Thankful!

The girls in their holiday dresses... I am afraid I forgot to take cute formal pictures of them in the dresses :)

 

We had a pretty incredible Thanksgiving this year.  A gathering of over 50 relatives up at my Aunt and Uncle's new place in Phoenix.  It was amazing, so many family members that even after a 4 hour dinner I still had not had a chance to talk to them all.  The food was, of course, wonderful as was the post-dinner game of Scatergories (with only the die-hard dozen or so of us left).

Friday we mostly just hung around, no crazy black Fridayness this year.  I had grand plans of going for a hike, but the day ended and no hike was achieved :)

Saturday the whole crew headed out for the annual Hot Dog Run with the Tucson Brittish Car Club.  It was the maiden Arizona voyage of our MG-A. 

 

From our house to my folks place (for an oil change and general check-up) to San Xavier del Bac down past Sahaurita, over to the Rincons and back into town to end at a dirt lot an Sonoran hot dogs...  I rode with Patrick in the MG, the girls in the Mini Cooper with my Mom and Dad and Anna went together in the Elise... awesome!

Rolling Queen

 

Izzy has had some good times with rolling things these past two weeks.  Last week (on Vetran's Day) she went to a friend's birthday at a bowling alley and had a ton of fun bowling.  Not only did they have bumpers, but also a ramp to chuck the ball down the lane with.

Then Saturday we went to another birthday party, this time for Evie's friend, and Izzy discovered a true calling: roller skating.  She spent almost the entire two hours out on the rink (with a little old lady walker thing) skating around and around and around and around.  She enjoyed herself so much there is now talk of nixing the ballet next semester and taking up roller skating... Maybe she'll be a Tucson Derby girl someday :P  Evie also got pretty into the whole skating thing... even practicing for most of the afternoon in our driveway.  It isn't immediately apparent in this photo, but Izzy is doing a dramatic splits to go with Evie's roller show...

WWF (Wrestling With Father)

It takes a tough guy to stand up to the fierce attacks of these girls...

For almost 6 years now (aka as soon as Genevieve was old enough to throw down) WWF (wrestling with father) has been a main event around our house.  Noses (well really just Patrick's) have been sprained, bled, and bumped, stomachs stomped and knees knocked.  Perhaps, actually, wrestling isn't the right word for it... it is more like a ritual of Beating Up Daddy.  (BUD instead of WWF)  Regardless not only have the nightly to weekly sessions escalated over time (e.g., first there was one assailant, now there are two and in the early days Patrick could bat away their advances, now he wrestles for survival) but so has the cadre of BUD moves. 

It all began with the Chicken Squawker.  This take down involves putting a head under your "wing" and then flapping (and perhaps cawing).  Then there is the more recent Tortilla, which involves both girls folding Patrick in half, and if they can keep him that way, sitting on him.  One favorite that is falling out of favor as the girls get to big is Bear with a Ball, Don't Let it Fall, whereby Daddy lays on the ground and sets a small child aloft on his feet. Evie of course has a secret weapon in her most fragrant feet, which has led to timeless moves like Da Pits of DaFeet whereby she tries to put her feet in Patrick's face and ends up with them trapped in his armpits and tickled.  And of course if the tickling becomes just too much to take one can always call a timeout by saying No Tickles in the Teacup, which originated lo these many years ago at Disneyland when a very little Evie informed her father it was unacceptable to tickle her while spinning around and around.  Izzy's star move right now is Baby Your a Firework, which involves her jumping up and down on Patrick's stomach while singing... you guessed it... the Katy Perry classic, Baby your a firework.

During an interview for this post Izzy indicated a fondness for flatulence as a weapon, and Patrick noted that there are at least a dozen more named moves out there, but the whole activity is so fluid that like a leaf on a stream they are here for one BUD moment and gone the next....

All Souls

 It has been quite a few years since we have made it to the All Souls Procession.  (Well basically since I started my PhD, because somehow the first weekend in November was always the height of craziness, and late Sunday nights were just not happening)  This year, however, I planned ahead and took the morning after off (thus why I am sitting here typing right now) and even told the girls (mostly Evie) that they could sleep in as late as they wanted if they wanted to go to the whole event. (Evie is still asleep, Izzy, who left early woke up on time, but has since "gone back to sleep"...aka playing in the room).

The extra bonus this year was a face-painting party at my friend's house.  Her sister, who is (clearly) an artist was in town and volunteered to help us all become fabulously anonymous. 

After a few hours of face-painting prep (Patrick wasn't too keen on that part, so he met up with us later) We all walked together to the start of the procession.  Izzy walked for about 1/4 mile before she needed to be carried, but Genevieve made it the whole 1.5 mile route.  I have never actually walked in the procession before, I usually just watch.  Having now actually walked I don't think I will ever just watch again.  Something about being among so many people walking through the streets of Tucson was incredibly powerful and moving.  About 1/2 way down the route (and around 7:30) we decided it was time to get Izzy home, so she and Patrick bowed out.  The rest of us (Evie and my friends) though walked the rest of the way to the site of the finale. 

We watched the finale until Genevieve said she was super tired (around 9:30) and then caught the most crowded streetcar I have ever been on back to my friends house, where we tried, a mostly failed, to get the face paint off of us.  I am going into work today with faint blue dots under my eyes... we'll see if anyone notices :)

Halloween 2015

From left to right - Anna's, my (its supposed to be Jack), Evie's (she carved all herself this year!), and Izzy's (she didn't carve it this year) pumpkins

This year's Halloween was particularly special. Not only was it on a Saturday, but it was also our exchange student Anna's birthday!  Pretty much since the day she arrived we have been regaling her with just how awesome we all thought it was that she was born on Halloween and would get to celebrate her birthday and first ever Halloween all on the same night. We made sure she had a good costume (although that one was touch a go for awhile... and ended in a quick Thursday night run out to Goodwill...a trip that had to be quick because I had exactly 30 minutes until the dinner I was cooking in the stove was ready :) and then took her out to some of the best trick or treating we know of.

Leading up to Halloween we went to Valley of the Moon on Wednesday.  Evie once again noted that she would like to participate in the act... maybe next year this mother/daughter duo really will audition...

Then on Friday it was the IST Halloween festival, which despite some rain was great fun (although I didn't take many pictures...)

Then on Halloween itself we started the day with a "real American breakfast" because Anna has wanted to experience one since she arrived.  She ordered the hungry persons breakfast that included biscuits and gravy, bacon, eggs, hash browns, and a pancake.  All but the biscuits and gravy were deemed delicious (which is OK, we discovered Patrick is the only one of us who likes that :) As has been the case for the past three months, having the excuse to go do something different because we have a new family member has led us to have a lot of fun, and in this case discover a new fabulous place for breakfast!

We then stopped at a little craft fair where Anna and I bought pastries from a French bakery (although we didn't eat them for her birthday as planned because we had had enough of the not so fancy sugar by the evening). Evie bought a little present for Anna too, to go with the concert tickets Patrick and I had bought her for her b-day. 

We then carved our fresh from the field pumpkins (Izzy and Anna were not so into the pulling the guts out part where as Evie and I reveled in it....) and got dressed for a night o' trick or treating.  Try as we might we couldn't convince her to join our family's Halloween theme...

 

We went to the 49ers again this year for trick or treating with my Mom and Aunt Lisa.  At the 49ers where we went trick or treating there is always this fabulous house that they turn into a pirate ship, complete with a bar and a bunch of people dressed as pirates.  I asked the lady guarding the entrance if Anna could take a look, because she was an exchange student and (by god) it was her birthday.  She agreed to let her in and then Anna was invited to have her tarot cards read by a lady at the party...  Patrick and I ended up being allowed in too... it was definitely the highlight of the evening. After much candy was collected and teeth chattered (from cold and from little spooks here and there) we packed it in and headed home and discussed how excited we were for the "holiday season"!

Trying Tri's and Other Fun

 

Last weekend we all piled (or really stuffed) into the Subaru on Friday afternoon to camp out a Patagonia Lake because I was going to compete in a sprint triathlon on Saturday morning. In an utterly uncharacteristic move I have been training quite diligently for the past three months for said race, up at 5 am to bike and run, heading over to the Y almost every Saturday, you get the idea.  I was nervous about the race because the lake was going to be about 65 degrees.  As it turns out it should have been nervous for the 8 mile with nothing but striaght up hill bike ride.... To make what could be a painfully long story short, I made it through the 500 meter lake swim but utterly failed at the second leg of the race, the bike ride.  Truth be told, around mile 3 when I got sick and was walking my bike again, I decided that is just wasn't fun, and by god somethings should be fun or just not done.  While I felt liberated for my decision after I turned around to ride back I now know that I will have to train and do this triathlete next year to redeem myself... but this time I will spend all of my training time going up hills!

Despite my race fail all was not lost in our weekend fun.  The camping was lovely, and on our way out of the park we stopped at a yard sale (because it said free coffee and Patrick could not resist) and Patrick and I ended up with rocking new cowboy hats.
 
We then made a pit stop at Hops and Vines (our favorite vineyard), on the way to Apple Annie's to acquire some fresh from the field pumpkins and get utterly lost in a corn maze.

I had never done a corn maze before and must admit, after a few times of fruitless circles got a little panicky.  To help you through you could bring with you a "passport" that had questions to answer where if you answered correctly you would turn the right way.  Evie grabbed one on girl scout trivia, I grabbed American history and Anna snagged movies.  As it turns out, we were the best at movie/TV trivia... thank goodness for knowing something about Mama Mia, Lord of the Rings and I love Lucy!

On Sunday we continued the weekend of random fun and went to the 4th birthday party of the month at pump it up... complete with blacklights and glow sticks.

 

As if that wasn't unique enough we then participated in Noche en Blanco, a flash-mob potluck dinner in the middle of the street in downtown Tucson.  It was quite the awesomely bizarre event, I felt like I knew 10% of the 2,000 random people there....  Perhaps most fortunately for us, we were all (Anna included) able to find our entire white get ups from goodwill!

Pretty sunflower from Apple Annies... not related to blog but had to share :)

Birthdays and other fun adventures

October seems to be a popular month for Evie and Izzy's friends to be born.  Uncharacteristically for us, we have had a birthday party to go to for almost every weekend during this month.  The weekend before last it was a jumping castle in the park extravaganza and then this weekend we had a pool party, where they rented the entire public pool, which included a 10 foot high dive.  If only I had thought to take pictures of Evie bravely plummeting off it time after time or Patrick and Anna (but not at the same time) following suit.  I think indicates the end of swimming season though because the water was quite cold!

We also have been continuing our sporadic attempts at French cooking.  The latest desert actually turned out pretty well!

Last week was fall break for the girls, so Monday we all took the day off and planted some roses in the yard.  Tuesday the girls hung out with my Mom and Wednesday they went to work with me for the morning.  I wanted to take them out for lunch at Eegees as a treat before I left for Flagstaff for a meeting, but also needed to get a tire fixed.  Naivly I thought it would only take a 1/2 hour or so, which would leave plenty of time for lunch.  It turns out the tire ordeal was a 2-hour affair, but fear not Eeggees was still had... via bus. And as it turns out the convinced Patrick to get them Eegees on Thursday and Mina on Friday... so the theme of break was colored ice drinks and sandwiches.

 

Other (weekend) adventures included a park and pancake performance by Evie.  I don't know why but Evie singing always gets me a little teary...

Red moon, greek festival, and Mexico, oh my!

 

 We have been filling the weeks and weekends with Fall(ish) fun. (This ish is for the fact that it is still generally over 90 degrees here :)  Two weekends ago we went out to the Greek Festival for the first time.  It was (above all else) a fabulous place to get a Saturday night dinner.  Evie was able to have a much anticipated sleepover with her friend (I say this because she is always asking for sleepovers and we almost never set them up for her... I just don't know how other parents coordinate this stuff!) and Izzy enjoying dancing to the pop songs in Greek.

The weekend ended with a spectacular blood moon (which, by the way, I thought was on Saturday night and was totally underwhelmed by on Saturday... good thing it was actually Sunday!)

Then last weekend I was only around for 1/2 the weekend (but still managed to decorate houses large and small) because early, early, early on Sunday morning I left for a week of work down in Aguascalientes, Mexico.  It was an utterly exhausting week, but super interesting and fun.

While I never had the chance to make it to the center of the city, I did get to the Museo Nacional de la Muerte on Sunday afternoon, an amazing restaurant (near an equally amazing church) on Wednesday, and to see one of the most interesting riparian areas I have ever seen during a field day on Thursday.
 

I woke up at 2 am yesterday to catch my flight home, and managed to make it back for 2:40 pm parent/teacher conferences and then take the girls (all three of them) out to see Pan last night.  I think I may just have to sleep for the rest of the weekend :)