Celebrating the change in seasons with a tasty treat!

Today Bailey and I made an apple crisp. We've been chatting a lot about fall this past week so we decided to make the perfect fall dessert. Bailey wanted to put the layers together all by herself so I sat back and took photos while she assembled. I forgot to have her add the raisins to the apple layer so we sprinkled them on top as an afterthought. I'm sure it'll be just as tasty.

 Notice Daddy's head on the couch
trying to get into the picture

Family Playdate at Meadowlark

Today was Family Fun Day at Bailey's preschool. It was a time when Clark could meet all of Bailey's teachers and see where she goes to school. They had it out in the front courtyard where they set up tricycles, a soccer area, stomp rockets plus they have swings and a slide, too. Bailey and Gregory both had a great time. We were only able to stay about 40 minutes, but they got a lot of play time in.

Gregory on the big person swing.
He was doing pretty well on it until
he decided to let go the chain while swinging!!
Good thing Daddy caught him in the air!

Bailey and Gregory playing with the stomp rockets

Bailey on the swing



Gregory on a scooter
(Going way too fast!)

Bailey giving Gregory a ride on the tricycle

Happy, Happy Birthday my little Gregory!

Today at 11:29am, Gregory turned TWO!

"I'm TWO today!"

Happy Birthday, Gregory!

Spooky, spooky, spooky!

Well, Halloween is just around the corner and we've got a lot of decorating to do! I actually don't really like Halloween, but Bailey LOVES Halloween! She can't wait for Halloween. She chats about Halloween for months after it's over and then she starts talking about next year's Halloween soon after that. Last year she was dead set on being a spider. This year she started out wanting to be a zebra, but it has recently changed to a ladybug, butterfly and bee (she can't seem to decide). She wants Gregory to dress as a flower - Daddy doesn't like that idea. We'll start shopping around soon.

Anyways, back to decorating. Yesterday we decorated our windows with Halloween window clings and today we painted wooden pumpkins and decorated them after they dried. Bailey wanted to make hers into a jack-o-lantern and Gregory decorated his with pom poms. I think they turned out quite cute! Next we'll have to pull our our Halloween boxes from the garage and decorate even more.


Bailey's pumpkin

 

Gregory decorated his with pom poms.

After we finished our pumpkins, Bailey wanted to make ghost puppets and have a puppet show. I only had green tissue paper so we made green ghosts and sang ghost songs and danced around.

Grandma helped Bailey make this picture the other day. Bailey cut all the shapes all by herself and pasted them on the black paper with pom poms.

My little baby is turning TWO this week!

Wow, doesn't time fly by...Gregory is going to turn two on Tuesday so we kicked off his birthday week with a kinda special dinner and CUPCAKES! This afternoon while Gregory was snoozing Bailey and I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes. When he woke up they were perfectly cooled and we frosted them with orange frosting and rainbow sprinkles. I gave each of the kids a dollop of frosting so they could frost a mini cupcake for their snack - well, Gregory pretty much popped the whole lump of frosting into his mouth and ate it before it even hit his cupcake. Then he took the wrapper off his cupcake and ate the cake. Bailey plopped her frosting on top and quickly ate her cupcake too. For dinner I roasted a chicken, mashed potatoes, made stuffing and zucchinis - of course with gravy. The kids love gravy! After dinner we practiced blowing out candles and enjoyed another cupcake. After all, birthday week only comes around once a year...

Gregory with his plain cupcake

Bailey enjoying the frosting off her frosted cupcake

"I'm THREE"

"But I'm going to be FOUR!"

"Hah, hah, hah!"



Daddy blowing out the candle with his tongue curled.

Gregory beating me and blowing the candle out alone

My little scooter bug

Gregory has been sick for the past few days. Actually he's had a high fever for the last few days. No other symptoms, just a high fever (2 nights with a fever of 104 or higher) He hasn't slept well during the nights or during his afternoon nap (that he only takes occasionally anyways), but tonight while I was working on the computer he hopped on my lap to lie down and fell asleep with his head propped up on the arm rest. I couldn't resist having Clark take a photo. My poor little baby...

Side note ~ I did take him to see our pediatrician today since I'm having trouble getting his fever down even after taking Tylenol. We took a urine test that looks fine and he listened to his heart and lungs - which sound fine too. We're going to see if he gets another high fever tonight and decide what to do tomorrow. He has 102.9 fever on Tylenol at the moment.

My morning scare

This morning while I was taking a shower...



Gregory dumped all the toys out of his toy box



So he could turn the box upside down and stand on it



To grab this exacto knife in the far corner of our desk! UGH. When I get out of the shower, Bailey says, "Mommy, I don't think Gregory should play with knives" (her speak for "Gregory is playing with a knife!") and I run over to find him holding this in his hands. Thank goodness he didn't cut himself. That son of ours can get into anything now! Guess I'm now going to have to buy a lock box for our scissors and knives.

Back to School!

Today was Bailey's first day back to preschool. She had a great day and loves her small group. Her small group teacher is Giovana and they are called the Teddy Bears. Today she tells me they read a story, painted with spoons (but the painting was still drying so we couldn't bring it home), made a folded card, played with playdough (with knives that are sharper than ours and diamond cookie cutters!), played outside on the playground and went down the pole, she got to ride lots of different types of tricycles and even a scooter, sang songs and played with Giovana. She liked her snack today. Red apples and pretzels, but she told me she didn't like the apple skin and threw it away. Hmmm, I think that's about all she reported to me. Her teachers said she had a good day. Other than Giovana, her teachers are Gretchen, Grace & Suzy. There are 18 kids in her class. I'm hoping for a great year!

Okowa ~ Japanese Sticky Rice

Today I made something called okowa. It's a Japanese rice dish made from sweet rice (mochigome). I made the vegetarian version with carrots, shiitake and kamaboko, but you can also make it with meat. I think next time I will add some ground turkey. Very tasty. Bailey kept shouting "This is yummy!" while eating a couple of rice balls. Gregory ate a couple too! I like the Chinese version better, but this is good. The best part is you can make it in the microwave without soaking the rice overnight! Great for folks like me who have trouble planning ahead. We're going to have it tonight with some grilled chicken teriyaki, corn and green beans. Here's the recipe if you'd like to make a batch, too.

Day at Seacliff State Park

Yesterday we decided to take the kids to the beach. The forecast out here was 102 degrees and the temp in Aptos was 72! (It was actually closer to 80) So this morning we woke up, packed a picnic lunch and drove to Aptos. We took them to Seacliff State Park; a beach I used to go to while growing up. When we got there the lower parking lot was already full so Clark dropped us off and drove back up top to park the car. (and had to walk down about 350 stairs!) We set up our spot near the water and ate lunch first. Actually Bailey and Daddy went into the water first, but we had lunch soon after. I have to say, Bailey LOVES the beach. She loves going in the water, she isn't afraid of the waves, she loves the sand, she loves to picnic in the sand, she's just an all around beach girl. Gregory can do without the water, but he had a good time playing in the sand and he enjoyed the food. We got him in the water for about 10 seconds and then a wave that was a little too big for him hit his swim trunks and that ended his time in the water. We stayed and played for a couple of hours and came home. We'll have to plan another trip soon. (After we get one of those pop up gazebos or a sun umbrella)


Waiting for Daddy to park the van

Waiting for lunch

Bailey eating a musubi

350 stairs!!!

All these seagulls wanted lunch! Dirty old birds.

Daddy and Bailey having fun in the water

Gregory joining them in the fun

Gregory prefers the sand

Bailey found this heart shaped rock!

Gregory playing in the sand

Bailey and Gregory playing in the sand