we had Star Wars: The Clone Wars characters: Ahsoka Tano, Captain Rex, and Yoda (though Yoda didn't last long at all). We stayed in on Halloween and had our own little, but very fun party at the house. 

And while we are at it, I took a picture of C the other day which reminded me of a similar picture of W at the same age, which put me on a hunt to find pics of all three kiddos to compare. I don't think any of them look like each other at this same (10-11 month) age. What do you think? 

Back soon, folks - with paper mache!!

Since We Last Talked

Well, I was just flipping through pictures from the last week or so and realized how much I have to catch up on! Let's begin without further ado.  

Last Saturday, after the pumpkin patch outing on Friday, we went on a nice hike at a nearby beach and on my goodness, it was just beautiful. 

There is a pristine quality out here that I think is unique to the west. And I may be missing sea oats and palmettos, but views like these will do in the meantime.  

On this particular afternoon the surf was really high, and every fifth wave or so crashed clear over the tops of these rocky cliffs. 

Yesterday we went back to roughly the same spot, but this time stayed on the beach and poked at some assorted invertebrates. 

And in between these two weekends marked by such spectacularly beautiful outings, I present our week in review, snapshot style. 

This baby girl really loves her white bunny, and clutches him tightly while going about her business. Like climbing, mostly naked, into a basket of stuffed animals. 

C and I took pictures of each other at W's first swimming lessons last week.  He's doing so well!  There were a couple of tears the first day but they were quickly overcome and I am so thrilled to see his confidence and excitement grow with each lesson. Plus he's just such a good boy - attentive listener, and diligently does his best for his teacher. It is proving to be an excellent venture. 

Found this selfie on the iPad:

Along with a bunch of blurry shots of Star Wars characters, like this: 

Incidentally, that's Ahsoka Tano hanging out with the gourds up there, who A would like to dress up as for Halloween. We are still working on the headdress part...

Cat lounging on a still-warm stove? Hmmm.

Miss Mischief here learned how to climb the stairs recently, and loves to get on this stool in the kitchen any chance she gets. She also started walking this weekend! At 10 months and 1 week, way earlier than my other two. She's amazing! 

I kinda want boots like this for myself, but don't quite have the fashion guts like this girl has. Maybe someday. 

Who needs toys? All three kids have gotten a ridiculous amount of mileage out of this empty oatmeal container. Seriously. 

I have been sewing! Can't show the actual project because it's a Christmas present, but when I hit a lull I whipped up (finally) a new ironing board cover. Happy.  

This afternoon I popped in the first DVD of my fancy Beachbody PIYO challenge set and as you can see the kids made excellent use of my yoga mat. My really good friend talked me into this. The jury is still out. Also note, new sheers on front window. Excellent addition, much less fishbowl feeling. 

And lastly, to conclude this photographic digestion of the last ten days I bring you two munchkins in a box. Nothing quite like a good box. 

That brings us up to date. Enjoy your week, folks! 

Pumpkin Patch

Oh, my, goodness. The kids had their first field trip with school to the (more or less) local pumpkin patch, and I was pretty blown away. I may look back at this as the day I fell in love with this state. River valley farmland with steep green hills rising into the mist - wow. 

C had a jolly time hanging out with me in the Snugli and was the picture of contentment with all the activity to watch. 

I have never seen such an assortment of pumpkin and gourd varieties in one place.  

The big kids took a ride on the hay wagon... 

...while I got myself a nice pumpkin spice latte from the espresso bar. (Note the sign - haha!) I have to say, the PNW is not to be beat for the availability of amazing coffee - even at the pumpkin farm which was about the only bit of civilization for 15 miles around. 

I stood around like a dork taking pictures of this line of pumpkins with my iPhone while the kiddos had a blast with their classmates on the giant pile of hay bales. 

It was an absolutely terrific morning that the kids are still talking about. 

The next day we took an equally breathtaking trip to the ocean, but I'll save that for another post! 

In Print

Despite the move (or maybe because of it) I actually managed to read two whole books this summer.  Well, almost, as the second one took me clear through September.. does that count? Anyway, the first book was North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, which was extremely delightful in every way. The second was a book written by a professor at my alma mater. I took his class in advanced expository writing, and it was by far the most memorable and useful class I took at college. Each week we had to turn in short essays based on very general prompts. During class the professor would flip through the class's writings until something caught his eye, for better or worse. A few words of mine got attention here and there, including one excerpt which he liked so much he said he was planned to use it I one of his books.  And he did! 

This book has been on my shelf for ages, and it was at least ten years ago that I wrote this bit, quoted on the page below, in the last big paragraph, starting with "A girl recalled..." 

Of course I'm not mentioned by name or anything so you'll have to take my word for it. Someday I hope I might have a whole book of my very own published.  

And incidentally, I completely agree with my twenty-one year old self.