There's no place like home

We took a drive out to see Grandma and Grandpa's new house this afternoon.  Boy!  I hadn't seen it in quite a while and was mightily impressed!!  I'll give a quick little shout-out to my wonderfully, talented hubbie who designed it and thought of every last detail!  It should be all finished in about another week and a half.  Just in time for Thanksgiving.  What a celebration that will be--and definitely a chance to reflect over all the blessings that have been heaped onto the family.  Thank you Lord!

The Leaf Monster

Over the weekend we figured that we'd better make the most of the gorgeous weather and get out there and rake.  There's nothing worse than trying to deal with leaves that are wet and covered in snow/slush.  Blech!  The Noodle was all about helping rake up the leaves and especially liked helping me drag the tarp to the tree lawn to dump. Oh yeah, in case you wondered,  J's not afraid of SARS or working part-time in a nail salon--his allergies are HORRIBLE this time of year and it seems like anytime he does anything outside, the rest of the day he is miserable.  He wears a mask to help cut down on the pollen, molds, dust and other allergens.

Once we had a nice, big pile raked up, she was in her glory running and jumping.  Don't worry, I made sure there weren't any cars going by since she was so close to the road!  She was a regular little leaf monster!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween all!  We hit our neighborhood while it was still light--thank you daylight savings for waiting an extra week.  The Noodle and I were on the hunt for loot and J stayed home passing out candy. 

I think next year we're going to stay away from cardboard costumes.  While they are cute and all, they're not very forgiving where steps are concerned or if you trip while you're walking (as evidenced by the tears in the eyes before we even headed out!).  Even so, we had a fun time trick-or-treating and by the end, the Noodle couldn't wait to go over all her candy.

'Twas the night before Halloween...

...and we were busy carving our pumpkins.  I should say J and C were busy carving--I was busy baking some pumpkin bread for breakfast tomorrow and roasting some pumpkin seeds.  Let me just say, the house was smelling delish!  In all honesty, I'm only too happy to let those 2 get goopy with pumpkin guts.  Yuck!  At some point, it became more about playing in the goo than actually scooping out the pumpkin...oh well!  J was able to get her back on track and when it was time to carve, she had quite a few ideas of her own :)

Fu Baoshi Family Day

Our art museum is currently hosting an exhibit on the modern Chinese master Fu Baoshi.  It is an overview of his work from the 1920s to 1965.  To celebrate this exhibition, the museum put on a family day to celebrate Chinese art and culture with art-making workshops and gallery activities, including a scavenger hunt.

We headed over there to see what was what.  The first stop was to construct a miniature version of a Chinese scroll.  You could also try your hand at ink painting.  Amazing how they do what they do with those brushes!

 After that, we stopped by to look (and touch!) some authentic objects including a ceramic pillow (soo not comfortable) and a pair of shoes that a woman with bound feet would have worn (grotesquely amazing).

Next was the gallery exhibit which focused on Fu Baoshi's creations, partly which occurred during the rule of Chairman Mao Zedong.  I especially found this interesting since I recently finished Dreams of Joy by Lisa See and quite a bit of the book revolved around artists during this same time period.  Having a little more background helped me understand visually what I was experiencing.

Finally, as the day was winding down, we went to make a chop, which in China, is often used as a signature.  The benefit was that we pretty much had the room (and supplies) to ourselves by this time, so that was cool.  It was a fun day and another opportunity to teach the Noodle a little bit more about the country from which she came.

Fun on the farm

 This afternoon we headed out to our favorite apple/pumpkin farm.  It's a small place.   A looong way out.  Quiet--without all the bells and whistles that sometimes accompany these kinds of farms.  But that's o.k. by us.  It has everything we need.  Pumpkins.  Apples.  A friendly farm cat.  A tasty treat or two.

It didn't take long for us to find that perfect pumpkin.  You just kinda know it when ya see it, don't ya?  Then we filled up a big bag of apples and of course, stopped to give our regards to the kitty.  No stop to an orchard would be complete with an apple and an apple fritter (split 3 ways) so we of course had to have one.  Yummo! 

And as far as those ellusive brown shoes?  Well we had success at N*rdstroms.  At least I think we did.  They're sending us a pair.  Fingers cross they fit.  We've even got the toe and heel pads to help that little foot fit a bit more snugly.  I guess I missed the fashion memo, in regards to footware in the size 8-12 toddler shoe department.  Seems that black and pewter/copper are all the rage this year.  Nary a brown shoe to be found.  Hmph.  Black I get and pewter/copper are way cool too, but my only question is this....how do you polish pewter or copper?!  Guess we'll have to wait and see.

And just because I love to see the passage of time, here are a few photos from years past. 

2011

2010--We went to a different place this year.

2009

2008--A few weeks after we arrived home!

Fall Festival

It seems to be a tradition, no matter the preschool/elementary school, to host a fall festival.  You have to have all the right components of course:  pumpkins, a cake walk, cider and pizza, face painting, games and highly coveted prizes like spider and bat rings and of course hyped-up kiddos running here and there in their costumes.  Ah, yes...the fall festival.

The only other LEGO block we saw.

We went to the Noodle's tonight and it met all the criteria, plus a few extras like a s'more station, cookie decorating station and a "photo booth".  In true Noodle fashion, she walked around with a straight face but at the end of the night declared "I had sooo much fun!".  Sweet girl!

The big hits?  The bat and spider rings and the pumpkin face paint.  She was adamant that J not wash it off when he washed her face before bed.  This was right before she conked out in bed...exhausted from so many festivities :)

A cardboard LEGO costume is sooo not fire friendly.

Tomorrow we begin the elusive search for a new pair of brown shoes that actually fit her narrow foot (so far the ol' stand-byes Str*de R*te, Tar-Jay and F*mous F**tware have left us out in the cold) and then, fingers crossed, to go pick pumpkins and apples!  Should be a busy, fun weekend!!