What We're Reading

My son August was quick to pick up reading. I think once he figured out that letters form words and that words form ideas and that ideas can bring him new worlds...he was hooked. He read through the Harry Potter series book by book. If you asked him about a particular HP book he could tell you each character's story line today. He read the series in 3rd grade. His memory is good.
He's the first born. He's good at reading. He eats books. And best of all? He's excited about reading the books and shares them with me. He will often finish a book and hand it to me saying, "Mommy? You're gonna love this book...do you have time to read it right now?" I love this about him. I love that he wants to talk about the books he's read.
Recently he handed me The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. I bought the book for him a little while ago but he had a huge stack of 39 Clues and the Percy Jackson series to keep him busy so it took him a while to get to it. He read it in less than a week.

Last week I subbed for the Librarian at the kids school. As it happened, both the kids' classes came to the library that day which was a very nice surprise. August's class came through and were instructed by the teacher that they needed to check a book out for their free reading time. I fielded many questions about what book they should take out. I loved every minute of it. We walked around the library and looked at book after book depending on their interest. It was lovely.
August was one of the last students to grab me for a suggestion. We looked around the library and noticed that he had read most of the current novels so we went to the 'A' section. Avi. Have you read any of his books? He's been around for quite a while. After looking at the school selection we narrowed it down to Crispin. I read the summery on the cover and he gave out a short laugh and grabbed it from my hand, "Oh, yeah! That's the one I want to read!!"
He read it that weekend and brought home another Avi book, this time a graphic novel called City of Light, City of Dark. I'm not kidding, he just walked into the living room and handed it to me saying, "This book is in chapters. I know you're reading a book right now but you should really read the first chapter of this book...you'll love it."

He reminds me of another first born son I know...my big brother Scott. I know that one day August's uncle will be passing books on to him. Books that he's eaten in a weekend, just like August.

I Know I'm Not the Only One

My mailbox has been over loaded with catalogs lately...tis the season I suppose. Some of them are immediately recycled but every once in a while I take a quick peek and am surprised at the treasures inside.
Here are some super cute (and crave-worthy items) I've been sneaking peeks at lately:
Night Owl Sateen Bedding from Garnet Hill. What?! These are so cute...Trey would HATE them!

These clay owls also from Garnet Hill, so cute they're all sold out...how did I even get on the mailing list for Garnet Hill?

What about these knit sleeve candles from anthropologie?

Or this amazing cardigan also from anthropologie?
But really, have you looked through the new anthropologie catalog? Holy smokes!

Wouldn't August look so handsome in this sweater?

Um...yum!

And...yum!

And...can you tell that I wish we were going to have the opportunity to eat at our favorite deli this holiday season?

This is our year to stay home for the holidays. We try to get back to Michigan every other year. Staying home is a bitter-sweet thing for us. I do love decorating the house and really getting into the spirit of Christmas...it's so much easier to do it knowing that we'll be in our own home on Christmas morning. We do need to establish our own traditions after all.
I'm really hoping to go to see the PNB put on the Nutcracker. We've always thought it would be a good thing to look forward to on the years that we stay home...we've yet to go, but I'm really hoping that this is our year.
We are really looking forward to having Thanksgiving with the Bazan family this year. D and A really are like family to us here in Seattle...it's so good to have them around...and with their new baby...I just can't get enough of them.

Christmas is creeping up on us and I've started ordering things for the kids. A few years back I found these super soft sheets and bought the kids each a set. They. Love. These. Sheets. And they were on sale! So I'm eagerly awaiting the delivery, a new set for each kid. Hazel currently has the light purple one so I picked a light green for her new set. August has a dark blue set so I just picked another shade of blue for him. They'll be so excited when they open them on Christmas morning.

Halloween Night

It's Halloween night and the kids are out with Trey trick or treating. I think they were planning on hitting a few neighborhood houses before they drove over to a friend's house to hit their area. I'm holding down the fort for all the trick or treating that will come to our door.

August was a mime again tonight...he's taking his role pretty seriously and has worked out an act for saying "trick or treat"...we'll see how long that lasts.



Hazel was a day of the dead skeleton last night but has decided to just be a plain old skeleton tonight.

I'm the bearded lady...or Trey's beard...you decide.
And Trey, who has been establishing a rather nice assortment of costumes through the years, is a Sumo Wrestler this year.

This Is Halloween

August and Hazel had another successful Halloween party.
They both did so much more for the this year's party. They made party favors for the kids who came, August labeled all the fool, Hazel decorated the table. It gets better and better as they get older.
Here are their guests:
The Witch, the Magician and the Rockers.


The Soccer Dad, the Grim Reaper and a Witch.


Two dudes, a lady, a Pirate and of course, Snow White.


I Dream of Genie and a dead pilot.


Stephanie, I can't remember who you were...but you looked good! A Texan, Karate Kid and a Fairy-Princess-Ballerina.
An old man, the fortune teller, a kitty and a Ranger's Apprentice.

Death, a Witch, a Beatnik and Tink.

The Mad Hatter, a Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew.

The pictures are horrible...I was just in a hurry to snap each family before they all split up.
August and Hazel had the kids all downstairs watching Monster House, playing Rock Band and in the end they tried to watch House of Frankenstein with Francis.

Feeling Better

Hazel is feeling much better, thank you very much. She hasn't had a fever since Sunday night. Technically she could've gone back to school today but she's been coughing and sneezing all over the place so I kept her home one extra day. It was actually kind of nice having her home with energy. We went out to Ballard to pick up some paints from the craft store so the kids could finish their skulls:

She's been on this Day of the Dead kick since studying it last year. She wants to be a Day of the Dead skeleton for Halloween (can you believe Halloween is in a few days?). It really shouldn't have surprised me that she asked for bright colors while we were at the craft store.


August is going for a more realistic look to his skulls...white with black. Although he did mention that maybe we could do half and half. The skulls will be given to the kids who come to the Halloween party we're having on Friday night.

August had guitar practice at School of Rock today after school. I'm always a bit frazzled on Tuesdays as I have to pick him up and run him right up to practice. He came out of the school right on time but then had to run back in because he forgot the pumpkin he picked out from the patch today. So, I sighed and told him to please hurry. He was probably gone for ten minutes, and we really were doing fine on time, but again...it's Tuesday and I'm frazzled.
I say to Hazel, "Come on! What's taking that boy so long? I thought he just had to grab his pumpkin!!"
To which Hazel replied, "See? Don't you wish August had a cell phone? If he had a cell phone you could call him right now and tell him to hurry up. Instead we have to do the old fashioned thing. And the old fashioned thing is called....waiting!"
She's definitely feeling better. You gotta love that girl.

New Fall Favorite

I picked up some Cream of Wheat on a whim the other day...can't remember the last time I had some...
This has turned into our favorite fall breakfast. Make the Cream of Wheat with milk, stir in some vanilla and brown sugar. Chop up some almonds and dried apricots and eat up.
Both the kids gobble it up in the mornings and it leaves them feeling full and warm.
Let me know if you try it!

Cooking Skulls

Well, Hazel is sick, sick, sick.
August has a few things to do today so he'll get out of the house-
thank God Trey is home this weekend! He's been running around town
gathering things for Hazel and taking the dogs out and bringing August
to the movies.
I spent many hours last night listening to Hazel breathe while I
scoured the Internet for things to do for Halloween. Found this gem
sometime between 3:44 and 7:00am on a blog called alphamom:

We made them out of salt dough (1/2 cup salt, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup water) and cooked them for 2 hours at 200. We'll paint them later tonight, hopefully Hazel will be feeling a bit more energetic by then.