First snow.

We woke up last Saturday to the first snow of the season! Luckily we were prepared with snow clothes already hanging in the closet. It was 6:53am when Alla popped out of bed, pulling Fisher with her and begging to go out already.

She literally ate snow for breakfast and then went out and played. Fisher was made to eat a proper breakfast.

It was a wet snow that soaked you, but she was excited nonetheless. I couldn't believe how quickly our landscape changed. One day we had trees still losing leaves, and the next it was a winter wonderland. A winter wonderland that will be sticking around for sometime, as our snow typically doesn't melt until about, oh, April. Ish.

Friday Five.

1. Two days ago I ran in shorts. Tomorrow they're calling for three to five. Inches. Of s-n-o-w.

2. Monday I took Fisher on a field trip to the airport. We found a little field and watched the planes take off and land.

3. Mornings can be hard around here. We can't let Fisher sleep past 7:30 or he won't nap. We can't let Alla sleep past 7:30 or she won't get on the bus on time. So, morning snuggles. In our bed, in her bed, together. 4. I'm thankful for their love of each other.

5. Everyday in her folder, Alla brings home papers she worked on in school that day. Everyday the papers say the same thing, I *heart* Mom. I'm thankful for her love of me.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. This is unofficially going to become the Ten on Tuesday Blog.

2. While looking closely at his little arm one sunny day after lunch, Fisher told me that he had "fuzz" on his arm, and when I told him that was just hair, he told me he wanted the hair to "go bye bye."

3. We have a Thanksgiving menu! So now I'm making a grocery list and a schedule of sorts. Last year it was very simple, so we're trying to replicate that, but also add in the stuff we couldn't do last year since we were, oh yeah, just getting out of the hospital the day before. That.

4. I told Fisher he was my doodlebug, and he told me, No I'm not your doodlebug, I'm a boy!

5. He is doing great great great in school, we are so proud of him.

6. He asked a neighbor girl if she likes trash trucks. She said no. He was appalled. Alla then asked her if she liked princesses. She said no. Again, appalled.

7. We got a new mattress pad and oh wow were we missing out on some serious warmth with that joke of a hole-y piece of crap we had before!

8. Last Friday we had Pizza Friday at Pappi's! The kiddos LOVE going there and playing with Pappi. And shutting Mommy and Daddy in the closet, apparently.

9. Alla has learned all of her kindergarten sight words!

10. One evening last week, Fisher called us from bed and said, When I wake up, can I pay-aint? Super hard to be mad at that, I mean we don't want to stifle the artistic genius or anything.

Ten on Tuesday: Halloween 2010.

1. We started Halloween morning by carving the pumpkin to Alla's heart's desire. 2. Fisher cracked up when Alla said, "You didn't tell me you were going to kill it!" They had watched Charlie Brown quite a few times by that point.3. They completely surprised me by getting in on the pumpkin-gutting!4. Later in the day they put on their costumes just in time for an early dinner with Nana and Pappi.

5. First up, the little kangaroo! Every kangaroo needs a fishing pole that they swear is a sword.6. The most beautiful Cinderella.7. And, the best one of the two of them. At least they're both in it!
8. Alla could barely contain herself, but was so good about dragging her little brother to our starting point, a few houses down, where we met up with the rest of the neighborhood gang. 9. Fisher decided he wanted to trick or treat at a few houses and then head home.

If you're a long-time reader of this blog, you will remember that Alla wore this costume three years ago, and, sadly, this is the last of the gender-neutral costumes so Fisher will have to get an opinion about it next year. (Or decide that Halloween is a stupid holiday for a peanut-and-dairy-allergic, diabetic kid.)

10. While waiting for the bus the next day, Alla told me, I'm glad we don't live near a pumpkin field, because if I spent all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin with a boy, I'd be mad.

The big switch-out.

Around here we have two sets of clothes, so one set is always in storage. This past weekend we got the winter boxes out, which is always super exciting for the kids because in their boxes are entire new wardrobes. All purchased last year end-of-season, of course.

It's quite a process of sorting through what might fit next year, what will definitely be too small and thus go into permanent storage, and what will be given away. Piled up on Alla's bed is Fisher's too-small pile, and I couldn't resist snapping a shot of all those little clothes altogether before they went away.

Someday I'll have a mountain of clothing to part with, but for now I'm too sentimental, which is why I take pictures of it all.

Ten on Tuesday: Five and a Half.

In honor of her five and a half birthday, which she's been looking forward to for quite some time, today's ten features my favorite girl!

1. Alla does not like jeans.
2. She loves to paint, write draw, make, create.
3. She could eat Trader Joe's gluten-free frozen pancakes every morning for breakfast.
4. She loves every movie she watches, declaring each one her new favorite. The latest is Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue.
5. She loves to use a baby spoon to eat her applesauce.
6. She is a wonderful big sister, she loves to make Fisher happy and to be the one who takes care of him.
7. She wishes there were more dresses (and therefore tights) in the winter box.
8. She is the greatest storyteller.
9. She loves music, always wants music on, is always making up her own songs, always singing.
10. She recently got a pink baseball hat from her Aunt Renee and she looks so dang cute in it. It just suits her, and she loves it.

Happy five and a half today, honey bunny!

The Stream.

Today is the perfect day to pay homage to the wonderful little stream just a quarter mile up the road, the spot to which I started taking Alla when she was wee and where Fisher has realized he can drive to in the pink car. It's pretty wonderful, just a simple stream with a walkway over top, and in the spring and fall when the foliage isn't too thick the kids can throw a stick in one side and then watch it come out the other. I think it's how Alla learned to count, waiting for her stick to come out. One, two, three...seventeen!

We visit in summer, but only briefly to avoid the "skeeters." We visit in fall, Fisher shoveling in piles of fallen leaves. We visit in winter, when the ground and water are frozen, walk out onto the stream, and listen to them marvel.

We return in the spring, to see green buds appearing, animals returning, water once again flowing.

We love our little stream, and what I love is that when the kids are grown and remembering childhood, it will be a special place for them. Nothing I really tried to do, nothing I had to force, just this simple little spot near our house that we visited all the time, that easily forced itself into their hearts.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Today Fisher is 31 months old!

2. I have a recipe for pumpkin pancakes that I am dying to try. What sort of fall treats are you making these days?

3. The weather is getting chillier, highs around 60. Hence #2.

4. In other fall cooking news, I made my first apple crips (or "apple crips," as Fisher called it) this weekend, and both kids tried and then politely refused it. Tell me, what on earth is more perfectly simple than apple crisp?

5. Here's where I remind myself that Fisher loves roasted beets and Alla loves roasted garbanzo beans.

6. I am very close to being able to place an order for July through September photos. Then, as I stuff them into albums, I can listen to my husband complain about the volumes of photos we have and how our children will be overly documented and how our ancestors will find our albums and think we must have been famous because of how well documented we were.

7. Isn't he funny?

8. Fisher got a few new pairs of socks today after Ron commented that his sock drawer looked like we had not purchased socks for the poor lad since infancy. It is sadly true that he's gotten maybe one or two new pairs since his first winter. Sorry, bud.

9. I am so looking forward to Alla not having school this Thursday and Friday. So, so, so.

10. Craving a one-pot wonder kind of baked dish. That's a hard one - uh, let's see, no pasta, no cheese, and preferably something the kids would just die for. Ha! I won't hold my breath.

Today was picture day.

And of course it will be weeks before the results are in, but my guess is that the smile of the school picture will not be the smile I'm used to seeing. This one!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. We are STILL enjoying the amazing weather, as in above 70 every single day. The weather section in today's newspaper reminded us that on this day last year, we got 2.5 inches of snow. I seem to remember scrambling to find winter stuff for Alla who desperately wanted to get out there in it. I'm very glad that today we will be enjoying a nice warm trip to the Farmer's Market.

2. The vegetables Fisher likes: beets and sweet potatoes.

3. The vegetables Alla likes: carrots, red pepper, cucumber, peas, peapods.

4. Notice how their preferences don't overlap. Fun.

5. Something they do agree on: The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That.

6. Fisher is a no-go on the movie Cars. We've tried a few times, so I give up. He certainly knows what Lightning McQueen looks like but a movie about racing cars just ins't up his alley. Why can't Disney make a movie about diggers?

7. For Fisher's dinner tonight: brown rice and roasted beets. Another thing he doesn't like: grilled chicken. Who doesn't like grilled chicken?

8. Our neighbor's tree has lost all of its leaves; this is the time of year when I feel all high and mighty about having a late-faliing tree.

9. I have both the September and October issues of Real Simple to read. I need a day at the spa with my magazines, I think.

10. My favorite part of today: walking out of the library with the kids (and a bag full of approximately 89 books) and seeing my handsome husband walking toward us, surprising us. Knowing that the kids hadn't seen him yet, knowing how great their joy would be in just moments, and then seeing it on their faces as they catapulted themselves at him. And Alla, This made my day, Daddy.

Weather break.

I didn't plan to step away from my computer for all of Friday and Saturday, but am so glad I did because we had record [high] temperatures for October. I did not miss a minute of it, even with Fisher coming down with Alla's cold. He and I sat outside, just sitting, after nap both days. Just sitting, watching. Alla and I took to the grass on a blanket for afternoon reading, and when she went to play with a friend across the street, I sat and watched her in my bare feet with the last 100 pages of Mockingjay. It was just glorious outside.

And I'm sure we'll pay for it!

It's fall.

Most of our fall pictures will be taken when it's chilly out there, because our leaves don't fall until about Thanksgiving. Halloween might be our first raking. So we borrow until then, since our neighbors to the left have a whole lawn full of fallen leaves.

And right now we're back in summer gear, for as long as we can, rolling in their leaves, throwing, piling, shoveling. Loving.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. On Sunday we were coming home from dinner with Pappi, and it was getting dark. Alla said to us, It's so cool, the letters on all the buildings light up! In between grown-up chuckles, we said to ourselves, We should take them out more.

2. Fisher's new word is gorgeous, as in The dentist is gohgeous.

3. Fisher's favorite book, as in we read it every naptime and bedtime, is Just Going to the Dentist by Mercer Mayer.

4. Last Friday, I did not change a single poopy diaper, and that's cause my son pooped on the potty twice that day.

5. But we're over that now, apparently.

6. Last Friday when Alla came home from school, she and I watched the movie Babies, which was such a wonderful lesson in culture. I loved that she narrated the whole wordless wonder for me.

7. I need a game for the two and the five year old to play together because we can only play so many rounds of Animal Bingo. Ideas?

8. We are in the midst of a string of lovely sunny seventy-degree weather. Awesome.

9. I have broken so many of our dinner plates that we are now down to five. Seriously. FIVE dinner plates, that's it. So now I'm forced to make a decision, which I hate. Either decide to get more of what we have, or just toss all the chipped stuff and get something altogether different. Like white. White?

10. Guess where we're headed Friday morning when Alla's off of school? To my Mom's, that's where. Yes, folks, The Killins Family finally has family in Minnesota to go visit.

Killins Family Twenty Questions.

Print out a copy of this fun questionnaire and bring it to the dinner table tonight and enjoy everyone's answers, then make sure to post so we can all read, too!

D=Daddy, M= Mama, A=Alla, F=Fisher

1) What is your favorite color?
D: Blue
M: Red
A: Pink
F: Brown

2) What is your favorite food?
D: Chinese
M: Mexican
A: ff’s and crispy chicken
F: blueberries (booberries)

3) What is your favorite show?
D: Seinfeld
M: Parenthood
A: Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That
F: Mighty Machines

4) What is your favorite restaurant?
D: PF Chang’s
M: Nick + Eddie
A: Red Robin
F: Red Robin

5) What is your favorite movie?
D: The Matrix
M: The Princess Bride
A: The Wild
F: Wall E

6) What is your favorite season?
D: Spring
M: Summer
A: Winter
F: Playing

7) What is your favorite class?
D: Math
M: [Modern] Dance
A: Science
F: Miss Sara

8) What do you want to be when you grow up?
D: Video game tester
M: Mama
A: A Mommy
F: Pirate

9) What is your favorite sport?
D: Running
M: Running
A: Biking
F: Biking





10) What is your favorite game?
D: Modern Warfare
M: Apples to Apples
A: Monopoly
F: Animal Bingo

11) What is your favorite song at the moment?
D: Sugarlumps
M: Half of My Heart
A: “If I Had You” (Adam Lambert) and “Anyway You Want It” (the Glee version)
F: Ram Sam Sam

12) What is your favorite book?
D: The Passage
M: East of Eden
A: Harry Potter (#1)
F: Machines Go To Work

13) What is your favorite character?
D: Mr. T
M: Harry Potter
A: Adam Lambert
F: A320

14) Where is your favorite place to go with your family?
D: California
M: the beach
A: Nana + Pappi’s
F: Home Depot

15) Who are some of your best friends?
D: Ralph, Adam, Josh
M: Catie, Nicole, Andrea
A: Leigha, Fisher, Carter and Canton (but Fisher is my “best best best best friend”)
F: Lovey, Alla, Carter and Canton

16) What is your favorite animal?
D: cheetah
M: giraffes and dolphins
A: zebras and lions
F: skunk

17) What is your favorite holiday?
D: Christmas
M: Christmas
A: Christmas and Halloween
F: Park

18) What is your favorite instrument?
D: saxophone
M: piano
A: guitar
F: Ram Sam Sam

19) What is your favorite activity to do alone?
D: video games
M: read
A: draw
F: [play] firetruck

20) What's your favorite toy?
D: iPhone
M: camera
A: Raggedy Ann and Andy, Lily, and Bodie
F: Lovey and pink car

Thanks for the idea, Marie!

Really good Wednesday.

You know when you just have a really good day, I mean, simple things that just add up to one really nice day? That was yesterday. It started with a run for me and my buddy, and then we made an impromptu trip down to the Mississippi River, which I think he calls the Sippi River and for the longest time Alla called the MississNippi. Good morning, Mississippi.

The real reason we went: the possibility of seeing a barge go through the lock and dam. Fisher calls it the garbage barge, after reading the book with the exact same title.

Alas, we did not see the barge, but it was fun just the same. Fisher told me so.

And anytime you switch up your routine, do something different, it really does wonders.

We also spied some gorgeous fall colors.

Our own street looks lovely this time of year, just subtle yellows and leaves in the gutters and the amazing blue sky we had yesterday.

Another simple thing that made our day: the kids in absolute love with each other.

Alla misses him when she's at school, and vice versa, so they are sometimes stuck to each other like glue in the afternoons.

I ended the day with my yoga class, and this morning I got snuggles from both kids. Apparently Fisher missed me, as he asked, Mommy last night whaddya do'd? I dooood my yoga class, Buddy. And it was a good day.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. School did not go as well today. Regression. I told Fisher Mama did not get to learn any stuff today and Fisher did not get to have any fun because his teacher had to call me to console him. Sigh.

2. We have a lot of meatballs in this house. Mexican meatballs, meatball soup, meatballs with pasta. And they are not usually well-received. In fact last night we had a near uprising at the dinner table.

3. Do my children think that I will just suddenly decide to start serving them sandwiches and rice cakes every night for dinner? Because that's what they'd eat if given the choice.

4. Today we're headed to the Farmer's Market after nap. In a few weeks there will be no more market til next summer, so we're going to go and enjoy. Also it's lovely outside.

5. Also my son asked when we can get more beets, so there's that.

6. Three more weeks of fall soccer.

7. Alla and I spend yesterday afternoon reading a wonderful book: The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. Oh, delight!

8. A lovely friend sent me Mockingjay in the mail yesterday and I tore right into it.

9. I saw the most amazing idea in a recent Family Fun magazine: dedicating a digital frame to display scanned images of your kids' artwork. How genius is that!?!?!?

10. I am so so glad that Private Practice and Parenthood are back. Love them.

Friday Five.

1. Yesterday was a washout. Seriously like a full day of rain, so we stayed in and made granola (gah-nowa). He's wondering why he can't see the molasses (mohwasses) anymore. 2. And probably why on earth it takes a few hours to cook (and be ready to go in his mouth). Soon as he woke up from nap, he asked for gahnowa.

3. My wonderful husband (and Pappi and a neighbor) put this frame together for the chalkboard I made, and now we have the best addition to our kitchen since the coffee grinder. The top half for me to write all of the carb count stuff at meals, and the bottom half for the kids to create.

4. A fun thing while Pappi was here - playing in the back of his truck. (99% of the time, the kid has scratched up his nose in one spot or another.)

5. Ever since school started, I appreciate weekends like I did when I was working. Just cannot wait to relaaaaaaaaaaaax. (Oh, and sit out there on a chilly Saturday morning for soccer.)

Happy weekend!

Summer's end.

Summer is quickly, officially coming to an end. We're in our third week of school, and don't feel like it's so completely new anymore. It's crisp out there sometimes, though of course there are still plenty of warm days to come. And yet I seem to have tons of summer pictures I haven't even gone through, so I thought I'd share a few before it got so far into the next season that I looked back on these and thought, Why on earth isn't she wearing a coat in these pictures? For awhile there, every time Daddy would mow, our bullfrog friend would leap from the garden, only to be captured by Alla, friend to all insects and critters. And then there's the mowing itself, the joy. When Fisher hears that Daddy will be going out to mow, it had better be at a time when he's also allowed to go out and help. Why bother to stop and put on pants or your own shoes just to mow? I know, it's because this was the summer of the meanest mosquitoes ever.

Not much better than enjoying a freezie pop with your Dada. He's just recently stopped asking for them, and I find this age enchanting, when they really don't remember last year, last season, what comes next. No, freezie pops are not a fall food.

I love these two. I love that they love each other.

I had the best summer I can remember.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Ron and I went on an impromptu dessert date on Saturday night. Ah, the perks of having a grandparent stay with you for a little while!

2. Dessert date means only one thing here. Butterscotch pudding at Nick and Eddie. Divine.

3. Fisher has got practically all of the neighborhood kids turning their trikes or motorized vehicles into vactors. I'm very proud of my son for teaching our whole block, kids and grown-ups alike, about vactors.

4. On Saturday, I broke out the blow dryer for the first time in three months. My hairdresser will be elated. I will tell her tonight when I get my first haircut in three months.

5. Fisher was a pro at school this morning, I tell you. I was so proud of him. Not a single tear when I went across the hall to "Mommy class," just a see ya later and back to playing in the sand table.

6. We had to run to the bus stop this morning because Fisher saw the recycling truck coming and just had to see it take our recycling, but of course it was one minute til the time we're supposed to be at the bus stop, so once the recycling truck left our house, I had to drag him down the street and Alla had to run two houses because the bus was pulling up!

7. Gladly, they've changed our bus stop, so starting tomorrow there will be no conflict of interest (recycling truck versus bus stop), as the bus will be picking her up in front of our house. Lovely. This will really come in handy when it's five below outside.

8. Alla's favorite book of the week: Camilla Chameleon.

9. Fisher's favorite book of the week: anything digger related, of course, but we'll just go with this one for posterity's sake - Mega Trucks.

10. It's gorgeous today, we ate lunch outside, and it's supposed to be near 80 over the weekend! Can one stockpile sunshine, do you think?

Two and a half.

He is two and a half today. Very two and a half, sometimes.

He gives me crazy smiles and sweet smiles. He wants his Dada more than anything, and the next he needs his mama to sing his naptime song.

He told me at bedtime, Bes mama in de whole wye worl.

He is the best son in the whole wide world.