Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday we made our annual pilgrimage to the Bishop Pumpkin Patch in Wheatland, California. It is one of our favorite because of the great time we spend with cousins, aunts, and grandma, and because it celebrates all that we love about fall (baked goods included).

Olivia and Henry love to run through the pumpkins and find the perfect one. Every year it takes longer than the year before. I think they simply have too much fun and cannot bear to end the hunt for the greatest pumpkin.

See what I mean about too much fun?

We have our annual measuring (this one is way more fun the one at the doctor’s office).

Our cousin bonding time…

…and the sassy time too.

And let’s not forget the cutest petting zoo ever. It comes with brushes to groom the goats and they love it. They being both types of kids (the children and the goats, hehe).

Feeling Better!

Olivia has had the flu, yeah the pig kind, and our household has been, well, not fun. Not fun because Olivia has been miserable (and making others miserable too) and because Henry, the germophobe, loses it when she gets within 5 feet of him. He is convinced that he's going to get it too (he's not, he was vaccinated). However, today Olivia is feeling much better. This afternoon I found her reading in her room so I told her that if she wanted to I had a job for her to do. She asked, "Does it pay?" "I said sure I'll pay you a dollar if you go put Daddy's shoes back on the shoe rack." She went into our closet, came back out with her little fist on her hip and said “Actually, that will be 2 dollars!" She is feeling much MUCH better!

Way to take a stand!

As some of you may know, I am Henry's Kindergarten room mom. I'm in his class every day, helping, and this is what I witnessed today.

Mr. Lang (standing by the dry-erase board, while all the students are seated at their desk): "Boys and girls, listen to Mr. Lang because he's the most important person in the world." Reagan (a little girl in the class): "Mr. Lang isn't the most important person in the world. Santa Claus is the most important person in the world!" Henry (not missing a beat): "Santa Claus isn't the most important person in the world. Jesus is! And Heavenly Father too!" I love how children just blurt out what they think and I love that Henry thinks Jesus and Heavenly Father are the most important people in the world. They are. Now, should I tell him about Santa Claus?

I made croissants!

I shouldn’t pat myself on the back and brag about it too but I’m going to anyway. I’m breaking the no bragging rule because I’m excited, happy and so is my tummy.

Every one that knows me knows that my weakness is French pastries. I have been known to make a HUGE detour to get one of these little goodies. I like to buy them but I also enjoy making them. I had been looking for a good recipe for croissant, a good one but not a crazy hard one that took three days from start to finish, and I found it. It wasn’t super easy, I was making croissants after, but it was definitely doable and absolutely delicious. I loved the smell in my kitchen (let me correct that- in my house) as they were baking. I’m not Martha Stewart but I sure felt like one when I make these and I can’t wait to make them again. (I’ll be glad to share the recipe if anyone out there wants it.)

Random things that make us smile

We all have busy lives and we can get stuck on the busy-ness, and if your life is like mine, chaos. Even though I wouldn't change my crazy life for any other, i find it easy to get fixated on the negative. (We were almost late today, why can't my kids pick up after themselves, I really don't have enough hours in one day...you get the picture). That is why I love little random things that make me smile and remind me that life is great, no matter how stressed I get. As I mentioned in a previous post we walk to and from school as often as we can and on our way we see the "flower dog". He (or she, we've only seen its head) is always there, checking out the kids walking to or from school. We love this dog. Olivia and Henry go and pet it. I smile and I think "Isn't life great?"

Life after summer vacation

All summer long, I was heard saying that I would be as busy once the school year started, that everything would settle down and that I would have more time. Well, I lied. I’m busier than ever (mostly by choice) and dead tired but We are having some really good times.

Now you might ask why I am so busy. As every parent of school age children knows, school means homework. If you have a child like Olivia, it can be a treat. If you have children like Henry it can be a chore. But no matter how they feel about homework (I’m talking about Henry here), they both love going to school. Both were super excited to go back to school. Olivia’s second grade experience was all she expected and patiently awaited. Henry’s start was a little rougher. He too was excited about school but at the end of the first he explained: “Olivia’s a liar! School isn’t even fun! All we do is, work, work, work, study, study, study!” The following two weeks were kind of tough, he didn’t want to go but I’m glad to say that he now goes without too much complaining.

Olivia on her first day of second grade. 08/19/09.

Henry on his first day of kindergarten. 08/19/09.

This is what I see every day as we walk to school, two adorable children who can’t wait to get there. I love my kids!

Lily's Baptism and Zuma Beach

This is the first of a few catch-up posts. The said posts will be of a few fun things we enjoyed, in no particular order, since I last updated. After a couple of missed posts I got overwhelmed and simply did nothing about it. Hopefully this will get me going again. First, our trip to SoCal. We went down for Lily’s baptism. Unfortunately, our camera decided to quit working before we could get pictures with Wade (Tyler’s brother), Merideth and their children, Lily, Taylor, Luke and Crew, and I was thus unable to document what a wonderful time we had them. These are cousins my kids love and constantly ask why the just can’t move to Nevada. Thanks Wade and Merideth for a great weekend.

The camera did work on the first day and immortalized a family favorite, the beach. Zuma beach to be exact. A favorite of cousin Hunter and now one of ours.

I’m more of a sit-on-the-beach-and-enjoy-the-sun-and-the-atmosphere kind of girl and Olivia seems to take partly after me. The two of us had some quality conversations and lots of giggles.

This is the only picture where I could get Henry to stop long enough to pose. He stopped moving for something like 2 seconds. He takes after his father. The beach is a magical place. While there, Olivia and Henry simply enjoyed each other’s company, there was no bickering, no name calling, just peace and laughs. I was in heaven. We were all in heaven.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Thanks to Amber, Tyler’s older sister, who told us Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was fine for our children and warned us of one possible nightmare inducing scene, we decided to go for it and we loved it. Grandma came with us and she loved it too. It was definitely different from the previous movies as this movie truly is a PG movie. It was funny, more emotionally developed than the previous movies (understand a lot of kissing teenagers and teen angst) and simply a very entertaining movie. Henry, as the boy he is, would not close his eyes when the above mentioned scene came on (and was delighted to see lots of Golums) but would hide his face in my side for all the kissing. It was very funny. Olivia was giggling a lot. It’s fun to see how her sense of humor is maturing and how she understands so much more. She doesn’t just laugh because everyone in the theater is laughing anymore, she laughs because she gets it. My little girl is getting so big. All this to say that if you like Harry Potter, we highly recommend this movie. As Henry said on the way to the car, “this movie is good enough to buy.”

Happy Bastille Day!

I am proud to be an American….but I am also very proud of my origins. I love France. I love the diversity of its beautiful landscapes. I love its history, even the gruesome parts because they needed to happen to make France what it is today. I love its culture, the literature, the arts (yes all of them, some of my favorite composers, musicians, painters, writers, cinematographers, actors are French) and of course I love its food, oh French food. When people ask me to describe French food I really have a difficult time, after all Americans and French basically use the same ingredients but I have come up with a description that I think explains it all: French food is simpler yet more delicate and decadent at the same time.

I want to thank my friend Jennifer for posting a Bastille Day entry on her blog and prompting me to stop the craziness of the day to think about my heritage and how much I appreciate it. To all those who don’t love France, its people, culture and food, I say: Give us a try and you might very well change your mind.

Welcome Home

Alright, back on the blogging horse! I do realize that it has been quite a while since our last update but we have had a busy last few weeks. First, school ended and we moved to beautiful (and I’m not being sarcastic here) Gardnerville, NV. We’re renting a cute little house with a big backyard. The backyard is more dirt (or mud) than grass but it has a play set, lots of room for Olivia and Henry to run and Tyler planted a small vegetable garden (we’re about to harvest our first tomatoes, yeah!).

We stayed with boxes and furniture-not-yet-put-together everywhere for a long time. I am proud to announce that the furniture is now put together but sad to admit I am still working on some of the boxes. It might take a while. A few weeks back I decided that I would not stress about getting the house perfectly together but go with the flow; we’ve been up to the lake quite a few times, to the pool (for swimming lessons or just for fun), to the many parks of the area and even to the zoo in Sacramento. I’ll blog about all that later and the boxes will most likely have to wait until later as well.

The putting-the-furniture-together allowed Henry to have his first ER trip and his first stitches. That was quite an experience; Henry was screaming because he didn’t want stitches and Olivia was in hysterics because there was so much blood. It was a great evening, although I wouldn’t recommend it to the faint of heart.

Well, we’re home and we’re enjoying the summer, or at least trying to survive it in one piece!