Splendid

Halloween partyin'

  We had fun last week at the annual homeschooler's Halloween party.  This is actually where we met the homeschooling community here on the east coast when we had just moved out here from out west.  What a nice bunch of people.  I'm so blessed to have found them, and my children to have their children as friends.  Ava is a fairy on a mushroom (I know, Fairy again??? Really original there, Danielle...but she LOVES fairies, what can I do?  And if I do say so myself, this handmade original is adorable!!!) McKaylah, new to Hogwarts and Harry Potter this year, and she does have the Harry Potter fever, let me tell you, was Hermione Granger, although the "Santa Cruz, Ca. Hogwarts long-distance chapter Hermione" with her flip flops on.  Their friends were Pipi Longstocking, Frida Kahlo (LOOOOOOOOVED IT!), Glitter princess, Cleopatra (actually 2), a Greek Goddess, Ginny Weasley, Mulan, and the boys were all famous athletes (snooze....)

Jack o' lanterns

We carved jack o' lanterns today. I should say my hubby and children did... Usually every year at this time we have the house decorated to the hilt, cooking sugar cookies shaped as bats and ghosts, but this year we've been packing and getting ready to move.  Bummer indeed... but my handsome, dashing husband carved pumpkins this morning with our girls and baked Halloween cupcakes tonight.  I packed all day, was unable to help since I was lost temporarily in a wormhole of bubble wrap.  Good thing hubbylicious is so dashing, he saved me after I'd only been missing an hour! Here is my families creations! 

Here Kitty, Kitty...                                                                                                  

fairie pencils

the fairies gave a special gift to us in our backyard.  we found a small case of fairie pencils in a rosemary plant. the girls giggled with delight at how hard it was to hold the miniature pencils in their small hands. they drew pictures for the fairies in thanks of their special gift.  tucked in the branches of lavender, black-eyed susan and feverfew, the fairies can expect thank you notes via garden post.

the new leaning tower...

Here is a glimpse into my life the last few days...towering boxes, miles of bubble wrap, stacks of tissue paper, endless rolls of tape that could circle the earth 9 times...I hope this is our last move for awhile.  For those who may not know, we move about every 2-3 years (it's been only a year here in this house on the east coast since we moved here from out west.)  My husband and I have house ADHD.  We tire of our surroundings quickly.  We grow fickle so to speak...But we think this next house may be the one.  The one we stick at for awhile.  Not 35 years, I know that, but maybe 10? It has huge possibilities and already some delightful, charming assets to it.  The 90 year old beauty has deep window sills, pocket doors to the dining room, great, detailed staircase, beautiful hard wood floors, lovely fireplace, awesome front porch perfect for parties and play (please see pictures below if you haven't already.) The girls are excited because they'll have the whole third floor to themselves with a large bedroom, bath and playroom. A nice size schoolroom/ craft room.  A terrific space for a new garden! A room for my Mom to stay in when she's visiting us! (Yay Mommy! I heart her so!) Great neighborhood to boot.  Yes, this may be the one for awhile.  We'd also like not to mentally scar in someway our daughters if we can help it by one day having commitment and rooting issues as they've moved so much with us now.  McKaylah, my 7 year old has moved 5 times so far in her life.  Ava, 4 years old, 3.  Yes, time to hunker down.  Root ourselves.  Root, root, root...   

(oh, look, it says "Fragile" on the boxes- it must be Italian!)

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everything but the kitchen sink...

We make this yummy vegetable soup every couple weeks.  Every time it's a bit different depending what we have on hand.  Usually a variety of vegetables go in like zucchini, carrots, onions, squash, broccoli, green beans, bell peppers, cabbage, etc. We always add tons of fresh garlic. We add beans or corn sometimes, sometimes whole wheat pasta or mini raviolis. It had a creamy roasted tomato base and vegetable broth, with a ton of seasonings.  It's sooooooooo good!  With some crunchy bread, it's the perfect Autumn dinner. The girls help me cut up all the ingredients.  I love it because it makes them feel really good about helping prepare dinner, making them feel needed and good about accomplishing something for the whole family.  It also teaches math, science and of course, cooking. What foods are good paired together, what seasonings, spices and herbs can help out a dish.  My husband devours it (which, if you know him, he loves to eat, so devouring a meal is not a mind-blower) and each time says with the utmost honesty, "This is the best soup you have ever made!"  It is really good, if I do say so myself...and really quite easy, too.

Hogwarts assignments again

McKaylah received another monthly installment of her continuing education from Hogwarts.  She participated in a correspondence course from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for under age Muggles this summer. One week was spent doing Herbology (see pictures below) and she completed a moon garden, Fairie herb garden, healing salve and transplanted a baby Zingiber.  The following week was Divination, spent studying the tarot, crystal ball scrying, palmistry and astrology.  Week 3 was spent studying Potions with a Grumbler's Tummy Tea (a tea made with spearmint, lemon balm and chamomile), glass candy, Presto-Chango Cucumbers to Pickles potion and Changing Colors Potion Punch (and man, was that Professor Snape rough with grading-Geeez!) Finally week four was spent doing at least 10 charms with Professor Flitwick (which was a relief after the tortuous, scrutinizing eye of Snape, what a Meanie...)

Since she passed with good grades from the summer course, Hogwarts gave her the option to continue her studies with a once a month lesson.  Owls deliver the lessons as usual, and she has a week to do them.  This time was recipe was for Unicorn Oats complements of HoneyDukes...Us Muggles call it "granola."  McKaylah found it fun and easy compared to some of her other more challenging assignments. She is presently completing her review on it and will return it pronto to the tree out back where the OWL Post is. 

Wish I could be a Hogwarts student, don't you???

doing her Potions workbook and potion prep

Potions text book

here she is doing the very dangerous transplanting of baby Zingiber. Her earplugs kept falling out so she taped them to her outer ear and then we put on two hats to make sure we wouldn't be deafened by the high pitch frequency shrill screeches from baby Zingiber. Dangerous, very, very, very dangerous, indeed...

studying the tarot

her moon garden pot

Ava's moon garden, occasionally she participated in the assignments if she so wanted

 

palmistry lessons

Muggles out on a journey to find magical ingredients for assignments

her Familiar, Mr. Precious

her magic wand from Olivander's store at Diagon Alley

her first parcel via OWL Post. Some texts books, her wand, a quill and parchment paper, a notebook.

                              fairie herb garden   

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NYC day-trippers

We went to NYC for the day last week. Since it's only 2 hours from Philadelphia it's a very doable day trip.  We left early and got into NYC about 9.  We parked in Manhattan and walked everywhere.  And I mean, everywhere.  The kids were real troopers! It was McKaylah and Ava's friends birthdays so we went to the American Girl Place store and had lunch in the cafe.  Then we walked by the Plaza Hotel ("Hello, Eloise!") and then into Central Park.  It was hot and muggy that day so all the girls had a great time running through the water jets in the playground.  We walked around one of the ponds, admiring the families of turtles (much bigger than our two babies at home here-see below blog entry) and ducks.  The girls rock-climbed on the huge boulder mountains and then we walked to Rockefeller Plaza, looked at the Farmer's Market stuff, went into Anthropologie (yes, I actually dropped to my knees and started weeping, weeping at all I saw.  A bright white light shown down, I heard harps playing and birds chirping, I felt as though I was floating in a warm, soothing bath of glorious, glorious, oh, so, so, so, so glorious dresses, purses, and shoes...sigh...until the sales associate asked me to please get up... )  and McKaylah and her friend Sofie did some modeling in the window.  It was funny cuz as they struck a pose (work it girl, give a twirl!) people walking by would stop and stare as they held their super still moves, then they'd wave or laugh and the people would wave and laugh back.  Oh, Anthropologie, how you bring joy into people's lives...

Then we headed back towards Times Square, it was dark at this point. We went to dinner overlooking the bright lights of JoLo, Calvin Klein, P.Diddy and Elizabeth Arden advertisements.  Much different than my hum-drum, cozy, earthy suburban life, but it was fun to see again (next time it's Magnolia Bakery and some vintage stores for mommy!)  We took the girls into the largest Toys R Us in the galaxy for ferris wheel rides.  It was fun. After a stop by Starbucks for some yummilicious pumpkin spice lattes for the drive home (it was about 10 at this time) we headed back down south to the home of Benny Franklin and cheese steaks...not as glamorous as NYC, but home all the same.

Thanks to our friends Sofie and Vivienne for inviting us to a day of play in NYC.  It was a blast, thanks guys! 

Sisters in NYC

Ava and her AG doll at the American Girl cafe

McKaylah and Ava in the AG Place store-luckily we made it out safely, no big purchases-Whew!

                                                                                                          hammin' it up at Rockefeller Plaza

models in church St. Anthropologie 

at Central Park

turtles in Central Park

McKaylah was amazed at a big city park having all the plants and animal life it has

Yaaaay!

Times Square

Ava and Viv on the ferris wheel.  McKaylah and her friend were in the cart next to us.

Chhhhheeeeese!

Yay! We got it!

Yay!  I'm outta here! I got my house!

On the road again...wish me luck!

Well, after 6 months of trying to sell my house, it finally did!  Selling a house in this market is hard, and so I'm just happy it did sell, even though we lost some money. The next house we are buying (hopefully it all goes through-cross your fingers for me!) needs some work too and is really more expensive than we can afford right now, but we're going to live frugal for awhile and suck it up. No more take out whenever we feel like it (eek...), no more coffee shop or Starbucks (sigh...), no more scrapbook store binges (humph...), no more massages(aggghhh!), no more craft store sprees (ohhhhh...)no more clothes shopping (sob...)  But the house is great and has huge potential!  So for awhile we'll be just fine with going without the perks.  It's located in a wonderful suburb of Philadelphia with picturesque homesteads that are storybook stone colonials and Victorians.  Big, old tree lined streets and large front porches.   Here are some pictures of my new home (hopefully!-we're negotiating-wish me luck!)

the front porch

fireplace by front door, large butler's pantry,  dining room,

stairs from second floor to third floor

door to my "sunroom"/meditation room, basically a room with all windows.  It's off from my bedroom.  Cool, huh???                                    

Living room (that's the Realtor off to the side) Like the super deep window sills?                                    

Kitchen, will be redone next year, but totally livable now.  The kitchen has back stairs that go up to the second level. Always wanted those!

Not a great picture of the backyard.  It's three tiered.  On the second tier we'll add a garden in the spring. The girls play gym will be off to the side of the house. There's a nice blue stone patio under the sunroom window. I thought the third tier would be nice to have another small sitting area to read or sip cocktails with friends.

So wish me luck, ya all!  November 16th is the big moving day!!!

Welcome sweet autumn

This is my favorite time of year.  I love all the seasons, but there's something extra special about autumn.  There's a sweet, yet burnt crispness in the air during the evenings that I find so comforting.  I love all things harvest, so seeing the pumpkins at the farm stands or in grocery stores warms me inside.  I love how everything gets more homey and nourishing.  My mom's moist pumpkin bread recipe, hearty tomato vegetable soups with crunchy bread, Indian corn, warty gourds, canning, scarecrows, decorating for Halloween (my favorite holiday!), pumpkin and apple picking, the morning air is so chilly, I jump out of bed to get my robe, pumpkin spice lattes, corn husk dolls, baking, green leaves surrendering gracefully to delicious oranges and vibrant reds, my children's utter joy at discussing what Halloween costumes they'll wear, all of these things make me happy.   At this time of thanks, I give thanks for all my blessings; healthy family, good friends, a new home, a new start and the sweet, burnt crispness of the evening air.