Halloween scenes

Treats galore for our Spiderman, Snow White, and Piglet...! Special bonus this year: Daddy in town on Halloween for the first time since we moved to CA.

Outings this week

Last weekend HF took his first hunting trip (local, that is) of the fall with his friends Dave, of tomato-canning fame, and Scott, a fellow Granite Stater. They were going for quail and didn't get any, or even see any, but they had a great time nonetheless. This weekend duck-hunting mornings will kick off once again.

On Tuesday the Jamison crew joined ours, once again piling into their 11-passenger van, to hit the Santa Barbara zoo. We hadn't been there in well over a year, and it was in fact the goose's first trip there ever. We had a fabulous time, a preschool troop of seven kids (and two more in utero) unto ourselves basically, once again... A highlight was all loading onto the zoo train to circumnavigate the premises. We single-handedly filled up three benches!

Costume party

The monkey's good friend Bo turns 5 on Monday, and today we attended his Halloween costume birthday party; highly anticipated by all and a lot of fun. The monkey dressed up as spiderman and Bo was superman - a dynamic duo of superheroes if ever this was one. Evidence:

Roo, the goose (not pictured), and Bo's little sister Eliza were princesses of various ilk. Great practice for Halloween next week. Here are Spiderman, Superman, and Snow White patiently awaiting their cake:

Next 5-year old birthday will be at our house next Monday...!

Yosemite trip

Four days, three nights, and 1000 miles on our trusty van later... We returned from a lovely trip to the Sierra mountains. We stayed in a 2-bedroom cabin on a 17-acre lot in Mariposa, CA, about an hour west of the western entrance to Yosemite park. We spent two afternoons in Yosemite poking around, watching rock-climbers, taking a few short "hikes" to see water falls, and throwing rocks in the river. Very enjoyable. Mornings were spent "quail hunting" on the property with bows and arrows (the older two and their dad, that is). Stargazing, a fun rainstorm, and a short attempt at fishing - the river was deemed too shallow - were also included. Great time had by all!

Painted Pony Farm

Today was our fifth day with our fearless husband/ daddy out in MI for a bow-hunting adventure with his friend Tim. He had a wonderful time and would have emerged with a 4-point buck except that his release broke while he was drawing the bow back. He called me from the tree stand shortly after the debacle saying: "I'm about to cry." Poor guy. He returned home at dinner time tonight.

We fared ok on our own, keeping ourselves as busy as possible. This afternoon was my moms' group annual outing to Painted Pony Farm (and pumpkin patch) which was a big hit. Many of our friends were there too and a good time was enjoyed by all. The goose loved watching the baby chicks - and blocking access by the bigger kids, who actually were able to hold said chicks. See pictured.

Roo delighted to pull the little red wagon in which her and the monkey's selected pumpkins were placed. The monkey's favorite aspect was running through the apple trees with his friend Bo, looking for stray apples. A worthwhile venture all around.

The difference betwen So-Cal-folks & non-So-Cal folks...

It rained today, an anomaly in these parts in October; everyone was caught completely off guard. The monkey's weekly soccer practice is at 5:30 pm on Wednesday nights, so I checked my email throughout the afternoon to see if it might be cancelled. The rain ended by noon, and the ground wasn't especially wet. No email, so we headed out at the normal time. When we arrived I saw "Coach Ken" and his son Nicholas setting up the cones. I also noticed that every other team - usually about 3 - that normally practices alongside ours was absent.

Coach Ken is from Colorado; his family moved here around the same time ours did. "No rain since 12," he said, "so I figured we'd practice." The fields weren't muddy and the sun was actually out; it was a lovely night.

Guess how many other boys from our 8-person team showed up? Zero. It was the monkey, Nicholas, and Coach Ken. Amazing. No notice of cancellation, but completely on their own every Leaping Lizard family had decided that practice was out for today. That's rain for you in southern California: it's an event all it's own. The two boys kicked around with the coach for 20 minutes and that was that.

Also on the docket today: our town-sponsored art class which meets Wednesday mornings. Today the kids worked with clay to make and decorate "bowls" (you'll notice that our kids' bowls don't resemble the traditional type, but they're awesome nevertheless!

Also FYI, I am featured on a friends' book blog on our initial homeschooling efforts this fall, in case this is of interest to anyone... Rea Berg, who hosts the blog, is the founder and head of Beautiful Feet Books with her husband, Russ. Phenomenal family.

Temperature, tomatoes, and teething

The weather has been crazy out here lately. This past week was the hottest it's been in more than a year with temperatures in the 90's and high humidity... Bizarre in late September, to say the least. On Monday the kids and I joined our weekly preschool co-op in learning about fall and going on a leaf hunt, and we yet we were fighting off heat stroke as we wandered around the park. Bit of a non sequitur. It finally cooled down this weekend.

Our tomato plants are finally coming into season and we're beginning to get some ripe tomatoes on the vine (see this morning's pruning efforts).

The goose cut her first two molars this week and was miserable until they popped through; she's back to her happy self again. She 's not yet walking, preferring to channel her efforts into relentless climbing, but she's behaving in a much more toddler-ish fashion... Playing in the sandbox with the other kids (she loves it!), wrestling, being a ham and enjoying when her siblings due the same.

Roo has developed this sweet habit of calling Monkey "my brudder" and the Goose "my sister" all the time. As in: "Are we going to my brudder's soccer game today?" and, "Mom, my sister needs to get wiped up." Classic. For his part, the monkey continues in his adoration for all things dinosaur and regularly astounds his dad and me with correct terminology and information on dinosaurs we've never heard of. The combination of his favorite TV show, "Dinosaur Train," and the piles of books we retrieve from the library on the topic have made him something of an expert.

Construction and "construction"

HF built four more bookshelves to house the array of unshelved books that became displaced when we created our new schoolroom in - a project that was long overdue. He chose a dark wood stain which we applied last weekend. We allowed the kids to be involved in the staining process... not a decision we are apt to repeat anytime soon. The stain got all over them - hands, arms, legs, faces (in Roo's case) - and was very stubborn in coming off. Eventually we landed on olive oil as an effective means to remove the stain, at least most of it, which got the bulk of it off after about 45 minutes. Then showers of course and a very late bedtime! The next day we made the staining an adults-only affair. The results came out very well, and we now have 2 bookcases in the school room (pictured), one in our bedroom, and one in my upstairs office. Happy, housed books and an even happier me.

This week we did our first week of "Five in a Row," a cool and low-key

program in which you read aloud the same high-quality children's literature book for five days in a row and focus on a different aspect every day. It's come pretty highly recommended and it sounded pretty fun to me, so we're trying it. The first book we did was Lentil by Robert McCloskey, and we all absolutely loved it. One day we discussed housing and architecture; another day taste buds and sourness (complete with lemon tasting);another day was America and patriotism; and today was our big finale: we "built" the small Ohio town in which Lentil's story takes place - including post-it notes marking every building mentioned - and reenacted the parade which comprises the book's final scenes. The kids were so into it - the monkey insisted on creating some 'confetti' to appropriately display the festivities - and I must say, so was I! A lot of fun.