"it was the best Halloween of my whole life"

"It was the best Halloween of my whole life" E cheered as we walked home tonight. He really "got" the whole holiday this year and hit the streets with Owen and Moo, yelling "more house, more candy".



Little Miss went along with everything - all from the safe ride of the front pack. Lots of people asked what house was handing out the pretty babies. Back off people, she's ours!


The three amigos stopped at tons of houses - they were really into it. Moo is the perfect candy corn and Owen is the biggest candy-driven frog you've ever met.






Below - Tall House, Double Cup as Capt. America's arch enemey Greenie Meanie. Nana & neighbor Greg make a striking couple.

farmer's market parade

I haven't been blogging because Nana is visiting and we've been busy playing with the kidlets, getting pedicures and going out on the town. Fun fun fun!
We did capture some pictures at the Farmer's Market Halloween parade -it was totally insane - packed with families toting costumed kids and civilians just trying to get their squash.
Em took it all in from the safety of the front pack. Sweet baby leopard!

We are a Boston Red Socks home - and have been since E was two and got a t-shirt and hat from Uncle Chris and Auntie Jen - the Boston dwellers. You can imagine the excitement in our house over the world series this year.

Check out E - you can almost picture him with a beer in his hand at the fifth quarter of a Badger game when he's in college.

E's doing his happy dance over some great play - his happy dance usually involves mooning us at some point. Even Little Miss is in on the action - sporting Tall House, Double Cup's St. Patrick's Day Red Sox cap.

it's happening so fast

See this little muffin? She slept 9 (9!) hours in a row last night! No waking, no bottle. Just pure sleep. Which means we got 7 hours in a row - thank you Little Miss. It just seems like everything is happening so fast. She's such a tall drink of water - full of happiness and gurgles. When she wakes up, she practices every sound she knows how to make. When you catch her eye, she instantly smiles at you. When you feed her a bottle, she tried to hold it. We are in awe.

pumpkin patch

We had the smallest window of no rain this weekend so we hit the pumpkin patch. This year we went to Lee Family Farms which is down in Tualatin. Lots of our friends had already been and we had heard reports of a hayride and apple cider donuts.
I was so intent in making sure everyone had the right clothes to stay warm, that we were stocked on diapers/wipes/snacks, and that I remembered my knitting, I jumped in the car without bothering to look at my feet. It wasn't until I got out of the car at the farm that I realized I was still wearing my house flip-flops. Lovely. While everyone else was properly booted up, I was holding onto E like I was 85 years-old, just trying to stay upright in the mud. At least I hope most of it was mud.
We did have a great time in spite of my insane shoes. The kidlets put up with my picture taking and we got a perfect pumpkin for carving.
And E had his first carmel apple. Yum!

manly man meal

Tall House, Double Cup had only one request returning from his overseas trip - beef stew over polenta. So while the boys slept in, Little Miss and I spent the morning in the kitchen getting it going - the stew is SO good after a day simmering away on the back burner. I added some yams to the carrots and potatoes to boost the veggie goodness. I made yummy polenta for the base and poured the stew over.
And here is THDC with his manly man meal - beef stew over polenta with a glass of Jamison's on the rocks and a glass of Amador County Zinfindel. So happy.

he's home, he's home!

We are all so happy to report that Tall House, Double Cup is home from his Taiwan trip. He brought E a rocket and robot. He brought Em the sweetest Chinese silk dress and pink jammies. He meant to bring me a big bottle of good vodka (does he know me, or what)? But had duty-free shop issues.
We are looking forward to a weekend of happy snuggling. THDC's dying for beef stew over polenta - have you ever had it? It's amazing? So we'll be cooking, reading, and maybe hitting up the pumpkin patch.

A bit of eye candy - I just got these gorgeous pottery balls at the sweet little garden shop down the street. They matched up with one of my bowls perfectly. They make me so happy.

little muffin tops

While we are missing THDC dearly, we somehow managed to be organized enough tonight to have time to make pumpkin muffins after dinner. We've cut out all tv on school nights (for E - not for us - ha! it's good to be the parent!) so we have more time to play, practice Spanish, bake, etc. The muffins turned out perfect! And Little Miss is a great observer in her bumbo seat. She got a little tangled up with the whisk so we switched to a wooden spoon.
E is going to bring muffins for his teachers . . . sweet boy.

project office inspiration

The dahlia's are gone from the market - though a few are still waiting to bloom in my yard - so I switched over to true fall flowers for my weekly office inspiration - hydrangeas that are kissed red from the sun and growing in my yard.

I also added a rag rug (yeah, IKEA!) to the floor - which really adds some warmth. My color scheme is supposed to be "pimento" - olive green and bright orange-y red but that was difficult to find in a rug - so I am straying into just "warm reds" - which doesn't feel as au current as pimento but when your budget is in the IKEA range you can't complain.

superstar

Moo is a true superstar. She is as loyal & stylish as her mama Marfie and I find it nearly impossible not to melt when she pouts her lower lip. I was up at her house yesterday to make sure her Halloween costume fit - it's definitely a homemade whip-up we did in just an hour or so. Please, oh please, tell me you can recognize her as candy corn. We'll definitely be shaping/styling her the eve of . . . but I think you get the drift.


I just finished up the Reid cardigan - I made it in size 2T - but I have a loose gauge and when eyeing it, I thought it just might fit Moo - and hurrah! She's a slender slip of a thing and wears it well!
Marfie remembered that it matched a hat I did for Moo earlier this year - that was supposed to match the VERY pretty flowery sweater that just never came out right. So I've redeemed myself from that terribly project. Moo was zipping around so I didn't get a super-clear shot but you'll get the feel for the ensemble!

gone daddy gone

Tall House, Double Cup is in Taiwan on a business trip - our first major trip since Little Miss was born. As his cab pulled away, I was torn between feeling confident that I could take care of everything (and everybody in our house) just fine and feeling a tremor of fear, anticipating the chaos and potential lack of sleep.

So far, we are doing well - though there was no time to grab a camera to document our fun this weekend (farmer's market, park, zoo, apple pie baking) and we are being heavily supported by the Cedros clan - thank you so much for the dinners (think steak and meatloaf people!), the zoo trip and the yum-yums. As E says, "Moo always has the best yum-yums."

Little Miss debuted in her bath chair and sat quite well - she's right in the kitchen sink - which is just where E would sit while I made dinner. Her kitten instinct kicked in and she didn't seem to mind lapping up bubbles as well as water. When she emerged, even her breath smelled of lavender.

So we are surviving without you Tall House - but you are very much missed. E asked me this morning if you'd be home for Halloween - he's getting a little worried - but I assured him you'll be back much sooner. Don't forget to buy the sweet Chinese pajamas for Little Miss!

she sits, she scores!

Little Miss is sitting! Well, kind of sitting - thanks to the bumbo chair. She's been practicing a little each night -

and is typically surprised for the first five minutes to find herself in this position - so different from how she usually spends her day. Then she has five minutes of playing around. And then a minute of fussing and we pluck her out into our loving arms.

She seems like a really big girl these days. And she continues to go to sleep smiling, wake up laughing and gurgling/taking in between. What an amazing baby she is.

bathing beauties

Little Miss went swimming for the first time this weekend. She's in the bathtub with me all the time but this was the debut of her first bikini and her first time in a real swimming pool. She loved it - but we had to keep her chin well above water because she's got that kitten instinct to lap up water like crazy.

E swam circles around us. Nothing makes me happier than to see my son become a full-on water bug. He jumps, he dives, he's even working on the front crawl. Truly, I feel just pure joy when I see hm do this. Swimming was definitely a refuge for me as a child. To see it be something E loves, makes my heart swell. If we can get Little Miss on board, this bodes wells for future beach vacations.

emp/sfhf

We had so much fun at the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
First - we learned that Little Miss definitely has her own groove thing going on and have the video to prove it:

It seemed like all of our senses were fed while we took in all of the exhibits. Tall House, Double Cup and I inched our way through the birth of the NW music scene exhibit. E was getting a bit bored but how can you walk pass Nirvana's first subpop contract? Or Eddie Vedder's hand penned lyrics? THDC was deep into all of the grunge-y bands that came through pdx in the early 90's so he was truly entranced.
E went for the birth of west coast hip hop exhibit - I think Grand Master Flash performance outfits got him rethinking his Halloween costume.
The building is beautiful and inspiring - and all of us (at least all of us in our family that can walk) found things to love in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. E found the wall of blasters through history right away while I appreciated the many exhibits on writers and THDC was sucked into anything Star Wars-Star Trek-y.
I can't wait to go back and do it all over again.

trip up north

We had a great family weekend up in Seattle. E has been dying to see the Space Needle in person after hearing about my trip there last winter for the American Library Association midwinter conference. When he actually saw it in person, he changed his mind about going up - he thought it looked "very dangerous."

We had a perfect tourist weekend - a hotel with a pool, a day at museums, dinner on the water, and someone else making the beds and cleaning up after us.

I have lots of fun pictures to post but I'll start with the perfect Seattle view - from Kerry Viewpoint in the Queen Anne neighborhood. I don't know the hoods of Seattle in depth but so far Queen Anne is definitely my favorite. If it hadn't been cloudy, you would have seen lovely Mt. Rainier in the background as well.

More tomorrow . . .

ode to Amy Karol

I am in love with a woman. Well, maybe a couple of women. But the one I want to write about today is Amy Karol - the fabu pdx sewing hipster mama with the ultimate FUN sewing book.

bend-the-rules sewing by Amy was just named one of the "tools of the trade" in this week's Willamette Week story on Crafty Bitches.

Marfie and I have been talking about working on our sewing projects together and calling ourselves "sew fun". hee hee.

Check out the flickr set of people's projects from Amy's book. I was the lucky recipient of two bibs from a dear friend who happens to be the #1 contributor to the flickr set.

Amy is doing a book signing/donut party (can you see why I love her?) next month at my neighborhood fabric shoppe. I can't wait.

I have to - have to - have to finish Em's Christmas stocking . . . but a sewing project is calling . . . .

captain america is here

Captain America made a surprise appearance at our house last night. Brandishing his shield, Captain America posed, kicked, punched and kung foo-d his way through dangerous territory.

Check him out in action.

After saving all of us, Captain America fell promptly into bed for 12 hours of sleep. He insisted keeping his costume on. Our house is truly safe from evildoers.

knitting progress

While it's taking me forever to finish a single book, I have been making some knitting progress.

First - here is the start of Little Miss's Christmas stocking. We all have handknit stockings in coordinating colors for the mantle. I have just enough yarn left for hers. If we have a third child, I don't know what will happen. I guess we'll just have to stick with two. ha! It's made with Brown Sheep wool and so fun to work on!

I am almost done with the Reid cardigan for Em as well. It's actually a 2T because I was worried I wouldn't find much time to knit after she was born but I've carved out little moments here and there.
I was too impatient to wait until I could find the pattern (it's somewhere in my crafty room) so I went ahead and did a very basic crochet around the edges. The original pattern is more lacy - but I like this look - sort of baby St. John.

sweet potato chips

E is averse to any green vegetable. He can snuff out the smallest fleck of green on this plate and suspiciously ask, "What is this?"
After many, many meals of coercing him to eat his veggies, I decided I would never again talk to him about vegetables. I would get sneaky. Enter The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chas. Her book has changed the way I make nearly every meal. Her theory works really well for me - on the weekends, create purees you can freeze in ice-cube trays to use during the week. For example, if you are making spaghetti, toss in a couple orange (carrot and yam) and green (peas, broccoli, spinach) puree cubes. The pureed veggies really do get hidden in the food. It's fabulous! And anytime you would make something with cheese like quesos or macaroni, you can easily slip in the orange puree.
This success inspired us to a couple more hidden vegie projects. E loves "chips" - and we rarely ever have chips in the house. So this weekend we made baked sweet potato chips. They were a hit plus it was a great project for us to do together - it's so simple:
Peel a sweet potato and make even thin slices (I use a mandolin).
Toss with a bit of olive oil and spread out on baking sheets. Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees - tossing around once or twice. Sprinkle with kosher salt. yum!

fall harvest

Marfie and I took the "big kids" out to Hood River on Sunday for some apple picking. We found Rasmussum farms - complete with abelskivers, pumpkin patch, bushels of pears and apples, and carmel corn. They didn't have actual trees for us to pick so we did some covert trespassing and got a great pick of our woodland sprites in a pear tree.

fall market

The market was great yesterday. Baby Sam has turned into a total toddler - complete with personal pancake and those pretty, pretty eyes.
The chef in market was Jehnee Rains from Culinary Artistry. Jehnee catered my wedding shower - which was a cooking class. She taught us how to make tarte tatin. It was such a fun surprise to see her. She was making butternut squash donuts. yum.
I heard a rumor that it was the last weekend for dahlias so I just had o go back to my orange, red and hot pink favorites. Our house is going to be a little sad without these beauties greeting us every week.
I also had a video of E and Moo dancing that I was going to post but when reviewing it, I saw that E teaches Moo how to spank her tush while shaking her groove thing. Not really something I want her parents to remember coming from us.