SPOOKY!

Alli is at the age of losing teeth... often.  Her first grad class keeps track of how many teeth are lost each month.  There were ten lost in October so far.
On Wednesday, Alli came home from school like this...

I will spare you the close-up, but take my word for it, the tooth is backwards!!!!

Wiggly teeth gross me out... especially when the loose tooth is hanging all crooked and  backwards.  I told her to yank it out.  She didn't want to.  She wanted to wait until school the next day.  If you lose a tooth at school you get a special necklace.  And she wanted that necklace.

Half an hour later, the tooth fell out.  Bummer.


Alli is managing fine without the front teeth.  She can munch on Halloween candy without difficulty.
And that is the important thing right now.

leaves!

On Monday we went back to the apple orchard.  We finished off the 20 pounds of apples we picked a few weeks ago, and we needed more!
My sister Janis and her two youngest daughters met us at the orchard.  It didn't take long to fill our bags with apples... but the kids didn't want to go. 

Then they spotted a giant pile of leaves.

Oh what fun!
The girls built a fort and pathways.

June has never played in leaves before.  The girls nearly buried her in the crisp leaves.

June had the best time grabbing bunches of leaves and tossing them in the air.  And swishing and kicking at the crunchy leaves.

It was all lovely and fun until it really was time to go...

Alli lamented the fact that we don't have leaves in our yard.  Our trees are too scrawny this year.

So sad.

Christmas card reject...

You WILL look at the camera.

apple picking!

Andy and I took the girls to an apple orchard on Saturday.  The weather was perfect and sunny.  June got to ride in the wagon back to the orchard.  Alli and Ruby carried bags of sunshine.

Okay, they were just empty grocery sacks, but they caught the sunlight in this picture.

The trees were dwarf trees, so the kids could reach plenty of apples.

So we put them to work!

Even the little one had to pick!


Ruby loved finding the prettiest ones.

We sampled all the varieties of apples...

Big ones and small ones...

(Yes, Alli has Jack-o-lantern teeth right now.)
June even did double-sampling.

We picked almost 20 pounds of apples!

And now, let the baking begin!

10.10.10

To celebrate the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year...

Here are ten things that made me smile this weekend...

1. Cousin Eliza came over for a sleepover.  Besides bringing the regular sleepover gear, she also brought accessories... which June borrowed.  I have a feeling that ten years from now, I will be posting a very similar story.


2.  I finished another backdrop painting!  I like painting backdrops.  For a few hours I dripped paint and added layers.  Ruby and her friend helped out a little.  When the backdrop dried, Ruby was a sport and let me use her as a model... smiles cost extra apparently.


3.  We are growing a watermelon in our front yard flower bed.  It is about the size of an average canteloupe now.  I have never successfully grown a melon before.  This is new, exciting territory.  Anyone know how to tell if it is ready to be picked?


4.  I made a bunch of pumpkin throw pillows.  The kids play pumpkin patch with them.  I put them on the couch and chairs to be festive.  I love them.  The girls love them.  

Andy doesn't love pillows.  (But I still love him!)

5.  We are all enchanted with Andy's new toy.  Today Alli sighed and told me, "Dad's phone can do anything!"  It is true... or maybe it's more like Andy can do anything with his phone.  Have I mentioned that he is brilliant? 


6.  Andy fixed my favorite camera lens.  He took it apart and bent the thing-a-ma-jiggy back into place and put it all back together... and it works again!

(And this is the spider Andy saved Ruby from... she was picking apples and not paying attention and almost stuck her face into the web!  Someone squealed... possibly Ruby... maybe not.  Compare the spider to the apple leaf in its web!)

7.  Kids soccer!  Alli and Ruby are on a soccer team with their cousin Eldon!  The games are action-packed... there are kid's dancing and picking grass and waving to parents.  It is fun to watch the kids.


And everyone is a winner.

8.  We picked apples this weekend!  All kinds of apples!  We made an apple crisp today.  And we ate several plain apples.  At the rate we are going, we will need to pick another 20 pounds next week.


9.  There was an incident today.  I was putting something away in the basement and I heard a crash above me and then the sound of marbles rolling across the floor in every direction.  By the time I got upstairs, Andy was on the scene.  And he was a little upset.  June had gotten into the pantry with a stool and pulled down and 3.5 pound bag of peanut M&Ms.  The bag wasn't zipped shut (for easy snack access), so about 3 pounds of M&Ms spilled in the pantry.  June was stuffing those things into her mouth as fast as she could go.  Ruby came to "help" too.  We cleaned most of them up, but there are several loose M&Ms that we will be finding for a long, long time.

Ruby got to keep these ones.

10.  Because of #9, Andy installed a child-proof lock on the pantry.  Did I mention that Peanut M&Ms are his favorite?  Yup. 

Look closely, Andy is in the background drilling into the pantry door.  He had to rig up the locking device because it wasn't quite long enough.
Have I ever told you that Andy is brilliant?
(And the apples are lovely!)

Marathon memories and a ghost 5k

It took months to get in shape for the marathon... and only two weeks to feel like weak sauce.
The week after the marathon I did not run.  That's not totally true.  One day I set out to run three miles.  Seven minutes into it I was ready to head home.  Does that even count?  I didn't try running again until this week.  My knees needed the break.
This week I ran 6+ with my sister Janis.  And I felt great.
Today I started physical therapy for my sad knees.  When my PT did the strength test on my hips, I was embarrassed.  Weak.  I can run 26.2 miles, but I can't do a one-legged squat without wobbling all over.  My physical therapist has given me an exercise regimen to strengthen my core, hips, and knees.  My weak hips are making each step wobbly, and that makes my knees wiggle, so they get irritated and swollen and downright angry.  So stronger hips = happy knees.  (Maybe a firmer behind too.)

In honor of the first day of physical therapy for my knee, here are a few marathon pictures from my Dad.  Great running faces...


Andy kept track of our girls, plus a couple of cousins... they did the fun run together.


Almost at the end!  I was so glad to see Andy!  I got high fives from the family... and that gave me a little extra energy!  We had a large cheering section, and it was great to see them as I ran to the end.


Oh yeah!


Me, Janis, Casey and Jenny (running/training friends) after the race.  Janis and I trained with Casey. 


The after-party at Spaghetti Warehouse.  This is mostly family.  We had our own room.  Can you find Andy and me?  I'm in a red jacket.  It was so wonderful to eat something besides GU!

I have been asked about next year.  It is too soon to commit.  We'll see how physical therapy goes.  For now, I'm not supposed to run more than 4 miles at a time.

I will do a Celebrity Ghost 5k this month though.  Who should I dress up as?

independent woman

Yes, June can help herself.
She has figured out how to get to the candy on the high shelf. 
And she can do it very quietly.

as promised...

...a few more pictures of Chicago!
Riding the El is a treat!

Andy enjoys one of the last few days with his old phone.  (He just upgraded to a Droid!  No more texting with number keys for him!)


Oz Park is just as fun as we remember it... especially with friends!

Chicago still spends way too much on flowers downtown... but it is lovely.

We had breakfast with the Kings on Saturday.  There were six little giggly, chatty girls at our table!  Alli was delighted to see her pal Annaliese.
(You will have to imagine this... I forgot to bring the camera along).
We took a tour of the Lincoln Park Conservatory, and the tour guide was a friend of ours from church!  Hyrum taught us all about plants.  Did you know that bananas will stay green for a long time until they are put near a ripe yellow one?  Then they ripen.  That's how they get them to ripen at the store.

We ordered food from Simply It.  Still amazingly delicious.  And the owner is adorable!
Alli got to play with Elijah.  His guitar skills have vastly improved.  He can actually play real songs! 

He even did a duet with his mom on a coffee table stage complete with rockstar lighting and his "headset" (the headband, feather and string).  Elijah made a friendship bracelet for Alli.
We attended our old congregation on Sunday.  There are so many people there we love and miss so much.  It was a happy reunion with our friends.