My cutie.

Quick friend visit

I had a little Pampered Chef party for Ann, and got to hang with a few of my friends in the process. Alden and Daniel came to hang out with their moms, which was really fun. Alden is so big and cute. Delectable. We've seen these kids a lot and it will be fun to watch them all grow up together.

Basketball skies

Ege was on the soccer team, but basketball is his real sport he says. I'm excited to see! We recently went to play some bball and had some gorgeous skies as a backdrop. Even Altana, from Mongolia got in on the act, and she wasn't half-bad either!

Making Kraut

My friend Mary and I had an unusual afternoon together with no kids (well to be fair Peter was sleeping, which was pretty sporting of him I say) and we set to work making loads of saurkraut. Which if you didn't know involved crushing the cabbage, say with you feet! Much like grapes. So we had a day of standing on cabbage together with salt and jars and cuisinarts and screen-printed t-shirts as a back drop. And it was lovely.

My farmer

My Makili is definitely my little farmer. (Remick is the worm herder/caretaker/torturer, depending on the day.) But Makili has his own little garden out there where he actually grew this amazing brussel sprout stalk pictured below. (We had already plucked the sprouts off.) He was so proud to eat them! And if you know Makili you know that he is pretty much all the time obsessed with something. Starting from birth those things include balls, tractors, racecars, and currently soccer. He takes breaks from these obsessions for sideline passions - gardening, puzzles, drawing, etc.
Makili is learning so fast these days. Two recent incidents totally made me stop and take stock of that. First the other day he saw a guy with a mohawk in the parking lot. He stopped dead in his track, and said, "Mom what is that?" I think I laughed out loud and told him, but it made me realize how he just knows what he's seen. And then while we were drawing the other day, he was frustrated that the wheels he was drawing on Lightning McQueen (I hope we move on from this phase soon) weren't right. He was drawing with pencil, and so I suggested he erase it. He looked at me like I was crazy. When I showed him what an eraser did, he went straight to the task of erasing everything. It was really cute.

New Garden Favorite

Someone gave me some Sweet Annie seedlings at the beginning of the season. They are tall, plumy, weed-looking things, but they smell like absolute heaven and apparently have all sorts of medicinal value as well. What I love them for? Making crowns! Aren't they cute. My mom and the kids are pretty cute too.

Perfect Fall Days

We've had some of the. loveliest. fall days ever. One of which, we got to spend with Grammy on Plum Island. I love the beach off season when there are no people there and crisp air. It was lovely. We love having Grammy here is general.

I just love watching this pile of kids grow.

Brothers Rock!

I'll be honest. When I was pregnant with Remick, I was hoping for a girl. At each of my three ultrasounds, I made them check again, in case the previous person had got it wrong. But I didn't know then that brothers rock. For real. I feel so lucky to get to raise these two brothers together, who love each other so much. Remick wants to do EVERYTHING Makili (or "Kili" as he calls his brother) does. Makili gets mad at Remick a lot for wrecking his garages, or whatever, but he also LOVES to play with him. And there is nothing better than when they are making each other giggle and playing together. I really think brothers are cool.

So lucky

We got so lucky to have Grammy come visit us for 10 days, which as usual was not enough! More pictures to come.

Can you believe that THIS is my baby??

Loud, willful, funny. Remick completely idolizes his big brother and will do just about anything for his attention, which sometimes means he'll stand there watching his brother as he slowly and purposely knocks down his brother's garage or whatever. He says EVERYTHING anybody else says. He's gone from being the bird of prey to the parrot. Everything. He tries to ride a bike like his brother, and almost can (with steering wheels). We think he might be color-blind, but we'll see. He's a peanut, but full of energy. He and Makili like to race more than anything. Doesn't matter how many seconds or minutes Remick finishes after Makilis, every time he'll say "I won!" He's a cuddlebug, which is nice can I can actually sleep with this kid occasionally. But he likes me to hold him when he wakes up. Divine. He's a hoot. He makes jokes all the time. At the moment he really likes being a "monster" and he runs around the house with a paper mask he made yelling really loud "monster in the house!"

The 3 hour tour

Well, the kids and I have been spending a lot of times in the woods lately. It is perfect for that right now. Crisp air, but warm enough for shorts. no bugs. Just lovely. Before the loveliness falls around us and we are left with winter. So I convinced the boys to hunt for mushrooms (our newest obsession) with me for a half hour before we had to pick up Ege at soccer practice. Nearly 2 hours later (we ended up having to call Raph and have him pick up Ege) we finally emerged from the woods. We started jolly and full of wonder at the world around us, and emerged fussy (even me) and cranky, wishing the trails were better marked, and honestly full of relief. Remick who typically wants to do whatever his older brother does, kept telling me, "I'm too little to walk this far" and I did end up carrying him at the end, and I told him, "you might be too little to walk this far, but you are too big to carry!" Retrospectively it was fun though. Next time we'll probably stick to well-known woods.

Before the fair

Before the fair we had another sort of adventure. We went to my aunt and uncles llama farm in Jefferson Maine. I love it there and always have, but a fire burnt their home to the ground two years ago, and now they have the lovliest house ever made to go with their llamas and barns. Everybody had fun, though neither of boys nor the two Turkish exchange students that came with us were terribly interested in the llamas. The highlight for Makili was riding around on the gator with Uncle Terry. It really was so nice.