Boo-yah!

Halloween photos (updated!) from Arena Farms taken by my good friend Carrie B.

The Calvin Smile
The nice witch Bryn (think Kiki not of the West Astronaut Calvin version 2.0The slideshow includes my Arena Farm photos, as well as some from our front balcony and the ward trunk-or-treat party (where Calvin added a rocket to his costume courtesy of some friends in the ward). Watch for Bryn's "spooky" pose. Click here for the slide show.

Hooked on braiding, sort of worked for me.

On our drive to the Berkshires, I read a library book about braiding. It looked so easy in the book, and I felt confident that I had mastered all of the techniques by the time the drive was done. Unfortunately, the book had not a word to say about squirmy 3-year-olds, and putting my newly acquired skills into action Sunday morning was like trying to catch fish in a pond with bare hands. Eventually, with a lot of help from cartoons, we lopsidedly succeeded.

Really good cake...from a mix!

I made a good discovery yesterday- I was making a cake (from a mix, of course), and realized I was out of cooking oil. But I remember reading in the Joy of Cooking that you can substitute melted butter for oil (actually it was the other way around). So I used melted butter, and the results were fantastic. The cake was sooooo much tastier than usual mix cakes: moister, more flavorful and more "held together". Just thought I'd pass on my new baking secret, since I don't have many of them.

The Berkshire Situation

We had a lovely mini vacation at the Berkshires (mountain range in Western Mass) this week. It was one of those time share things where we payed pretty much nothing for a nice hotel in exchange for letting someone try to brow beat us into buying a timeshare condo for 90 minutes. I think it was a great deal. It was our first time there, and the foliage was still gorgeous, so we loved it.

Bryn's favorite part was the pool. The first time we went, Peter and I weren't watching her closely, and I turned around and noticed she was in and under the water. Peter jumped in and fished her out. After she got done spluttering, she proclaimed "I did it! I swam all by myself." It seems we'll have to get her some lessons sooner than later.

After our timeshare-a-thon, we hiked around Mt. Greylock. I call the picture below "Calvin Blaylock on a Green Rock at Mount Greylock." It was a fantastic Fall day for a hike.

One last photo of my extremely photogenic children (and this was the best of the batch) ...

Oh What do you do in the Autumn Time...

When it's 80 degrees in the middle of October? Go to the beach, of course! We chose Wingaersheek as our destination for today, and besides the frigid water it could have been July.

Hiking at Mt. Wachusetts

As the Mount Wachusetts came into to view while we were driving, Bryn exclaimed "that's the biggest mountain I've ever been to!" Peter and I just shook our heads in disbelief at our East coast daughter. But the "mountain" is beautiful and it was the perfect fall day for a hike.

Fun in Gardner

We spent some time in Gardner with some friends, and went to an apple farm (our first since we moved here). I can't get over the idea that people pay to pick apples here. I guess that's the problem with being raised with 5+ apple trees to add to the daily chore load. I suppose it was fun to smell rotten apples again and climb up to the good ones. But after 4-5 apples, I had totally had my fill.

Random fun memory: I used to take our rotten apples and throw them as hard as I could at our neighbor's chainlink fence to try to make them stick. Looking back, the neighbors couldn't have been too pleased about my pitching practice.

Pictures from the farm. Sorry, no apple pictures, just some cute animals and humans.

Official Autumnal Post

5 Things I hate about autumn:

• Turning on the heat (those gurgling banging hissing noises are driving me insane)
• School Traffic (like traffic wasn't already bad enough)
• Leaf litter (yes, I'm talking about you yucky wet brown leaves stuck in my windshield wipers)
• Loss of daylight hours (come on, darkness while we're at church?!?)
• Hands of the Dead (perpetually stone-cold fingers that don't type very well)

5 Things I love about autumn:

• The Autumn Leaves (the lovely sights and the song sung by Paula Cole)
• Hot Liquid (cider, chocolate, wassail, etc.)
• Sweaters and Scarves (think cashmere not briar patch)
• Down Comforters (thank you IKEA!)
• Bird Migration (I know someday the geese will let me join them)

Rainy Day Painters - for hire

I painted some wooden craftlike things with craftlike paint for Bryn's room. (I had to use a fake ID when I went to the Michael's because they all know what a disaster I am when it comes to this sort of stuff).
Bryn painted some masterpieces with washable watercolors because she can't be trusted not to also paint my pants (that I'm wearing -- which she did).

Calvin used ketchup as his medium because he can't be trusted not to eat his talents (which he did).

"I've been up all night...

And I might sleep all day" -Counting Crows

Well, Bryn has the Croup again. It's been almost two years since she was last hospitalized for it, and I had hope that she had grown out of it. *sigh*

I found her steroids used to treat it down in a box in the basement but decided to chuck them because a) they were 2+ years old, and b) they had been in the kitchen during the fire and exposed to some amount of heat, and I didn't know if that could denature them. Better safe than sorry, I guess. Here's hoping you get more sleep than we will this week.

Voice projection (reprise)

Recall (or be informed) that around the time Calvin was born, Bryn started having conversations with inanimate objects that were causing her frustration. A typical conversation went something like this:

The scene: Bryn tries unsuccessfully to pull her pants up after using the toilet
Bryn: [regular voice] Come up, come up you silly pants
Pants:[Bryn's demonic voice] But I don't wan't to come up. I thought I wanted to stay down.

These conversations with mute objects tapered off and eventually ceased. Or so we thought. The last week we've since a new incarnation: conversations with Calvin (who doesn't so much speak), and go something like this:

The scene: Bryn wants a toy that Calvin posesses and doesn't want to share
Bryn: [sugar sweet voice] Calvin, can you please share with me?
[Calvin says nothing, but clutches the toy and prepares to defend himself]
Calvin: [Bryn's demonic voice] Uh-uh, no-way, I'm going to keep it all to myself forever and ever.
[Bryn flees room sobbing]

It's pretty hard keep a straight face around such drama.

He ate what?

He's officially known in our house as The Boy Who Won't Even Eat Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs for breakfast, but last night he surprised us all by chowing down on sushi. He really wanted the wasabi sauce, but I drew the line at seaweed.