Dessert Contest Memoirs- My Journey to the Elite Eight

Round Robin Entry: A smooth fudge topped with strawberry glaze and a strawberry slice.
Sweet Sixteen: A mini pie filled with 1 layer ghirardelli chocolate, 1 layer choc. pudding, and top layer of star-shaped whipped cream.
Elite Eight: Cake Truffles - cake mix+pudding mix+sour cream+cream cheese frosting, made into balls, dipped in chocolate.
This grand entry lost by a single vote to an amazing key lime pie. Not bad for a girl who has historically been given vote-of-no-confidence assignments like "vegetable tray" at Thanksgiving.

Here we go a-costuming

I love halloween. I really like to see what everyone comes up with for costumes. I also really like rummaging around the house and creating (semi) legitimate looking costume from stuff that is already there. For example, friend Hilary who made a "where the wild things are" costume from two white kitchen towels. Another good example: you may remember Rachel as Princess Leia made by spending zero whole dollars.
Here's the breakdown of what we came up with this year:

Vivian as : GOB, a character from the hilarious, but not well known show "Arrested Development"
1. Shirt - $2.95
2. Frozen Bananas - $2.50
3. Scooter - Borrowed from Jo
4. Sign, cards, flip flops - free
5. Trying to create the 'illusion' of male pattern baldness on myself: Priceless


Rachel as Viking Warrior
Ingredients
Start with 1 viking helmet
Then add:
1 brown Moby wrap baby sling
2 shoe laces from hiking boots
1 flyswatter covered in cardboard, tin foil, and a tie from some pants
1 fleece baby blanket
1 heaping cup of Rachel attitude



Levi as Your Friendly Neighborhood Garbage Man
I found every part of this in my house somewhere except for the $0.99 spent on a black posterboard to finish off the garbage can with a lid. The best part about this costume was how much Levi liked pushing the can around and pretending to be a garbage man.





Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Rachel

rachL from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Behavioral Studies

At the age of two, a child will employ a remarkable variety of creative expressions to exert his growing independence.

no. from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

You might live in California if...

We've been teaching Levi letters lately (y'know, "C is for cookie" etc) and we take him into the bathroom where he notices the "H" and "C" on the bathroom sink faucet. So we tell him "Look Levi, H is for hot," and he repeats back "yes, H is for hot" then he pauses... "and C is for warm!"

You can't fool a two year old.

countrytime fall comes to a seaside town

You might be a 2-year old if...

A few weeks ago when we were in church Levi was being really, really noisy. We've been working with him to try and get him to use a "quiet voice", so I picked him up and whispered to him, "Levi, we're in church and we need to be quiet so people can hear the speakers... can you use your 'quiet voice'?"

He looked at me with his "serious" face, thought for a second, then almost inaudibly he whispered back, "No."