Making cookies!

Last year, Hannah and I baked and decorated Christmas cookies together for the first time. This year, Noah was big enough to join in and Grandma came down to help too. Here's how it went:

Of course, Grandma made them special Christmas cookie aprons. (Those are some cute kids!)

The rolling out and cutting was surprisingly not that messy.

Grandma helped Hannah with the decorations and I helped Noah. The kids were amazingly good at not tasting everything as they worked.

The finished product!
Hannah savored her hard work, one little nibble at a time.
Of course, Noah had already devoured his cookie by the time I grabbed the camera! Thanks for all the help, Grandma!

Our developing traditions...

I love that the kids are now old enough to begin developing our own Peterson family traditions, and I have been spending much time thinking about what I'd like these to be. Well, on Saturday we embarked on one, begun last year in earnest, that is wonderful and bittersweet at the same time.

We packed up and headed down to my grandma and grandpa's house in Gladstone so that Hannah and Noah could help decorate their tree. We did the same last year at my grandma's request, and it was great fun. This year was extra special because Kyle, Hope, Reid and Jude were able to join us. Hannah put the ornaments in just the right spot and set up the nativity characters with great care. Noah kept taking the ornaments off and putting them back on and kept trying to talk me into letting him eat another candy cane. When the festive (and by festive, I mean annoying) singing stuffed animals came out, Reid and Noah had a pretty intense dance party. And Jude watched intently and cooed at the whole affair.


Great family fun, right? Without a doubt. But the bittersweet part, for me, is the realization that this will be a relatively short-lived tradition. My grandma and grandpa are nearing 90 years old. Neither are in the best of health. In fact, each time we visit, my grandpa seems noticeably more tired and frail. They've both lived long, full lives full of generosity, faith and love-- and when it is their time, will be called home with joy to join their Creator and Savior.

So while I treasure these moments and experiences we still have the opportunity to share, and try to commit them to memory and photographs, I also find myself preemptively missing the fun times my kids will be unable to share with them as they grow. Since our physical bodies are transitory and age will always give way to youth, it creates this irony of brief tradition.

Hayes' Art Show-- 12/18/09

After several delays on the part of others and much hard work on his part, Hayes finally was able to put together his first solo art show in the gallery space at Cal's Pharmacy. It was awesome to see so many people come out to support his talent, not just by checking out his work, but by purchasing quite a few of his pieces too. Hopefully, this show will not be the first and only, but the first of many.


There are some more photos on Hayes' blog too.

Funny or concerning?

Some days weird things just unfold as you're watching kids play and imagine and interact that you just don't know how to categorize. Take this video from yesterday for example:

Hannah is dressed as a Native American and a ballerina, she is goose stepping and counting as if leading a regiment into battle and swinging two puppies tied by their necks to the ends of a shoelace. She did this for at least 20 minutes, cracking herself and Noah up the whole time. What an odd conglomeration of potentially offensive things, that just end up being funny and cute when a little kid is the one doing them.


(According to her, she is "marching in an Indian parade." And yes, that is Noah swinging puppies around by their necks, too. "It's a puppy helicopter, mom." Ah, of course. That's what they are doing.)

Noah's manners

Overall the kids are pretty good at using their manners. Of course, sometimes they need to be reminded-- but then again, so do many adults these days. Noah is so good at it though, that he has taken to covering all of his bases for proper polite questioning structure. As you can see in this video, a standard Noah request is, "Please may could I have..." And he reeeeeaaaaallly wanted one of the muffins I had just taken out of the oven.

Cheese.

You can tell quite a bit about the kids from their random candid pictures. Pull out the camera these days and Hannah strikes a pose with a toothy grin and a funny arm gesture. When Noah sees the camera, though, he does something like this (his "scary face") or says "cheese" so intently that his eyes are squinched closed and he looks like he's in some kind of pain.

"In this town we call home, Everyone hail to the pumpkin song. This is Halloween!"

This year marked our first real Trick-or-Treat action. After some play time at Papa and Grandma's house with cousins, we suited up and joined the throngs of revelers in Maywood. (Okay, maybe there weren't exactly "throngs" when we went out at 6:30, but there certainly were when we headed home from my folks' house around 8:00.)

Somehow, I'm guessing it won't take too long before the children will not be satisfied with only visiting 7 houses of neighbors we know. Next year may have to be an epic trek as they realize how many possible doorbells they can ring right in our sweet little neighborhood. I'm pretty sure, though, that Papa and Grandma's will always be their favorite stop-- and not just because they hand out full size candy bars, either!

The boy just loves to sing...

Here's a little video of Noah singing "Zacchaeus was a wee little man". Such a cutie.

Pumpkin Patch!

Love the place we found this year! A student told me about it and I'm so glad we went. It's called Bushue's Family Farm and it's located out in Boring, off Orient drive and Bluff road. There are pre-picked pumpkins, or you can go out in the field and pick your own. Hannah and Noah both liked petting the goats and sheep and checking out the little pigs and chickens. I saw ducks on the little pond when we went on our cow-train ride (see pic). They also do hay rides and apparently have a hay tunnel/maze in the barn too, although we didn't check that out since Hannah and Noah are a still a little small and Hannah is not a big fan of the dark right now.

What was most refreshing, though, is that it is simply a small, family run farm. The mom was feeding the sheep and goats when we got there, the dad and his sons were getting the tractors ready for hay rides, letting the pigs out, playing with the big old black lab roaming around. No overt commercialism, no overpriced snacks, no crazy crowds and bustle. Just a simple, fun spot. It costs a couple bucks for the rides and/or the maze, and of course the pumpkins and other fall squash and veggies and flowers are priced accordingly. But the rain held off for us, the kids had fun and we made off with 4 sweet pumpkins to carve-- it was, without a doubt, 20 bucks well spent.

Highlight Reel

So, since I have been a blog slacker (see previous post) here is a quick pictorial of highlights from August and September. August was full of trips to the park, a visit with great grandma Peterson, and camping (no pics, just vid). September ushered in the landmarks of Hannah's first day of preschool and Noah's 2nd birthday party.

August got skipped

...and so did September apparently.

When school begins again, I find I have no time to do things like update the blog. Actually, that's not necessarily true. I could find time if I really tried, but the beginning of the school year is hectic, and exhausting and (lately) a little bit sad, so I simply don't. I clean house, I do laundry, I play with the kids, I grocery shop and I cook-- but I don't blog. I know that this is me packing my weekends trying to feel like I'm still managing the household, and trying to avoid thinking about what I'm missing out on when I return to the daily grind. And this year is certainly grinding, the most ever, with more students, new schedule, less prep time and continued looming turmoil of contract negotiations.

But, every moment with my family reminds me that I am undeservedly blessed, the simplest things are the most sublime and, in the end, my priorities are exactly where they should be. The rest, by faith, will take care of itself.

Go West

Amid the record setting heat of this week, creativity in cooling has become a priority. I've never had to deal with such successive days of scorching heat with little ones. One or two days in the 90s, sure. But multiple days breaking into the 100s and no real cooling at night? As a native Oregonian this is sort of like Bizzaro world. So, seeing the forecast and contemplating two cranky toddlers (and, to be honest , mommy too) I decided to get serious and make a plan.

Tuesday morning we ventured out early to Peninsula Park (in North Portland) and the kids had a great time playing on the multiple play structures in the brief hours of cool, then after a picnic lunch they splashed and ran and laughed in the watery portion of the playground. We headed home just in time for naps and the thermometer reaching 90, and spent the hottest portion of the day indoors.

But, I know myself. Two days and two nights with no real cool down is apparently my limit. I needed reprieve, albeit temporary, so I asked Hayes to play hooky from skate camp on Wednesday and come to the beach for the day. I can't think of the last idea I had that was this good. Despite a bit of a rocky start (my kids are not really good car travelers sometimes), once we got to the coast I knew it would be gloriously refreshing. We ran, we played in the sand, we got our feet wet, we flew a kite, we forgot to put sunscreen on Noah's ears (oops!) and Hayes' legs (oops again!) but even a mild sunburn was worth the relief I think. We made it home just in time for a bubble bath and bed. We knew our limit and heeded the call West-- our own little manifest destiny.