Oh Sacramento. Stop showing off.

I happened to have my camera in the car the other day and I had to pull over. The color was too amazing. Now I can't stop taking pictures of all the trees, before they drop all the leaves.  This street in midtown looked like it was on fire! And I don't have a great camera. It just seems like Sacramento's colors are a lot more vibrant this Fall. It takes my breath away..

Even Big Lots looks charming right now.

We drive by this tree everyday. The kids have named it the rainbow tree.

I'm very tempted to knock on this neighbor's door and ask if my kids can rake their leaves....just so they can jump in them.  :-)

good people

Two weeks ago, it was Selah's day to "share" in Ms. Anita's preschool class. She is supposed to bring something special from home to show the class. They ask her questions about it.....you get the idea. She brought her doll that she got for Christmas last year from Grandma Summy (and friend of the family, Kathy who found it at an estate sale or something.) It's a "My Friend Mandy" doll from the late 70's. After her "share" time, Selah put Mandy in the share box as usual, but we forgot to take her home. The weekend went by and we didn't get a chance to go back for the doll until a few days later. The doll was gone. We looked everywhere. We tore the classroom apart looking for Mandy. She was lost. It didn't even occur to Selah that somebody took it, so I didn't press it. She was just confused and said, "Find her Mommy!" I told her that someone probably played with her because she's so fun, and they probably put her down somewhere...hard to find.  We'll keep looking. Ms. Anita suggested I make a poster, because the preschool classroom is shared by an afterschool program next door. I threw this poster together quickly and put in on the door....with very little hope.

10 days went by.

Today I dropped Selah off a preschool and we saw this.

No. Way.

And inside her cubby was a note.

I got goosebumps when I read the note. What a sweet sweet girl. Now I don't know if Cassidy somehow found it in a deep corner of the classroom that we missed (doubt it) or if she "found" the doll in her backpack......but it doesn't matter. She returned it to Selah. And she wrote a sweet note. And it takes a special kid to make that kind of a gesture. I hope Selah learns to have the kindness, compassion and integrity that Cassidy has shown.

But today she'll learn to make a thank you note.

My little helper

Selah Selah Selah. She's such a character. She's certainly got a strong idea of what she wants and when she wants it. She is so animated and full of energy. Lately I've been realizing that if I just relax and think of the things that would be fun for her to do with me, I can get something checked off my "to do" list and also share a fun experience with my daughter.

Selah shares my enthusiasm for the garden. When we had that summer that just wouldn't quit, my big science-experiment of a garden would just pump out tons of tomatoes, beets, kale, swiss chard, peppers and zucchini. Selah and I would pick a few things and make our "spicy salad". The arugula would get so peppery...from the heat I think. I'm glad my kids will know that food doesn't always come from a box or from the store!

Volunteer zucchini plants don't always turn out the best looking squash. And Nate is sooo sick of finding zucchini hidden in every meal and zucchini bread and cookies. So I had to pawn them off to friends.

Selah was so proud of this pie we made together. It took all the self-control she could muster up to NOT dig her little fingers in before it went in the oven. She wanted it so bad.

Today we made a loaf of bread to go with our spaghetti and meatballs dinner. I always have my little helper when it comes to kneading the dough.

Selah gets all up in there too. I love it!

One of these days we should bake a little cake together just so she can rip into it with her grubby little hands. She would love that.

Halloween 2011

It doesn't get any more cliche than this. A skeleton and a witch.....excuse me, I mean "dancing witch".

Once again the kids wore their costumes several times before the actual day of Halloween. There were school parties and friend parties and the kids and we had so much fun celebrating this spooky time of year. The costumes were left up to the kids and they went classic Halloween. So I witched it up with Selah and made Serin my little black cat. Nate dressed up in a vintage Woodland basketball uniform and put his friend's name on the back and an ugly mullet wig.

Everyone's wearing that this year. Classic....and classy.

Bobbing for doughnuts!

little cheater.

The costume that surprisingly won Nate a restaurant gift certificate for best costume. Putting the host's name on the costume helped I think.

Now what do we do with all of this candy?

Get lost traning wheels!

This day was long overdue. This bike of Finn's is probably a little too small now, and he's been racing around on it with those loud scraping training wheels for far too long. Like anything with us these days, it was just a matter of making time to get out and do it.  I thought it would take a couple of days. It was minutes!

Tear it up little dude.