fall is in the air

we are enjoying some beautiful cool crisp mornings and nights, with fall in the air.
today after picking zaven up from school we met bennett and elizabeth and went apple picking at sweet berry farm.
zaven and bennett were thrilled to see each other. they are at different schools this year.
we picked gala and macintosh apples.



then we came back here and bennett, zaven and i made an apple upside-down cake.
they were good little helpers, taking turns adding ingrdients. if i needed 1/2 cup of something i would have bennett put in 1/4 cup and zaven do a 1/4 cup. then they ran off and played and i finished it up.
it was pretty tasty.

chris was up at st. george's for evensong so the kids and i went out and got bbq. we had a good time.

le

weekend update

so friday night chris and i had a dinner party to attend. so the sitter came and we headed out. at that time the den was clean.
when we came home about 3.5 hours later, it looked like this-


what! the kids had both been asleep for 1.5 hours. and the sitter was sitting on the couch. i have to say, what the hell?
when i was baby sitting for a mere $5/hr i left the houses spotless. not only did i clean up any mess that i had made i would go so far as to clean any dishes that might be around. not this gal. it is ridiculous. next time i think i will say that zaven needs to clean up before bed or something.

anyway, chris and i had a great time at the dinner party. a nice group.
saturday was supposed to be zaven's first soccer game but it rained. so that will have to wait until next weekend.

our friend pat was in fall river, ma with her family and came down for the day. that was fun. we toured around a bit and had lunch at a new spot. today was church and grocery store. we also got zaven some shin guards and soccer shorts. too cute. but you will have to wait until next week to see pictures so that he can have on his jersey so you get the full affect.

well, as i had mentioned nell is verturing out of the den more and more. this weekend was no exception. here she is standing in the kitchen.


she also has discovered the stairs and is quite good at crawling up them. she is keeping us on our toes!

and i will leave you with a quote from zaven while he was eating his ice cream on friday "when nell grows up i will teach her how to eat ice cream properly."

funny.
righto.

who knew

that one box with some packing peanuts could turn into an afternoon of fun.
first you load them into the box, then sing "happy birthday" (this excited nell, a lot! she is dancing in the pic below)


then you pour the packing peanuts on their head.


and then nell would kick her feet all around in the peanuts.


we had a good time.
we have one more clean up coming, as they are all over the floor.
fredo tried to eat one, i guess it was not tasty because he has not been back for 2nds.

we are having wonderful weather and making it to the playground a good bit.

saturday is zaven's first soccer game. stay tuned for pics of that.

okay, i am back, had to clean up the peanuts because nell decided she wanted to eat them. gross.

this afternoon zaven and i painted and mixed colors. he is learning what colors mix to make new colors. and colors that are not brown! a production manager or color theorist in the making!

i talked to another person on the phone who ended the conversation with "righto"
i really like that.
do you think i could start doing it and get away with it?
righto!
le

weekend update

let's see. friday we ran some errands including going to sweet berry farm where we got heirloom tomatoes and ice cream for zaven. as we were about to sit down and eat it, zaven said "mommy!" and i turned around and the ice cream was on the ground :(
zaven said i bumped him. but we went back inside and they were nice enough to give him another cone free of charge. very nice. i can't really remember how we spent the rest of the day, but at 6pm we had a church thing with families and kids at the finn's house. it was a pretty good turn out. a fun time.
the kids ran all over and the adults chatted and then talked about what we should do for sunday school this year.
saturday i got up and went to play tennis. it was great. we had 4 so we played double for 2 hours. my net game seems to be improving some. but still needs some work.
then i came home, and chris had lunch and a meeting. so the kids and i went up to the beach and met grace and her mom and sister and stayed at the beach for 5 hours.
it was a pretty day, the kids had a great time.

in other news...zaven has started doing some chores in order to earn some money to start saving up so that he can buy some toys for himself. we made a chore chart and he is loving it. his primary chore is to feed the dogs. he also waters the flowers

and then there is a third category where he can get chore marks and that is just random, when he is asked to do something and he does it without question he will get a mark. i will let you know how that goes.

nell is becoming quite an adventurer. she has taken to crawling off into other rooms.

here she is under the kitchen table.

she is sleeping better, which makes me very happy. there have been some painful nights of standing beside her crib for 1.5 hrs. trying to get her back to sleep, but it seems to be paying off. knock on wood!
she is also eating more solid foods. here she is feeding herself some green beans, pears and cheese.


we had chicken parmesean tonight, it was tasty.

i did the coffee hour at church today, i made hallelujia ham rolls, which were a big hit, they are delicious. i remember mary dethero making them when i was a kid. i also made egg salad sandwiches with arugula and had some cinnamon rolls, everything got eaten up.

not sure what this week holds. full week of school for zaven.
see ya.
le

Off to School

Zaven was up and ready to head to school this morning.
Here is the pose he chose for his picture!


He did great at drop off. His new teachers Ms. Kirsten and Ms. Heather are great.
He and Grace have their cubbies next to each other, which was exciting.
There were a lot of friends from last year.
I am interested to get a list of the students, I don't think that there are many boys in his class. I know that three have moved to different schools. I saw one other boy, Peter and I think Ian is still going to be there, but not sure who else.
I don't think Zaven minds though.

After dropping him off, Nell and I went and got some coffee and went to have coffee with Chris at the church. Again the weather is beautiful and we sat out on the bench out in front of Chris' office. It was really nice.

Now Nell is sleeping and I am hanging out. Should probably nap myself.
Nell has been having some rough nights. I am a little sleep deprived.

Butterfly

So I had heard about a butterfly park in Tiverton. I looked online, found the address, did Google maps and we headed out. Alas, we could not find it.
I thought that it would be a fun outing and doubly fun because Zaven starts school tomorrow and his class is called the Butterfly class. Last year he was a caterpiller.

So we ended up at the "real horsey" playground, we stayed for about an hour. I like that playground because there is plenty of shade and the swings are close to everything else. So Nell can hang out in the swing and Zaven can run around.

After that we got gas and had the car washed. And then we went to a parishioners house and picked some tomatoes in their garden. We also got some basil.

We got home in time for Nell's nap and then headed up to the beach for an afternoon swim. Zaven did not end up swimming. He dug some holes and found several things. An octopus toy, a soft baseball looking ball and a monster truck. He kept burying them and then putting an "x" on top of the sand and digging it back up, as treasure. I got to be the captain. Nell had a good time holding onto some dried seaweed. At one point I was helping Zaven dig and he said "dig baby dig!" it was hilarious.

We came home and planned what Zaven would take in his lunch box tomorrow and what he was going to wear. I had asked him at the beach and he said he was not going to tell me. Then while I was cooking dinner he said he was going to wear tomatoes and salami. Later he conceded he wanted to wear shorts and a short sleeved shirt. He considered wearing his knee socks, which he calls "tall socks", I discouraged that. We'll see.
Lunch is scheduled to be Ham and cheese, some cheese and crackers and fruit salad, and a bottle of water.

I guess summer is over.
LE

labor day weekend

sorry i have not taken the time to post of late.
friday was a big day.
chris and i left the kids and went to nyc to see the us open. what a treat! it was amazing. we saw a lot of great tennis and many legends of the game. we saw the match between djokovic and stepanek, a five setter with tie breaker in each set. it was great.
we saw serena williams play. we saw justine henin. we even got to see john mcenroe hitting with jim courrier. we also saw lleyton hewitt warming up.
the weather was really nice. the drive to the city on ly took 3 hr and 10 min. the parking was easy. all in all a very nice day.
we left around 7:30 am and got back a little after 10:30 pm. the kids were all in one piece. they seemed to have done well, but were glad to have us home.

saturday we went to the beach, in an effort to make the most of the season and enjoy the nice weather. it was a good day. zaven has taken to getting into the water. we all walked down the beach and ran into some friends for a chat. we came home and i was uninspired in the dinner dept. so we ordered chinese.

sunday was church, with some triplets being baptized. and a friend visiting from atlanta. we all went out to lunch and then had a walk on 3rd beach. another beautiful day. again, totally unispired for dinner, we ordered pizza.
finally i went to the grocery last night and plan to cook tonight.

this morning i went and played tennis, taking advantage of the holiday and chris being home and being inspired by all the tennis we saw! it was a beautiful day for it, just starting to feel fall in the air.

then we all went over to wetstone where zaven, elise and i swam for a little while.
nell loved the wind, of which there was plenty. then we visited with elise and came home for some napping.
as i type chris and nell are napping. and zaven is planning a dance party.
he had me make signs and he is out posting them around the yard. the wind is frustrating him quite a bit.

dinner is planned to be chicken marsala. hope it will be good.
sorry no pictures. my camera has not been with me.

zaven heads back to school this week. he is very excited.

oh yeah, i don't think i ever gave the update from nell's dr. appt. all was well.
she is the 99% for height, around 30 inches
and 86% for weight, around 21 lbs 4oz.
she is a healthy and happy baby girl.

le