Roadtrippin in reverse

Westbound 40 for us today. Block building, cookie sheet guitars and sticky dots on tap for the backseat and endless coffee up front here. Cya soon, Tejas.

Quinnisms

We were eating dinner at a little cafe last night. Quinn loves chicken noodle soup and was eating some. I was talking with her about the veggies in her soup.
Q: see those little green things floating in there?  Those are algae.
Me: I think those are parsley pieces.
Q: (very matter of factly) No, it's algae. I can taste it.

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Talking on the phone to Oma:
Q: Grammie is in the hospital again. But I don't care very much about that because my mom is always telling me to mind my own business.

Yes. They did eat pumpkin pie for dinner.

Blessed.

Oh how I love those peach-pit pickin' fingers, those "hold me Mama" arms, and the one who carries my babies home when they get too tired to walk. I can't think of a more perfect way to celebrate a day for thanksgiving than with my three faves (and my doggie-nephew!) on a brisk, sunshiney nature walk filled with ball fetching, dried flower picking, and stick-gate-making. Sweet, indeed.

Memphis, you were good to us!

Plenty of walking in the cold, beautiful leaves, Peabody Ducks, Beale st, coffee at Schwabs, and tummies full of bbq leads to sleeping babies and a quiet car ride to Clarksville.

Amy and Rhett

Starbucks tastes better with snow.

Ingrid's

Saturday morning we tried out a little German restaurant for breakfast. There was a full-size gingerbread house made of sweets that was rather impressive. The food was good (though what we had was american) and then there was a band with live music. The kids danced up a storm, sharing the dancefloor with senior citizens, including a 99 year old lady with some moves and a 93 year old man who was having his birthday party there (we scored some cake). It was the perfect place!  I drank at least 10 cups of coffee. They dropped cups of dry cornmeal on the dancefloor to make it slippery, which amazed the girls. :-)

Road trippin'

Well hello, snow!

We've missed you, old friend!
And this may be Beck's first sighting. He undoubtidly inherited some of my Wyo blood, as he never wanted to go inside once he got out in the cold and snow.

Roadtrip

Not the world's funnest drive.  It rained all night and at one point it was raining so hard we couldn't even see the road, so Matt had to pull off and let it slow down a bit. Luckily we were right at a Buckees exit, so we dashed inside in the pouring rain.
The kids had new roadtrip headphones. Beck's are tigers and Quinn's are Hello Kitty. Matt let her choose them and I think she just picked those to annoy me. :-)
Anyhow Quinn had some Sparkle Stories to listen to and Beck had his Mumford and Sons.

Haven't done that in a while.

Matt still has his ice-scraping skills.....

ViaBeck

Wednesday we went to the forest with Shannon. The kids had a blast playing in the lake-Beck calls it the beach.

Wednesday at bedtime:
B: "Mama, go to the beach again with Shann. Leave Ka-Winn (so cute the way he says her name!) at Mimi's house."

Quinn's creations

Yesterday Quinn made some playdough trees.  Then she made a ball with sticks poking out and told me it was her avocado seed she was gonna grow. She and daddy had watched a YouTube on how to cut a pomegranate and the avocado one was on after. Guess she really paid attention!

a little reminiscing....

 I have a framed photo in our "gallery" on the staircase.  It was taken at our graduation from OC ten years ago (yikes!) last April.  It's us with our very best college friends.  Amy and Heather were my roommates, David was Matt's roommate, and Trent was (and is) one of our closest friends who ended up being our honorary roommate back in Texas for a couple years after undergrad while the boys went to optometry school.

Fast foward ten years later....
We happened to be in OKC on the 10 year anniversary of our college graduation, so we decided a new photo on the OC campus was in order.  Lots of changes.  Grad school for everyone, a few spouses along the way (and yup, we were all at/in one another's weddings), Leo joined the crew, medical issues--broken bones and surgeries, an almost-fistfight at the state fair, some munchkins (Heather was a good sport...Rhett was born 2 days after this photo was taken), jobs, job changes, moves....

 

These pictures are definitely treasured....they're visual reminders of the friendships that began 10 years ago and that continue strong across many years and miles.  We still make at least two road trips to OKC in the spring and fall, and the OKC crew comes our way, too.  Matt texts and emails the guys several times a week, and the girls and I stay in touch, as well.  It's a blessing to have this crew in our corner.....even if it's a long-distance one.  I call David for advice on high schoolers and book recommendations.  Heather is my go-to in moments of crisis--even if it's a friend of mine she's never met that needs some of her wisdom, she's willing to be there.  Leo keeps things in perspective for me and Matt will occasionally share a text or email from Leo that cracks me up in a way no one else can.  Amy is the kind of friend who knows a song I'd like when she hears it on the radio and texts me to make sure I've heard it...and who lets me and my kids crash at her house anytime we ask her.  Trent and Mayra weren't in OKC to be in the picture, but they're also part of our close circle of friends here in Houston.  I can only speak for myself, but I know Matt treasures these friendships just as much as me, though for different reasons that I'll never understand and largely involve group emails about strange Youtube videos.  :)
I love that my kids are growing up with their "village" being these friends that mean so much to Matt and I.  I know that is a huge blessing God has given us and I am so grateful for this crew!  I love that our get-togethers can go from laughing over some pop culture happening to soul-searching deep stuff in a matter of minutes...then back to laughing again because my child is dangling sheets from the 2nd story balcony.  Theirs are the kids whose hair my kid cuts (oops, sorry about that one), the ones who come to visit the day after we move into both houses we've lived in, the ones that get up at the crack of dawn/in the rain to go out to the marathon finish line with me, the ones that buy my kid a wolf book (a MEGA hit with the Q), and the ones that I could call for anything at a moment's notice.   As my son would say, "Hip-Hip-HURRAY!" for you, our friends!  In this season of thankfulness, this is on our list for sure!

Last Week.

Monday is "Uncle Bob's" (hot cereal) for breakfast.  My kids eat that stuff like it's going out of style.  I make the serving size that is slated to feed "Four Hungry Folks" and the three of us put it away.  This week we had some Grandsue-grown persimmon to put in, along with brown sugar and cinnamon.  To me persimmons are the taste of fall.  It isn't entirely fall until I have persimmon puree in my mouth!  Yummmm.

And random picture, but Matt is a master coffee maker.  On non-school mornings when he leaves before us I wake up to this:  

Hot coffee waiting for me.  I love it.

Here're some blurry cameraphone pics of the kids chowing down on "persimmon porridge."

 

Beck adores "Sue-Sues" (scissors) and would cut all day if we let him.  

 

He's totally in the snipping stage right now and I can't convince him to hold the "sue-sues" the correct way, but that's okay.  He'll get it!  His fine motor coordination is quite impressive.

And she traced, cut and outlined some stars with glitter glue!

 

 

Playing "dogs" in my laundry baskets.

 

My kids LOVE this book and we read it every painting day.  I had it when I was teaching and it was a hit with every age group--2's through elementary!

Persimmon cookies (yes, of course with chocolate chips!!)

 

Quinn took a rare nap.  In the strangest position ever, of course.  All sheets taken off her bed then wrapped around herself, her head OFF the bed and on a little stool, a layer of tissues under her head, and her barbies next to her on the bed, also tucked under a blanket.  That girl does not do anything the simple way!

Wednesday night it was cold.  Beck wore his "herns" to church.

 Beck LOVES talking into things that echo back.  These things at the park are a huge hit.  He was singing "I Will Wait" at the top of his lungs into it.

We found a dead beetle (beautiful one!) that he loves.  He gets confused and calls it his roach sometimes, which makes me shudder.  Dead beetles are allowed on my kitchen table.  Roaches?  Not so much.

 

Quinn did my hair.  Somehow Matt got the short end of the stick and ended up putting away all those bows.  Thanks for that, by the way.

Making "cay-cakes" with Daddy.  Matt was sweet and got up with the crazies and let me sleep in with a yucky sinus headache.  

The entertainment for the morning was Daddy killing a wasp in the house.

Then everyone wanted to examine it before it went into the trash.  Exciting times around here!  :)

Saturday night we had friends over for dinner.  The boys played Sega or something like that.  They've been excited about this forever.  Us girls just talked and laughed when the cat unplugged their cord with his tail and messed up their game.  ;)

Sunday we set up a little booth for Christmas sponsorships.  Matt and I made a tree out of a tomato cage and cut up pieces of dried sunflower stalk out of my gardens.  It was a project that seemed much simpler in theory.  Thankfully Matt does not remind me of this outloud (I am sure he is thinking I am crazy in his head...) but he just helps me finish the project, and whatever part I've done, he gets about 3 X's the work done in that same amount of time.  I love our little tree and when we bring it home I can't wait to find a spot for it in the house!

Quinn and Daddy played for a while after lunch.  Daddy was the Pumpkin King.

And here's Beaux, on his throne.  

Sunday afternoon Daddy and Quinn made Mimi's birthday candle with beeswax sheets.  We have more fun with those!  They are easy for Quinn to work with and we love using the candles, as well.  Ours were a Christmas gift and the brand is Toadily Homemade.  Love em!

I had a photo shoot, so Daddy got the littles ready and off to Mimi's birthday party, where I met them.  Q and I had made the cake.  Q scoured my recipe books to decide on "the one."  I had to talk her out of some florescent jello-type desserts and she finally settled on a chocolate-blackberry poundcake with berry cream on the side.  

Here's the video of Mimi blowing out her candle: