free friday gallery (late edition)

The Hloe Famle
The Whole Family

I am W a Girl. Wee aror Eter Possosskos.
I am with a girl. We are eating popsicles.

This one starts on the second line, and after running out of room, moves back up above.

A Boy And A girle...The Boy is Sdad Bukss He jop Hes possosskos.

A boy and a girl...the boy is sad because he dropped his popsicle.

(I mean - look at him - that's a pitiful frown as he just holds the remainder of his stick.)

The Wolm Famle And Too Uv The Grluz
The whole family and two of the girls

Or Eting Popsskiz.
...are eating popsicles.

This was the first published book that E shared at her author's tea. She's coming along from her early plot lines like these.

happy halloween!

Well, here she is in all her glory. Lots of tissue paper cutting and gluing has been going on in our house this week. And when we got tired of gluing - we made sandbags.

The costume was a big hit with the kids who liked having a turn to control the little LED lights that M sewed into place all over the ball. (They're kind of hard to see in the photo, but they added a nice touch at night.)

And the sock hop tonight was a lot of fun - with food and treats and dancing and tattoos...more fun than the law allows. And we're just getting warmed up...

Have a great Halloween and enjoy the candy!

an afternoon with the authors

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Author's Tea in E's room. The whole class recited a very nice poem about being an author and then the kids and parents went to the table to read the works. Fine literature was had by all. The kids shared their books, then we switched and read some others. Tea and goodies were consumed, a rousing game of "Guess the Sentence" took place, and then the kids got a special notebook treat from their teacher. The whole room was decorated with a podium featuring each author and a bit of biography, paper flower arrangements, and delightfully whimsical tablecloths. E's portion above says Mrs. Danielle "Okay children, eyes on me." And that's the class below.

I'll scan the first publication for the Free Friday Gallery. Now, it's off to finish the costume. The clock is ticking...

violin practice

Here's the latest in our violin journey. E's starting to learn how to use the fingers of her left hand, rather than just holding the violin at its shoulder. She brought home her first piece of sheet music, and we worked through the first line of it, trying to master the difficult coordination required in holding the instrument and operating your fingers on the same hand. After a few moments she began to hear something that resembled a song, and she was a pretty excited kid! We made a video, and she requested that I do the fingering so that it sounded smooth. We'll post another one as she gets the fingering down pat.
Enjoy!

and the winner is...

Well, I'll let E tell you...

Ding, ding, ding - you're right! It's a hot air balloon (specifically, a hot air balloon from Balloon Glow). So, with a lot of foam cutting and weaving and staples the basket was deemed a success. There are lots of parts left, so it should be a busy week.

Congratulations to Tonya for the correct guess. As we speak, one of our very favorite treats from this fair city is buzzing its way to you on a FedEx plane. Enjoy!

sunday afternoon walk and (new) ride

It was a beautiful - windy, but beautiful - fall day today and after a busy morning and then an afternoon of cooking, we got out the bike and hit the park. Throwing the bike into the back of the new truck was lots of fun, and someone approves of the new backseat.



Yeah! The truck hunt is over! And we only had to drive eight and a half hours round trip yesterday to wrap it up!

saturday pancakes

By pancake number five, the utensils are abandoned and we're onto the shovel.

Which is perfect for sopping up that seventeenth serving of maple syrup.

Graham cracker pancakes that you just can't stop eating:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup of ground up graham crackers mixed with two tablespoons of fine-ground cornmeal

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 cups buttermilk

vegetable oil for skillet

Whisk dry ingredients in large bowl.

Whisk egg and melted butter together, add buttermilk and stir until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into a well in the center of dry ingredients and whisk until just incorporated but still lumpy.

Preheat skillet to medium heat (I always go just above medium for a little bit darker finish on the cakes). Brush pan with bit of oil and pour 1/4 cup of batter for each cake. I drop frozen blueberries into them, but plain is fine as well. Cook on one side, flip, repeat. I keep the pancakes warm in a 200 degree oven by placing them on a wire cooling rack over a cookie sheet. This makes a lot, so cool the extras, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze. They will keep for up to a week. Defrost overnight in refrigerator and heat in a 350 degree oven for 3-5 minutes. If your daughter eats them like ours does, you may have no leftovers.

Guess it's all the Nate the Great she's been reading.

Happy Saturday!

thursday updates

The week is getting past me, and our evenings have been busy since we found out that the insurance company now considers our truck totalled, and we have a deadline for replacing it. So instead of cozying up at home with a nice round of Clue, or making some progress on our Halloween costume (updates on that this weekend!), or practicing our violin with left hand fingers! we are driving around auto dealerships in the darkness that descends by six o'clock. I have made a bit of progress on the new desk though, and I've got a few shots for you. I know, I know, they are just so very exciting, but really - they are. At least for us. Sometimes it takes so little.

Here's the desk timeline:

Installed nice, new, crisp, clean Elfa system desk. Nothing sits on the floor, putting me one step closer to the ideal Roomba household where all furniture levitates and my robotic vacuum can move unimpeded throughout a room without missing a beat.

Nice, new, crisp, clean look is decidedly less crisp with the insane amount of cords required to make this system operational.

Considered for a brief moment purchasing a lovely glossy white laptop to match my lovely glossy white all-in-one printer and tossing this thing into the dumpster (ahem...recycling each individual component correctly) but then remembered that I had to purchase an entire truck sometime this week and decided, instead, to purchase $60 worth of cord control and fancy power strip.

Worth it?

Decidedly so.

(The lovely print above is an anniversary gift from my lovely husband which he purchased at this gallery on this island. Feel free to gaze awhile on that island shot while the October rain falls outside.)

remember doing this?

...and of course, doing this.

"hanging out" after school.

signs of fall and another hint

There are plenty of exterior signs of fall right now, but here's a shot of one of my favorite interior signs of fall, cool nights and shorter days...flannel sheets. It's going to get snuggly here tonight.

And here's another hint on the costume. Guesses so far on this post have been great...but not correct yet. Don't forget there's a prize on the line, so make sure to weigh in on the comments below. Just remember to leave some sort of identifying clue in there - you don't have to spell out names, but "Aunt C" or "N from Tennessee" would be great. Either select the Name/URL option or choose Anonymous and include your clue in the comment itself. Thanks, and good luck!

the many faces of hope, the one hundred thousand faces of change

Our shirt was dried and ready, and we hit the streets.

Wow. All I can say is "wow". We walked two blocks south and two blocks east from M's building and crossed over the highway to the Arch grounds. We were directed back north along the entire length of the (very long) gateway mall. We turned east and started down towards the river, along the northern Arch parking lot, and then turned north again alongside the river for blocks. After twenty minutes of walking we found the end of the line and then started back up. The line snaked up the north side of the mall, turned into the park along the paths back to the river, doubled back on itself (you can see a portion of that in the photo below) and made its way west back to the highway. After an hour and a half we filed onto the closed street along the gateway mall again and then made it through the gates centered on the Arch. When we crested the hill the sight before us was something else. For another forty-five minutes the crowds filed in and I got a shot behind us of the people. It was a record breaking crowd, on the best kind of morning that October can put on.

The crowd was electric, there was so much excitement, so much passion in the air. It was amazing to see so many people united for one single cause and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I was glad I took E, glad to show her what it means to be a part of something that is both so large and yet so personal to everyone there and was conducted in a manner that called for action and not derision. Please click on this link to see a much better shot of what we were a part of today. The arial shot is really something. There's a small clip of Obama's speech at the bottom as well.

Seventeen days from now - VOTE! Vote for the candidate I'm voting for, or vote for your own. The energy today came from the overwhelming number of engaged electorate standing together in one place. The energy on November 4th will come again as we watch the record numbers of voters show up to cast a ballot. No matter who wins this election, we will all need to be tuned in, turning out, and moving forward towards a better place, a better future. Vote for my daughter. Vote for yours.

lights, cameras, and then Action!

Friday afternoon the kiddo and her dad went to every one's favorite "happy hour" hot spot...the cemetery. Why, you ask? To see the newly restored, rarely seen inside of the Wainwright Tomb by Louis Sullivan, of course.

Later that evening, after the sun went down, we cruised by the outdoor light installations in our theatre and arts district. The Light Project is a series of outdoor art installations involving light, the most spectacular of which is the framework of light over the empty shell of a church in the neighborhood. After we got home we got busy on some preparations for Saturday and now...

...we are ready for a really special Saturday! More to follow!