Things That Have Been Going on Recently

I did a terrible thing. 

I found a show on Netflix (Emily Owens MD) and watched it even though I knew it had been canceled after only one season.  I fell in LOVE with this show (seriously, funny and cute) and figured I had at least 20-22 episodes to take in before I had to experience the cliff hanger ending I knew would never resolve.  Then the worst happened: it ended at episode 13, way before I was mentally prepared for it, and now I have to live the rest of my life not knowing what was supposed to happen next!!!  Is there anything worse than being in this type of predicament??  (Don't answer that.)

random photo from a pumpkin patch last month

Need a super fun and festive Christmas event to attend?  Here ya go! 

My weekly choir practices this fall have really piqued Daphne's curiosity.  She had no idea what a choir was, so I found a YouTube link to the King's College Choir for her to watch and consequently she spent 30 minutes in rapt attention to their performance.  Now she wants to be in a choir for children.  She's pretty excited about attending this concert on Dec 7th; hopefully Christian is planning on being excited about it, too.  7-9 P.M. are definitely his prime hours as far as good behavior goes. 

Speaking of Christian, he said the funniest thing last week.  I told him it was time to go to BSF and he said "I sick.  I stay home."  How did a barely two-year-old come up with that?

This morning it was 26 degrees when David and I got up at 5:30.  Here's what David had to say about that, "Since it's this cold this early in the year, I think we're going to have lots of snow this winter.  I think the Farmer's Almanac is right."

So there you go.  Lots of snow coming our way.  

Slices of Life, Vol XI

Brought to you by the one and only Daphne Faith:


"I need a little tractor for me with a trailer so I can pull bananas and stuff."


"Did you cut up my paper that I painted?  I didn't want you to do that!  I will miss it!"


"Will your hair turn white when you get old?"
Me:  "I don't know, probably."
"But I like your hair the way it is!!"
 (And then she started crying.)


She saw a 'no smoking' sign at the MAX stop and asked what it meant. 
I tried to explain, "Have you ever seen someone with little things like sticks in their mouths with smoke coming out?"
She answered, "I've only seen Daddy do that."  
(WHAT???)


We were in the car, Daphne's favorite place for some non-stop chatter.
Me: "Hey Daph, how about you stop talking for awhile?"
Her:  "But I want to talk!  Can I talk?"
Me:  "OK, but I'm done answering for a little while so you'll have to just talk to yourself."
Without missing a beat she turned to Christian,
"Christian, what do you want to do tonight?  Do you want to go to sleep and then wake up and we can change minds?"


"I want to be a grandma when I grow up."


"If I could have a little vacuum I could clean up the whole city."


First time going to work (court) with Daddy; she said it was pretty boring:

Working hard on something:

Treats and More

A few months ago Daphne told me she wanted to dress up as Iron Man for trick-or-treat.

I said, "what about Iron Girl?  We could put a little skirt on your outfit and you could be Iron Girl!"

Apparently that was the lamest idea ever.  "Iron Man is not a girl," she said, "And I'm going to be Iron Man."

I asked what she thought Christian should be and she didn't even hesitate: "He can be Baby Thor."

Thus our costume ideas were born.  I sat her down on Pinterest to look at some DIY Iron Man costumes, because I think it's so fun to get creative and try to make what we're wearing.  Buying them is so boring (and also really easy, which is definitely a strong point to consider).  But none of the homemade costumes had anything on what Iron Man is supposed to look like, so I opened the purse strings and bought her an outfit.  Fortunately it was on sale and I had another discount to add, so yay for still getting to be cheap.

Christian's outfit was super easy.  I went to Salvation Army on half price day (at 9PM on the 30th...because why not wait until the last possible second?) and got a red shirt to cut into a cape and a grey shirt to cut circles for his chest.  It cost $2.  I made his hammer out of toilet paper rolls and duct tape.  I didn't spend time making a helmet thing because I knew he wouldn't keep it on and I'm all about not being a time-waster (haha, yeah right).

some character from Narnia and two superheroes

I don't know how your neighborhoods are for Halloween, but ours is really nice with lots of little kids and their parents walking around having fun and lots of neighbors with lights on.  The first house we went to Christian walked himself right into their living room, because typically when you visit someone you go into their house.  Fortunately we have nice neighbors who just gently coaxed him back out to the porch.  It didn't take him long to understand if you stay on the porch and hold up your bucket you get a treat.  SO FUN.

We were only out for maybe half an hour, because we're not really in it for tons of candy and the little kids get tired easily.  We also had pizza at our house and gave out fruit snacks to people to came to our door.  (Daphne would say, "Here!  You can have two!").  I just love the warmth and friendliness that comes out on this night.  The sense of community is heart-warming.

For reals, though, satan's got no hold on this holiday in our house.  In fact, neighbors opening their doors and loving each other?  Kinda reeks of Jesus, if you ask me.  

(I'm a little curious to read the book Redeeming Halloween, which shares the research of church historian Phillip Schaff on the roots of All Saints Day and All Hallow's Eve.  Has anyone read it?)

(Also, I loved this blog post and skimming through people's thoughts in the comments.)

(And just in case you're worried about our heathen status for going trick-or-treating on Halloween, we also get a tree at Christmas and do eggs at Easter.  So yeah, we like to bring out the pagan in all the holidays, because we're cool like that.  Haha.  Although according to that book, the trick-or-treating tradition comes from All Saints Day, not just Samhain?  So apparently we only like to be pagans at Christmas and Easter?  Excellent.)

(OK, one more random side-note:  I've been thinking the last day or two about the giving aspect of trick-or-treat over the receiving aspect.  Like, make it more of us opening our doors and giving out to our community as opposed to going out and being the ones who take?   What's the best way for our family to share Jesus on Halloween?  I know hiding and pretending it doesn't exist isn't our personal family calling...but I don't know.  I don't want my kids getting selfish about wanting candy.  Hmm; food for my thoughts.  Or candy for my thoughts.  Whatever.)

Twins in the Pumpkin Patch with a Scary Spider

Please tell me I'm not the only mom who does this:

I get dressed in the morning, get the kids dressed, and then once we're ready to head out the door, realize I've dressed at least 2 of us, if not all 3 of us, in semi-matching outfits.  Like I must've been in the mood for a particular style or color and inadvertently reflected that in the wardrobe choices. 

That's why last week Christian and I were wearing the same pants.  But we look great as twins!  I figure I should start choosing David's outfits as well because we would be so cute as one of those matchy-matchy families.  Especially since I don't try to match and it just comes naturally.  So naturally we should all match because apparently that's what I want deep in my heart of hearts. 

if only Christian owned a floral shirt

I think these photos are from last Wednesday.  The weather has been so amazing lately; foggy and chilly in the morning with warm sunny afternoons, and we've been soaking up every bit of sun we can like we're squirrels or bears preparing for winter or something. 

At this particular pumpkin patch (our favorite one) Christian wasn't afraid of the pumpkins, but he was afraid of the giant blow-up spider.  I love this picture of Daphne venturing up to touch the spider while Christian was hiding his face in the wagon floor:

Other than the terrifying spider, this pumpkin patch trip was a good one.  Especially because there was a cat and Christan loves cats.

Our front porch is basically a pumpkin patch in and of itself right now, but I'm going to bake a couple for puree and of course we'll carve a few, so hopefully in a week or two we'll look less like crazy pumpkin hoarders and more like normal people with just a healthy love of gourds. 

you can't see the two behind the mums or the 5 in the flower bed and the ones in the house

MCC Sale and Cider Day

As I'm sure you all are devoted followers of this blog, you will remember this post from a year ago all about one of our favorite weekends of the year. 

This year was extra special, though, because GAL's family from Alaska got to come too.  (Not Mr. GAL, just in case that knowledge is important.  Did I hear he was camping alone in the wilds of Colorado?  Because that sounds awful, if it is true.)

So all the information about our weekend I already wrote last year.  BUT, this year you get extra special information from GAL's blog because she knows lots of things.  Like this post all about the inner workings of a cider press, in case you need that information for some reason.  (Although...the post did leave me wondering about worms in my cider?  Are you telling me I have 4 gallons of worm juice in my freezer?)  This post includes pictures of yummy grapes and sweet children. 

Here's our sign picture for 2013:

It's different than the one I put on Facebook, because I realized that in that one I was the only one who looked happy and in this one at least David looks happy, too. 

Other random photos that I liked from this year:

Stacy and GAL discussing quilts

lunch at the sale

somebody REALLY likes cider

view of the cider makers from the donut makers

a lot of people in this picture look...interesting

everybody cry!!

king and queen of the castle

baby barn kitty

 the best pianists learn here

My only regret is that I didn't eat very many donuts because I was still full from lunch...but fortunately for me I have the recipes and will be making pumpkin donuts again soon.   Just because I can.  

And that's a wrap on Sale and Cider Day 2013. 

A Little Then and Now

Two years ago September we took a little trip up to Ft Vancouver, one of our favorite parks to visit.  Christian was teeny tiny and Daphne was a few months shy of three. 

We went again last week and sort of replicated that picture:

Sweet little squishy Christian!  I just want to pinch those little baby cheeks.   He still has pretty good cheeks, he's just better at getting away from the pinching.  Or he will hit you with a big stick if you try. 

David bought a (gross and disgusting) pumpkin pie from the grocery store so he and the kids could have a little pie picnic.  Christian was with me and pronounced the pie "yucky."  Pumpkin pie isn't really the greatest thing anyways, but then to buy it?  That seems to be a recipe for disaster.  David and Daphne were happy, though.

Then as we were driving away I had the camera hanging out the window like a tourist to take a picture of one of the houses on Officer's Row, because it's a good inspiration house for the one we may be living in soon. 

Isn't it so cute?  (The answer is 'yes.')

You Know the Pumpkin Patch is a Scary Place

I believe October 7th is the latest in our lives that we've waited to make it to the pumpkin patch.  We're getting lazy in our old age.  Daphne has been just desperate to go (she needed more pumpkins to decorate with), poor thing.

Christian also loves pumpkins, and even though he was super excited about the idea of the pumpkin patch, once we were standing in the middle of the field he pretty much freaked out.  I don't know why?  It's not like the pumpkins were unusually large or trying to attack him or anything.  They were just sitting there, being all orange and cute.

clinging to Daddy in terror while sis is blissfully happy

So we went to the little play area where I got scolded by a guy for standing on a tower of straw bales because apparently they're only for sitting on (and I wouldn't want to be a bad example for the oh, no other people who were there at 9 A.M. on a Monday morning).  Finally after riding a horse thing and watching Daphne peek through pumpkin cutouts Christian was ready to be unafraid of the pumpkin field.

If tiny pumpkins were this frightening I'm nervous on how he's going to handle the Christmas tree farm.  Who's raising this little scaredy-cat anyways?

contemplating the horror that is a field of pumpkins

a pumpkin snowman, and never afraid of anything