reassurance

Allison to me this morning as I was fixing my hair, "You definitely don't look 100 years old."

the halloweeners

I know I haven't been blogging a lot lately. Life around here is as busy as ever but I've been training for this upcoming cancer charity walk for months and it's been so time-consuming for so long that frankly I've had to miss out on a lot of activities with the kids that would normally serve as blogging material. John and the kids give me the summary of what I missed afterwards but I don't feel like I can write about something I wasn't there to experience. A couple of times I sent my camera along with John but he forgot to use it. I just don't understand a person who doesn't feel the need to take pictures every few minutes. My walk is less that 3 weeks away now and I'm looking forward not only to completing it but also to getting my life back to normal.

I decided to post about Halloween though for us the Halloween season, as it's become for us, isn't over yet--we still have a huge costume party to attend this upcoming weekend.

Here is a look at our Halloween so far. The weekend before Halloween the girls got their costumes on for the first time and we stopped at Grandma's house on the way to meet up with friends at a pumpkin patch in her area. The girls each chose their own costumes and Allison definitely wins the award for most absorbed into her character this year. She was shouting over and over again, "I am the USA....cheerleader!" while shaking her pom-poms around and jumping. Kate was definitely jealous of Allison's costume and asked to borrow the pom-poms several times. In exchange she offered Allison her giraffe head, which Allison never wanted since it wouldn't match her dress.


At the pumpkin patch that morning we found our friends, though some have reached the stage where they are too cool for a staged group photo and aren't pictured below.

And the girls picked out some pumpkins since they would be going with John to a pumpkin-carving party later that day (an example of something I missed, since I had to go walking instead).


Then the girls' school held it's Halloween parade after school on thursday. Kids weren't allowed to wear their costumes during the school day but afterwards a large number of parents showed up and most of the kids and teachers participated. On the left is Allison's teacher and her class.



This photo of Kate's class lineup strikes me as funny. A cute little giraffe in the middle of all kinds of dark characters and superheros. In the course of the parade some older kids came up to Kate and commented in a distinct wise-assery voice, "Hmm. I would have thought a giraffe would be TALLER. Who ever heard of a short giraffe?" I had to kinda tell those kids to get lost.

On Halloween the girls and I walked to a nearby church which was having a fall harvest festival which was open to the public. The girls played some games and since we showed up during the last hour of the event, they were given out huge handfuls of candy instead of a single piece per game.



The church volunteers passed out little bags for the kids to hold all of their candy and prizes and by the time we got home they had a pretty good sized stash each. I looked through their bags and found the predictable annoying little churchy "Have a fun Halloween but remember Jesus died for you" brochure in each one, so I tossed them out before the girls noticed them. They already know that candy isn't healthy and can rot their teeth, they don't need their fun further dampened by the threat of eternal damnation.

Back at home I had some decorating to do to get ready for the evening. I put a few more things up this year than I have in years past. I was happy to have a home to be able to decorate again, since last Halloween we were living in an apartment.



As for the pumpkins, John and the girls bought and carved four the week before, but just as I thought would happen, they were moldy by Halloween. One was so moldy that it was already liquefying and I had to throw it out. The others were at least still mostly intact though getting squishy, but I put still candles in a couple of them. I figured a little mold could only add to the scary nature of the porch.

Before John and the girls went to their carving party we scooped out the pumpkins. Normally I don't buy pumpkins at a patch because they cost more ($20 for 4). As I was scooping them I was surprised to see how quickly and easily they could be cleaned out. A few days later I bought some cheapo grocery store pumpkins (5 for $7.50) so we'd have some fresher jack-o-lanterns and they were a HUGE pain to get cleaned out, requiring 10-15 minuntes of scraping and scooping each, just as they are every year. I have no idea why there was a difference, but if fresher pumpkins from a patch are always that much easier to deal with I'll happily pay $5 for them again.

I carved my cheapo pumpkins and placed them among the older ones we had and got everything lit up just in time for night fall:



And it all looked pretty good for a one hour effort, I guess. After dinner the girls headed out with John and I stayed to pass out candy. Each year they go to a few more houses and are gone a little longer. Erin used to visit just our neighboring few houses, then more of our street, then some cross streets, and this year they were gone with John for a hour and came home with huge sacks of candy.


Back at home I faced the most treat-or-treaters that I can remember at this house. I think I passed out 9 or 10 bags of candy and I got lots of compliments from many groups of kids for the decorations and the pumpkins. When the girls got back home and into their pajamas they loved answering the door and seeing how other kids were dressed and passing out our candy to them.

All the decorations, inside and out, are now put away, except for the costumes. Gotta dress up one more time this weekend and our Halloween season will finally be concluded... just in time for Thanksgiving.

the joys of second grade

Having wiggly teeth to play with in the middle of class,
Discussing and comparing wiggly teeth with friends,
Getting told, "Hey, that's a nice new hole in your head you have there!"
Relaying the story about how said new hole in the head was produced,
Getting to completely gross out your relatives as you bite into something while your loosest tooth hangs on, incomprehensibly, by a thread-like bit of gum tissue,
Having to find new ways to say words you previously had no trouble with,
Having to find new ways to eat food you previously had no trouble with,
Having an excuse to spray/spit food at the dinner table,
Having your piggy bank grow $2 fatter.

erin's pizza to potluck

Fall is definitely here, Erin's birthday has always marked that transition for me, and the funny thing is that I guess it does for Allison too. For one recent homework assignment Kate and Allison were to draw three signs of fall, and one of the things Allison drew was Erin and a birthday cake. Allison will inform you that her own birthday, which is only 19 days prior to Erin's, falls at the end of summer.

No sooner did we clean up and recover from the twins' birthday than it was time to celebrate for Erin's 7th, on the weekend before her actual birthday. Luckily, I planned a party for her away from home so my effort in the day would be pretty minimal. Nearby is a cooking school for kids and on weekends they host birthday parties where the kids can make and then eat a meal. For Erin's age group the suggested meal is mini-pizzas and each child would make their own from scratch.

When the kids arrived for the party they all were given a plain white chef's hat to decorate. An interesting phenomenon started to develop as the kids arrived and sat down--boys very distinctly sat on one area and the girls sat in another. I hadn't observed this at any of my kids' or my kids' friends' previous parties. One boy arrived, took a quick look at the surroundings and the activity getting underway and made it clear to his mom that he was not interested in staying, and they left. John chuckled at that. "R. has definitely turned that corner," John said, "And I don't blame him. If I were 7 I don't think I'd want to be here either."

After hat decorating the kids assembled around two big tables to start making the pizza dough.



And then each child was given a portion of dough to knead. Some of the boys were getting pretty violent with the kneading and pounding, and one started karate-chopping his.

"If you want to karate chop your pizza dough," the lead instructor announced,"it's fine with me but I want to hear some loud HI-YA! yells to go along with it!" Then the kids rolled out their dough and shaped it. The girls tried making perfectly round circles for the most part, a couple of them made hearts. I think a couple made squares.



But the boys had different ideas and all of them made very careful and specific non-shapes.
"Mine is shaped like a swamp! I'm having swamp pizza!"
"Mine is a golf course and I'm going to make a sand trap with pineapple!"
"Mine is a blob monster pizza!"


After topping their pizzas and getting them into the oven one of the instructors had all the kids assemble and she got a white board out and she asked the kids to let her know what topping selections they'd chosen with a show of hands for each. "Make a bar graph!" said one of Erin's friends, and then she did, but she didn't create a title for the graph or label the X and Y axis at first, so the kids reminded her to add those in.

Next the kids sang to Erin and the cake was cut up and prepared to serve while the kids sat down to eat their fresh pizzas for lunch.



The circles were tasty, the hearts were yummy, and despite the one boy's horror at this particular birthday party setting, the other boys seemed to have a lot of fun and the swamp pizzas disappeared too.





Erin's actual birthday was a thursday and a school day of course, but her birthday was broadcast for the whole school to hear in morning announcements, I packed some surprise little treats and a card in her lunch box, her teacher gave her a birthday pencil (they don't allow kids to have birthday parties in class, takes up too much time), and she reported lots of special comments and attention from other kids all day long.

Several days before her birthday I was picking up the girls from their after school care center when I learned that the director there, a super cool woman named Julie who the kids really adore, would be leaving her job and a goodbye potluck dinner was being organized for her last day, the evening of October 1st. The assistant director asked me if we'd come to the potluck and with Erin at my side I mentioned that thursday was Erin's birthday and she may want to go out to dinner or something, when Erin interjected, "NO! We HAVE to come to Julie's party and tell her goodbye!" Okay, I answered, it was her birthday and we'd spend it the way she chose.

Erin made a really pretty, thoughtful card for Julie and we all had a nice time at the potluck. As that wound down the and we were saying goodbyes the asst. director told us that we couldn't leave until everyone sang happy birthday for Erin.


Back at home Erin finally got to open her presents, including a new outfit from Grandma and a Irish dancing teddy bear she asked for, and a animal clinic and surgery center play set, since Erin sometimes talks about being a veterinarian someday and likes to tend to her animal toys. She was delighted with everything and with the way she chose to spend her evening.

"when they're five"

One day, when the twins were just a few weeks old, I was walking across the parking lot of the local Target with the girls in their double infant stroller. A woman, walking in the opposite direction, looked at me and them and stopped. "Oh, my," she said. "I've got twins too. Don't worry, it gets easier...when they're five."

And here we are.

I have to disagree that it's easier now though. Back then the twins just ate and slept and needed their bottoms wiped, though they needed a lot of each. Nowadays they're fast and hard to catch, they talk back and complain about what's for dinner. Not everything has changed, though.
"Mama, Daddy! I need help! Come here! I used up all the toilet paper and I STILL have a messy bottom!"

And Kate still gives me this look:

It's sometimes hard for me to believe, but we've survived five years with the twins, or rather, they have survived five years with us.

The girls' birthday was this past saturday, a convenient day to host a party for them one would think, but then for some reason it became the day where everything in the universe was happening.

On their birthday was the first day of German school for the fall semester, our elementary school was holding it's annual fall family fun day, a good friend of mine who lives in Alaska now was in the area and hosting a big BBQ with tons of old friends, and my department at the hospital was holding it's annual end of summer family picnic. I made a decision early on to decline all non-supremely kid-oriented invitations. We really needed to go to our first day back at German school, but other than that, the twins got to call the shots.

I decided against trying to have their party that day since many of the likely invitees would want to go to the big school event, so their party was scheduled for sunday. On friday night the girls informed us that they really wanted to go out to breakfast at their FAVORITE restaurant on earth, IHOP, before German school. No problem. And I brought two kinds of cookies with us on saturday to the school so that they could share them with their new class and have a mini-celebration. Their teacher, fortunately, was the same one that they had last year and was more than happy to comply. "The kids all sang to us in German AND in English!" they later explained.

I asked them what they wanted to do that afternoon and they did in fact want to go to family fun day at the school, which started at 4:00. We went home, had lunch, they opened presents from us and all the cards they'd received in the mail and later on we headed there. They had a great time with the games and activities and then per their request, we went to dinner at a restaurant that would rank in their top five I'd say--Applebee's.

It was a busy, action and sugar and present-packed day, and their real party was yet to come, and just because we didn't have enough to do in the weekend, I let a colleague talk me into doing a 5K walk with her in the morning before the party.

Last year Kate's broken arm put a huge wrench into the birthday plans I made, where I planned s single party for all three girls, but at a place you can't go if you are wearing a cast. So that got cancelled and I didn't have enough time to plan a replacement since we were packing and moving into an apartment. After our move last year, we did go to Disneyland in early october and we tried to make up for their cancelled party by doing the birthday-related special activities that the park offered.

This year I decided the twins and Erin probably would appreciate their own separate parties. The twins and I came up with a zoo theme for theirs. For the backyard I reserved a giraffe bounce house (one of Kate's favorite animals, ever) and decorated with alternating colors of green streamers in the family room and playroom and out on the deck to kind of look like vines and such. I got animal print balloons and zoo animal plates and spread out dozens of cheap little plastic toy animals (the kinds that you buy in bags like army men) on all of the tables.

Our party was after lunch so I only served snacks and cake and drinks. I couldn't really think of what would be good zoo food so I served veggie snacks (which, along with some cold cuts and cheeses, was more for the adults) and fruit and put out bowls labeled Gorilla Munch (popcorn), Seal Snacks (goldfish crackers), and Bear Biscuits (animal crackers). John was disappointed in my incomplete alliteration.



The kids were having fun in the bounce house and with our play structure and with coloring their own animal masks.

And then my surprise entertainment showed up--a woman and her 6 performing parrots. The kids were in the midst of other things, all running around and being as loud as could be and I didn't know how I'd round them up and get them quiet enough to pay attention to anything in particular, when the woman suggested she just bring out one large parrot first and start to talk to the adults about it and sooner or later the kids would realize what was going on and come over.

After a minute or so, as the adults got photo opportunities with the parrot, Erin noticed what was going on "Hey everyone! Look!" she shouted and pointed while running around the yard, going kid to kid like Paul Revere on his mission, "A bird! A REAL bird! Right over there!"

And almost all at once all the kids got quiet and rushed over to see while parrot lady's husband set up the stage on the lawn.





The parrots performed all sorts of tricks: basketball, bowling, riding a bike, roller skating, raising a flag, opening a can of soda, putting mini groceries into a mini shopping cart on a shopping excursion, and of course talking and singing. One parrot did this rehearsed banter back and forth with the trainer which was fun to hear. The kids were pretty much enthralled the entire time. I've never seen so many small children so quiet for so long.

My brother brought his little dog over for the afternoon and per the trainer's request he was kept off to the side and on a leash. He was really interested in the birds though and he barked at them periodically. After Chimmy barked, the parrots barked back, which kept confusing the trainer about where the dog actually was, and if he'd gotten loose and was near the birds.

At one point the bright, large multi-colored parrot climbed down from his perch and came around from the table and started to come near the kids. All at once they squealed and pointed and shouted. "He was coming after your goldfish crackers," the trainer explained. "That's one of his favorite snacks."

Kate and Allison got to be the show special helpers, holding props and feeding little treats to the birds too.


After the show all the kids (and an uncle or two) were given a chance to pose for a picture with the parrot of their choice.


A little while after the bird show was cake time. The cake was a lion's face made up of chocolate and white cupcakes, with a twin's name on each cheek.

We lit the candles and sang to the girls individually, giving each a chance to feel like the center of attention and blow out their candles on their own.

It was a great party, if I do say so myself. The twins had a really fun, special day and weekend, and even I found having a bounce house in my own backyard irresistible.

mom, dad...i'm gaelic

Last weekend we all visited the local, gigantic, annual Scottish Festival and Highland Games. I took the kids and went last year for the first time--this year John agreed to go along, though I think he thought the idea was kinda silly. Silly? C'mon now, where else can you go to listen to a rock band featuring bagpipes?

There were craftspeople making and selling things everywhere. This man (a Scottish immigrant) was carving celtic symbols into stones. He talked a lot and had much longer stories to tell about various stones (both already carved and not yet carved) than one would really think possible. I wasn't quite sure why anyone would sit and carve celtic symbols into stone and I was less sure why people would buy them.

These people were all dressed in costume from, I don't know, some past century or another. The idea here was you go up and talk to the people and ask them about their clothes and their furnishings and so forth and they'd tell you about that period in history and how people lived. The girls thought they all looked too strange to approach and speak to though.

As we walked around a few of the friendlier, more outgoing participants managed to get the girls to talk to them, and even pose with them for a picture.

After a while the girls got more curious about the displays and props.

Next we watched some sheep dog trials and then visited and petted some Clydesdale horses, visited some handlers with their birds of prey on display, and then watched all the different Scottish clan representatives march in to the area where the games would go on later in the day.

It took quite a while for everyone to march in, I couldn't begin to count the number of family clans represented there. We saw and waved to John's "clan" representative and then when the ceremony concluded we wandered over to the clan tent area and we found John's.


Once we got there John seemed more enthusiastic about this whole festival than I expected him to be. He signed us in and met the other folks who stopped by, and we all met the clan organization representative who we saw in the ceremony and they talked a little about where each of their families originated. The girls thought it was neat to be reminded of where their name comes from. Kate and Allison wore shirts with their last name and family tartan on them, which was met with lots of positive comments in the clan tent and throughout the day.

And on we went, to look at all the people dressed in a way that fit right in around there, but would gather a lot of stares if they were anywhere else that day. "Daddy should be wearing HIS kilt!" the girls observed a few times.



And we watched some of the pipe and drum bands compete:


As they did last year, the girls had a great day. There was so much to see and do, and though there were some vendors selling meat pies and fish & chips, the girls opted for hot dogs and ice cream, which always help make for a successful outing.

We went to a children's area where the girls all played some old Scottish games for prizes, like ring toss, darts, and the always popular "Haggis Toss":

And golf, of course. Opa would be so proud, I told them.

Lastly we watched older kids compete in highland dancing , which I didn't get a picture of this time around, but I did last year:



Erin asked, "Do the girls have to wear their hair up in a bun like that?" "Yes," I told her, "it's part of the outfit and it keeps their hair out of their face while they dance."
"I'm going to learn Scottish dancing and dance on that stage when I'm older," she advised me, "But I have to wait until my hair is long enough to put in a bun." At least she has clarity on the amount of time and work that's involved.

We were at the festival for more than six hours and we never did make it back over to the main arena to see the actual Highland Games, John reminded me as we left, right after we stopped back by that celtic stone carver and selected a stone for our front garden area. Thoroughly useless, but somehow kinda cool we concluded. As for seeing the Highland Games, ah well, there is always next year. Plenty of time for John to get a family clan kilt of his own.

my mom's version of r&r

Last week Mom came west for a visit. She's not the first guest to stay in our new guest room, and not the first grandma either, but she was our longest-duration guest so far. It's nice to have room for relatives to stay here. The last time Mom visited she had to stay at a nearby hotel.

The girls were very excited about Grandma Jan's upcoming visit. I think they would have been even more excited if they knew what was in store for them during the week.

The theme for this visit was "dessert". Honestly, I don't know when we've had so many desserts. The day mom arrived I made us dinner at home, including brownies and ice cream. The next day while the kids were at school and I was at work, mom made "special jello" she had been talking to the girls about. When John and I make jello we usually just make it plain. I sometimes put fruit in it. Mom thinks that's boring and she mixes some of the jello with Cool Whip and then makes alternating layers of jello + fruit with the cream/jello mix. Around here, that's WAY fancy. So the girls were thrilled to have that to look forward to after dinner on monday.

On tuesday my brother and his wife came over for dinner so mom and I cooked all afternoon and mom taught me to make these great pear tarts for dessert:


Then another workday for me came and in my absence my mom got busy picking some of our apples and making pie. And lasagna for dinner that night.

I've never made apple pie. John's mom makes some from our apples sometimes and both Dora and my mom make some really killer apple pies. "You know," John told mom, "there are a LOT more apples on that tree and some extra pies wouldn't be a bad idea...." Mom didn't mind the overt hint and she made and froze two more pies for us to bake in the future.

Mom wanted to go shopping to buy the girls outfits as presents for their upcoming birthdays one morning while they were at school, so we did that too.

So by thursday I was feeling pretty guilty about having taken advantage of my mom's free labor in our kitchen. We had a fridge overflowing with food from each of the previous night's dinners and leftover desserts everywhere, though those were more rapidly disappearing. "Let's go out tonight," I offered. "Someplace you like. Someplace with good seafood, or mexican, or whatever. You've been here several days and all you've done is pick up my kids from school and cook for us."

"I lived here for 15 years. I'm not a tourist, I don't need to be taken places. Let's have leftovers," mom countered. I tried but I couldn't persuade her otherwise. I was imagining the eye-rolls from her friends back home when she returned and described her "wonderful" "exciting" trip out west to see her family. They are going to think we're a bunch of dead-beats.

When I did occasionally let mom out of the kitchen, she was promptly put to work as a hairdresser. I don't know how that came about. Either she offered or the girls begged her or some combination of the two led her to put braids into their hair. Several braids. Every day. Sometimes done in the evening after a bath and then touched up the next morning before school.


Finally, on friday evening, her last evening here, we met with my brother and sister-in-law again and went out for dinner, to a place I like and my brother likes, but my mom wasn't so sure about. We went to a German restaurant with a nice courtyard/biergarten and live music.





As usual, when Brad is around he is the center of the girls' attention, and their favorite dance partner.

It was a nice warm evening and great be dining outside and we were there for hours. The food was good, the beers were large, the music was jazz, which wasn't what I was hoping to hear, personally. I really would have preferred fun German folk music, but I guess I'll get enough of that soon enough when we return here with friends for Oktoberfest. Brad knows the owners of this resturant and tried to get Erin to speak to a waitress he knows in German, which he's heard her doing a lot lately, but she doesn't like performing on demand.

Mom, despite her week's various duties of migrant farm worker, chauffeur, children's personal shopper, resident chef, and on-demand hairstylist, said she had a great visit. WE sure had a great visit. And I'm sure she's happy to be back home and I hope she is able to rest after her "relaxing" vacation.