In all Fairness...

2007 Topsfield Fair (oldest fair in the country)...

World Record-Setting Giant Pumpkin (lower left corner)



How many farmers does it take to weigh a giant squash?




The contestants



Bryn and Aunt Laura ride the pachyderm

Our talented Children

click here to see the jib jab movie. Curse you Karen! I wasted most of my day messing around at jibjab. I demand you come and clean my house for me.

Top Events of the Weekend:

1. Baking a German chocolate cake from scratch because Market Basket doesn't carry the mix or the frosting. Oh yeah, Peter turned 30 yesterday.

2. Discovering that Calvin really loves musicals. We watched Kiss Me Kate and Brigadoon.

3. Scoring a free white crib I was going to pay lots of money for because Carrie was kind enough to call me from a garage-sale leftover free-for-all.

4. Bryn finding her new birthday dress from Grandma and putting it on for church (yes, her birthday is still 2 months away

5. Watching Karen and Zack dance like it was 1974 and being inspired to boogy myself.

Oh who are the animals in your neighborhood?

As I drove down the road toward my house this morning (about 0.4 miles away, to be precise), a large furry coyote jaywalked right in front of me. I stared in disbelief for a few seconds, and continued on my way. We live adjacent to a large piece of conservation. I guess I'll keep better track of my bite-sized kids when we go for walks in the woods now. But it was pretty cool to sight it, anyway.

Random Coyote facts that pertain to my life: my name at the Teton Science School was Cami Coyote, I grew up to the sounds of coyote song twice a day from the coyote farm down the street, and I spent a semester doing some *volunteer* work there (*i.e. grades for free college student labor).

Altered floor plans

More house stuff...

While the walls were gutted, we decided to change the floor plan into an open style floor plan. We knocked out the left kitchen wall and built a new one where the new oven is. We also put in a stackable washer/dryer unit (instead of side by side), a dishwasher and disposal (which weren't there before) and ceiling lights in all the rooms. I created the floor plans with the free Jordan's Furniture floor planner (at their website) and the 3-D model of the new floor plan using Google Sketchup (also free, but you have to download it).

Preschool or bust

Bryn started preschool this week. We're doing a co-op with 4 other little kids (all new families in the ward). She seems to enjoy it so far, and I am certainly enjoying it (it's amazing how much easier shopping is with only Calvin). Calvin seems the happiest of all (that may have something to do with unrestricted access to Bryn's toys, me, etc.).

After photos

So as not to depress anyone with the fire photos, here are photos of the completed construction. The house had to be gutted to the frame, so needless to say the remodel was extensive and included a design change in the kitchen: we knocked out a wall and built one in a different place. We're very happy with the changes, but would *highly* suggest not going about remodeling via housefire.

Fire photos

We had a house fire in February which ate our kitchen and ruined pretty much everything else with smoke and soot damage. We were finally able to move back in August 15th.

Our Friend at Friendly's

Tonight, our family ventured out to Friendly's for dinner. Our booth was situated next to another family out celebrating their beloved only son's First Birthday. Both our sons sat in high chairs with a big blue balloon tied to each, and seemed to be around the same age. I will now compare and contrast our two children, hereafter called Ry-Ry and Cal:

Ry-Ry's appearance: a smart argyle sweater vest with matching khaki shorts and loafers with socks. His hair was combed and possibly gelled into perfect place.

Cal: Over sized long sleeved polo with peanut butter and jam embroidery, hair as fuzzy as no hair gets, and shoes present, but on the table near the appetizers and not on his feet (I guess it could have been worse). Pants: 2.1 miles away on our kitchen floor.

Ry-Ry's vocabulary: Occasional piped "huppee burdy" to himself, and his parents kept urging him to say his alleged favorite words like "canine, feline, and equine."

Cal: Pointed to a painting of a carousel and said "gruck. BROO-ROO-ROOM."

Ry-Ry's dinner manners: sat politely in the restaurant provided wooden high chair and ate his steak tips with vegetables, and except for the occasional extra long gawk at Calvin, behaved like an angel.

Cal: After staring at his hot dog and mac and cheese special, crammed 3 stolen fries from my plate, and then launched as many hot-mac-missiles at Bryn he could fire off before having his catapult (aka fork) confiscated. He then proceeded to unbuckle the childproof buckle on his plastic high chair, climbed down, and ran around trying to trip waitresses for the rest of the evening.

What Ry-Ry did with the balloon on his high chair: Smiled angelically at the great blue orb for a few seconds, and proceeded to pour A-1 on his steak tips.

Cal: after freeing himself from the confines of his chair, maniacally pulled the balloon down and tried to eat it. Being engrossed in his prey, loses his balance and falls to the ground with the freed balloon (the string snapped in the process), and starts laughing at himself, the balloon and the waitress on the ground. Eventually he lets the balloon go up to the ceiling, and spends the rest of the night jumping for it.

Bryn: at the end of the meal, leans over our booth to Ry-Ry's booth, and with a mouth full of food sings "Huppy Burdy" to Ry-Ry, spewing bits of hot dog on Ry-Ry's dad as she does so.

I'm sure Ry-Ry's mom was going to ask if we could set up a playdate, but we left too quickly. Perhaps we'll meet again at Friendly's.

The first one

Just to get it out of the way...

Here's a family photo of us up at the Ward Campout this year in Sharon, VT (camp Joseph).

No broken finger this year. I'd keep my fingers crossed, but it doesn't bend that way anymore.