Indian Summer in Michigan

I'm taking a break from racking my brain for Christmas gift ideas to blog about last month. Jim and the kids are all set - the rest of y'all haven't been very forthcoming with wishes or requests!

We had a beee-you-tiful October here in Michigan. Today is the first really cold day of the season; I had to break out the winter coats and gloves to send the kids to school this morning. It has been warm and mostly sunny for all of October! We did have one heck of a storm on October 26 - it was supposed to be so bad that they cancelled school here in Byron Center! Apparently it's policy to leave the kids where they are if there is a tornado watch. About midday it escalated to a tornado warning, and we had a picnic lunch in front of the TV, watching the weather coverage and the radar map to see whether we'd need to take shelter in the basement storage room. No dice! It was very windy here and rained a lot in some West Michigan areas, but otherwise not too bad. Esme dealt with the weather emergency by pretty much ignoring that it was happening. Aidan gathered up all his valuables, wouldn't eat, and shook palely for a couple of hours.

School is going well for both children. Esme read over 2,000 minutes in October - the goal for each student was 200. I think she made it. She continues to excel in her academics and I am looking forward to her report card. Byron Center switched to trimesters this year, so we have a little longer to wait this time. Her classmates really enjoyed her Pez candy halloween costume, and they had a super-fun party involving a ton of sugar. She described one of the treats they made, which sounded to me like sugar cake frosted with sugar with sugar painted with sugar dipped in sugar on top. Fortunately she didn't get sick!

I love greeting the kids when they arrive home every day, but when Aidan gets home on Friday it is even better. That's when he brings home all his homework, quizzes, tests, etc. from the week - without fail, they always have As on them. :) He is doing a terrific job and the work isn't so easy as it once was for him! He dressed as an iPhone for Halloween and got a lot of compliments on his costume!

Esme's piano lessons are going really well and she is just learning by leaps and bounds. She never complains about practicing and everything seems to be natural for her - rhythm, reading music, etc. She usually sings along with her playing - if there are no words, she will sing the names of the notes or the counts of the beats. I am so proud of her, and so glad we didn't put off piano lessons any longer!

Aidan isn't so gung ho about his guitar lessons, but he, too, is learning a lot and usually having fun with it! Beginner strumming isn't so interesting, so Jim or I will sing along with him when he is practicing and that seems to help a little. Hopefully soon they will get into playing individual notes, or some new strums, to give him a little more interest in his music. He does like it, he just wants to be better faster!

Aidan finished out his six weeks of fencing lessons last Tuesday, and won three of his four bouts. He had been really frustrated with himself the previous week, having been beaten in every bout, but he really focused himself and realized it was totally a mind game, and did so well! He straightened out his form and won handily, since most of the other kids were flailing about with no focus. While he really liked fencing, he has decided he prefers golf and will be focusing on that in his sports exploration in the future. Which is good, 'cause fencing without donated equipment is really expensive! Whew!

Esme is about halfway through her gymnastics course at the township recreation center. I watched her a little bit at her first lesson, and I watched her last week at "parent's night," and there is a huge and amazing difference! She is already a ton more flexible and tries everything without the slightest hesitation. She still can't do a cartwheel, but her roundoffs look really nice, and everything else looks good too! She hops around cheerfully, following all the teacher's instructions. I am totally proud of her! I'm not sure what she might like to try next, but she does want to take the township golf lessons in the spring.

I'm still making lots of new recipes and trying them out on my family, who seem resigned to their role as guinea pigs forever. :) Last time I was at Mom & Dad's, I dug a box out of the sunroom which happened to contain Grandma McEowen's recipe collection, among other interesting items. I transcribed her cookbook and all the loose sheets she'd collected over the years, and sent it on to the family. So far out of her enormous collection of excellent-sounding recipes, I've only tried the Monster Cookies (mmmmm...), but I'm hoping eventually to have tried everything. One at a time, though, and hopefully with helpful guests who like to eat, because otherwise all the butter, eggs and sugar in so many of those recipes will destroy all my hard dieting work!

Butternut squash and green beans in a coconut milk curry.

I tried to make pasties after my sister's recipe, and they were super tasty, but not nearly as attractive as hers. I need someone to teach me how to make piecrust, because clearly I suck at it, no matter what I use it for!

Morning Glory Muffins, from my Taste of Wyoming cookbook. Tons of fruit in these.

Poppy Seed Bread. I believe the recipe originally came from Wanda, but I don't know whether she made it up or got it from someone else. I don't use the glaze - too many extra calories!

Here I'm transcribing some of Grandma's recipes...with help from Penny. :)

Jim demonstrates the Downward Facing Dog at the play park.

One of our sugar maples gets a ton more sun than the other one. Thus every year, the one on the left thinks it's autumn about a month before the other one does.

The kids adore their scooters.

It makes me cringe to see Esme riding hers on the concrete in a skirt, but she managed not to scrape herself up...this time!

Aidan and (part of) his fencing class on their last day.

Aidan suggested we have Ghost Toast for breakfast on Halloween. :)

Here's our Halloween lunch spread - Esme and I worked on the menu together, and everybody helped to make it come together. From top: Melted Witch to drink, Melon Brain, Banana Thingapede, Edible Eyeballs, and Mummy Dogs. Yummy! And it's really hard to find Halloween meal ideas that don't involve sugar, by the way!

I bought a box of five one-pound packs of andouille sausage last time I went grocery shopping, which is three more than I typically use in a couple months. So I found this recipe at allrecipes.com to try to use up some more. Cajun Wild Rice...which used up some of the terrific (and cheap) wild rice I bought in Minnesota, too! Really good.

Aidan - en garde!

Lunge!

Jim and the children take lots of pictures of the moon, sunsets and sunrises, etc. I have long since given up, since mine never come out, but Jim took this beautiful picture from our deck one October evening.

The second-last weekend in October was so nice we just had to get out in it. We went to Fallasburg Park to walk and run around. It was a warm wind!

Pretty girl.

Handsome young man.

Nothing compared to its glory a couple weeks before. We had unusually beautiful fall color this year.

Love my munchkins. :)

Our house on Halloween reminded me of a magazine picture. I couldn't quite capture it very well, a trained photographer I'm not, but when I got back from taking the kids flashlights (the better to trick-or-treat with, my dear), I had to try!

We went to the Pumpkin Palooza party on Friday night at the church we've been attending, South Harbor Church. It was tons of fun. The kids didn't bother with candy at all! We had hamburgers for dinner, and they spent over an hour on the bouncy trampoline toy-thingies! Jim and I, dressed in our Scottish finery, had a great chat with some other folks. Aidan and Esme's costumes got a lot of compliments.

Here are the kids after they finished trick-or-treating on Saturday. We didn't know it was going to be on Saturday instead of Sunday (our township didn't make an announcement one way or the other), but we adjusted quickly when the doorbell rang! Their receptacles were almost full - and so was our big bowl. I always overbuy candy...and then we have to eat it. *Sigh*

This little toad lives here now. I haven't seen him since it got cold out, but we typically find him on one or the other of our porch rocking chairs. Heaven knows how he gets up there - he must have quite a hop - but he finds it comfortable and sheltered. Heaven help his little toad ears if I ever accidentally sit on him.