Happiness on a stick

Remember this stuff? Oh, yeah!




Anna saw it at the store and immediately knew she must have it.



Some assembly required...



...but soooooo worth it!

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What's Anna Reading?

While Daddy shops at Woodcraft, Anna decided to read up on some new craft skills.



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Scary Fun

Happy Scariest Day of the Year!  Yes, I mean Election Day, not Halloween.  

Halloween wasn't scary at all; it was F-U-N!

To commemorate Halloween, we took Anna in costume to a local park for a photo shoot.  I just love her "Curiouser, and curiouser!' look in this photo.  She made a wonderful Alice, although she would rather carry her sword instead of the cute white rabbit because who ever heard of fending off a jabberwocky with a rabbit.

Anna picked out the design, and we set to carve our jack-o-lantern. While we were cleaning out the innards, Anna did a dead-on imitation of Linus from 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' and said, "I didn't know you were going to kill it!  Awwwww!"  We roasted the seeds and ate them, just to show that pumpkin who's boss.

Ta Daaaaaa!

It was a great night.  Excuse me while I raid her candy.

Where's Your Smile, Crocodile?

Anna was in the cast of a play called "Where's Your Smile, Crocodile?" through our local Civic Theatre.  This is the same academy that she participated in early this year.  She had such a wonderful time, she's been begging to do it again ever since.

You may be asking yourself, "Why are they paying someone to teach their child how to be dramatic, when it's obvious she could already teach Meryl Streep a thing of two???"  My answer is...hmmmm....that's a good question.  Seriously though, she's having the time of her life, and it's obviously good for her self-esteem.




Last Thursday was the final night of class, culminating with a performance.  Anna's role was Kyle's Mom.  Her lines were, "Where's your smile, Kyle?  Why don't you go outside and play.  You'll soon find it again."  She nailed it!  We were so proud.  The kids each drew what they thought their character looked like and ironed it on to t-shirts with their character name printed above.  It was very cute.  The play lasted less than 10 minutes, which was just about right.








In the audience was a surprise guest...Ethan, Anna's fiancee.  He brought her flowers.  They were her favorite color.  Awww, he remembered!

It was a great experience for her AND us, and we'll certainly be signing up for another session in the near future.

Farm Tour 2010

Wow!  I knew it had been a while since I last posted, but it wasn't until I logged in and saw the July date of my last entry that I understood the depths of my house project detox.  Not that we haven't been busy with other things, but I feel the transition taking place...the slowing down.  It feels nice.  We still haven't started construction on our future home, which is a bit frustrating, but I know it will happen all in good time, give or take a few months.  In the meantime, I'm trying to make up for lost leisure time.

This weekend was the Kaw Valley Farm Tour; something I look forward to all year long.  It's a bit like Christmas in October for me.  It's when we stock up on pumpkins and gourds, perhaps some mums, and marvel in the changing of the season.  The morning was perfect; sunny skies and a crisp Autumn breeze.  We always begin the tour at our favorite farm, Pendleton's.  We jumped on the tractor-pulled hay rack which delivered us first to the butterfly bio-villa where we searched for caterpillars and identified several types of butterflies.  Then the kids dove into the corn pit, where we thought we'd never get them out again. (I was still finding kernels this morning.)  Then we hopped back on the wagon and ventured out into the pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin patches are magical places.

We traipsed around the vines, and occasionally I would hear Anna shout out, "MOM....I...found...a...good...one!"  Finally she settled on a fine specimen, perfect for carving into a jack-o-lantern, and a small pie pumpkin she tells me she wants to keep in her bedroom.  Back at the barn, we picked out funky looking gourds for decorating the house and an acorn squash to take home and roast.  It was too windy, so they couldn't keep the machine lit to make funnel cakes (darn it!), but we still had a lunch of hot dogs and bbq sandwiches outside.

Next we went down the road a short distance to a small apple orchard where the kids picked apples and sampled cider pressed on site.

Nearby was a vineyard - less exciting to the kids, but gorgeous under the blue skies.  Anna was running through the vines, cutting between aisles, looking for Aunt Wendy.  I got a little terse because I was afraid I would lose her!

Then it was on to the last stop of the day, Henry's Plant Farm.  We entered next to a pond graced by a beautiful weeping willow.

The first thing we saw as we parked the car was a peacock.  The females were fenced in a pen with other fowl, but the showy males were free-range.

We took a wagon ride around the fields where we sighted a pony, alpacas, and sheep.

Then we wandered around to pet the donkeys, and see horses, a goat, and Alphie the pig, who was larger than the donkeys!  The kids finished the day with a straw bale maze, beanbag toss, and ANOTHER corn bin. By then, our shadows were getting longer and it was time to head home.  We marked another wonderful year.

I'll be dreaming of pumpkins tonight.

Moving Along

Sorry that I've been so lax on posting anything new, but we've been quite busy around here.  Somehow, an innocent conversation back in January has snowballed into an entire new chapter in our lives.  A weekend road trip looking at vacant lots, lead to talking to our realtor, which lead to talking to a builder, which lead to a kind of temporary insanity that has yet to subside.

After Alex finished up school, we spent three months laboring feverishly to finish every project around our Jewell House that we'd intended to get to over the past 8 years.  No small feat, let me tell you.  When we were satisfied (not really - but at some point you have to know when to quit) we put it on the market, and VOILA! eight days later it was sold.  We have every indication that the couple buying our home is in love with it, and that is how it should be.  We've loved it, and it is an exceptional house.  But...I'm still suffering with a bit of PTSD from last November when my car was stolen right in front of me at home, leading to a disenchantment with the direction the neighborhood is heading.

We closed on our new lot yesterday afternoon, and let me tell you how excited I am about our new neighborhood.  We'll have a bigger yard, much quieter streets that are safe for Anna to learn how to ride a bike on, sidewalks everywhere, a screened porch that looks out the back yard onto tall trees, more nature -- the first time we ever drove past this lot there were wild turkeys on it, a nice guest room with its own bathroom (we'll leave the light on for you, Hugh & Pat!), and a floor plan that is designed well to keep us both tight-knit AND give us more space where we need it.  The house plan is called "The Skelly".  You can Google it.  So... barring any catastrophes, we move in with our good friend Liz in a few weeks (The Gogolski Boarding House for Wayward Souls), close on the Jewell House on August 28th and break ground on the Bent Tree Lane house the first part of September.

One of the best things about making this move now is knowing this will be the house that Anna grows up in.  This will be the space where she has sleepovers, learns to cook (she tells everyone that she wants to grow up to be a chef), plants a vegetable garden, camps in the back yard, and makes wonky arts and crafts for me to hang on the walls.  While we could do these things pretty much anywhere, there's something about this space in the world that we're moving to that feels a little more perfect to my mind.  A little more hopeful.  A little more peaceful.  A little...more.

One Independent Girl

Happy Independence Day!  

One of the wonderful things about the neighborhoods surrounding us is that come July 4th, it turns into a little piece of Americana around here.  Our own neighborhood puts on a parade that goes right past our house.  Yes, we only need grab a cup of coffee and step out to the curbside to enjoy it.  Fire trucks, bagpipers, floats, a hodgepodge neighborhood band, and kids on every type of wheeled contraption will decorate and join in on the fun (along with a few politicians ready to shake hands and kiss babies.)

Last year we did just that -- decorated the wagon and trod the 11-block parade route.  This year, I was ready to just watch again.  Following the parade, they have turtle races and ice cream sandwiches down at the park.

In the evening, families congregate down at the park to set off loads of fireworks...simultaneously.  Spectate at your own risk, however.  These people are not exactly professionals, no matter what they might think.

Due to the holiday falling on a Sunday, our parade took place a day early.  But that was alright, as it afforded us to head about 8 blocks west to enjoy another neighborhood parade.  We have friends that live along Collins Park and they hold a brunch every year.  Usually we are sprinting from our parade onto this one which typically begins one hour after ours begins, but it was a leisurely year since they were held on separate days.

Though our parade continues to grow every year, theirs is even bigger and grander than ours - an entire neighborhood community coming together in celebration this one day of the year in a way that we don't typically find these days.  In fact, you could almost see the spectral vision of Norman Rockwell as the Grand Marshal leading the scores of families in all their red, white and blue glory.

Anna said, "The bagpipes make me smile."

Of course, it wouldn't be a holiday without candy (groan).  Anna now has two buckets full of sweets.
I'll have to covertly throw away pieces here and there so she doesn't eat ALL of it.

After the parade, the skies opened up and dumped rain all afternoon.  We stayed home and watched a movie, but at bedtime we heard a lot of explosive commotion going on outside.

The rain had subsided and the sky was lit up with a combination of fireflies and fireworks.  We walked down to the edge of the park so Anna could watch a bit of the show.  She was so tired, though, it was only a couple of minutes before she asked to go back home to bed.  On the way back she said, "When I grow up I'll be able to set off those firework bombs."

It was actually quite relaxing, walking home in the dark with just the flurry of booms, pops, crackles and whistles surrounding us audibly from every direction, and the smell of gunpowder and earth intensified by the earlier rain.  Amazing how the noisiest night of the year can still be so peaceful.

Happy July 4th, everyone.

Happy Father's Day!

Loving the Dad

We celebrated Father's Day early --tonight-- by having dinner al fresco including homemade guacamole, tin-foil dinners on the grill, s'mores, and a cold rose wine (cream soda for Anna).

Anna decided we should go ahead and give Alex his present...squirt guns!!!  

Right before dinner we had filled up the wading pool, so it was the perfect spot to "re-load" the guns with ammunition.  

We all chased each other around the yard, as the fireflies dodged around the streams of water in the air.

What a great night.  

We're saving his card for tomorrow, and I can't wait to see him open it.  Here's a sneak peek.

In closing, I was looking for a quote about fatherhood, and I stumbled across this one which would seem more appropriate 6 months from now, but I love it so much I think it's good for any day, any season.  Here it is:

"There are three stages of a man's life:  He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn't believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus."  ~Author Unknown

And the rain came down

Anna:  Mom!  This looks like chocolate milk!

Recital

Today was Anna's first (and perhaps last) ballet recital. 

 It was touch-and-go leading up to the performance, but she did a beautiful job.  You could see she was singing the lyrics "Under a Winter Star" throughout, and when she couldn't remember the move she was supposed to be doing she would improvise.  The only hiccup was when she got distracted by the "sparkles" on stage and stopped to bend over and collect them.  These would be the sequins that had fallen off of the previous dancers.  At least it happened towards the end of the number.  But she almost got her little tutu run over by the other dancers leaving the stage, engrossed in sparkly things as she was.





Despite her enthusiasm to enroll in ballet class five months ago, for whatever reason she didn't particularly enjoy the classes this semester, and was very vocal about her dislike.  When pressed one day she told me that she wanted to do HER dance, not THEIR dance.  I told her that to be on stage at the recital she needed to dance the same as the other girls.  When she learned there was a stage involved, not to mention a costume, she begrudgingly relented.  It's too early to tell if this was a turning point for her, or an ending point.  She adores dancing and singing, and says she wants to do drama classes again, which we will do in the late fall.  Ballet re-enrollment is still very much up in the air.  Oh well, next week we begin soccer.  One thing at a time.

Life is the accumulation of experiences, right?

Cruisin'

Our Ship: The Disney Wonder

In celebration of several milestones (Anna's 4th birthday, Alex graduating with his MBA, our 10 year wedding anniversary) we decided to take a real vacation.  We left on May 9th on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas.  Of course, we took the nanny (that would be our friend, Liz - inside joke).  After a long day of travel just to get to Cape Canaveral, we boarded the ship in the afternoon and after settling into our cabin, Anna and I went for a swim in a Mickey Mouse shaped swimming pool.

That night we watched the first of several Broadway caliber shows, The Golden Mickeys.  Before the show began, Anna was recruited to be one of the seven dwarfs in the production.  She did a great job and didn't have one ounce of stage fright...amazing.  Of course, it may be that she was too star struck by Snow White to notice much of anything else.  She almost fell off the stage at the end because her eyes were glued to the princess in awe.  (If you're looking, she's 4th to the left of Snow White - staring intently at her.)

The next  day we arrived in Nassau where we did a dolphin excursion.  We were in the water petting and playing with this amazing creature, and I struggle to find the words to explain what it was like.  In the absence of eloquence, let me just say...it was so cool!  Then we played on a gorgeous white sand beach before heading back to the ship to clean up for dinner.  Let me interject that the dinners on the ship -- the restaurants, the menus, the wines, the staff -- were amazing.



The next day was spent on Castaway Cay, their private island.  Alex and I abandoned Liz and Anna and went snorkeling.  Anna was busy as a bee with her pail and shovel in the sand, while the rest of us got lazy, and not just a little sunburned.

The Flying Dutchman

That night there was a Pirates In the Caribbean deck party, complete with all the Disney characters and fireworks at sea.  After the party broke up, they played the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie on the big screen (think drive-in movie theater size) which hovers over the family "Goofy" pool.  By the way, swimming while watching a movie on a theater-sized screen is highly UNDER-rated.  I'm thinking of asking our builder to work something up for the new house, but I'm pretty sure that will put us over budget.  Ha ha.


 The last day was spent at sea.  We sent Anna to the Oceaneer's Lab to make Flubber while the adults chatted over espresso martinis in the coffee bar.  We laughed while discussing how Liz thought our animal shaped towels in our room looked to her like a turkey carcass ready for roasting (it was a hanging monkey).

Our last morning, I stepped out onto our verandah and took one last deep breath of ocean air.  

Om.  Back to reality, but it was completely worth it.

P.S.  Just look at this kid, having the time of her life.

The End