Halloween 2009

And here they are (trick-or-treating at Infospace)! We had two perfectly dressed little fishermen and one beautiful garden fairy. The boys just added the authentic fishing nets to their new rain gear (purchased from a marine and fishing supply store)and they looked like they just got off a fishing boat. Ember didn't really know what we were doing, but she got right into it and had a great time carefully placing candy into her bucket. Later when she noticed the boys actually eating candy, she gave them the funniest look and starting making complaining noises like, "Hey, no fair! Where did they get that candy?!!" Funny!

Beck carved the small pumpkin all by himself and added the details on Yogi's pumpkin on the left. I carved Beck's (the one in the middle which had an impossibly hard rind on it. My wrist still hurts!) I used Beck's drawing as a guide.

Yogi and Beck just before neighborhood trick-or-treating.
Ember peeks out the mail slot while Beck and Yogi ask her for candy!


Trick-or-treating with Chris at work.

Halloween Pumpkins

I think we're experiencing Halloween inflation. We've already been to 2 Halloween parties, (and invited to a 3rd which we didn't attend), we've been trick or treating in costumes at Chris's work and already collected gobs of candy and it's just Halloween today!

We'll hit the neighborhood tonight and I'll post some photos of the kids in costume. Here are some shots of us carving pumpkins - the ones we got at that organic farm a few weeks ago. My right wrist is still throbbing in pain from carving Beck's pumpkin. The rind on that one was more like a layer of formica which made carving it almost impossible. Ouch.

Yogi's Night

This morning Yogi woke up and turned to me and we had this brief conversation:

Yogi: "Boy, that was a tiring night!"
Me: ???? What do you mean? Why was it so tiring?
Yogi: (Giving me an incredulous look...) Because I was so tired!

Mildew Be Gone!

I know this is very "Good Housekeeping" of me, but today I'm sharing a tip with you that worked a miracle on a very stubborn problem: mildew smell in the laundry.

A little background: a little over a year ago I washed a load of towels and then accidentally forgot about them. It's not like I left them sitting in the washer for days, but our washer and dryer share a small room with our furnace and when the furnace is running, the room gets quite toasty. So by the end of the day after washing the towels on hot and then having them sit there in that warm room, they smelled bad -a sour, musty, mildew smell. In the past I've actually thrown out towels or washcloths that end up smelling of mildew because I've never been able to get that awful smell out and there is nothing worse than drying off with a stinky towel. It's gross. But this time it was an entire load of towels -- our good matching towels in the right colors -- not just spare towels we might use for swimming.

So, over the course of the year, each time I use one of those towels I cringe from the smell and then kick myself for making such a stupid mistake. That is until a few weeks ago when I found this tip on the internet which I am now passing to you! It worked perfectly. Here's how you do it:

To Remove Mildew Smell from Towels:

The Vinegar Method
Put your towels in the washing machine, using the hottest water available. Add one or two cups of white vinegar. Do not add detergent, fabric softener, or any other products at this time. Run the washer.
Leave the towels in the washer and wash the same load again just as you would normally with laundry soap. Again, use the hottest water available. Don't use fabric softener or any other products.
Dry the load in the dryer using a high heat setting. Towels should be thoroughly dry when you pull them out. If they're not dry, put them back in, or move them immediately outside and hang them in the sunlight.

That's it. One time and problem solved!

Table-Scrap Tank

I almost forgot this darling little tank:


For building instructions see the link from this blog: MicroBricks

Microscale Legos

"Duck bot"

"Snail bot"


Lately we've gotten interested in Microscale lego construction. It's pretty amazing what people can do with just the tiniest bricks and these don't come as sets. You have to think them on your own. In case you're interested here are a few links:

the brothers brick

or this Lego Microscale Flikr group

And here are a few of my favorites we found on the internet:

Fall Days

Suddenly it's fall. Over the past few days we've had some of the heaviest rain I've ever seen in Seattle. Drenching, loud, rain. We even lost power for a few hours - not because it was windy, but somehow related to that rain, I'm betting.

Yogi is all better. There was one night last week, though, when he couldn't sleep so he found me and Chris and said his stomach felt "weird". And even though he didn't seem sick, we know enough to take any talk about sickness seriously and got him the vomit bucket and a hot water bottle. That's what really gave it away. He was so delighted about getting the hot water bottle, he had a hard time concealing his excitement. After a little while I went in to check on him, leaned down to give him a kiss and noticed that his face was totally hot and red. He smiled sheepishly and told me that he tried the hot water bottle out on his face! What a little nut!

Anyway, we had a nice week. It looks like we sold the subaru today.

Here are some photos of our field trip with some other homeschoolers to an organic farm. We picked apples and pumpkins, took a short hay ride, tried carmel apples and enjoyed the scenery!

Another Few Days Away

We spent most of this week at the cabin again. I just can't help it with this beautiful fall weather. My favorite weather, my favorite time of the year. The first night Yogi got an ear infection so we were up together for many hours and spent the next day at a walk-in clinic in Bellingham. Poor guy. Yogi's had a hard time lately! But the following day we spent back in Crescent Beach wandering the lovely paths on Blackie Spit.

Our time at the cabin is so valuable. It's the only place where the kids get to hear frogs and coyotes at night, where we watch pairs of bald eagles riding the thermals, and hear the strange honking/croaking of the Great Blue Herons as they criss-cross the sky throughout the day. Beck and Yogi even got to hold a little tree frog that they found on the deck. "It feels sticky!" And with the big sky setting we watch the cloud play and the sky colors change, notice the path of the moon and the beginnings of snowfall on the distant mountains. I felt a visceral response in my body as we arrived this time and I walked off my road trance in the fields. It's quiet there. And even with three kids there is a stillness that I can't seem to capture in our life here in the city.


Mom and Ember

We walked along this stream and kept seeing beaver logs. At the end of the walk we spotted their lodge!


In Dunsmuir Gardens...



On Blackie Spit

Our Treetop Adventure

As promised here are a few shots from our day trip to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in West Vancouver. It was such a thrill!

The photo below was taken from the Treetop Adventure which I think is a relatively new part of the park. We talked a lot about the Ewok scenes from Star Wars because it seemed like just stumbled onto the set.

The Tears are Coming!

Oh my gosh. I'm feeling overwhelmed these days. We just returned from a few days at the cabin where we took advantage of our Nexus passes and day tripped in B.C. a couple of times. And then returned home to a messy house, a mountain of laundry, a computer that is so slooooow that I can't check the 141 emails in my inbox. Oh, and after the few days off, I'm trying to back into a routine with Beck's lessons - a situation that feels pretty fragile anyway. At one point today he said, "Mama, the tears are coming! I'm not sure why, but the tears are coming for real!!" Sigh. (This always brings up my own uncertainty about this path...Am I doing the right thing?!)

But the big news is that today we bought a new car - a new 8 seater Toyota Sienna mini van in Silver Shadow metallic. It smells good, it's roomy and wonderful, but I'm feeling a little guilty about it. It's true: we do need a new car and the mini van makes the most sense, but I'm on this frugality kick lately and after realizing that we can actually fit all three car seats in the back of our little Geo Prism (which gets great gas mileage, BTW) I'm wondering if we really needed so much extra room and luxury. The one nice thing is that we now we can take our little day trips and include extended family which comes up a lot.

So. That's it for now. I have photos so hopefully we'll put those up this weekend.