Celebrating fall and Martinmas

Fall has seemed at arms reach for quit some time. Living in the desert gives seasons a whole new definition. As in we have 2.5 seasons: Hell seems cold- HOT, Cold (for a couple weeks) and then everything in between, which seems to be mostly WIND!

Yesterday Thomas, Winston (our dog) and I spent the late afternoon at a park. It was absolutely perfect outside for Thomas to ride his Skuut (wooden bike) around. As we were wondering around the park the flame intense colors of the trees really popped out. Brilliant reds, fiery oranges and citrus shades of yellow. Thats when I nodded my head and agreed with myself that Fall was FINALLY in Vegas!

A few weeks back when my friends around the states were headed to the apple orchards I was feeling slighted. Walking down the rows of apple trees when it is still in the 90's just didn't give me that fuzzy fall feeling deep down in my soul.

Martinmas is coming up in just a few days. It may prove to be my favorite of the obscure holidays. Something about making lanterns and watching my little guys face glow from the little flame as we walk around our neighborhood that makes me feel extra warm.

So if you are new to Martinmas here is a little description from the book All Year Round. The traditional way of celebrating Martinmas is with lantern walks or processions accompanied by singing. St. Martin recognized the divine spark in the poor man of Ameins, and gave it the protection of his own cloak. When we make a paper lantern, we, too, may feel that we are giving protection to our own little 'flame' that was beginning to shine at Michaelmas, so that we may carry it safely through the dark world. It may only be a small and fragile light-but every light brings relief to the darkness.

I would love to hear some songs that people sing while doing their lantern walks. I am not sure what kind of singing we will be doing...if any! But you never know!!! Never the less Fall is finally here.

1st Winnebago trip

Our first vacation in the new (new to us) Winnebago. We went to Valley of Fire, which is only about 50 miles or so from Las Vegas. The first day was a bit stressful because Thomas wanted to touch and flip every switch in the RV. Let me just say there are LOADS of switches for little fingers to get in trouble over. By the second day things began to fall in place and go a little more smoothly for us all. We took one afternoon and drove to Lake Mead. Hiking was a blast, and Winston (our dog) seems to have a little Billy Goat in him! He hiked like a champ. Thomas is a future mountain climber as you can see in one of the pictures below. Well my little camper is needing some immediate attention so I must cut this blog post short for now...
PS. All these photos are bright (over exposed) on purpose. I just couldnt wait to post them, before working on them...but that will be the topic of another post down the road. Enjoy!

Old hands, new hobby

Starting new traditions

I love the idea of having family traditions, things that Thomas will recall from his childhood and hopefully pass on to his own family someday. I was talking with my mom about traditions she recalled from her childhood. She said every Sunday her mom would make coffee cake for breakfast followed by a mid after noon family dinner. So using the exact same recipe my grandmother used I made coffee cake for my family Sunday morning.

I have always hated that our beautiful china sits in the pantry zipped away in cases all year round. Why even bother owning something so nice if you only get to see it (maybe) once a year. So now every Sunday I will carefully bring down our china and iron our nice table cloth and napkins. This will be a great way to welcome a new week.

This meal turned out super delicious. I tried something new: coca cola! I added a can of cola to the crock pot roast and it was the moistest roast I have ever turned out.

Thomas loves carrots and potatoes from the crock pot. He also loved drinking from the tall glasses. This meal and new tradition was a big hit!

For dessert I made Amish bread pudding. If I only ever pass on one recipe, this should be the one! I have never had such heavenly sweetness in my whole life...bless the Amish!!!

Here is the link if you would like to try it: http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/bread-pudding-recipe.html I used half and half for the pudding and the sauce. I omitted the raisins. Enjoy and happy traditions to you and your family!!!

New activities

Thomas just turned three and suddenly I felt this heavy urge to put him in some organized classes. I had/have no desire to place him in the "mommy and me" type classes. You know the kind were mommy is 100 percent involved and your little one gets to stay safely by your side. Not that I am against the safely by your side aspect but I just really feel that Thomas is ready to learn that there are other people in this world that he needs to learn from.

With so much energy to expel I really focused on finding classes that involved constant movement. Thomas LOVED his first day at gymnastics!!! This is a real class taught by a professional gymnast. All the parents watch from out side the room behind a glass window. Yeah! Thomas tumbled, jumped, twisted, climbed and so much more. If you ask him what his favorite part was be prepared to sit and listen for a while.

He talks about climbing up the rope, swinging on it and jumping from it into a pile of foam blocks. Then he will go on and on about the trampoline. So much fun!!!

The following day started swim lessons. Don't even get me started on this one! I hated it...for him! In his class it was just him and one little girl. This little girl was the same age and had already been in eight other swim sessions. She was swimming with her face under the water and everything. His swim teacher (if you can call her that) was a young...very young (high school age) girl.

I think she had no idea that this was Thomas' first time in a pool with out a life vest. She placed the kids on a movable platform in the middle of the pool. A deep pool by the way. And then she proceeded to have the kids jump into her arms. Only when they would jump she would back away from them. Can you see the fear in my eyes yet? When she finally scooped Thomas up (I was on my feet and about to jump in, by the way) I could see the shock all over his sweet little face. Dirty trick if you ask me!

Soon Thomas got the idea and decided he had had enough of her tricks and managed to get out of the pool when they were working near the ledge. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head "no." It took me quite a while to convince him to get back in the water and I was fearing that this was not going to be pretty. The teacher was able to teach him to float on his back a couple times but then the session was over.

She ended their time by saying a special "good bye" to each child... First up was the little girl. The teacher opened her arms and the girl jumped in and with that the teacher swung her into the air and flew her around a couple times. Thomas was absolutely horrified with the way this was playing out! Next up was Thomas and when she opened up her arms for him to jump into them Thomas screamed in total fear! He HATES to be swung like that! Some how she got him down and gently cradled him in her arms as she swirled around.

Thomas and I have no desire to return to this class. But Pat thinks he needs to go back, that he needs to learn to swim and that he needs to go back to things that are hard and scary. Luckily I only paid for two classes. I am making Pat take him to the next class so he can see what I am talking about. Maybe the calm presence of his father will help the next swim class go better.

I also thought a dance class would be fun for Thomas. But that was disastrous as well. Needless to say after just a few minutes we were out the door and Thomas was asking where his soccer and football teams were. How he got that into his mind I am not sure, but I guess I am off to find him a soccer or foot ball team to join...

Mimi in art: part 2

She agreed!!! I got an email back saying she would love to do this painting for me!!! Now I just need to gather all my favorite pictures of Mimi girl and send them off to her. In case you cant tell, I am very (VERY) excited about this. I will update more as it comes...