Emma is a close talker.
We love to make pizza.
Frosty the Dirtman.
Auntie Faith!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the way from Orlando, and we were SO happy to see her!
And the best thing? Tomorrow is THANKSGIVING!
Woo!
Special happy birthday to my new sister, Leslie.
We’ve only lived here for ten years. You’d think that ONCE in those ten years, we’d have made it to the lighting ceremony in the square, only two blocks from our house. You’d be thinking WRONG! Until last night, that is. We walked up in the frosty night. It was so clear—the moon was bright, and you could even see stars, right over the square.
Forgive the blur. Most of the photos are going to be blurry. It was really dark, and nobody would stand still for me. And I had to rush to catch up with them every time!
We tried to go to Dan’s Dogs and Sully’s, but they were both really crowded, as everyone else had the same great idea. So Chad called in an order to Thyme Square for pizza. We walked down there, passing the train store, and had a picnic under a tree. A cold, frosty picnic, but the pizza was awesome.
And that’s the last time we ever saw those gloves of A’s.
We walked up to the Square after our impromptu picnic, bought a bag of kettle corn for dessert, and waited for the ceremony to begin.
This nice old man offered to take our picture for us. He was deathly afraid of my camera, and alas, focused on the gazebo behind us. But I love this shot anyway.
Then we took our frozen selves home to warm up with Candy Cane Lane tea.
There has been some SERIOUS seasonal affective disorder going on around here. Yesterday was the worst—so dark, so dreary, so pointless. I was ready to crawl into bed and stay there until at LEAST Thanksgiving. No way I’m missing Heidi’s stuffing! But today, three things had made a change.
1. Hello Mr. Sun! We saw a tiny glimpse of you on Thursday, and then you decided to go away for another four days. Not fair, especially since we had a week without you before that tiny, miserly glimpse on Thursday. Now, you’re back.
2. Hard frost last night, the first of the season, which seems rather late to me. It’s so, so pretty.
3. Election Day! And then NO MORE HORRIBLE COMMERCIALS ON TV. That is all.
Good-bye October! For the most part, it was a LOVELY month! Warm and sunny with bright leaves and green grass—lots of walks and adventures. Until last week, when it turned distinctly dreary. And then, even here in Ohio, we felt the effects of Sandy in the form of days of endless rain and high winds. Those bright leaves are all gone now, and the trees are black in their rain-soaked nakedness. In fact, it looks suspiciously like November around here! I like November, minus the dreariness. And Saturday, the sun is supposed to make his reappearance! We haven’t seen him since last Thursday.
Here is our month, in review.
I wish you all a very happy, safe, and beautiful November!
Yesterday was amazing! Sunny, clear, WARM, beautiful! The leaves were glowing. It was a perfect day to pull out the tomatoes and denude my pole bean towers. And to rake the front yard. It was awesome at the time, but last night, my shoulders were MOST unhappy about it.
See that little face looking out at me? Since the front garden is being put to bed, he is allowed to dig there again. He was building a house, starting with digging a square hole as a foundation. However, he noticed the leaf pile.
And he had to try it out! Later, we met up with some good friends and went for a walk.
Digging his hole.
Something I DIDN’T pull out.
And, the real reason I was happy about the weather: (my dryer is totally broken)
Today promises to be just as gorgeous, so we have some plans.
Stay tuned. . .
Hi!
Myles is happy about the walks he’s been getting lately. He is grinning all the time!
This one is happy about all the snuggling on the couch lately.
I’m kind of happy about that too.
This one? He’s happy about the walks, the playground, the surplus of candy in his life. . .
It’s been really warm this week, which we appreciate! I know that all too soon, the snow will be falling! And we’ll probably appreciate that too.
Happy end of fall!
Aiden had a pixie stick yesterday after lunch.
It wasn’t my top choice for him, straight sugar + artificial colors and flavors, but it was his top choice.
We went on our walk to work the sugar out, and when he wasn’t running ahead shrieking like a train whistle, he was rolling around on the ground.
I let him play at the playground mid-way through our walk, hoping for more sugar-burn-off. He had the same face on the whole time:
I’m not sure my plan for the sugar-management really worked, though. After quiet time, he had some serious trouble listening to his mommy. We weren’t friends for a while, I’m sad to say. But today will be better. And if he gets more pixie sticks from trick-or-treating next week, I am throwing them away, first thing!
If we could just harness that 5-year-old boy energy and use it for good. . . .
So, as many of you may remember, I used to see these kids all the time. Almost every day, for four years, and then at least weekly for one year, and not very much at all for the past year. They are getting older and busier, and I’m not as flexible as I used to be, and all things change. I miss them like crazy though. Love them like crazy. I send plaintive little texts to their mom about needing to have a “Camp Allyson” day. And yesterday, I got one!
Ben immediately went to the back to play with Aiden, and they were SO happy to mess with the new remote-controlled car and the Legos. The girls, chatty and happy and bright like little birds, stayed in the kitchen with me, and we made apple cake. “You’re so FAST at measuring!” exclaimed Emma, who got up at six o’clock that morning to bake cookies to bring over to me. “Well,” I replied, “I’ve been measuring for a long time!”
Later, Olivia sat outside on a stump in the dirt pile and read her book aloud to Aiden, who was digging in his city. The twins were inside, meandering down memory land as we watched some Silly Symphonies.
Then it was time for spaghetti.
And then, this:
I decided to make this a birthday cake, because my birthday is on Saturday, and here was a CAKE and people to SING. I got out the candles.
Do you see a problem here? I didn’t, until it was too late.
Haha! When you put powdered sugar on the top of your cake and then blow out the candles, the sugar goes everywhere! Poof! HAHAHAHAHA!
Ben and Emma are totally cracking me up here.
Love these little magic-makers.
We were lucky to have Chad’s parents visit this past weekend. They drove up from Texas, which they do quite often, actually, and spent the weekend hanging out with us.
On Saturday, we went the Fall Festival at Bauman Orchard. It was actually our second time this year, as we went the previous weekend with the Clarkes. But it’s almost free and really low-key and fun, so we were happy to return for a second time.
On Sunday, we played games as a family, which was kind of interesting with Aiden and Mom.
We said goodbye Sunday afternoon:
It’s always good to see Mom and Dad, even for just a short visit. Aiden has been moping around ever since they left, saying in a sad little voice that he wants Grandpa!
So, back in the spring, or maybe June, I can’t remember, I planted some carrot seeds in my deep square foot garden. I’ve grown carrots before, so I wasn’t all that excited about them. I know I didn’t do a thing to them all summer, just watched them grow and get bushy and green. Today, looking out the window, I decided that I should probably go pull them up, as they are shading the baby lettuces I have planted behind them. So I started pulling. This is what it looked like, just a 3×2 ft area:
And this is what came out!
5 bazillion carrots! Ok, so it was really only 83, but STILL. That’s a lot of carrots, especially since I really only planted them because I had the space and the seeds and thought, “why not?” So now I have around 10 pounds of carrots in my fridge, just waiting to be roasted and made into soups and maybe cakes and definitely into salads.
I love being a gardener. It’s like magic, people.
Some quotes from this week:
“I am a children, and I eat napkins!”
“Give me some coffee, or I’ll show you my tummy!”
Looking at a picture of Noah’s Ark:
Aiden: Mommy, whose boat is this, again?
Me: Noah’s Ark
Aiden: But who was on the boat with the animals?
Me: Noah
Aiden: No one?
Me: NO-AHHHHHHHH!!!!
Aiden: Oh
Teasing him, telling him that after he outgrows these clothes, he’s just going to have to go around without any: “Ok, I’ll just go live with the nakey people who are far away, like in my animal book.”
I love blogs. I love Pinterest. I’ve been scouring the interwebs lately for fun craft ideas for Aiden and I to do during “school.” I like the crafts to use natural materials, when possible, and be something I’d like to display or something with a purpose. In my searchings, I found a lovely blog called This Cosy Life. It is full of wonderful craft ideas, and I quite shamelessly pinned most of them. We tried this one this past week, and I’m so in love with the results. We made these over three days, and it really appealed to Aiden.
Removing the kernels from the husks:
Gluing the kernels to the cardboard backgrounds:
Pretty! I used hot glue for the farthest circle, but I don’t like it as well as the middle one, in which I used regular old tacky glue.
Finished, by our out-of-control nature table.
I cannot resist these:
Don’t worry. We don’t eat them. We just look at them and gloat over their loveliness. And when they dry up into nasty little strips, we just throw them out!
I forgot to add this to my previous post! Last year, we used potato grow bags to grow two kinds of potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm, buttes and Yukon gold. They did fairly well, and after harvesting, I threw the plants into the compost pile. Well, a few months ago, I noticed tiny potato plants growing in the pile. Having little volunteers is nothing new to me, as I can’t turn the pile often enough to keep it hot enough to kill off seeds. I usually pull them out, though and re-compost the plants. So goodbye to volunteer tomatoes, cucumbers, borage, and melons. But I just COULD NOT pull out these potatoes. I left them as they were. Until yesterday, when the time had come to start transferring to my shiny new compost bins. It was like Christmas morning:
Hello, potatoes!
I love dirt. I love to dig in the dirt, I love to plant in the dirt. I love to make dirt. After ten years of a crazy-big, unwieldy compost pile, we finally have a true 3-bin system!
As you can see, we still have some work to do in the transferring process. And I may have a wee bit more dirt than my bins can handle. That’s ok, though, because I have another use for all that dirt. And those bins are for new compost.
This isn’t about dirt, but I am posting it anyways:
Yum! Baked pumpkin spice donut holes! We made these yesterday for Baking Day, and they are like crack. I think I’ve eaten a dozen already.
Rainy, cool, green morning today:
Off to take a crabby kid on our morning walk in the rain!
