Holiday Get-together

We had a very nice visit at the Lookers with Bubbe, Aunt Susan, Aunt Jill, Uncle Andy, Samantha, Liz, and Jesus. Fairly low key, but nice. We did some yoga, ate the last of the happy piggies, shared cookies, and learned how to be Whos.

The following day we got a fairly early start and picked up Nonie for brunch at the Iron Roost, followed by a  short visit with Chris, Tom, Sidney, and Zoey. Shara was pretty scared of Zoey, who is as big as a pony but one of the most gentle German Shepherds I've ever met. We also got to look at the various cookies Chris made. They really were beautiful and I should get her recipes. Maybe we can do a Pinterest Cookie Exchange.

Letter for Santa

So I'm watching a movie with Alan and i hear Shara call me. I go up and she's all smiles. She wrote her wish list for Santa, on sticky notes that were at her bed stand. I'm supposed to put them on the refrigerator, but they won't stay there long because Holly is going to bring them to Santa tonight. I should also say, "hi" to her but not touch her.
This is what her notes say,
Ready for Santa
Dear Santa,
For Christmas I would like a My Weird School book, but not Mrs. Lagrange is Strange, or Mrs. Roopy is Loopy because I've read them already. I would also like a treehouse if you could do that. Could you also throw in something for my cats.
Sincerely,
Shara
P.S. Thank you for the elf on the shelf. I've always wanted one. I named her Holly. Please write back.

Gingerbread decorating at the easton children's museum

We spent the day walking around town, grabbing a little lunch at the Lion's booth, looking at some crafts and then sitting in Alan's car while he came to rescue us. Apparently his fuel pump went so we took my car back while he waited for a tow.

The next day we sped home from church to get to the parade. Alan was sick, so missed it. Shara got a pocket full of road candy. We enjoyed looking at all the cute dogs decked out in their holiday finest. We followed the crowd to the Queset House for the Festival of Trees and then waited in line for 1/2 an hour for a cheeseburger, which was eaten and enjoyed while watching a local gymnastics show.

After we came home we hung out in the kitchen; Shara gave herself a manicure and tried out marbling her nails and I baked cookies, while both listening to The Hobbit. It's a terrific full cast version. I was so excited how into it she got. She immediately was reminded of Harry Potter when we started listening to it and I had been very careful not to even mention any likeness. But I guess it is obvious enough even an eight year old can pick it up!

Where's the Post?

Between posting to facebook and my own blog, I forget what I've posted where but do know I've been neglecting everything lately. Here are the photos from Halloween. We had a fun night - a friend of Shara's and her family joined us trick-or-treating. Shara was so excited to go out the first thing she did was start running to Keira's house to see if she could join the party. On the way she tripped over some Sandy debris and cut up her hands. Well that didn't stop her and we were off to get candy. We made the monster eyeballs to hand out to the grown-ups who were left at home to give out the candy. It was appreciated and got a few laughs. Shara had a ton of fun and was crazy-happy-excited the whole time. We have to get her out more!

Laurie & Shara as Hermione and Harry

Alan as Ron

The "joint effort" jack-o-lantern

And so for the things that are happening now - there was a field trip today from church to the Maha Yoga Center. My independent child couldn't wait for me to leave her and seemed to have a nice time. She didn't say too much about it when asked, but it was fun for her. Later we had dinner and a movie - the Court Jester. Very cool - she's a Danny Kaye fan too! For dinner she didn't want tuna noodle casserole, which I haven't made in years but got out her cookbook and selected twice baked potatoes. I should have taken a picture, they were so cute. The potatoes were boats, with celery oars and olive people. She also liked the red kuri squash I baked with some brown sugar and apple cider, and the tuna noodle, because who doesn't like tuna noodle? I know, bubbe doesn't like it! The best thing about having tuna fish is Shara gets to give the juice to the cats.

Last week we had Shara's parent-teacher conference. He saved ours for the end of the night so he could end on a happy note. He had nothing but positive things to say about Shara and she's having no trouble with anything and even got the best grade in the class on their first real big test. It was on soil. They learned about it by reading and also doing some experiments in the science lab. She brought home the worksheets and other materials so she could study last weekend and had fun quizzing me and having me quiz her. She really likes school and even wants us to give her hard addition and subtraction problems for her to solve. So it wasn't that big of a surprise that she is doing so well, but it's always nice to have the teacher confirm our suspicions.

The other big event was dad/grandpa's memorial service. I was so proud. Shara had agreed to do a reading with me and we practiced a bit but it didn't really come together until we were at the pulpit during the ceremony. The whole thing only took about a minute to read but she did a wonderful job and took it seriously. After the ceremony she met several of the people I had worked with at Gershons and was able to put faces to the names in the stories I've told her. Earlier in the day we went to Lakeside Farms to get some lunch, apples and doughnuts (of course). The first and last time she was was there was back in 2005. Apparently she likes cider doughnuts just as much now as she did back then!

Cleaned off the pool table

In preparing for Thanksgiving, which is what it took to do this, we finally put away Shara's art projects from her summer at Arts for Youth. We still need to frame some, but for now, here are some of the photos I took.

I Love candy with a capital "L"!
      I LOVE:

• Twix
• 3 Musketeers
• Snickers
• Milky Way
• Milky Way (dark)
• Woppers
• Reeses
• Butterfingers
• Snickers
• MMs
• Sour Patch Kids
• Sweetish Fish
• Laffy Taffy
• Blow Pops
• Candy Corn
• Fun Dip
• Gum Drops
• Gummy Bears
• Gummy Worms
• Jaw Breakers
• Jolly Ranchers
• Pop Rocks
• Ring Pops
• Skittles
• Smarties
• Star Bursts

More Family Visits & Photo Catch-up

This weekend we went to Schenectady for my 25th High School reunion. Shara spent a nice evening with Bubbe and papa - they had dinner and watched the Yankees (eek). Earlier in the evening we looked through old family photos and found several of me when I was in high school and just after. Shara's comment about all of us back then was, "you had a lot of volume" - talking about our hair! I never realized how high it was at the time, but yup, looking back, there was quite a lot of it! We also went through the older generations and put names to the faces and tried to tell some stories. I need to get more pictures of the family so Shara will know who they are.

When we got back at 11 PM to pick her up, we found her half asleep on bubbe's lap. We then packed everything up and moved on to the next stop, Aunt Jill's. Crazy Aunt Jill was still wide awake and making Aunt Susan's apple crumb pie. You'd think Shara would have fallen right to sleep, but it took her over 1/2 hour to settle down and feel sleepy enough. About seven hours later we were up again and having a nice morning visit. Aunt Jill made a hearty breakfast and the girls all had a piece of the yummy apple pie. We all took turns showering and getting ready to go to the Empty Bowls Project event.

We met my friend Susan S. there and all got to know each other while waiting in the fairly long line. But with good company it went quickly. Shara found her favorite bowl right away. It's very different - footed with a textured pattern on the inside and out of pretty maroon/brown ovals. Alan picked out a beautifully shaped bowl in a greenish/brown color and the one that finally called to me was one that was the same shape as Alan's but blue. I hadn't even seen what he picked.

We went in to start sampling the soups. It was a little difficult to have all of us stick together, but we managed to cross paths and enjoy the soup as well. Shara's favorite was the Squash Bisque from Finnbar's Pub. I hadn't realized there was another Butternut Squash soup from Potter's Restaurant at Sterup Square. I would have loved to try that one too. I'd have to say my favorite was the Beet Borscht (Red beet broth with red beans, potatoes, and sliced beets.) from Muza's and the Broccoli Smoked Gouda from Chef Jackie Baldwin. Alan liked the broccoli the best as well.

We then said our sad goodbyes, made easier by bringing Liz back with us. We had a nice ride home - and even designed the menu for Thanksgiving. Shara discovered Netflix on the phone too. Oh yea, more tv! Hopefully she'll be refreshed tomorrow and not too exhausted after our whirlwind of a weekend!

More photos from the past month - follow this link.

Halloween - finally

We have a rule in the house that Halloween celebrations shouldn't start until October. Last weekend Alan and Shara got everything down from the attic to start planning. We convinced Alan to participate in dressing up this year. Apparently he was going to take a year off, but that just wouldn't be right. Shara and I went to Target and got the candy. We're trying to decide on what goodies to bake and Shara said she wants to make sure we eat dinner (hot dog mummies) early so she doesn't miss going trick-or-treating with her friends this year.

We've been sticking, mostly, to the 8 PM bedtime and life is much better. It's either that or we've gotten into a routine again. She's been much more awake when she gets home and is able to do a few things around the house without having a meltdown. Swimming, dance and church are in full swing now. She doesn't love swimming because the instructor still puts a pretty big emphasis on jumping in, but it would be nice to know how to swim before jumping in the deep end - just saying. Speaking of  "just saying", Shara's new phrase is "I know!, ri-eat". And she's been bringing home nice work from school. One one of her papers, her teacher commented, "I love that you answered in full sentences!" How nice that he takes the time to make comments like that. I don't know how well we'll keep up with this normal sleep schedule. She has two sleepovers coming up and an overnight in NY for my reunion. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Maybe it's more an issue of having a daily schedule.

Food is Beautiful: Break the Fast

Food is Beautiful: Break the Fast: Well it wasn't like going to bubbe's, but we had a modest (very) break the fast last night.  We had bagels, lox, cream cheese and pickled he...

Third Grade & Swamped September

After our glorious vacation we settled back to the school routine, or at least have been trying to. Shara's starting 1/2 hour earlier than last year and this week was the first ballet class and tomorrow will be the first swim class. She loves dance and is looking forward to swimming, or at least not saying no to it.

Tonight she played butler for our margarita party from church. A number of people bid at our annual auction to come over for a party and tonight was the night. It was quite fun. Some of the guests helped make soft corn tortillas and while the ladies went downstairs to drink margaritas and eat some Mexican food, Shara and Alan played in the office - Alan with his new electronics kit and Shara on the web, playing games. Then she decided it was time to come down and join the party. She boogied around the room but wouldn't perform her hard rock song for us.

Shara and I had been watching the MTV Video Music Awards and I think she got her "hard rock song" impersonation from Green Day. Yesterday she started playing air guitar around the kitchen and doing the "wa wa wwaaa" sounds and every so often, interspersed it with a "sh*t!". I was rolling! We both were, really. No, she's not allowed to say that, or any other, swear word outside the house and also shouldn't say it in front of anyone other than myself or Alan, but it was funny!

Quebec 2012 - Day 6

For our last day in Canada, we decided we should go back and do some shopping and looking around Quebec City. When we went for the tour, we didn't really go into any of the cute shops and I had a restaurant or two I wanted to check out. We had fun. Shara said she liked "window shopping" and I explained that now it means to go into the stores to look around but not buy. She was enjoying just looking into the windows. We had a very delicious lunch at Le Petite Cochon Dingue. When we went into the cafe, the hostess asked if we were going to eat in or take out and if we'd ever been to the restaurant before. She explained the menu, which wasn't too complex really. There was a lunch special of a sandwich of the day and it came with soup or salad and a drink. Alan and Shara both had the sandwich special - roast beef, cornichons, mustard, cheese, lettuce & tomato. I don't remember what the cheese was, but the sandwich is toasted, before the lettuce & tomato. Alan had the mushroom soup, Shara had the salad, for me. I had the roast pork, brie & caramelized apple sandwich. It was wonderful. The thin slice of brie was the perfect amount. I assume there was mayonnaise on it, but not too much. Alan & I both had the ice tea. I was surprised it was sweetened. I was also surprised I liked it. We ate on the patio, which was on the sidewalk, next to a pretty busy road, but also facing docked ships. The weather, as it had been all week, couldn't have been more perfect. Mid-seventies, sunny, breezy, amazing! We had a relaxing lunch and then more relaxing while I peeked back inside to take a couple of photos. Alan & Shara hung out on a bench while Shara tried to drink more of her sparkling lemonade.

Roast Pork w/ Brie & Caramelized Apples

Roast Beef

Pastry case

cramped quarters - chaotic ordering but it worked.

cute

We spent the afternoon looking around, listening to music, enjoying people watching, and even rode the funicular. Some more pictures from our shopping in Quartier Petit Champlain.

Mural - taken by Shara

Adorable entrance to Le lapin saute

Alan & Shara enjoying an erable pop and listening to music

Quebec 2012 - Day 5

This day was a relaxing one, travelling around the I'Ile d'Orleans, the island just to the east of Quebec City. It has been the main source of produce for the city and markets the island as one for foodies. A wonderful article is available at: Taste Report. The first stop though was to check out Le Parc de la Chute-Montmorency. Shara was very opposed to walking uphill and was only interested in the lift going up the hill. We compromised and walked down the hill, but first needed to go up a couple of staircases to get over the bridge to the other side, where we walked down a large set of stairs and then got splashed good by the mist.

Our day on the island began at La Boulange, since the toasted cranberry, raisin and apricot bread and apples and strawberries didn't seem to fill us up enough at breakfast. Actually, by the time we got there it was close to lunch time. Alan and I shared a three cheese, basil and olive pizza, and a bowl of delicious and well flavored, herbie, vegetable soup. It came with a thick slice of white bread that we all shared. Shara loved and devoured her jamon and fromage croissant with cornicon and dijon mustard.

Shara's artistic interpretation of our pesto pizza

We took a little walk up the road and stopped in a gift shop of mostly pottery, another shop that had interesting wooden sculptures and some stained glass work, and a shop on the list that sold cassis products. We learned about white, red and black currants. Tasted a few vinegars and purchased a bottle of the black currant wine vinegar. We then headed back to the car, which was parked across from the boulangerie. Alan and Shara went to the car while I went back in the bakery to use the bathroom and buy some snacks. I couldn't resist a frambois danish and picked up another cinnamon bun. They were so big! They also had some imperfect breads for sale and I got a wheat sandwich bread to put in the freezer. As far as I can tell, it just has a little strip of black on the side, probably from touching the fire. When I got back to the car, I could see Alan and Shara off in the distance, down by the water. We were parked in a lot next to a beach near the river. The beach wasn't sand but looked like sandstone, stripped red and beige, and when wet, like clay. They had gotten a few shells and rocks. When I got down we switched. Shara wanted to show me the beach and we made our way down, closer to the water. It was another perfectly beautiful day. Mid-seventies, full sun, gorgeous.

We went to several but our favorite was the Chocolaterie, which we saved for the end. We all had ice cream - Alan and Shara both had a caramel toffee and I had a waffle cone of the caramel toffee and an almond. It was wonderful and refreshing and not too heavy. It was some of the best ice cream I've had, though now I'm reading the soft ice cream dipped in chocolate is what the real treat is. I assumed it was just what was available at all the other hundreds of lateries in the area - but it's not. This place makes their own soft ice cream with very few ingredients, all natural, no preservatives. And the chocolate is actual melted chocolate, not the commercial product. Regardless, our hard ice cream was fantastic too.

relaxing at the Chocolaterie

After a day of snacking, we had a light dinner and then headed back out! This time to the free Cirque du Soleil show! We wouldn't have known about it had we not taken the tour on the first day. Apparently the students at the cirque school are the performers. It starts at sundown and is right under a highway overpass. Crazy - the cars & trucks are going by as the show is running.We got there right on time and got places up at the front. Alan held up Shara through most of the performance so she could see. It was a real treat. More special than any of the ice cream.

Quebec 2012 - Day 4

This turned out to be a really fun day. We went up the road to the Bee Museum - MUSÉE DE L'ABEILLE (http://www.musee-abeille.com) and tasted a couple of different honeys - we all agreed that the goldenrod was the best and that it would end up helping our allergies if we were to take a little bit of it daily. The blueberry was disappointing and the clover I didn't bother with, since that's rather common. On their website they also show having buckwheat and dandelion varieties, but those weren't available on our visit. We also had some of the honey vinegar, made from mead, but it was too acidic. They had honey ice cream and we had to split a boule of the maple (erable) flavored. We also spoke to a few people who were also visiting the area. I thought it was nice to have a conversation with more than just ourselves. With so many French speakers, it was sort of isolating not being able to pick up a short conversation with others, since we can't assume they're comfortable speaking English.

We then went to a roadside produce stand (legumes) for fruit and veggies. There were signs all over for strawberries and I couldn't leave the area without getting some. Wow, they were awesome. We also picked up some green and yellow string beans, apples, and sugar corn (maze sucre). I had brought the tomatoes and cucumbers from last week's CSA order, along with a few plums, but we needed some more and we got beautiful veggies. The first day when we stopped at the local market, I had picked up some fresh mozzarella to go with the tomatoes. Unfortunately I didn't have anything else to make a tomato salad, but knew we wanted to really cook in at least one dinner. We didn't eat many meals out, but were very off-schedule, so sometimes we'd have brunch, other times linner. The corn and beans, along with the salad & mozzarella, were a great meal starter.

The next stop was a Chez Marie's (http://chezmariepainartisanal.piczo.com/) boulangerie. They're repaving the roads near the bakery and a very Quebecquois man who was directing traffic didn't want to let us go further until he heard we were trying to get to the bakery. Then he grudgingly let us through. We had asked if he spoke English, as he explained in French that the road was closed, and he said, "NO, Francaise! Quabecquois!" Loud and clear, mesoir! So we got to the bakery and it was very interesting. It looked like a little store from the 50's - dark with showcases down the long room, and had a few tables and chairs on the outside wall, near windows and a main entrance. The baked goods were in a usual rack on the back wall. They smelled wonderful. She had blueberry & cheese danish, strawberry & cheese danish, cinnamon rolls, croissant, and bread. I picked a blueberry & cheese danish, Shara had a caramel apple danish, and Alan had the cinnamon roll. She wanted to wrap the cinnamon roll separately and I said it was fine to put them together and she said the roll was still warm and it may ruin the other ones. We both agreed nothing would last long enough anyway, but all was neat and tidy and beautiful.

Shara outside the oven

Shara examining a ladybug outside the oven

Outside Chez Marie's

Alan & Shara enjoying a picnic

Heading back on the main road, we began our original destination of the Canyon de Sainte Anne. I had read it had a fun puzzle game through the forest and also was where a company had rock climbing courses and a zip-line. There were suspension bridges to cross over a waterfall (chute) and it was supposed to be a pretty way to spend an afternoon. Once we parked we noticed the picnic area was outside the main gate, so got our pastry, strawberries and apples (Shara had already munched on some raw beans in the car), and made a picnic. Once we got inside the park, we saw a wide, paved road going down to the canyon. We were all a bit concerned this is what was to come and worried it would be a little boring. Well, that wasn't the case. It turned out to be a can't miss attraction. We went down to the falls, then over a suspension bridge - very solid, then down some stairs and around the bend, along the river, up more stairs and hills, then over another suspension bridge - not as solid. This one was where you could take the alternate path of the zip line. Shara really wanted us to do that but neither Alan nor I felt up for it. Alan wanted to do it somewhere where the people's first language was English. I didn't like the end of the ride where the person has to get out of the harness and walk across a short plank to the main path. Needless to say, zip-lining wasn't part of our day, but we promised we'd do it closer to home some time. Shara didn't want to do it either, and she was big enough. The last bridge we went over was rather scary. It was made out of metal rails, jagged so you couldn't slip, but you could see right through to the rushing water, so far down. It was fine when we (Shara & I) could look out and not down, but there were stairs that required us to look down. Scary is also exhilarating and we were pumped to go up the 175 (or so) steps, back to the top. It really wasn't so much, considering how many we had walked up at Walnut Canyon in AZ.

After the canyon we checked out the puzzle in the forest. We learned about Inocshok and Menhir and primative wall paintings and the Chinese also have seven deadly sins. It was fun and a nice walk around the wooded area. Along the path we had to keep watch for pictures of birds. A letter was associated with each picture and we filled in a paper to find out the word the letters spelled. It was cute and kept us all entertained.

On the way back we had to stop, again, at the market because we needed butter for the corn and balsamic for the mozzarella. Well we got butter and vinegar but forgot any seasonings. Good thing we had picked up some nice salad dressing because we had the most excellent corn with butter, beans with butter, salad with dressing, olives, and do what you want with the mozzarella. We also got lousy bread for dinner, but very yummy bread for breakfast. We capped the evening with a cut-throat game of Sorry.

Quebec 2012 - Day 3

This was a very exciting day. The evening before I had realized our journey to the Whale Watching would take close to four hours, so we needed to get a rather early start to get there by 1:15 PM, 45 min. before our 2 PM reservation. We were going to be on a Zodiac boat, which is a small boat that holds about 14 people and it was up in Bergeronnes, near Tadousaac in the St. Lawrence River Estuary. We went on the tour from Essipit.

On the way, we wanted to stop for brunch at a Boulangerie I had read about and it happened to be closed. We stopped in a nearby information center, used the bathrooms and got information on where to eat. They had a nice recommendation for a Cafe Chez Nous and it was. Alan and I both had omelettes and Shara had crepes. All were served with fruit and beverage and the eggs came with toast as well. Shara wasn't too fond of the crepes but loved my toast. We also were amused that the tablecloths were printed with old newspaper ads, from Boston, Providence, Troy & Albany NY, and other local to us businesses.
After the nice stop we carried forth toward our destination.

Yum - my veggie omelette

icky crepes

cute cafe

We got caught up in construction for a surprisingly long time. We then wended our way to the ferry. That was neat - they run every 15 min. or so and last about 10 min. Then it was another 40 minutes or so to the whale watch place. We got there in plenty of time but Shara got a little upset stomach from the long journey and the phone play, so she didn't want to go. We suited up anyway and she was so happy she did. Originally she said, "I won't regret not doing this" but then thought very differently. It was a fun, bumpy, wet ride out to the whales and we saw several humpbacks but the favorite were the hundreds, it seemed, gray seals. They were swimming with the whales and came really close to the boat. None of the whales were very close to the boat, but we were so far in the water, being on the little boat, it felt much more intimate than if we were on one of the big, stinky whale watching boats we've been on in the past.

Geared up!

on the boat

On the way back to the resort we stopped for dinner at a nice fish market I had read about. It was good but too rich for me. Shara ate almost her whole platter of fish & chips though!

my, that's a big plate of fries you have!

it was so buttery and tasty!

yummy!

beautiful sunset after some rain