amyj

a bit of everything

Thanksgiving weekend was a jam packed weekend of all sorts of fun stuff. The greatest part was that there was a little bit of everything....

 - a bit of work - I had a photo shoot in Milwaukee on Friday and at home we cleaned out the garage and brought in the sand toys on Sunday.

-  a bit of play - we went ice skating and played a made up indoor dodge ball game at grandma's house that made Ben squeal so loud and laugh so hard I though he would pee his pants.

- a bit of family  - we saw both sets of grandparents at various points throughout the weekend and got to see my extended family for the first time in months.

-  a bit of friends - the annual Saturday after thanksgiving celebration at Jon and Colleen's new house - lots of food, lots of booze and lots of rock band!

- a bit of time without kids - we decided to leave Nora in Milwaukee with jrh's parents on Saturday night and we had josh's cousin babysit for Ben later in that night so we  could enjoy the party without having to worry about the kids.

- a bit of time with kid - we took Ben to see the The Magic Treehouse Musical - I was pleasantly surprised both that I didn't have even the slightest bit of a hangover from the night before and that the musical was really quite good (we are a bit wary of kid musicals after seeing the painful "If you give a pig a party" musical.

I didn't take many pics this weekend (save the many pics from the paid shoot on Friday) - but there were a few snaps including

Nora and grandpa snuggling...

A few ice skating snaps...

 

is that a rock band in the basement? you bet

 

 

and jrh's favorite weekend activity. It got acronymized this weekend - QRT: quiet reading time. It is very cute to hear Ben say "hey mom we are having QRT - Ben re-read pippi longstocking and a good part of its sequel and josh finished a spy novel.

I knew this would happen....

for weeks now I have been looking out the window into the yard and saying to myself. "We should really clean up the yard for winter". But then it would be nice enough and Nora and I would go outside and I would pat myself on the back for being lazy. Even last week Ben and I were playing soccer while Nora busied herself in the sandbox. I knew that I would probably end up getting out there with gloves and picking putting away the yard toys in the snow.... well today I got out there, but I didn't pick up the toys yet

Ben's first piano recital

Ben has been taking Suzuki piano lessons at the Monroe Street Fine Arts Center for a little while now. He had his first recital this weekend and he had a very large cheering section for his very short piece. He seemed a bit nervous but seemed to enjoy the process.

Reading the program  before the recital with the grandpas

And if you are interested here is is his piece. He played Lightly Row and though we have heard him do better at home, it was fun to see him perform for a small and appreciative crowd.

The best thing you can do with squash

Even though it has seemed more like spring than fall the last few days, sunday afternoon Josh took some of our bountiful Harmony Valley CSA squash and made it into one of my favorite soups ever. I love this soup, really, really love this soup. Josh made a triple batch so we could freeze some (though I am not sure that it will make it to the freezer) Nora loved the soup. She walked around the kitchen with her mouth agape begging spoonfuls right out of the pot and then walked off to muttering "Mmmmm, Mmmmm" to herself before returning  for another.  This year josh suggested adding crumbled bacon atop the soup. Makes it not so vegetarian friendly, but oh so tasty.

This soup makes me really happy and now it can make you happy too.

Curried Mushroom & Squash Soup
(p. 12 in the original Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzen)

At least one and one-half hours to prepare & simmer 4-5 servings
2 medium butternut or acorn squash
2-1/2 cups water or stock
1 c. orange juice
2 Tbl. butter
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 medium clove crushed garlic
6 oz. mushrooms, sliced1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
a few dashes cayenne
optional: fresh lemon juice
garnishes: chopped, toasted, almonds yogurt
Split the squash lengthwise and bake face-down in a 375s oven on an oiled tray, 30 minutes or until quite soft. Cook and scoop out the insides. You'll need about 3 cups worth. Put it in the blender with the water or stock and puree until smooth. Combine in a kettle or saucepan with the orange juice.

Heat the butter in a skillet and add the garlic, onion, salt and spices. Saute until the onion is very soft. (You may need to add a little water if it sticks). Add mushrooms, cover and cook 10 minutes.

Add the saute to the squash, scraping the skillet well to salvage all the good stuff. Heat everything together very gently. Taste to correct seasoning. Since this is a fairly sweet soup, you may want to spruce it up with some fresh lemon juice.

Serve topped with yogurt and chopped, toasted almonds. (Note: this soup need not be served immediately. Simmer a while, and the flavors can mature.)

from carving to costumes

Here is a quick rundown of our Halloween happenings ...

Last weekend after we took Ben to see the Gruffalo (which was really quite good), we picked up some beautiful pumpkins from Brennan's. In the past we have always gone to a farm to pick our own but this year we went apple picking earlier in the fall and just didn't have time to get back to get pumpkins and honestly the selection and quality of the pumpkins at Brennan's was outstanding - hardly a bad looking pumpkin in the lot.

For the first time Ben was actually into the idea of carving a pumpkin (except for the scoop out the pumpkin guts part). He wanted his to have four faces!

Nora had a great time coloring her pumpkin (which seemed so much safer than giving the year and a half old a knife).

The finished products

Ben wanted input into his costume this year and he decided that he would like to be a zoo-keeper and that Nora should be a monkey. Awesome idea and totally do-able. 

As has become the tradition our friends came over and now that we all live in the same neighborhood, we had a great time trick or treating from our house to theirs. 

The crew

Nora trick-or-treated like a champ, as if she had been doing it her whole life (which is hilarious because she didn't even know what was going into her bag until it was all over). Her "trick or treat" sounded like "tik o tik" but she was very polite and said thank you and goodbye to all of the houses.

The kids ate all the candy they wanted and crashed into a sugar coma at a very late bedtime. A good time was had by all. Hope you all had a good Halloween

These are not Halloween pictures!

I bet you were expecting cute pictures of kids in costumes for Halloween.

You may get some of those but not today. Today, I bring you pictures from my cousin's wedding. You see she got married at the end of July. It was a pretty busy time for us as we were about to move into our new house and well, lets just say that I abused my cousin's patience in getting these edited and to her. I finally finished them up this week and here I bring you a few of my favorites. I am not and will never be a wedding photographer. I hope that this will be the last wedding I ever agree to photograph. Being responsible (even just partly as in this case) for photographs that can never be replaced or redone is a little too high pressure for the likes of this photographer who would rather just get down on the ground and play with her subjects..... alas, here are some shots I liked and I hope Jamie and Josh do as well (there are planty of others don't worry).

Oh and I have them all in color as well (which is nice because the wedding was in a very lovely outdoor setting); however, there is something about weddings that makes me crave black and white.

 

Monday Nights with Mom

For the past four years (oh my gosh, has it been that long!) we have spent Monday nights at a Music Together class with Ben (or Ben and Nora). Ben had finished the cycle of classes and now Nora attends the class by herself (well with her dad).  Now on Monday nights Ben and I have some alone time and the last several weeks he has wanted to play Yahtzee (a game we can't really play with Nora around because she walks off with the dice). He is surprisingly good and we are pretty evenly matched (this either says a lot about me or the four year old or perhaps the nature of the game, probably a combination of the three). He can be a very serious player. Yesterday I snapped a couple of pics while we were playing and after I took about a half dozen, he finally noticed.

It is nice to be able to do something fun once and a while just for Ben (I often feel like we are always appealing to the lowest common denominator (Nora) in our activities). After our game, we split a caramel apple. Ben was apprehensive about it at first, but he tried it and said "mom, I really like caramel" He sounded like the character at the end of Green Eggs and Ham - too cute.

Emerging art

Ben has never been what one might call an artist. Sure he would scribble with crayons now and then or paint on occasion. Even though I left art supplies out for him to have access to, he has always seemed interested in other things. He has never drawn representational things not even a simple smiley face. So I was surprised last week when ben's assistant teacher told me that he drew the "cutest" little zoo animals to illustrate a  story he wrote in class on wednesday. I asked if she was talking about Ben and she said yes and took me to the classroom where she showed me the drawing below. I know they don't exactly look like animals, but I was really surprised (In the story it said that the lion is yellow and there are three purple monkeys and the elephant is grey) I like the elephant's trunk and that many of them have belly buttons!

Well, since then he has been drawing a bunch of little guys doing various things. I just thought I would share a few with you. He says about this one "These [the guy at the top and the bottom] are the monsters and the guy in the middle is going away"

The last one I think it adorable because it included his sister. He told us that it is of Ben and his sister waiting for an elevator in the orange building that will take them up five floors to the clouds.

Happy 4th

This past Saturday we went to the zoo to celebrate Raya's 4th birthday. It is very awesome to be able to witness both your friend's kid grow up and your kids forging friendships with each other. Raya and Ben may not always get along, but they seem to have a strong affection for one another and it is lovely to see. Little Nora just adores Raya (and I am told that the feeling is mutual. Raya has a doll named "nora") and seemed very happy to be included in the "big kids" birthday party. An amazing october day made it even better, probably the last really great one of the year. I am glad that we got to spend some of it outside with friends.

new blue shoes

Nora LOVES shoes and last week I took her to get some new ones because it seems as though the season for her pink crocs is drawing to a close. I wanted something other than pink shoes (which is not always easy in the little girl section) and we came up with these blue shoes.

She gets them on and off all by herself.

I was worried that shoe shopping would be trying (nora is not so keen on strangers these days) but for shoes Nora was a pleasant, cooperative, engaging child - yea!