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.

The Rest of September

September really went by in a flash after school started!

Esme has settled in well to second grade and is having a blast. Our school's second graders start their own company at the beginning of the school year. Each of the children has to apply for a job - they each fill out an application and have to turn in two recommendation letters - and then each child is hired for a position in the classroom. Esme is the teacher's personal secretary! She helps keep Mrs. Schmuker's spaces clean, gives spelling pre-tests to other students, and lots of other stuff. She loves it! With the "money" they earn at their jobs, the children can purchase items from the classroom store - school supplies, toys, books, etc. In the spring, each student designs, makes and sells his or her own product in the E. F. Fort Marketplace at school. Esme hasn't decided on anything yet, so we could end up making anything! When Aidan was in second grade, he made chocolate lollipops to sell at the marketplace.

Esme is also taking piano lessons and loving every minute of it! Her teacher, Mrs. Muller, is really nice and doing an excellent job. Esme has so far learned a lot about quarter, half and whole notes, and about forte and piano. She practices all of her exercises five times every day and (so far at least) it is not tough at all to get her to do her practicing.

Gymnastics classes started last night for Esme at the community center and she loves that too. They are already doing a ton of different things, including splits, bridges, balance beam and floor exercises. Hopefully this will help Esme with her flexibility and coordination!

Aidan is like a different person now that he is a fifth grader. He is so much happier, cheerful and fun when he is home, a complete about-face from his attitude last year. He put up with fourth grade, but I think he must have been miserable. He does have to get up an hour earlier, and therefore has to go to bed an hour earlier, but he is adjusting to that, too, without too much complaining. He loves his new school - Nickels Intermediate - in our district the fifth and sixth graders are in their own building, and he is just so pleased with his teachers he is happy to please them. His homeroom/math/science teacher, Mr. Van Laan is really into science, and gives the kids a lot of responsibility and expects a lot of them. His language arts/social studies teacher, Mr. Smith, is doing a lot of cool things in class and Aidan just eats it up. It is probably helpful that as both of Aidan's teachers are men, there is absolutely no chance either of them will take maternity leave this year, dumping the kids with a substitute for some unknown length of time. :)

A couple of weeks ago, Aidan came home all excited that his school music teacher was offering guitar lessons, and begged to be able to sign up. So we did! We are renting a guitar from the school system, and every Tuesday afternoon Aidan and a classmate, Ryan, meet with Mr. Shepard in the music room for their lesson. He has only had one lesson and he is already strumming, plucking and reading music. Aidan was always dead set against taking piano lessons, but I am so glad he is interested in another instrument.

Through the township recreation department, Aidan is also learning beginning fencing techniques. He has learned lots of moves, and at the last lesson the kids were loaned gloves, helmets and foils to begin practicing with them. Against the wall, so far (baby steps!) but soon they will be practicing against one another. It is really cool to watch.

Jim left Bluestone International a couple weeks ago to begin his step-by-step return to IBM. At the moment he is technically employed by Blue Direct, an IBM-exclusive organization of semi-independent contractors. He was needed immediately for a project at Amway/Alticor here in West Michigan, but it takes IBM-proper a lot longer than that to get their ducks in a row. So this is a temporary move, but a peachy-keen one. We are using COBRA to continue our insurance with BCBS Illinois, and as an independent contractor the pay is pretty nice too. When Jim does return to IBM it should be a pretty good deal all around; he will be working in a different department doing more of what he left IBM to do in the first place. In the meantime, it is sure nice to have him working locally!

Last weekend Jim and Aidan went to the Michigan - Bowling Green game in Ann Arbor. It was Aidan's first time at any football game, let alone a college game in the largest stadium in the world! The boys both had a terrific time - and Michigan won, which is also good. :)

This weekend Jim is going on a road trip with some friends to the Indiana -Michigan game in Bloomington. We will miss him, but I'm sure he'll have a great time! My sister is spending some time at Mom and Dad's, so the kids and I thought we would head there for a while on Saturday as well. The roof is done!....So who knows what project we'll be working on, but we're always glad to help. :)

Yesterday Jim and I signed the papers on our mortgage refinance, and we are the proud owners of a fifteen-year mortgage at 4.25% interest. Good stuff. Too bad our house appraised for so little (over $60K less than we paid for it in 2006), but it is working out okay. Our payments are very little more than they were, and we reduced our term by half.

It's all good! Best of fall to you all!

Adventures in September

The view of Niagara Falls from our hotel suite. :)

Seven years ago, Mom said, "I'm gonna make you and Jim a quilt for your [tenth] anniversary." Well, what with one thing and another, we received it a couple weeks ago, and it was for our 10th-15th annivesaries! It is worth the wait, however.

Journey Under the Falls!

We had a terrific little weekend getaway to Niagara Falls. It was beautiful!

I finally reached my goal of losing 27 pounds, and now weigh the same as I did when we got married. I thought it would be a good time to unseal the box my dress was in to give it a try-on. It fits! :)

Downtown Grand Rapids.

The 2010 Hollopeter family reunion in Fort Wayne was so much fun!

Here we have in the back: Mark Hollopeter, Stan Richter, Ken Post, Darrell Post, Rick Crandal (I think), Rose Griffith, Jim Crandal.

In the front: Paul Post, Hazel Crandal, Jim Crandal.

Adding another generation, roughly left to right standing: Mark Hollopeter, Wendy Lowry, Daniel Hollopeter, Kristin King, Ken Post, Julie Ward, Rose Griffith, Stan Richter, Pam Fell, Jim Crandal, Rick Crandal, Eileen Crandal, (?), Darrell Post, Doug Crandal, (?).

Seated: Paul Post, Hazel Crandal, Jim Crandal.

Okay, we've just added the next generation - Aidan Lowry, Esme Lowry, Emily King, the little girl in the front is Julie Ward's daughter, and the little boy is a Crandal baby but I'm not sure which one!

Spouses of the cousins - Rick's wife, Marcia Hollopeter, Diane Post, Joan Richter, Marsha Post?

The Maurice Hollopeter clan: Aidan, Wendy, Marcia, Kristin, Emily, Mark, Daniel, Rose, Esme.

This little girl, whom we believe is Louise Freeman, looks so much like Esme it's uncanny. We always thought she had so many McEowen and Peckham features that there wasn't room for any Hollopeter ones, but it turns out there is. :)

Louise Freeman would be Esme's first cousin three times removed.

Esme is the daughter of Wendy.

Wendy is the daughter of Mark.

Mark is the son of Maurice.

Maurice was the son of Sylvia.

Sylvia was the daughter of Katie.

Katie was the mother of George.

George was the father of Louise.

Esme at 7

Just to make a note of it somewhere...

Esme had her seven-year check-up today, and all is well except for the perforation in her eardrum, for which she has been referred to an ENT again. *Sigh*

Esme weighs 57.2 pounds, and measures 48.75 inches tall according to the doctor's office instruments (with which I'm not entirely sure I agree!). Anyway, that means she has gained 6.7 pounds, and grown 2.25 inches in the last year. She is thinner than she has ever been before, with her height and weight both right around the 60th percentile. This surprises me not at all, because she seems to barely eat. The doctor says she is perfectly healthy, however, so...okay!

August and Esme's Birthday

After trying Ryan's fried black-eyed peas, I tried an allrecipes.com recipe for falafel, using yellow split peas instead. I thought they were good, but the kids preferred Uncle Ryan's. :)

Finally, our little scaredy-cat was willing to ride her bike on pavement. Hooray! We are all looking forward to getting back on the trail, now that the youngest member of our biking party doesn't have to be towed.

We spent a day with Aunt Cathy, Megan and Emily (and a little bit with Uncle Scott) a couple weeks ago. It was excellent to catch up with them. Esme and Emily are playing with this toy that uses a stream of air to spray balls out the top. Very cool.

All the Hollopeter cousins together. Megan, Emily, Aidan & Esme.

I took the kids to the beach a couple weeks ago and we had a lovely day of playing in the sand and water. We tried to fly Aidan's new kite but didn't have a steady enough wind.

Esme buried her brother in the sand. :)

Back and forth - beach, lake, beach, lake...

Scott, Melissa and I sent Mom and Dad to the Prairie Home Companion Summer Love Tour concert at the Meijer Gardens on 11 August, as a gift for their 40th anniversary on 28 November. They loved it. :)

Aidan got a new scooter for his birthday, after borrowing practically everyone else's in the neighborhood.

We all got new bikes - Aidan and Esme needed larger ones, and Jim and I are too old to ride standard mountain bikes anymore with our back and neck problems. We got the sit-up-straight kind. Now that everyone can ride properly, we're hoping to get out on the trails a lot more next year.

After Esme got all ready for pictures, she opened her birthday presents! She got nice cards from Great-Aunt Jean, Grandma Margie, Uncle Eddie and Mariah, Mom and Dad, and Aidan.

Esme got a scooter too! We didn't even know she wanted one, but she told Grandma and Grandpa it was her deepest desire. :)

From Mom and Dad, Esme got a new DS game, a new computer game...

...and four new fairy books!

Ta-da! She's seven!

At the beach the waves were super high and the park service was flying the RED flag!

Moms never really relax at the beach, but on red flag day...even less!

The kids spent hours just letting the waves crash over themselves. They had a blast.

Jim took some artsy pictures as well. :)

The kids have gotten along so well this summer that it's almost a shame to send them off to separate schools this fall. They have really enjoyed each other's company.

Aidan likes to take the waves right in the face. :)

Before leaving the beach, I made sure to get cooled off too.

Back at home it was time for cake!

Esme puffed those candles right out!