Monday, August 23, 2010

A is for applesauce.

What a fab summer it's been.  But we'll post about that later. 
This post is about how much I love Fall time.
I was bit by the bug a couple days ago when my neighbor gave me a ton of apples & told me to make some applesauce.


The smell of cooked apples is Heaven.
  And then throw a little sugar & cinnamon in the air & I can die happy.

Never made applesauce?
It's as easy as this:

1- wash & cut apples into quarters

2- throw them in boiling water for a few minutes until softy-soft

3- drain them then mash them as you'd like
(my neighbor gave me this old colander thingy to mush the apples with, but i've read that a masher works just as well)

4- toss in some sugar & cinnamon



5- hire Buddy for clean-up duty

Here's to Autumn!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A first time for everything...

Many firsts for the Atwoodians this past week.

Avy:
Attended her first rock concert.
True dat...you heard me right.
(Well, technically I guess her first celeb sightings would go to the several Bob the Builder shows she saw at Gilroy Gardens in the month of July.)

The Wiggles were in town, folks. 
 & once again, my awesome friend Crystal who always hooks me up pulled through when she called me & asked me how many free tickets I wanted.


For those who aren't aware, Avy has a strange, yet endearing, obsession for Captain Feathersword from the Aussie gang & often won't answer me when I call her "Avy".
"Mom, remember my name?  It's Captain Feathersword.  How did you forget that?"

And many times when she has a friend coming over, she makes me introduce her to her friend as Captain Feathersword.  When the doorbell rings, I undoubtedly hear, "Mommy, remember to tell (fill in friend's name) that I'm Captain Feathersword.



She's even so obsessed that she's been planning her Pirate Birthday party for the past 10 months.

Needless to say, we had one very, VERY happy girl Saturday.


& I'm not ashamed to admit that a little, "Hey there Shaky, Shaky" gets me up & groovin every time.


Also, for the first time, she got to eat all the pink jelly beans she could handle.
She always asks for just the pink, but alas, the box is assorted.
However, we took a trip up to the Jelly Belly Factory yesterday & she was in Heaven.
Jelly Bean Heaven.




Buddy:
Sprouted his first tooth...
& a cute little dagger it is.


Has decided that crawling is the way of the future.
He will occasionally still do the army crawl, but he can shake those little crawling buns quicker than lightening when he chooses to.

& he has discovered that standing in his crib is WAY more fun than sleeping.
Fully expecting him to be asleep this morning, I quietly tip-toed into the room to grab something only to find this inquisitive little meerkat:

Tat:
Also attended his first rock concert.
The Wiggles.

Wait, no.  I dragged him to the American Idol concert with me a couple years ago so I guess that was his first.
Actually, hold on... he did drive the Doobie Brothers around San Francisco years ago for some strange reason that I still can't figure out.
So...I guess The Wiggles wasn't a first star sighting for him either.
So maybe he's not a music man.

But that's okay.
I fully knew that going into the relationship when we were dating and I saw his CD collection:
The Dances with Wolves Soundtrack & Enya.
Oh yeah, & his Jeep Owner's Manual was on CD too, if that counts.

Also, he pet a wild fox for the first time.
Hold on, much to his chagrin, he didn't quite succeed.
(& I guess that was technically a week & a half ago)
But still.

We went camping with some friends & at night a family of foxes very boldly came to visit our site.
Tyler declared, "I will pet one of those guys before the night is over."
Weird.
Regardless, it was a great time in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains.






Moi:
Stayed awake for an entire movie, which is something I haven't done in a REALLY long time.
I'm a tough critic.  It takes a lot to captivate me.
I dare say Inception was the best movie I've seen since What About Bob.
I'll go see it again if anyone needs a buddy.
Crazy.

Also, I was a working woman for the first time since having kids.
I used to direct elementary age plays at a private school before Avy was born & haven't done it since.
I was asked to do it for 1 class for summer school in the month of July, & since awesome sister Brookie was planning to be here for a couple months, it worked out perfectly for her to play with my tots in the morning while I taught.
The performance was Friday & my class did awesome!
I was very pleased.
More importantly, my kids LOVED spending time with Auntie B.
Today, when Linc was crying, Avy informed me,
"He just wants Auntie Brookie instead, Mom."
Can't blame him.  She's pretty cute.


Yay for a fun week of firsts!