M's Halloween Class Photo

Let the Halloween Festivities Begin!

This past Thursday was Madeleine's class Halloween party at school. All of the kindergarteners dressed up and paraded through the first floor of the school collecting candy from various classes and the principal's office. Madeleine dressed as a black cat and her classmates' costumes included princesses, fairies, cheerleaders, a "baterina" (ballerina dressed as a bat), a Transformer, a Star Wars bounty hunter, Mario, a safari guide and even a Lego block. After the parade the kids had a Halloween-themed snack in the cafeteria and then they returned to the classroom to play pin the tail on the black cat, toss the bean bag into the pumpkins mouth, and race while carrying an eyeball in a spoon without dropping it. Everyone seemed to have a great time!
Saturday was a Trunk-or-Treat party at James' school. Various parents parked in the school parking lot and opened their trunks to dispense candy from as the trick-or-treaters passed by. Everyone got into the spirit and decorated their trunks - lots of spiderwebs, spooky graveyard scenes, and haunted houses. James dressed up as Iron Man. Madeleine returned as a black cat and Charlotte debuted her ladybug costume. Everyone is excited about the big party coming up on Halloween night!

Smoked Chicken

There was an article in a recent Cooks Illustrated about the perfect smoked chicken, so I decided to give it a try. I used pecan chips in our Big Green Egg with the plate setter for indirect cooking. The meat was very moist and had a great smokey flavor. I used it to make sour cream chicken enchiladas and loved the depth of flavor it gave to the dish. I'll definitely be smoking a chicken again in the future.

This boy loves tennis!

Well, our tennis coach was sick on Monday so we missed our first scheduled lesson for the kids. James is still insisting every day before school that we go practice playing tennis. Sometimes even Charlotte gets to play a little!

Fast White Bread

This is my first attempt at white bread in my new Pullman loaf pan. I decided not to use the lid on this first loaf to see how much it would rise. The crumb and the crust turned out great! The recipe was from the Joy of Cooking and I will most definitely be using it again. I had some smoked turkey in the fridge so I made a spread with the turkey, a little mayo and a little jalapeño in the food processor and put it on a slice of the fresh bread. Not really on my diet, but soooo yummy!

20 Minutes

I used to think that 20 minutes is not enough time to really get anything accomplished.  But now that my schedule during the week has several 20 to 40 minute blocks of "dead time" in it, I have discovered how much can be done in that timeframe!  For example, it was too cold to be outside this morning after dropping Madeleine at school, so James, Charlotte and I went to Target to get a little clothes shopping done (now that the weather is cooler, I've discovered that the two big kids need some warmer clothes that fit).  We had 20 minutes and I was able to get several things crossed off my list.  Then I had another break between dropping James off at school and my tennis lesson, so Charlotte and I went to Kohls... 40 mintues later I'd crossed a few more items off (including Madeleine's Halloween costume!).  Then this afternoon I had another 10 minute block of free time so I ran back to Target (a different location) to get the remaining items.  If I had waited until I had a free hour and 10 minutes in my schedule with less than three kids in tow, I would never have gotten it all done!  Plus, "power shopping" as I like to call it, leaves you less time to browse around for things that aren't on the list and you probably really don't need.  I save that kind of shopping for a trip to the dollar store.

Tennis Lessons

Have I mentioned that I am taking tennis lessons?  A friend of mine from playgroup/church/school invited me to join her and a group of friend in taking tennis lessons at the Cooper Clinic on Thursday mornings.  Our instructor is a tennis pro and bears a strong resemblance to Harrison Ford.  He has been a great coach - we initially signed up for 6 lessons, but have extended it for at least two more and will probably start again after the holiday season and the colder weather passes.  I am by far the least experienced member of the group.  Four of the six of us played on a team in high school and the other girl has taken lessons before.  Brannon played on his high school team and so when we met in college he tried to teach me to play, but a back injury interrupted my progress and I haven't played since.  It has been fun learning the game and getting to know some new people.  And I have been really surprised at how much exercise you get playing tennis - I have been wearing my heart monitor during our lessons and have been very surprised and the number of calories burned during that time.  No wonder all these tennis pros look great!  

Last weekend Brannon and I finally got to play a little tennis with each other.  It has been at least 7 years since he has picked up a racquet, but he did say that he was surprised at how much I had improved since we played last.  I'm gonna go ahead and say his memory may be a little impaired - we've moved three times and had three kids since then!  My guess is he was just trying to flatter me so I would play him again.  We've learned that we can't play for points though - it isn't good for the marriage.

One of the other ladies in our tennis group has also organized some lessons for our kids (we all have kids about the same ages).  So next Monday, Madeleine and James start their lessons with Coach Betty Sue.  Both kids have shown an interest in playing, especially James.  Ever since Brannon showed him how to hit the ball with his "rocket" (as James calls it), James has been wanting to play tennis every chance he gets.  I will be very interested to see how the coach teaches their age groups.  I've tried helping James and it's hard!  Madeleine's class will be 45 minutes long and James' class lasts 30 minutes.  Hopefully our kids will fall in love with sports and be active and healthy for the rest of their lives!

Love this picture!

Can you tell where she gets her smile? This baby LOVES her Daddy!!

New Addition

We have a new addition to our yard: a maple tree. This is one of Brannon's favorite types of trees. We hope it will provide lots of shade in the summer and beautiful colors in the fall. We've also recently added a small Japanese lace-leaf maple to the back yard and replanted one of the beds in the front. The yard always seems to be a work in process as we figure out what does well in certain areas and what does not. Brannon loves trying out different kinds of plants and spends lots of time researching them on the Internet. It is just one of his many hobbies!

View from My Desk

This is the view from my desk as I sit here, trying to get tax work done. Charlotte should be at Mother's Day Out today, but she has pink eye and just started the medicine so she is still contagious. Somehow she can sense that I've sat down at the computer even though she has been happily playing by herself in the playroom. I have no idea how she does it, but it is driving me crazy!! Hopefully she will take a good nap this afternoon so I will actually be able to get something done. Ah, the challenges of working from home...

A Glimpse into My World

This is my Sippy Cup/Baby Bottle Drawer. I think the word you are looking for to describe it is: ridiculous. It was organized at some point, but as you can see, I have a helper and so I have given up on ever having any semblance of order in the drawer. At least letting her play in it buys me a few moments of peace while I am trying to fix dinner.

Texas State Fair

14 years ago, Brannon and I went on our first "official" date at the Texas State Fair. (I say "official" because I didn't realize that the first time we went out was supposed to be a date, so I don't count it as "official".) We have been to the Fair every year since, except for once or twice while we lived in Birmingham. As Brannon pointed out, this year was a little different from that first date (we weren't pushing a stroller with three kids then), but it was still enjoyable. We strolled through the markets and heard a lot of "Mommy, I want THAT!" and fed the animals at the petting zoo. We stopped by to take a picture with Big Tex and tried to explain to the kids why someone would want to make a massive sculpture out of butter (we really couldn't explain it...). And of course we had to visit the automobile buildings - the kids had a ton of fun playing in the cars and it was much cheaper than the Midway! (Seriously? $5 for a chance to throw 2 darts at some balloons?!? Um, no thank you.) We did not try the fried bubblegum, but we did have some German food, cotton candy and a funnel cake. The kids were exhausted by the day's end and are already looking forward to going back next year.

Spirit Day

The first Friday of every month is Spirit Day at Madeleine's school. Instead of their uniforms, the kids are allowed to wear their school colors (red and gold) or a shirt sporting their school logo. In a few weeks Madeleine will be attending her first "Spirit Camp" with the CKS cheerleaders. The kids will make posters and learn cheers to perform at halftime at the varsity homecoming game on Oct. 30. She is VERY excited... I think there might be a cheerleading uniform in our future. CKS has a policy that anyone who wants to be a cheerleader can be one - there are no tryouts. So she may actually get to be a cheerleader, unlike her Mommy!

Poor Baby!

Madeleine finally caught the stomach bug that is going around. Charlotte had it on Thursday, Brannon and I were sick on Saturday, and James caught it on Monday. So far everyone has recovered within 24 hours, so hopefully we will be back to normal by tomorrow

Madeleine spent the day at home, missing her school field trip and soccer game. Poor baby is so worn out she fell asleep coloring!

Lunch of Champions

James got to choose the lunch spot for today...Chick-fil-a of course! I think Kitty Kitty (his animal lovey) is eying his nuggets.