Portrait with Cookie

We went to the tree lighting ceremony at the Biltmore, conveniently scheduled during the power outage so we could enjoy their lights (on the tree and off) AND get a free cookie dinner. 

I mistakenly thought that I could magically get THE photo for our Christmas cards at this event somehow.

After no time at all it was apparent that the cookie-love was much stronger than any desire to pose for photos.

I did manage to grab one cute shot with no cookie in the frame, plus I really enjoyed the event as a kick off for the holidays!

Dilly Beans

Rather than tackle the mountain of laundry that accumulated while we were out of power (aided by the fact that we were already overdue for laundry), today I took care of 12 pounds of green beans. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks these guys will be crunchy and dilly and perfect.  

My favorite part of canning is hearing the little pings that the lid makes as the jars cool and the pressure vacuum pulls it down. Ping, ping, ping. So satisfying. 

Back on the Grid

After 72 hours we got our power back tonight! We had hot water and our gas stove to cook the whole time so, relatively, it was not too bad. However, the novelty had worn off and we were quite happy to come home tonight and discover the front porch light on finally! 

Our neighborhood was strewn with broken lines so it was not really too surprising that it took so long for the crews to get them all repaired.  Here is an impressive burn in the grass from a downed line that is a new landmark on our walk to and from school.

Matilda checks out some good samaritan neighbors who decided to clear this tree out of the street, after the city hadn't gotten to it in 48 hours. They spent two days clearing it!

 Our neighbor's Christmas decorations after the storm.

 "Camping dinners" and candlelight baths were terribly exciting for the kids.

The trucks finally arrived on our block at 8 a.m. this morning to great cheers from our house! They spent 12 hours just on our block today so it must have been a huge tangle of mess.

Shtick

Near the end of our long drive back from Arizona on Sunday Porter yelled up to us in the front seat.

Porter: Hey Dad, want to hear the bad news?
Tim: (chuckling) What's the bad news, buddy?
Porter: The bad news is, a squirrel might poop in our yard!
Tim: Oh boy!
Porter: But Dad, do you want to hear the good news?
Tim: (chuckling harder now): Yes, please!
Porter: The good news is that a squirrel didn't poop in our yard!

I don't know where he gets it from, but he sure is funny. Just like his dad.

Things I Am Thankful For

 Somehow this.......

followed by hours of this......

did not result in any ill effects. 

Losing a Tooth, Any Moment

At Matilda's cleaning yesterday, she was thrilled to see the x-rays. You can see the big new teeth coming up to replace her two front bottom teeth. The dentist assured her that means she will loose her teeth soon, although she wouldn't commit to a timeline. Matilda is convinced it will be any moment and is keeping very close tabs on the cute little plastic tooth-fairy-tooth-case that her awesome dentist gave her.

Sneaky Sous Chef

Tonight while assisting me in making pumpkin soup, I caught Porter drinking maple syrup. He had been left in charge of capping the olive oil and maple syrup after we put each into the soup puree. Instead, while I had my back to him, he very quickly and very neatly managed to pour several dollars worth of syrup into his water bottle. I can't even recall how he tipped me off to the situation, but I was impressed how carefully he accomplished the theft. The last dribbles that he didn't down before my discovery, we used to garnish the top of our soup. Delicious, even with moderate amounts of toddler backwash.

Siblings

These two have been so sweet together lately.

Snuggling watching a video one morning.

 Goofing off together while Tim was trying to get a nice shot with Grammy.

Sharing the rocking chair after another fabulous lunch of fish and pelican watching at Duke's.

 Coating the kitchen floor with barley. 

These guys got hours of entertainment from a dumped out expired bag of barley. I suspect we will be finding barley on the floor for months now. 

Boy Cut

Before

 During

After

Porter and I both got haircuts at home this week. It was the most awesome thing ever. A gal that used to cut Tim's hair was back in LA for a week and looking to make some extra money. It was totally reasonable and I got my hairs taken care of without having to find a sitter or find extra time. Porter enjoyed it, still got a lollipop (thank you Halloween stash), and could busy himself emptying every bin of toys on the floor while it was my turn. Perfect!

11-11-11

Thanks to Matilda's newfound love of being the "calendar monitor" at school, she was really into the awesome date today. For a week now she has been talking about how soon the date will be "eleven dash eleven dash eleven!" I agree with her that it is super cool. 

Thanks to the Veterans Day holiday (Thanks, veterans!), M was out of school today so we could all have some fun together with Grammy in tow. We chose to use the free day to go check out the awesome brand new carousel at the zoo. Stella came too, for an extra measure of fun. 

Then we happened upon 4 other kindergarten friends there, so our group was quickly wild and crazy. I was quite thankful for all the other grown-ups helping track the pack today since Porter spent his zoo time moving at this speed: full stride ahead!

 After much animal viewing, the bird show and a picnic lunch we finally made it to the carousel. Porter's first choice ride, the preying mantis, was taken. For a moment I thought all hell was about to break loose, but somehow he overcame his disappointment and chose to pull it together and ride the rhino.

 Matilda waffled widely, finally choosing this cute little log seat with some owl friends.
Stella got her first choice, tiger!

 Grammy also got her first choice of the dung beetle chariot. So cool! The kids obliged my demands for a photo with much yelling of "Ewww, poop!"

We will be back soon to ride the carousel again with the unicorn, preying mantis, serval, okapi and kangaroo in our sights. At the end of our visit, Stella's much nicer mom bought her an ice cream which led to a full on assault by Porter, who I was denying zoo treats. Stella shared really nicely and volunteered a few bites willingly. Porter's sweet tooth was not satisfied and soon he was dashing at Stella like some kind of wild dog after scraps. 

Hopefully poor Stella wasn't too traumatized. Porter's wails for ice cream ended as he fell asleep in the car, just feet from the zoo parking exit.

Observatory Fun

Smiling cutie.

 Grammy and Matilda give me a cheese.

 Can you see me now?

 This boy is happy and getting big so fast. I am glad to see a little baby chub on his face in this picture since it will be gone in the blink of an eye.

 Monkey climber.

 Monkey see, monkey do.

 Porter was calling this a "vacuum truck." I have no idea why.

Kale Avocado Salad

On Friday as I pulled together dinner I wanted to make a salad but had only kale and avocado.
Solution:

Kale Avocado Salad
So good. Try it!

Muddy Buddy

Gaurav & I (and our big cheering section) braved the chilly 40 degree temperatures and rain to participate in the muddiest Muddy Buddy race yet. It poured rain on us the whole time making the 6 mile course really slick and treacherous. 

Porter helped to keep me warm as we wait at the starting line for our start time.

 I mostly ran with the bike during my bike legs of the relay as I was too nervous to bike on the sloppy trails.

Sarah got the best pics of the day I think, catching us as we emerged from the mud pit finale. 

 
Grammy got a nice shot of us all afterwards. (She'll be visiting this whole next week and is posting pictures faster than me if you want to follow our adventures.)

When it came time for the Mini Muddy Buddy race this year, Matilda backed out. We had already pre-registered for it, but I was almost thankful that she passed. I was so freezing cold afterwards being all wet and muddy and Matilda would have been a disaster to get cleaned up. Poor delicate California girl that we are raising does not like to get cold! Instead I will leave you with the pics from last year's race where you can see I seemed to have worn the same outfit for the 2010 race! The whole affair was done by 11 a.m. and we all climbed back into the car to head home for hot showers, hot pho noodles and a cozy nap. The perfect ending to a cold, exhausting morning.

Halloween Night

We skipped the busy old neighborhood where we have always taken the kids before. Instead this year we stuck to our new block, splitting the time between trick or treating and handing out candy. Our porch had many pumpkins from the annual pumpkin autopsy party. Here is Matilda's pumpkin, completed on her own for the second year. I particularly love it with the crazy eyes she choose.

Here the kids are gathered in the window watching for trick or treaters to start showing up as it gets dark. The anticipation was really getting them super amped up as you can imagine!

 It proved to be fairly impossible to get a good shot of the hummingbird, caterpillar and Gruffalo with all the excitement in the air, but rest assured that they were adorable. 

 Sarah and Gaurav did an amazing job with their homemade Gruffalo costume, even down to the purple prickles on her back and "poisonous" green wart on the nose.

 They get into the swing of it at our first house out.  

Porter yelling about something, possibly candy.

After just a few blocks, our crew was all happy to come home and hand out candy. 

Porter and Matilda both really liked seeing all the trick or treaters coming up. Except for one particular penguin. A grown man in a big penguin costume came marching up the front yard with his beak really obscuring his face. Porter took one look at him approaching and screamed bloody murder. The poor penguin quickly looked up to tilt the beak back and show his face, causing Porter to calm down fairly quickly. I feel a little awful saying that it might have been the highlight of my evening. Poor Porter has the best terrified scream ever. Every time he does it (which seems to be with some regularity), I am torn between cracking up myself and rushing to try and console him. The irony is that the really scary costumes never phased him. He got especially excited for the many Scream mask characters calling them the "open mouth guys."