Living, Loving, Learning

 Griffin's schools Second Graders put on a production of Suessical this year.  It was too cute.  Griffin and his pal Logan both were fish holders!  ;)

Wow, and I thought I'd have more time to blog once Lucy started pre-school.  WRONG!  Life is crazy fun and crazy busy right now.  I am renewing my effort to post more regularly and catch up a bit....we shall see!  This fall we had the opportunity to do some hiking with the kids.  Although there was some grumbling from the wee ones about being tired, they managed to mostly enjoy the 2 mile hikes.  All the squirrels, colorful leaves, gorgeous vistas, rocky outcrops and fungus surely helped distract them from their complaints!  We want our kids to love being apart of nature and respect the earth and the only way to achieve that is to get them out in it.  I only wish there were more hiking opportunities near our home....ah well, it's on the wish list!  One day our dear friends Devin and Johnny were able to join us and it was a blast!!!!   Of course, Ms. Lottie Dottie was in HEAVEN being off leash and allowed to ...

Years ago I had an amazing chicken pot pie recipe, which was a good thing because that is a favorite comfort food of Bruce's.  Unfortunately, I took the recipe on vacation with me to make it for some friends and lost it (Chanley, I think I left it in the kitchen of that lake house!!).  I have been trying to find it or something similar for a long time.  Just last week I made another attempt, and while it looked wonderful, it tasted just o.k.  So, I thought, I should ask you....do you have a pot pie recipe that you love??

I decided to make one HUGE Halloween post rather than many small ones...BEWARE, lots of pictures!!!  Our first chance to wear costumes was for the library's annual trick or treat parade.  Here is Lucy the lion with Myles the monkey, Ava the alligator, Lily the ladybug and Carly as Rapunzel.  They had a great time walking around the mall with all the shop keepers passing out candy.  A newspaper reporter was there taking pictures and the kids were all in the paper the next day.  Another perk of small town living! Lucy had to check her bag after every treat!  I love that she is using the bag that my Grandmother made for me when I was a wee one.  This is a huge reason why I craft/quilt.  Lucy is experiencing  the love of her great-Grandmother that she's hardly gotten the chance to get to know.  Love the lasting legacy! Our second celebration was the Halloween party at Lucy's school.  I am the room Mama and had a fun time helping...

 The Moms just came for a visit.  Of course, we had an amazing weekend that was over much to quickly!!!  We fit in a trip to the pumpkin patch and we met up with the Adlers there.  MYBLES!!!!  It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a blast hanging with Granny and MorMor and enjoying all the activities. Lucy got to have a her first pony ride...so fun!  Griffin loves horseback riding and was happy too, even if it was just a short stroll.  Yeah, at the end the guy does comment on Griffin's "paparazzi"...funny.  Makes me think, what is the effect of living in a time when every moment of your life is recorded?  hmmmmm

I had the awesome opportunity to co-host a baby shower for my dear friend Cassie a few weekends ago at our house.  It was a great opportunity for the ladies to get together without our wee ones and *gasp* actually finish the conversations that we started!  Luckily Cassie was cool that I can't bare group games and your typical pink decor and loved the seasonal theme.  I made fruit kebabs and I love how they turned out!!  This is such a fun project.  I just grabbed a pretty pot I already had, bought a block of foam and used a carving knife to trim it to fit tightly and covered it in florist moss (I had some but you can get it anywhere they sell silk flowers).  Then I cut honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon into thin slices.  I took miniature cookie cutters to cut out shapes and also used a melon baller for some pieces.   Then I just threaded them onto a kabob stick.  I took a strawberry and cut the top of it crosswise t...

 This fall we have gone to a couple of  the local high school football games with our dear friends, the Adlers.  Brandy's Mama is an AMAZING fabric artist, and she made Lucy and Myles matching t-shirts.  I mean, come on, could they be any cuter??!!!  (Sorry for the blurry photos, it is hard to catch these two in a still moment!)  If I was down with arranged marriages, the paperwork for this union would have already been drawn up!  Myles is such a love bug and he finds Lucy totally irresistible.  He is always trying to sneak in a hug or pat, much to Lucy's dismay! It is totally adorable! As much as she acts like she doesn't want the attention sometimes, all week it's Myles  Mybles this, Mybles that!   Griffin has been loving going to the games too!  He spends 5% of the time watching the game and 95% of the time hanging out with his good friend, Danye.  It is such a safe place, we felt good giving him ...

 That's me these days....total soccer Mama.  A couple of weeks ago, Griffin had his good buddy spend the night and we took them to the soccer practice the next morning.  I couldn't resist getting some shots of them in their (coincidentally) matching outfits.  Fierce! Sometimes you can totally see the warrior memory in these young ones.     For dinner we decided to let them make their own pizzas.  They had a blast doing it...from helping roll out the dough to heaping on the toppings.  It's so fun to have older kids now that can get more involved in family projects!  It was important to me that Jacob had a great time and felt super comfortable at our house, as this was the first sleep over Griffin has hosted and I think Jacob's first at a non-family member's home.  I think the boys did have a great time.  Looking forward to bringing both the kids friends over more often as they get bigger. 

Let's talk about something Lucy does like...DANCE class!  I was hopping to put her into soccer this year but she was having none of that, but for some reason she thought she could try dance class.  I was sooooo excited.  I took dance as a kids and I have had visions of tutus every since we found out Lucy was going to be a girl!    We found a great and casual dance school near by and Lucy started taking a class once a week with Ms. Jana.  I had decided to wait a month before buying all the "gear" she would need, but each week Lucygot more creative with what she was wearing to class, including her tutu!!!  It really helps her that her two best girlfriends, Carlie and Ava are taking the class with her.  It is soooo cute to watch them "dance" and of course, they love getting stickers at the end!  Here is a little video to give you an idea of what she's doing.  Isn't the building gorgeous!?!

Miss Lulu had her first week of pre-school last week. It was only for 2 days though (a normal week will be 4 days) because of a training day and P/T conferences. The first day went OK, actually better for her than for me. She got a little teary as we were saying goodbye but went right inside with the teacher (who later told me she cried for about 20 minutes)....I on the other hand sobbed for an hour. Day 2 was a little worse. Lucy was on to us and knew what was coming. The minute her teacher came out to get her she became a little monkey. She had to literally be pulled off me, although I think she took a handful of my hair with her, all while shrieking "NONONNOOOO!". That morning really really sucked for Mama. Today was day 3. We cried and whined about not wanting to go to school but stopped crying by the time we got there. She went inside relatively easily and the teacher said she had a great day right from the start. Hmmmm, I am hoping we are making progress....not sure I...