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 :)

GLOW!

 

This past Saturday night we decided to go to an event that we always mean to catch and then never do... GLOW.  It is a lighted sculpture garden full of paths and live music out in Oracle (about an hour from our house) on a big ranch (yup pretty much as random as it sounds).  It was definitely as random and fabulous as I expected it to be. 

View from below of the lighted udders...

 

The event was complete with a water tank that you can walk inside, pull levers on, and lower and raise glowing udders.  I think my favorite was an oak tree filled with little lanterns that hung over a cool little metal stool to sit on.

 The finale of the night was a circus of sorts, where people played with fire and stood up on a big stand to be electrocuted.  While watching this spectacle Izzy told Patrick, "Daddy, I wouldn't ever do this, it is not safe." While the hula hooping with a hula hoop bedazzled with fire was decidedly impressive the rest of the show was just weird.  There was, however, good music, good cupcakes, and really cool (but random) art.

Fairies

Photo taken of the garden by Evie to use as an example for her school garden.

Izzy and Evie have a bit of a thing for fairies.  For years now they have both been building (and tending) fairy houses in our backyard, up at the cabin, and other random places (like in the nooks of trees at girl scout camp).  Last Friday Evie received a package in the mail from a mysterious place called Lakeland, Florida.  Within this package were a letter from a fairy named Luna, a whole lot of fairy dust, and a new book for Evie to read as a thank you.  Upon reading the note, which thanked Evie for her hospitality as a traveling fairy, Evie proclaimed "I just knew they were real.... I just knew it!" Izzy asked, "Mommy, do you think when I learn to read the fairies will send me a book too?"

Newest fairy house... pay no attention to the dirty dishes beside it :)

Within the note, Luna informed Evie that she has told her friends about her fairy garden and that they might use it as a way point as well.  This note served as a call to action for more housing, so last weekend we went to the craft store and bought a new house (and outdoor paint) to make sure that there was plenty of room at the inn for any traveling folk.  Although Evie does generally tend her fairy garden on most mornings on her way back in from feeding the chickens, the past week she has been extra careful to make sure that it is hospitable.... just in case some new fairies decide to visit.  Evie is now also kid in charge of the school fairy garden, which she is going to start building with her English teacher.

Izzy does Expo

Izzy's family tree.

This week Izzy had her first Expo of the year.  The unit was all about family.  For the expo she got up in front of the class, sat in the "hot seat", introduced herself and then read through her book she made on her family.  After this solo presentation she then stood up in front of the whole class and sang a little song in French.  Unfortunately I thought I was recording the whole thing, but as it turns out I recorded nothing, and don't even have a picture :(  Regardless, I was very impressed, especially because at the first one of these, at this time last year, we couldn't even get her to go up as part of a group, let alone as a solo act.  What a cool thing to see her get so brave over the course of just a year! 

Izzy and her best friend before the "show"

Weekend (and Week!) fun

It has been a busy few weeks. Most of our adventures have been of the around Tucson-type.  On Sunday nights we have been working on our French cuisine skills.  With Anna's help we are slowly making it through a french cookbook she bought for us.  Perhaps the best part of this cooking endevor is that (almost) the whole family is getting involved.  (The almost is for me.  I am these meals as my chance to just sit and watch everyone cook... and maybe be just a little bit of a backseat chef :)

 

We have also made it out to the Tucson Art museum, where Evie hit another very important milestone ...it has been awhile since we've discussed one of those!... first selfie:

I should probably note for the record that is is one of about 10 selfies she took in front of this painting in an attempt to get it just right.

This week we headed out on Thursday night for the first football game of the season.  I was able to get free tickets to the game and so we were even able to bring one of Anna's friends, an exchange student from the Netherlands.  It had been raining so much that day that we were going to skip it, but the girls (all four of them) were so excited about the game that we decided to give it a go, which turned out to be a great idea.  Not only did we not have any rain, but it was downright chilly up there way high in the stands.

 

There has also been quite a bit of at home play (our living room once again looks like a fort bomb went off).  With the girls making paper dolls, building legos and watching TV in their fort. Sadie is often a companion for these games....

All-in-all it has been pretty busy (especially because I was in Wisconsin last weekend... but more on that later) but a lot of fun!

Fall Activites

Izzy all dressed up for ballet (minus the ballet shoes)

Three weeks into the school year and we are settling into the routines of up early and out to school and then after school fun and homework and then to bed.  Although many nights it is a bit exhausting for all of us it is nice to have a routine again.  The fall activity line up includes Tucson Girl's Chorus for Evie and Saturday morning ballet for Izzy.  After school (at school) activities include science, math and choir clubs for Evie and active play, zumba, and storybook clubs for Izzy.  Evie really wanted to be in science club this year, but girl's chorus is on Monday too so she asked permission to leave science club early so she could make it to choir.  Her teacher said that was ok, but now as a result our week starts off with the most chaotic day.... I guess it is perhaps good to get it out of the way? Anyway, new this year both girls are also taking guitar lessons two mornings a week before school.  So far I think the favorite for Evie is the guitar lessons and for Izzy its the ballet.

Writing it all out like this it feels like a lot!  We'll see how tired everyone is come Halloween and perhaps re-evaluate for the spring :)

Chirahauas

Last weekend we decided to go for a little bit of summer-vacation-is-over denial and go on a mini vacation to a friend's place in the Chiricahua Mountains. It was a monsoony afternoon, which complicated packing the car, so we didn't get out of Tucson until after 5:00.  Beautiful thunderstorms were all around for the whole drive, and when it was not pouring rain it was utterly gorgeous. We stopped in Benson for a Mexican food dinner... resulting in chimichanga and chipolte chicken-filled bellies fueling the last 2 hours of the drive.  Once off the freeway (and now in the utter dark) we set our odometer to 0 as instructed by our friend, and counted on his detailed instructions to get us there through a pitch black night interrupted intermittently by lightning in the distance. Round about mile 24 down a dirt road, after coati, owl, and many small creature sightings, we came to an exceptionally narrow and rough road... with still no cabin in sight.  By this point all of the backseat folks were tired and not just a little bit unsure of our navigation skills, but fortunately after 10 minutes of creeping up a steep and bumpy road we arrived at our little home for the weekend.  We managed to find the hidden key, but turning on the water for the night was just not going to happen.

The next morning (with water turned on thankfully) we ate breakfast, explored where a pipe led to, and then piled into the car for an over-the-mountain 4x4 drive to Chiricahua National Monument.  Although most of the area had burned in 2011 (including the area all around the place we stayed) it was a beautiful drive with great scenery.  It is also one of the wettest places in Arizona, and as such it poured rain for almost the entire drive up and over the mountain.

Fortunately by the time we arrived at the National Monument is was only drizzling (and we managed to find a covered picnic table for lunch).

 

 Everyone enjoyed climbing on the rocks (and the fact that it wasn't over 100 degrees!) Izzy in particular was very excited about climbing (and not just a little bit silly)

Then we drove down the road to another short hike to "the grottos"  Evie, Anna, and I went ahead, figuring Izzy and Patrick wouldn't make the whole hike.  Then on our way back we met up with them and decided to hike the little bit more for a second time so they could see the grottos too (because it really was just that cool)

After a long day of adventure we decided we did not need the adventure of going back up and over the mountain (especially given that it was muddy in the morning, and it looked like the area had received rain all day long).  So we took a less hairy back-road back...

In the evening Evie relaxed and read all of the New Yorkers in the house (well really just the cartoons.. but she was entertained by this for at least an hour) and then we made a taco dinner.

The next morning we packed up our bags and headed back to Tucson.  On the way home we made a stop at Apple Annie's to pick apples, pears and peaches (and a lunch of hamburgers).  Although it was pretty hot in Wilcox, it was a lot of fun and is definitely a stop that we'll add to our back and forth from the cabin itinerary for the future, especially because dogs were allowed and welcome!