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.