Lazy mama art activity.

 Step 1: Get a large roll of white paper. Spread on table, adhering with tape.

 

Step 2: Set out markers, crayons, colored pencils, stickers, dot-dot daubers, and googly eyes.

 

 

Step 3: Sit down at said table and watch as you earn appreciative faces like this -

 

 

Step 4: Leave the white paper spread out on the table until there is nowhere left to draw or play tic-tac-toe. Or until the children have made it too completely filthy for you to be okay with.

 

Repeat steps 1-4.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Took my little boy bowling this morning. A great mama-son time.

2. The weather has turned freezing again, back to sub-zero windchills for a couple days. And we are all anticipating two big snowfalls, fingers crossed!

3. Exactly one month from today my son will turn five, which, if you haven't yet crossed that milestone with one of your own, is a major turning point for both child and parent. Child all of a sudden thinks they are big and grown, parent realizes the end of an era, which I will surely discuss at length when the time approaches.

4. The website I'm looking for today is a science project website. Do any of you mamas of older ones have a resource for this? I personally hated science projects when I was in school, but so far Alla loves them and has no problem coming up with her own ideas for them. So I'm not really looking for a cheater's guide to science projects, just a general guide to setting up the display. There must be a nice, streamlined method. You'd think I, a former scrapbooker, would be able to figure this out easily, but it alludes me, and every year I am sitting there matting titles and cutting out letters because the set we have is missing an I, and E and three H's. Ugh. It does help, however, that this morning Alla told me it looks beautiful. She's seven, so that's not actually true, but it's nice that she thinks so.

5. Thank you to my friend, Tara, for suggesting our next topic of research, the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. We've got three books on hold at the library and I'm sure we'll all be singing the song in a few days!

6. I mentioned on facebook last week that my children didn't seem too amused at my knowledge of Beach Boys songs. Turns out, my son loves The Beach Boys like I do, and we've listened to Surfin' USA several times a day for a week straight. Never gets old. Well, not so if you're my husband.

7. I am woefully behind on Grey's Anatomy, in part because my husband decided he couldn't watch it anymore. I am probably in it for the long haul, but I do agree with him that they could have made this the last season. Better to go out on top, rather than drag it out.

8. Not to give away anything, but a big reason I fell for Weeds years ago was the ticky-tacky song, so I'm super glad to have that back.

9. We are in desperate need of replacing a floor lamp that Fisher knocked over and cracked at the age of 8 months. It was the second floor lamp that met its demise in the presence of my son, but this one unfortunately still works. If you ever come over and wonder why I've got it stashed in a corner, it's because the side facing the corner has a big hole in it.

10. If the weather ever warms, I'm going to go pick me up a new houseplant to tide me over til spring.

The joys of a boy.

I know some families who have seen Legos take over their homes, but we are not there. Yet. We are at this great place where we own two kits, a fireboat and a fireplane, but on a daily basis I see all kinds of different creations being built and then every month or so the original kit gets rebuilt.

 I love it. He can play this for hours, and in fact this is what Quiet Time is usually about in our house.

I also love Fridays, because it's one of the few days in any given week when we rarely have someplace to be, so we get to do stuff like sit on the floor and fight Legos together.

I also love that I have a boy, without whom I would not know about fireboats, smokejumpers, C-130s, the Titanic, the world's most horriffic plane crash, or the International Ice Patrol.

The kid keeps me in the know. I certainly hope the kindergarten library will be full of books that meet his interests.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Sometimes the kids get up and dressed and eat and brush teeth and hair quick enough to play together before school. This time is their favorite, as I can tell they are both working together to make it happen before school.

2. My son seems to be the only one in his class who is covered in snow when I pick him up. Like, can't even see his hat for all the snow on it.

3. Speaking of that son of mine, here's what he says to me on the way home from school yesterday: I am always trying to be a better child. I wonder if I can tattoo that on him or something for a reminder of the many times when that's not actually true.

4. Alla and Daddy spent a good chunk of the weekend working on her science project. This year's topic: Which ball bounces the highest?

5. This was the first year in many where I thought the Grammy's were just awesome. Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Bruno Mars with Sting, and let's not forget about the Grammy Award-winning Okee Dokee Brothers!

6. Speaking of which, Fisher got to play the triangle onstage with The Okee Dokees this morning at the Mall of America.

7. Things spotted by Fisher and I on our journey to and from the Mall of America this morning: 1 grader, 2 Okee Dokee brothers, 1 Becky (their fiddle player), 2 light rail trains, 1 plane taking off right over our heads, lots of planes taking off in other directions, 3 crash tenders, 2 tower cranes, and 2 freight trains. Exciting stuff.

8. I scored a great deal on napkins at Target over the weekend. This might not be thrilling to all, but we are a strictly cloth napkin house, and we go through them at an alarming rate, so they are always getting washed, and we (ok, the kids) are hard on them, so eventually they get raggedy. The deal I found was a 4-pack for two bucks. So I grabbed whole shelf and now I think we're good for a few years.

9. Currently on the kitchen chalkboard:

10. Real Simple's February issue had a section about spicing up your average nacho, so for date night in this weekend, Ron and I had the BBQ Chicken version, which is just this: Oven to 400 or so, spread your chips on a cookie sheet, spread diced rotisserie chicken on top, cover with cheese, cook for 4 minutes or til cheese is bubbly melted. Top with as much BBQ sauce as you prefer, and a sprinkle of green onion. Add a Dark and Stormy and a movie, and you have yourself a lovely Date Night In!

Kindergarten round-up.

 

Steps are being taken to ensure my son, my baby, grows up. Just last week he went to this crazy event with Daddy, who by the way took my daughter, my firstborn baby, to the same event three years ago. The reason I know that these types of events are concrete steps on the road to growing up? Sure enough, three years later, that little daughter of mine is now a second grader, which is clearly more grown up than a four year old. See where I'm going with this?

 

I know some of you will look at this picture and think, wow, that kid looks like he's ready for kindergarten! Go Fisher! Those people will be shot.

The loving people who look at this picture and say, oh he looks just like a baby, he can't possibly be ready for kindergarten, those people are welcome to remain in my inner circle.

Stay tuned. I'm sure other steps are being taken to ensure this madness they call kindergarten actually happens in the fall.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. The kids and I finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this weekend. I am so glad that Alla is loving to read books a second time so that we can share them with Fisher. He wanted to start Harry Potter tonight, and Alla climbed right on board even though she's well into the fifth book. In our family we write our name and the date on the title page of a book that we finish, and there must be half a dozen entries on this title page of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone between Ron, me, Alla and me, Alla by herself, and multiple re-reads by each of us. It's a wonder the book is holding up!

2. We got a little tiny bit of fresh snow and the temperatures rose out of the sub-zero range so we got out for a family nature walk on the weekend, some snow play after school yesterday, and yet another nature walk this morning. Sure is nice.

3. Fisher has kindergarten round-up tonight! This is one thing I know nothing about, since Ron took Alla to hers, and will be taking Fisher as well, but from what I understand, it's kind of an intro to kindergarten night for the Class of 2026. I'll be checking my math after I stop hyperventilating.

4. I am so excited to go with Alla's class on a field trip this week for a morning of snowshoeing! This is only because I made the same field trip myself a few weeks ago for some instruction so I could get my snowshoes figured out before the big day. Whew, big relief.

5. We'll be rooting for The Okee Dokee Brothers this weekend at The Grammy's! And if you're in So Cal, you'll be kicking yourself if you don't head up to The Mint for a rare LA show. I'm sorry you won't be here next week to see them at the Mall of America with us.

6. I have a vase of alstromeria that has lasted since my birthday. If it makes it to the weekend, that will be four weeks. I'd say run to your nearest TJs and try out a bunch of your own.

7. February is a short month. Good and bad. Good, because though it may snow in March it may also  melt and we will open the windows and our kids may find buckets of melted filthy snow left in the yard on a warm (sixty degree) day to throw upon themselves. Bad, because February is a short month, followed by March, the month my baby turns FIVE, which is hard on a mama's heart. I'm guessing he wants presents for his birthday, too, and February is a short month to figure that out.

8. I am very very much enjoying these "primal fudge" circles. Around here I'm just calling them 'those fudge things,' and I may or may not have polished off the last one tonight, so I suppose I'll be making more of those fudge things this weekend. Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day, Family, more than 'those fudge things.'

9. I am happy to report that I have finished The Passage and am well into The Twelve.

10. I am wondering if any of your children have as many stuffed animals as my daughter, and if so, however do you store them? Mine wants all of them out, accessible, all of the time. They are currently in the playroom, in an overflowing basket, and she would like to remedy this by getting them into her room, by which I mean the tiny room she shares with her brother. I would love a brilliant idea for how to make her (and I) happy, but in the meantime I have told her that this weekend she and I will photograph each of them and document their stories, because, miraculously she knows the story behind each of them. Like a good mama.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I am barreling through The Passage now, folks, it won't be long now. It's a really super read.

2. I was gifted snowshoes by my husband last year for my birthday, but didn't get to use them until this winter because they require, uh, snow. So after traipsing around like a bumbling fool (Did anyone know that I have an undergraduate degree in dance? Anyone who's seen me on snowshoes would never suspect this.) over the holidays, Alla came home with the news that her class would be going on a snowshoe field trip in February, and would I come because I own a pair of snowshoes. Sure. But, so as not to appear as a bumbling fool in front of a class of second graders, I signed up for a "Back Country Snowshoe Trek." Full report to follow.

3. The Killins family stepped into the 21st century today with a new washer and dryer. Let me tell you, technology has improved in 16 years.

4. Four-day weekend ahead. Yay! Looking forward to a thaw.

5. That's because it's been below zero here for three days. Zero is my breaking point for a run.

6. We finally watched BRAVE this weekend, which was uplifting and great. Four thumbs up.

7. Went to a truly delightful Mommy brunch this weekend with ten other mamas. What almost treat. Brought back memories of all the after-church brunches of my childhood. I'm talking to you, Guadalaharry's.

8. What in HECK are you eating for produce right now? Apples are slim pickins. Clementines are starting lose their tartness. What else is there? I need something we can all snack on, to put in lunches.

9. My daughter saves her lunch notes from me in the front pocket of her lunchbox.

10. Speaking of lunches, my children are suddenly gaga for the humble ham and cheese sandwich. It's about time the sunbutter sandwich shares the limelight.

Birthday.

You get to a certain point in life where you have very simple ideas and requests about your birthday, perhaps so that everything else is gravy. If everyone is healthy on your birthday, success! So, when you wake up the morning of your birthday at your mom's, after having gone out to a lovely dinner with your husband the night before, everyone is healthy, and your children have put up birthday signs that they colored themselves, this is all gravy.

 

 

Getting to share part of my birthday with my mom was so lovely. Thanks Mom and Bob for making the weekend extra special!

 

A day, birthday or not, is really not a day worth much, if you don't get in a round of iPad Yahtzee.

 

There was lots more gravy. Cake made by Fisher and Ron. Rest/pot-holder making with my daughter. Presents. And, this. A family picture. The best.

Ten on Tuesday.

Well, hello 2013! J.J. Killins here, making an appearance.

Alrighty then, on with the first Ten of the New Year!

1. I had a lovely birthday on Sunday and am now three dozen.

2. My mom gifted me a gift certificate to a local spa. I see a massage in my future. Thanks, Mom!

3. I am still three months behind on editing 2012 pictures of my own, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

4. I can think of few more satisfying things than a big pot of soup simmering on the stove. Generally my children tend to agree, because we do have some scrumptions family soup recipes, however, I sprung "Vegetable Soup" on them tonight (AKA Quick and Spicy Tomato Soup), and they gave it a hearty go but decided it was too spicy for them. The grown-ups thought it was just lovely with our grilled cheese, and we will be making it again. (We disregard their opinions in terms of deciding whether something is a keeper; if the grown-ups like it, we keep it. The littles will grow into it. Or not.)

5. Ron and I spent a good chunk of the weekend watching season two of Homeland on Showtime's free weekend. We finished all but ONE episode of season two, and of course now we are in utter disequilibrium so if you know how we can watch the final episode of the season, please help me out.

6. Due to immense television consumption I have been slacking on my reading, and am only halfway through The Passage. Greatly looking forward to getting through it, moving on to The Twelve, and then finding something new to read. Hopefully just in time to hear the children's book awards on January 28th (yes I listen live, I'm a dork), and make a huge list of things I can't miss.

7. It was a balmy seven degrees on my birthday. Something about January 13th always brings about the frigid temperatures here. Of course we live in Minnesota, so it's to be expected, but we experienced 40 degrees on Friday, and the ice skating rinks and ponds and streams all completely melted. So taking it down over 30 degrees over the weekend was a bit abrasive, as my dad so perfectly put it.

8. Fisher and I hit up Costco this morning for the things that keep our home running, like salt for the water softener, oats, brown rice, coffee, dried cherries, and a roast chicken for dinner.

9. I cannot believe it's the middle of January. Where does time go? On the other hand, it does seem like Christmas was ages ago, not just weeks.

10. Alla's grade is doing a roller skating unit for gym and she just loves it!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. OK, we're the next couple to get sucked into Homeland.

2. Hearing Fisher pray for "the children" at bedtime stirs my heart.

3. Seeing the flag at half-mast when I pull up to Alla's school makes me want to keep driving.

4. Three more days of school for her and then a much needed holiday break.

5. Christmas is a week from today. Wow. It's there, on the horizon, and then it's running full speed at you.

6. Getting run days in with cold weather, darkness, and few mornings on my own has meant, well, not much running. Unfortunately, the weatherman predicts a cold next few weeks.

7. Made Deb Perelman's Black Bean Ragout for dinner - Smitten Kitchen was a winner all around.

8. Paul McCartney might want to hear Fisher's version of his "Simply having a wonderful Christmas time" jingle, which goes something like this: "Saving, adding, welcome Christmas time!"

9. Tomorrow I get to join Fisher for part of the morning at school to make a gingerbread house - he has no idea what this means but is very excited.

10. Nothing matches his excitement, however, about the C-130. I can't explain it, he's just obsessed with this plane and doesn't really understand why most people don't know as much as he does about it.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Hello, December. I can't believe you're one-third through.

2. What we're looking forward to this weekend are the ice rinks opening. We saw the water truck ("Gusher," as Fisher fondly calls him) flooding at the park this morning and you'd have thought we were watching Mickey Mouse or something.

3. You'd have also thought that my son actually knows how to skate. He's got his skates and he's ready, and I'm pretty sure he thinks he'll just take off. Let's hope the reality is pretty close to that.

4. At my dental visit today I was placed in the cavity-free club - yay for me!

5. Did you hear we got over a foot of snow on Sunday? Some reports say 11 inches, some up to 16. Our deck measured, very officially of course, fifteen. That is a LOT of snow, even by Minnesota standards.

6. The kids cannot get enough of it. Snow is great - I mean if it's going to be cold, you might as well have something to do while you're outside in it. Who wants to stand around in the frozen brown tundra? I'd much rather roll around in powdery white snow, dig forts, throw snowballs, and otherwise enjoy the white that is everywhere.

7. We finished watching the last season of Dexter that is on Netflix, and oh happy day, are finally getting disk one  of Homeland. I hope it lives up to all the hype, as my husband has been waiting since the Emmys for this!

8. I love Christmas music, and it is pretty much our December playlist around here, but I don't tend to add to it, meaning I don't need Barry Manilow's latest Christmas tunes. There are few artists who can do justice to the classics, and I certainly don't need any new Christmas songs. Last year, however, I picked up the Indigo Girls Christmas CD and it has been in regular rotation. It is wonderful and refreshing, and does contain quite a few "new" songs!

9. I am still going to say that I'm "loosely" re-reading The Passage, as I'm still only about 130 pages in.

10. I am in that part of the holiday season where the shopping is done, the cards are nearly on their way, and all that's left to do is a ton of wrapping, so now it seems the wait for Christmas morning is almost as hard for me as it is for the kids! Two weeks!

Ten on Tuesday.Wednesday.Thursday.

1. This is the Ten on Tuesday that began on Sunday, wasn't thought about again until Wednesday, and is being completed on Thursday.

2. Thanksgiving was a smashing success here, and I am defining success by the fact that every recipe new and old was a keeper and will be repeated for next year. I have now assembled my Thanksgiving section in our family recipe book, complete with grocery list and step by step directions. I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner since 1999 and I can truly say that it's taken this long to streamline the process.

3. Perhaps a better definition of success is when your kids eat Thanksgiving dinner and, for the first time ever, eat leftovers and like it!

4. Ron is teaching the kids to play Chess, and like War and Battleship and Spot It and any other game I can't think of at the moment, Fisher has Chess on the brain and is asking to play it just as soon as Daddy's headlights are spotted in the driveway every evening.

5. Not to be left out, Alla is catching on very quickly as well and was instrumental in teaching ME.

6. I am nearly obsessed with chocolate covered raisins.

7. I am so very glad for the extra week of holiday season/Christmas prep this year, but holy jeez December is still just about here!

8. There are about 48 things on each of my 59 to-do lists. Consequently, my fun reading has fallen by the wayside. I will, however, loosely say that I am re-reading The Passage in order to move on to The Twelve.

9. At least the kids and I are in the midst of a fun read - The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

10. Is it possible that four year old boys are littler than four year old girls?

Thanksgiving 2012.

I didn't take too many pictures on Thanksgiving; it's one of those holidays where things get busy and really I've cooked enough turkeys that it's not necessary for me to have a picture of each one. Plus it was amazingly warm in the days leading up to the holiday so we spent a good deal of time outside soaking up our last bits of vitamin D.

The few I did take tell our Thanksgiving story, though. Kids making placecards and other art with their four and seven year old hands.

 

Creating truly wonderful ten-dollar gluten-free stuffing by painstakingly buttering both sides of the bread.

 

And my favorite, a note written to me by Alla on Tuesday when the cooking began, and which gladdened my heart through the next days of mixing and measuring and basting. We are so full here.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. It's Election Day! Go vote. At one point in history, no one in our family of four would have been allowed to vote. Now, at least two of us are, and the other two will be allowed when they've come of age.

2. As this is my seventh fall in Minnesota, I've decided that the SweeTango is my favorite apple variety. Sadly, they have a short season and are now gone from the stores til next year.

3. On Sunday evening I served roasted carrots with our roasted chicken, and Fisher quickly decided he did not like "toasted carrots." With very few exceptions, my children prefer their vegetables raw.

4. We have been wanting some new sheets for awhile, and by "awhile" I do mean a few years, since I had to retire a set due to actual holes. Trouble is, I'm very picky about sheets and have to feel them in person. Since winter is approaching, I thought we'd get some more wintery sheets, and came across these microloft ones on the Bed Bath and Beyond website. Of course I had to feel them in person, and was skeptical, because they basically felt like a fleece blanket. The cashier, however, reassured me that I could return them for any reason. So I washed them, dried them (they take hours on low heat), and then had the best sleep ever. They are the warmest, coziest, softest sheets, without being at all stifling. Best sheets ever.

5. Another product recommendation: St. Ives Naturally Smooth Hand Cream.

6. Is there room here for another one: Blistex Moisture Melt. Love this stuff, a great cheap addition to your purse or your nightstand. Very moisturizing, stays on for several hours. OK, that's all the product I am recommending for today.

7. I am completely over fall weather. Once you get past the colorful leaves, the falling leaves, the fallen leaves, the leaf jumping, and the raking, all you are left with is a dreary gray sky that puts a chill in your bones. I'll take a big pile of snow to give me and the boy something to do.

8. Speaking of cold, got a favorite soup recipe? I could use a new few.

9. For our Election Day dinner, we had Sloppy Joe's, an old throwback kind of dinner that my parents lovingly nicknamed "Sloppy Jennifer Jo's" when I was a kid. Both kids gobbled up their dinner, which always fills my bucket.

10. Something else reminiscent of childhood these days: dog-earing all of the Christmas catalogs that come in the mail.

Halloween 2012.

We had a Ninja and a firefighter (again! yay, budget-conscious children - right!) this year for Halloween, and it was perhaps the best Trick or Treat ever.

Reason no. 1: My mom here to pass out candy again.
Reason no. 2: The four of us got to trick or treat together, which was super fun.
Reason no. 3: It was relatively mild, weather-speaking.
Reason no. 4: However mild it was for us grown-ups, Ninja costumes are apparently not that arm, so after a trip around the block, Little Miss Ninja was chilly and called it a night. We then returned home, where each costumed child counted out their ten favorites and promptly put the rest in the donate pile. We hit up the city "spooky house" (where they offer wine to grown-ups, what!??), and then put the little ghosties to bed.
Reason no. 5: The day after Halloween I took the rest of the candy to the food shelter, so it is no longer in our home, except for what remains of the kids' ten favorites, of course.
Reason no. 6: The gifts that the kids traded in the rest of their candy for, a Secret of the Wings DVD and a REAL Vacuum Vic (alas!), respectively. Period.

Twelve on the 12th: October.

Friday, October 12th was a day free of school, for some reason, so perhaps that is why twelve pictures were taken this month!

From top left:

Alla at the library, we can bring that book home, dear
Alla with the Viewmaster
Alla's new book
Books to return

Fisher at the library, look how high he can reach
Fisher's smokejumper
Kids on the library bench, we are bringing those home, you know
Leaf rubbing

Leaf walk
Monkeys jumping on the bed
Stowing summer clothes
End of day, cleaning teeth.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Had lunch with Alla today at school. Hope she never tires of that.

2. Been thinking (ok, obsessing) of our eventual remodeling project, and searching for "small master bathroom" on Pinterest. You would not believe the vastness that some people consider "small."

3. Alla requested split pea soup this weekend, and thanks to a friend I have the best recipe for it. The pot was practically licked clean.

4. We are headed to the library when it opens at one today, as a whole slew of Halloween books have come in for us!

5. I am in the middle of The Age of Miracles, and am just absorbed by it.

6. Have stuffed red peppers in the crockpot for dinner, yum!

7. I am finally getting around to backing up my personal photos today, almost a year's worth.

8. I have Army Wives Season 6 waiting for me at the library as well, but don't see how I can possibly watch all of that.

9. I haven't gotten around to starting Private Practice this season yet, either, which is a show I love.

10. Walked outside around eleven this morning and saw eighteen turkeys just moseying down our street. No, we do not live in the wild. Just a typical suburb here!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. 'Twas a stellar day for Fisher. We went down to the Mississippi River and caught a barge coming into the lock, and then ran (well, I ran, he sat) up the river a mile and discovered a new way-awesome park. After lunch, we rode to the park to use the tennis courts.

2. I was thinking today while riding next to him, how cool is this, bike riding together, at similar speeds now without training wheels. It's game-changing.

3. Alla's day didn't start out as well, since hers began with a flu shot, but in her bedtime prayers she was thankful for this wonderful day, so it clearly improved.

4. Parenthood this season = very manipulative. Not necessary, and even a little bit cruel, Ron Howard; I'd watch anyway.

5. Just finished reading The Dog Stars. Hence the flu shots.

6. Just started The Light Between Oceans, which is starting out really well. Except, who wants to take a job as a lighthouse keeper?

7. We are enjoying a string of near-seventy degree days after our chilly weekend in the 50s. It's that warmth you're so grateful for, when you can feel it under the breeze, because you know soon it will be gone for awhile. Funny how it's not even the end of September and I can't remember exactly what it feels like to be really hot.

8. Apparently it's Mexican Fiesta week around here, as I unknowingly planned Mexican food for every night since Saturday - enchiladas, fajitas, carnitas, even black bean soup, although I questioned Ron when he included that particular meal in the Mexican category.

9. Yesterday was my day to volunteer in Alla's class. I don't know why that girl gets such a kick out of me being there, when generally it's not her I'm directly helping anyway, but I think it's lovely to be able to look at her from across the classroom and see her acting "normally," with her classmates, when she doesn't realize I'm looking.

10. Speaking of that darling girl of mine, how are we to get her to sleep when she cannot put down Harry Potter?!?! She's nearly done with book two and Ron has just caught her up reading at 10:15. Conundrum.

The Gardener.

Have you read the book The Gardener with your children? The girl in the book has a similar spirit to my own daughter who in the height of summer has twenty pots scattered about the yard, growing various plants and flowers and vegetables and dirt. 

This summer she rescued a handful of seeds from the squirrel feeder (it does feed a handful of birds in the winter, too) and planted them in pots, and when they got strong she started giving them away. She planted a bunch in the garden to give them room, but the bunnies got every last one, so she started over with a single seed and when it got strong she put it in its own big pot.

Friday of Labor Day weekend.

                                     

Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

So proud of her little plant's progress.

Sunday of Labor Day weekend, open!

I love this angle, the way the flower moves, the way it's young but ready to be so very full. I love my daughter for the same reasons. Can't wait to see what you grow next summer.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Somehow Ron got me sucked into The Walking Dead. And by sucked in, I mean kind of addicted.

2. We had a lovely 80-degree weekend, and then today we didn't get out of the fifties. We get used to that temperature here in Minnesota, of course, and eventually the fifties feel quite warm. But right now it's chilly. And supposed to get chillier. Fall is here.

3. Fall weather means fall food, though, and we had ourselves some lovely overnight steel cut oats this morning. Delish.

4. And picked up the first Honeycrisps today!

5. Fisher made it through exactly one week of school before coming down with a cold.

6. Alla is making her way through the second Harry Potter. She is going to read all seven so we can go to Harry Potter World. Sorry, Fisher, but you'll have to read them, too - no free rides:)

7. Today Fisher and I went on a lovely Mama run/Fisher bike ride, sans training wheels! I can hardly keep up with that kid. I'm pretty comfortable with about a 9:30 pace, and this kid has me trying to catch him at 8:30, and still not succeeding.

8. I bought myself a hot stone massage on Crowd Cut almost a year ago, because it was in fact good for a year, and am finally getting to use it this Friday!

9. Our family needs to get flu shots, but they are only done until 4 at the clinic at Ron's work, and 4 is when Alla gets out of school.

10. I am so glad to be back in Alla's classroom volunteering this year. It doesn't always mean I get to work directly with her, but she loves it all the same, having her mama in her class, and I enjoy getting to know the kids she spends her day with.

September 12.

Somehow taking 12 pictures this month completely slipped my mind, but luckily in this time we're living in, there is always a camera of some sort around to capture Life. So these are twelve from the past week or so, as we are easing out of summer and back into school.

Our last warm weekend, War
Tea and books
The sunflower from a seed, she grew!
The seeds I grew.

Late summer harvest
New crop
Evidence
But we roll on, with two fewer wheels

Together
Last year before it all begins
Patterns in stories
Adventures on bridges and steps under amazing skies.

Fisher's last year of preschool.

Oh how I love this boy. It was only a short while ago that I could hardly leave his classroom to go across the hall for "Mommy class," let alone drop him off for a full morning of preschool all on his own. But now he owns this. He's excited, he's ready to learn, he's talking about new friends and happy to see old ones. Hard to believe that he's started his last year of preschool.

 

 

I feel this is going to be a big year for him, of making connections, putting together all the pieces of stuff he's learning. I'm so excited for where he is.

.Good luck this year, Buddy. But you don't need luck, you have something special in you.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. It's been awhile since we had ourselves a good ol' Ten on Tuesday post around here, so let's get back at it!

2. Fisher saw his friends (two of them, both four year olds) coming around the block on Sunday and immediately ditched his baseball game to get his old bike down, the one without training wheels. By Monday evening his big bike had lost its training wheels as well and five neighborhood kids had gone from four wheels to two in 24 hours flat. Exciting times.

3. Ah, Parenthood is back!

4. We had 90+ degree weather today with crazy winds, but it is supposed to be at least twenty degrees cooler tomorrow. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

5. That said, cooler weather IS good for running, which I haven't gotten much of lately.

6. The Twelve comes out next month. I think Ron and I are going to re-read The Passage in preparation. Not easy to say; it's 700 pages!

7. Took Fisher to the allergist today and watched his back swell up in reaction to peanuts and wheat. Man.

8. Alla is going to the Air Force Academy and Fisher's not going to college, so I think we're good on educational expenses.

9. Lost two keys today. Bummed out the second part of my day, but now Fisher is really looking forward to seeing how keys are made, so there's that.

10. Tonight's bedtime stories: Ferdinand (Alla's pick), and Monkey With a Toolbelt (Fisher's pick). I might have snuck a third in there since we were early to bed and it was my night to read and my favorite little girl was brushing my hair. Might have.

First day of school: Alla.

Hard to believe my little girl is in second grade. She woke at six a.m. (I remember most school days last year where I was waking her at 8:45.) I didn't even see her in jammies, because when I got up at seven, she already had her first day of school outfit on.

 

I love this smile, I love her excitedness. I hope she finds nothing can dampen her spirit.

Vacation "Twelve"

We just returned from Breezy Point, MN, and I have loads of vacation photos (that I've actually uploaded, so step 1 is complete), but I thought I'd ease into it with my Twelve on the 12th images. You'll soon find, if you're so inclined, that there aren't exactly twelve images for August, but I'm sure it's fine.

 

Alla balancing on a wooden log. She later went on to, of course, fall off and bruise herself.

On the (nonmoving) kiddie train in Nisswa.

The condo we stayed in had an open staircase, so Alla promptly found a light to put under there for a perfect storytelling spot.

I was a super reader on our trip, finishing this big read and starting another.

Fisher brought his "war cards" so that although he played with us for hours, he could still get in some side games with his friends, who all made the trip with us.

Oh yes our condo had a hot tub.

The real (well bigger) train in Nisswa.

The beach!

Ten on Tuesday: The Ten-Year Anniversary Edition.

1. Ron and I got to leave town for the weekend, to celebrate our ten year anniversary. We haven't left the kids to go on any sort of trip since, um, well, since having them.

 

2. We picked Duluth, where we could easily get back (two hours) if a Fisher emergency presented itself, but, happily, Nana and Pappi handled everything with grace and we were able to just be Ron and J.J. for 48 hours.

3. We stayed at the A.G. Thomson House, which was the most amazing inn ever. Ron was a big fan of there being homemade chocolate chip cookies in the dining room around the clock.

4.The innkeepers serve a multi-course breakfast every morning, and on the first day there was a raspberry scone, still warm from the oven. Oh, wow.

5. After a breakfast like that you're really not hungry for most of the day, so we spent several hours hiking at Gooseberry.

  

 6. Saw this deer on our way, clearly not afraid of hikers.

7. We hiked down to Agate Beach, where I could have stayed for hours filling my pockets with interesting gems. This is the view from the beach looking out on Lake Superior.

8. Another North Shore recommendation: New Scenic Cafe, which I'm sure someone else recommended to me, and which was darn good food. I had fresh yellowfin tuna melt. Wow.

9. Sunday was my favorite sky. The sky doesn't get more gorgeous. This is the view from Fitger's, looking toward Canal Park/the Aerial Lift Bridge. Amazing!

10. Thank you again, Mom and Bob - what a gift of a weekend it was.