Happy Halloween

Complementary BLTs

While Drew and I both enjoyed a BLT for lunch, G wanted only bacon and lettuce and BB had hers with bacon and tomato.

I Was There

I had a lovely evening outing with Elizabeth yesterday (thanks, Eliza!): we had tapas and drinks at Extra Virgin downtown – we shared their grilled bread and ricotta (loved it), the crispy pig ear salad (my mom's was better), and Spanish meatballs (okay); and then we hopped down to the Uptown Theater to get our tickets and wait for the doors to open.

Though we regularly listen to Gaelic Storm (and Scythian) at the house – the girls love dancing to their music –, this is actually the first time I've ever seen them in concert. They come every year to the KC Irish Fest, but they're usually one of the evening headliners and we've never stuck around to see them. Last night, the funniest bit was when the lead singer talked about the time he (supposedly) donked Russell Crowe in the head – and of course there was a song about it.

E and I wrapped up our evening at the Wunderbar for more drinks. Drew was at the restaurant side, Grunauer's, last week and said how nice it was.  

Exceedingly Short Legs

I found this in BB's drawer this morning.

Reining in the Pacifier

In my continuing campaign against M's thumb sucking – I think I'm losing –, I figured it was high time I prioritized a pacifier lanyard. The other girls preferred Gerber Nuks, which have a little handle, so wouldn't you know, M prefers the Mam, which doesn't. For pack-rat reasons, I've been storing a Mam-ring (with nothing attached) for literally years, and now it's finally justified! My sewing box contained a second unused clip from back when I made Z's pacifier leash.

First Try

So a mutual friend of ours gave Elizabeth a set of these beautiful hand-painted glasses (from Syria?) that, when I saw them, made me think, "I could do that." This glass is my first attempt, after lots of practicing on paper. I wish I had bought the fine tip pen, not the medium.

From Beijing

The card says that this is Fenfangliuli Street (in Beijing), which reminds me of the street where my grandparents lived (in Taipei) when I was younger, such good memories.

From the Czech Republic

I had to Google this one: the four characters on this postcard are from a popular childrens' comic book called Ctyrlistek. Alas, there is no English translation, but we found this episode pretty entertaining.

That Handy Stool

Z recently discovered the joys of toting her own stool everywhere. Now she's getting into everything and grabbing at whatever she can reach on countertops. I'm thankful she hasn't tried to negotiate our taller white step stool yet.

The Confession

Me (to BB): Did you cut Z's hair yesterday?
BB: No!
Me: Did you cut your own hair?
(Guilty silence.)
Me: Did you?
BB (barely audible): Yes.

A School Picture

These came in a week or two ago. I could swear her hair was neatly brushed into a pony tail that day, but maybe she took it out and it had to be fixed by one her teachers.

Crime Scene Evidence

Exhibit A: A lock of hair cut from someone's head. (I suspect, but can't prove, BB did it with the blue-handled scissors at the craft table. Whose head, I don't know yet.)

Postcards

Another postcard came for me this weekend, this time from Russia: a place called Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, on the coast of the Black Sea.

 

And now that we have the printer up and running, this was the first postcard. 

Fall From Bicycle

BB got a little road rash on an evening walk Friday. Drew said there was a little bit of incline and she started going too fast – there was a spectacular head-first flip. I was round the corner with Z so I only heard the screaming. The front of the tricycle got all scratched up, as did her knee (but didn't rip the pants!), a couple of her fingers, and there's a bump on her lip and forehead. It's one of those instances where you're thankful for helmets because I think she could have had serious road rash on her face too.

Drew: Were you scared when you started going fast?
BB: No.
G: I think she liked going fast; she was scared when she fell down.
BB: Yeah, I was scared when I fell down.

Overheard Singing

G and BB at their dolls – in sing-song voices.

BB: I never wanted [sic] singing...
G: Then why don't you stop singing.

Missing Some

Pictures for most of September – I have yet to load August or any of the Florida pictures. Maybe I'll skip doing the latter, since I already show-and-tell-ed most of them anyway.

Arm Props, M Edition

Here is the Z edition – would have to do some digging for G and BB's.

The Orchid Thumb

My aralia plant died this week, I can't tell whether from too much water or not enough, the thing just started withering away. And it sounded like it was supposed to be so easy to take care of!

In other plant news, my orchid has decided to put out a new flower spike, would you believe it? It's had two new leaves and a spurt of root growth since I put it at this window – the plant in the background with the red flowers loves this window too –, and finally I'm gratified to see I'm going to get flowers too for all my "work" in keeping it alive. See them for what they were, and what they could be again.

Flower Pounding and Finger Knitting

While the other three napped, G and I raided the garden for some material for this flower pounding project. It's really not as practicable as those other kids make it look.

For one thing, "juicier" flowers/leaves just end up making a mess, while drier items don't make an impression, or at least I couldn't get them to anyway, no matter how long you pound it. In general, the flowers were more successful than the leaves, but then I only managed about three nice flowers. Maybe it would have been better had I used card stock and a gauzier fabric for covering.

G was all about the pounding, wasn't really so careful to get good placement of the flower or holding it while pounding, hence the colored blotches. She was particularly pleased – and laughed uncontrollably – when leaves and flowers would seemingly explode by the blow of her hammer.

When we ran out of flowers – slim pickings this time of year –, I taught G how to finger knit, which I saw a girl performing this same task at ballet yesterday. I'm told that girls learned how to finger knit in Girl Scouts, so I queried YouTube, the handy depository for such information: voila! Though I told G this would only really be good for a scarf, she's imagined all sorts of uses for it, e.g. socks, sewn into a shirt, which makes me think she doesn't really understand what the final product will be.

Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm

It's that time of year again: the class field trip to Faulkner's, our third year in a row. (Last year's post here.) Most of this will look pretty familiar – in a different order.

Feeding the barn animals: gross;

the hayride to view hay-animals; the caterpillar crawl;

the corn wagon;

the same story at storytime; the sorghum maze;

and free time on the playground, which the girls wanted to play with the corn kernels some more.

This year, the school told everyone to pack a lunch and we had a picnic. Though a bit overcast, the weather was the best we've ever had (for this particular field trip). Notice how Z tips her head just like G.

The water pumps were working better this year, but the ducks still don't "race" very well.

The pumpkin sizes were more manageable this year – or maybe the girls are just bigger.

The girls wanted to play some more, so after we loaded the pumpkins onto the car, we went back to play on the tire swings; the corn wagon; and these rocking horses.

To prove that M was there, which she was just sleeping the entire time.

M's Firsts

M's first plane ride – to Louisiana (via Dallas/Ft Worth).

She was a very good baby.

M's first real life tiger. This is Mike VI, the LSU mascot.

M's first meeting with Erica, my classmate from Ft Collins Chinese school. Erica's doing her post-doc at LSU.

Afterward, we strolled along the Mississippi (near downtown Baton Rouge, which incidentally has the tallest state capitol building in the United States) down to

the USS Kidd, M's first WWII warship.

We had dinner at Parrain's, which means "godfather" in French – boudin balls for the appetizer; I had the gumbo and softshell poboy; and Drew had the gumbo and a shrimp poboy.

Next morning, before departing Erica and Jack's for Lafayette, we had beignet's at Coffee Call. These are beignet "fingers", which aren't as tender as the regular shaped beignets but are less messy for all that powdered sugar.

Drew says the cafe au lait is highly recommendable.

And the beignets aren't bad either.

In Lafayette, we went to mass at Our Lady of Wisdom on the Univ of Louisiana campus, where we met Amy and Duston, and walked over to Festivals Acadiens et Creoles, another first for M. You just can't beat listening to Cajun music and sampling Cajun food (above, gator on a stick: delicious!) on a gorgeous day. (Boudin balls are the best.)

Amy (with her son Jonah) is Drew's classmate from the JPII Institute.

It was starting to get hot, so we had ourselves some snoballs. We had a quick visit to Amy and Duston's house, and then we had to get to New Orleans (The Westin).

M's first Jewish wedding – mine and Drew's too. As it turns out, M's Christmas dress matched the wedding colors perfectly. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the bride Winnie, who was stunning, but I'm sure someone did: there were 200+ guests and at least 100 cameras. The ceremony was celebrated partly in Yiddish by a cantor, complete with glass stomping and the customary "Mazel tov!"

There were cocktails overlooking the crescent part of the canal, hence New Orleans as the Crescent City, and the French Quarter. This is the bride's cousin Vivian.

So Jeffrey is a friend of the bride that Drew and I met once before in DC when we still lived there. Winnie had come to DC one weekend for a Georgetown basketball game and hosted dinner at some swank sushi restaurant. We had G at the time, so were only able to have a few courses before we had to leave. Anyway Jeffrey and his wife Jessica were married four months ago. (See how M matches the Twilight-esque decor?)

M fell asleep during dinner: gumbo, lamb chops, roast beef, shrimp cocktail, oysters royale, turtle soup, bread pudding, chocolate fountain.

The bride, after changing out of her wedding gown. The neatest thing at her wedding: a photo booth. Guests were encouraged to take unlimited free photos and cut and paste them into a book, along with a personal message to the bride and groom. I took some pictures with Winnie's mom, but we didn't do a family shot because the booth was placed next to one of the speakers. After this picture was taken, Drew met the groom and we went to our room.

Before our flight home, we had beignets at Cafe Du Monde, a short walk from the hotel.

We visited St Louis Cathedral;

and strolled along the Riverwalk. Unfortunately, there weren't many shops open before 10AM, so we were only able to get some books for the girls – Cajun Folktales and Evangeline for Children – and some boxes of pralines.

Our hotel as seen from the Riverwalk.