Friday night was delightful. When Iz woke up Friday morning I told her it was Halloween, and after school, she could put on her costume and we’d go Treating, so she declared during morning circle that today, after school Halloween starts!
Dressed in a lovely butterfly costume, we headed to Columbia City, where the lovely local shops were handing out candy. At , was photographing the kids. I just love the shots, and I can’t wait to see them. You can see more of her beautiful work on her . (I wonder if they’ll be doing this for Christmas? hmmm)
Iz was so delighted, she munched on a few pieces in the back seat while we left Columbia City and headed for West Seattle.
We had a sweet evening, with not a lot of sugar consumption. The Halloween Monster (she’s friendly, don’t worry), did come last night and took some of the candy. We leave her some of the treats so we can trick -or-treat next year. The rest will be rationed off, and probably forgotten about in a few days.
Rob arrived in Seattle on Wednesday, about 2 months after we left Western MA. We sure did miss him. He arrived in time to pick Iz up from school. She saw me first, big smile as usual. Then she saw her dad, the jaw dropped and she ran into his arms!
We’re glad you’re home.
You can read about Rob’s adventures across the country .
It was a wonderful weekend. We spent it with cousins and we stitched it up (among other creative things). While visiting , we stopped in at Heirloom Quilts. The girls each picked fabric for their skirts. It was so much fun. If Iz could have, she would have taken a cut from every single bolt. She’s a girl after my own heart.
I had promised my cousin that I would teach her to sew, and making one of these is so perfect. She learned how to measure herself, how to rip fabric (so we didn’t worry about cutting straight lines), how to iron, wind a bobbin, thread the machine and sew in straight lines. It’s the perfect skirt, because it’s ok if you can’t sew a straight line, you won’t see it! You can totally design them with the right fabrics and band placement.
photo by Iz
Iz loves the sewing machine. If the table were lower, she could certainly step on the pedal herself.
Sarah did such a great job. Her skirt was AWESOME! The prints she picked were adorable and a total reflection of her personality. It was great for me, I’ve been missing . I keep thinking that I’ll just start teaching again. soon. really soon!
PS – Want to make your own Twirly? Here’s a really, really wonderful tute from .
I have many food memories growing up. Other than the “you must eat the liver” memory (ugh – do you have one like that too?), probably the next biggest would be our pancakes. Every weekend, Dad would make us pancakes using his mother’s recipe. They were of course, delish, and would come in the shape of the letters of our names. They were so much fun to eat. And, we could make them together. There was ingredient getting, measuring, mixing, pouring, the butter and cooking. Oh, and let’s not forget the eating. YUM! Dad would pile his pancakes up high on his plate, biggest pancake on the bottom to the smallest pancake on top. He’d ever-so-carefully place a small pad of butter on top of each pancake then drizzle maple syrup over the whole stack.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had those pancakes, but lucky me has moved to Seattle and spent a weekend with the family that has kept this little recipe alive. I had forgotten how delicious they really are.
At our house we’ve been eating pancakes with the lovely mix from Trader Joes, and it’s really yummy. But I think I’m going to just make these now….
They are amazingly light (much lighter than the TJ’s mix) and just sweet enough but not sugary.
I didn’t leave the table with that “oh, that pancake just SANK to the bottom of my stomach” feeling. And now, of course, I can’t stop thinking about these pancakes! Thanks Aunt Debbie!
Since we’ve moved to our house in Western Ma 2.5 years ago, I’ve been daydreaming of having a big family party. And now that we are moving, everyone came to visit. Most of the visitors stayed for 10 days and over the weekend of July 4, we had 22 people! It was fantastic. Do you know that saying, something like, “Visitors are like fish, after 3 days, they go bad”. Well, my little family is proof that it’s not always that way. Everyone got along, was pleasant, quite appreciative, and a wonderful help.
Here are a few of the highlights:
I got to meet my brother’s youngest for the first time ever. He’s 5. (They live in South Korea.)
Dad chased his oldest grandson around and ripped up his knee, spent his entire visit on crutches, but was a good sport.
My brother gave up Diet Coke. This is a big deal. He drinks something like 3 cases of it a day. (.)
We went to the 61st Annual Chesterfield 4th of July parade. Animals pooped, and well, that was certainly the highlight for the cousins.
We ate SO MUCH FOOD. For our family picnic, we (I mean Thanks Greg – you rock) grilled pizzas. If you haven’t tried this yet, you really, really must. They are SO DELISH! I used whole wheat dough from Trader Joe’s and for one pizza I carmelized fennel and red onion and added Feta cheese. The other pizzas were topped with mozzarella, basil pesto and tomatoes. YUM!!!
That very night, we had visitors. Bears came and toppled our compost. They must have played for a while, there were lots of paths created on the hill. Everyone got a little nervous, but they didn’t come back. Mom fell asleep watching TV, and woke up hearing growling the next night. She tried to wake her husband (he slept through the excitement), and after a few minutes of heart-in-throat, she realized it was the lion on the MGM bit of the movie she was watching.
My super wonderful sister-in-law made us “kimbop” (I am spelling this phonetically… but it’s Korean for hot dog – so I’m told). We call them sushi rolls, or California rolls. They were so AMAZING. We stopped at the Korean grocery store and I learned about a few new things that we’ll be adding to our Friday night roll making ritual. They were perfectly rolled and absolutely delicious.
Seeing my daughter and her cousins play together was just priceless. I only wish we could do it every weekend.
It was 10 days. It was wonderful. As everyone left I couldn’t stop thinking about the pictures, did I get enough? (ok, I took over 500…) Did I get the right ones? I don’t want to forget our wonderful time together, and I want Iz to be able to look through the photos and remember too.
Somehow, my parents have a 37 year old daughter and a 35 year old son. I was looking through my photo album and found this picture. And while I don’t remember this birthday exactly, I do remember so many of our birthdays. We are 2 years apart, but our actual birthdays are 5 days apart, so we almost always had the same birthday party. We each got our own cake and probably presents too. We haven’t celebrated a birthday together for years, and I’m hoping we will in a few weeks when my brother and his family will be visiting from Korea for a spell.
It’s funny, I look at this photo and I can feel the tablecloth, remember the wall paper exactly, notice how much of the room has turned yellow from the light, feel the bench behind us, smell the marlboros, and taste the cake. I have lots of wonderful memories, all stored up and then I come across this picture and it’s like I’m standing there in the picture.
Happy Birthday Benny! You are 35 and that makes me 37, cousin Lynn is 45 and mom and dad are no longer in their 20s like when we were born. I still think of you as my little brother. Always will. Hope to see you soon. xxooZ
Recent Comments