Fall in review.

I give up keeping up with this thing. I'm sorry everyone. From here on out, I'm just going to daily digest this blog and that will have to be enough. Although, the daily digest may have to be a seasonal digest. We'll see if I can keep up with that!

Here are some of my favorite photos from the Fall.

Clark and Iris made a huge splashy, bubbly mess in the bathroom. Iris was covered with bubbles, Clark was thrilled and cheering the whole time he was splashing. Iris loves the bathroom. What is it with babies and bathrooms? or electricity for that matter? and dangerous cords? and choking hazards? Iris is my danger girl.
Here's some pics from Halloween. Iris fell asleep early, but it was a nap. She wokWhen she was still sleeping, we tried to get Clark into his Winnie the Poo costume. He resisted, cried and generally acted like a child. So, we took this cute photo with Tom in Iris' costume, me in Clarks, and Clark in his pumpkin shirt that he was already wearing. I did eventually wrestle the boy into the costume and force him to trick or treat. Either Tom or I carried him the whole way. He and Iris had had a fever on and off the entire week. It was a hard week for them.

Iris is ADORABLE.
This is one of my favorite photos of her in her favorite spot, under the coffee table!

And as a mother, nothing has made me more happy than seeing how these two crazy kids love each other. Clark asks to hold her constantly. We went to vote the other day and I let someone hold Iris while I went in the booth. She was gone for one minute when Clark asked, "where's our baby?" In many ways the 3 of us are one person who all belong together. I've heard of the mother-baby di-ad, but we've definitely got a triad going on.

We love the Zoo and hanging out with Owen and Kathryn Farmer!

We've been buying apples from the farmers market. We can buy a bushel of "seconds" which means slightly "flawed", for $7, so we have. Its fun to think of ways to incorporate them into meals. Here is some Apple Chicken, Apple Risotto, Greenbeans with apples. it was all yummy.

We made Apple Cider, yum.

Although I'm not keeping up with the blog, we are having gallons of fun in our lives. We really can't complain. I just hope we can remember it all for later!

Happy Birthday Tom!!!!

This is Tom's big year! He's 35!!!!! We celebrated a few weeks ago by taking a Segway tour of DC, something Tom has always wanted to do.

Here's Tom learning how to ride it. Its a lot like Skiing!
Tom has a dream!

Autumn is Beautiful

And we are enjoying it!

These kids were drinking crazy juice

This is 3 videos of them "bof laughing".
Watch when you are in a bad mood and need some joy in your life.

Preschool

Here are some photos from the co-op Preschool I do with my friends Sarah Berry and Kathryn Farmer. Sarah is Emily's mom, and Kathryn is Owen's mom. These photos are post-lesson, during "crazy time", what some real preschools call "free play". We each lead a lesson about once a month. This lesson was about night time. Clark wore his pajamas. He is getting opinionated about his clothing and loves the many pairs of spiderman pajamas he has.

And Owen, he loves Owen too!

New York -

We drove up to New York last weekend to stay with Uncle Ray and Aunt Karla. They live in Long Beach, Long Island. It took about 6 hours with stops and both kids did excellently. It was a trial trip for driving down to Louisiana for Thanksgiving, and again this March.

The trip happened over the 9/11 weekend, so we stayed in Long Beach and didn't venture into the city. We hung around Ray and Karla's house. We went to the beach. Here are some photos.

There was a sailing regatta AND a Quicksilver surfing competition this weekend. Ray and Tom went out to surf (not in the competition, just in the ocean). I think two of these surfers might be them.

The kiddies played in the sand. Iris mostly ate it. I built castles and Clark would smash them. We found 2 sand crabs.

Iris had fun exploring their house and playing with their doggies! Both of the kids loved playing with the dogs' toys!

We did a lot of standing around and talking. We also did some sitting and talking.

Tom's cousin Paul came out from Brooklyn and visited with us. He brought his girlfriend, Stephanie, who is in midwifery school. We had a lot to talk about. ;-)

And one last photo demonstrating the incredible height of Uncle Ray,
and the incredible adorableness of Iris.

Clark's first day of soccer

We signed up for soccer lessons this fall. Clark is taking these classes with his friend Will, whose parents are Katie and Brian. Will is just 4 days younger than Clark. Here is a photo of Clark in his soccer clothes with his new soccer ball and shin guards. He is holding a car he got for pooping on the potty yesterday. He's getting so big!



Here's a video of the most organized part of the soccer lesson. They were kicking the balls into the cones to knock them over. Clark got the message about knocking them over all right! He's in a navy blue hoodie. The boy in the second part is Will. He is with his dad, Brian.