I could have asked Trevi to use the glue properly...

But then I wouldn't have been able to watch him make a glue waterfall.
And I do like playing with rubbery pucks of dried glue....

Mini Golf and Mega Castle

We took a little excursion to Ventura's mini-golf place today, and Trevi had his first bumper car ride. Big, big hit.

Trevi's got a mean putt. And isn't this a great Southern California shot?

What a Wonderful World

Who can really listen to that song without getting a bit weepy? Of course, there is a whole lot of awful in the world, but we are blessed to be surrounded by wonderful. And Chad's family has a lovely tradition of toasting the Thanksgiving sunset at a bench dedicated to Gompa, while listening to Louis Armstrong. Wonderful.
Oh, yeah.

Santa Clara, Elfie, and the Christmas Books

We have a sizable collection of Christmas (and other winter holiday) books under the tree. They come out each year with the decorations, and then we get a solid month of reading them before the big day. Santa Clara took it upon herself to alphabetize the books this year, while Elfie worked hard to de-alphabetize them.

Pins and Pupusas

Our Ex-Escuela Americana Teachers quarterly reunion was extra cheesy today. And I'm not talking about this kind of cheese:
I am talking about melty, salty, greasy, yummy cheese, with beans and curtido. Pupusas!

This is a pupusa:
Rachel and Andy picked them up on the way to our reunion at the bowling alley today. I could just write the word, "Yum" about seventy-four times. The last time I felt this happy eating a nostalgic food was the time Deb served us bread and "Salsa de Golf" at her cottage.

Of course, it was also extremely awesome to see the gang.

And it wouldn't be bowling without a few butt shots:
Hopefully, this will be the first in a series of gastronomical walks down memory lane. Next stop: Jimmy John's.

Ornaments

Our tree has been assembled for a week or so, but Report Cards and Parent-Teacher Conferences have kept my holiday spirit at bay. Now, it's back with bells on. And today, to the sound of Karen Carpenter singing Ave Maria and Sleigh Ride, we decked the halls.
I hope that Clara and Trevi grow up to be as sentimental about ornaments as I am. Each little shoe box holds so many stories.

My treasured favorites are really too numerous to list here, but the oldest ornament on the tree, and my favorite from childhood, is this elf on a swing:

My grandma bought this stained-glass angel from the hospital gift shop during my grandpa's last Christmas. Memories galore in this beauty.

I've always loved the paper clip blades on these little skates my Auntie Edna knit 30 odd years ago.

And one that just joined our collection last year: Peace on Earth.
And let it begin with me.

A morning game of "Toss the Duck"

The cute little mallard flying through the air is "Daddy Duck". Aptly named, since, based on his colorful feathers, he is, indeed, male. Think I might have gone overboard with the commas in that last sentence.

Fall, Leaves, Fall

Kudos to the arborists who planned and/or planted this town. No matter what season it is, something is in bloom. And, in contrast to Oakland, whose trees seem oblivious to the passage of time, Autumn actually happens here. I love it.

While the mulberry trees in the backyard are kind of uninspiring at this time of year, the oak out front is glorious. Every Fall color you could want hangs up there in November.

Three days ago, we raked. The oak tree laughed at us and tossed down a new batch of leaves.
Clara accepted the tree's challenge.

There was some jumping and rolling around.

There was tossing.
Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree. -Emily Bronte

The Things that Really Get Me

This is me engaging in a common pastime: pulling my hair out. Maybe Trevi got his Zed genes from me, because at this rate, I really should have been bald by now.Ya, of course I am put-off my having so much work and so little time, blah blah blah. But it's the dumb little things that, well, break the camel's back (I never claimed to be original). A few straws from today:

• No bar of soap in the shower, and no kid in earshot. Had to wash with shampoo. It left a film.
• Finding expired yogurt hiding in the back of the fridge. Wasteful.
• An earwig on the bathroom counter. Why?
• Trying to convince Clara that her teacher couldn't possibly have told the class that they need to write their speech about a Native American war hero in their family.
• Having to create fictitious relatives just so she could get the blankity-blank speech done.
• The fact that we were out of milk, and had to go to the grocery store after dinner.
• Having to change Trevi's sheets at bedtime because the cat had thrown up on them.
• Noticing overdue videos on the counter, and remembering the overdue library books in the car.
• The fact that my contacts are now fused to my eyes, and will need to be scraped off in a few minutes.

It's stuff like that.
But, on the other hand, I get to go snuggle into my cozy bed in a napping house, where everyone is sleeping. And, I have fresh milk for the vat of coffee I'll brew in the morning. A new day, with new straws. But no war hero speeches. And hopefully no cat throw-up.

Cheap Toys

Trevor has been playing with this tape measure almost constantly for the past three days. Spring-loaded tape measures really are kind of fun, when you think about it. Today, as I watched him stretch and release a few dozen times, I noticed how intently he was staring at the plastic case. As if reading my mind, he said, "I love watching the way it eats all of the numbers every time!"

Haul out the Holly

Okay, so maybe I'm acting a bit like Auntie Mame. You know, that "We need a little Christmas, right this very minute" person. As far as I'm concerned, there's no shame in putting the tree up a bit early, especially since it's an artificial one. It looks grey in this picture, but is actually an amazingly realistic green laced with brown. It's the fake dead needles that make it work.
We stopped after the assembly phase today, but Trevor insisted on adding this one little bell. Then, the giant candy cane was hung so he could ring the bell by wiggling the branch.
I also hauled out the Christmas music. At the risk of being too linky, I highly recommend this CD if you like to be mellow and feel all glowy and holidayish. Sigh.

Blast From the Past - The Onion

Clara has not run off to join the circus, by the way. She is still busy playing, reading, singing, and being precocious (take that as a euphemism for all manner of things). I know that the blog gets a bit Trev-heavy at times, but it's just because Clara is off doing her thing a lot of the time. I thought this would be a good time to stick in a photo from last year's Thanksgiving play, "No Turkey for Perky". Clara was a show-stopping onion. She had the audience in tears.
PS: Speaking of onions, this is some of my favorite reading.

Food Symmetry

Trevi's appetite is not in synch with our mealtimes lately, which sometimes leads to bedtime snacks. Tonight's snack was very pretty and symmetrical. The bananas around the perimeter posed a problem, though, because Trevi didn't know how to rearrange the slices as he ate them.
As I write this, I'm reminded that my "little" brother (now 33) used call them bednight snacks. I think I'll call them that from now on.

The Laundry Store

Laundry needs to be done, and it is part of my domain. The washing and drying part doesn't bother me, but I have to force myself to fold. If I wait too long, then I have to suffer the environmental guilt of re-tumbling to de-wrinkle. So I try my best to get to it pre-wrinkle. As for the putting away, I am lucky to have a pair of laundry elves. The one seen here is off to stash his undies in drawer number 1 (1-socks and undies, 2-jammies, 3-longs, 4-shorts, 5-jackets). Today, instead of just putting his things in the correct drawers, Trevi wanted to make a store out of it. The rules stated that he had to pay me one penny for each thing he took to his #1 drawer, 2 pennies for each #2 drawer item, and so on. We dumped out the change dish, and played at this through three loads. Trevi had fun, the clothes went where they needed to go, and I made 68¢.

The Blocks Again

I suppose at some point I should stop blogging about these amazing foam blocks. I just can't help myself! They are the best toy ever. Look at the cool city they became today! Here, you can get yourself a set. Then, run out to Target and get a mesh laundry bag to hold them all. Love these. Love em.

Another Haircut

I have become quite the hairstylist of late. Trevi is my best customer. His hair grows so fast that I have a suspicion he somehow shares genetic material with those yellow Zeds who need a haircut every day.
Today was chilly, so we went with a blanket instead of a towel. As I snipped, Trevi suddenly called out, "Wow! Do you realize something, Mummy?" I asked him what I was supposed to realize. And this is what he told me:
"I was just thinking about telephones, and do you realize that a telephone isn't a plant or an animal or a rock or the ground or something?????" (I told him that I did, in fact, realize that.) "So that means that somebody invented the telephone! Can you believe that???? Somebody actually thought of the idea to make a thing to let you talk to people far away! Isn't that cool???? That's a really great invention!"
So, congratulations, Mr. Bell. Trevor likes your work.

PB&J Burritos

Trevi got it into his head today that he only wanted to eat a new invention. Wild man that he is, he invented "PB&J burritos". Yep. Peanut butter and jelly on bread, rolled up. Call the patent office.

Here we go again

The day after soccer season ended, we got an email from Clara's Assistant Coach, asking if Clara would like to play indoor soccer for the next eight weeks. So, it looks like I'll have to wait until January to sleep in. I really do love watching Clara play, though. She and her buddies were just giddy to be together again, after saying sad goodbyes last Saturday.
I know this picture is a bit crazy...taken through plexiglass and under artificial light...but I love the way everyone is completely smeared except for Clara, who seems to be doing some sort of Masai jumping move in the middle of the action.

Inventions, Dancing, and Inventive Dancing

Clara is a huge fan of being the center of attention, so she treats us to many, many performances. Tonight, it was a Camp Rock extravaganza loaded with leaping, twirling, posing, and strutting. Although Trevor was invited to perform, he was busy with a new invention.
He started out by taping a straw onto an inverted cup, and blowing through the straw. Then, he wanted to see if he could make cool air come through the straw. Hence, his invention, "The Cooler":
That blue thing is an ice pack, by the way, and he tried many positions before balancing it perfectly on top of that book. After he had finished, he came to the conclusion that not much air came through the straw if you weren't blowing. He said that next time he's going to find a way to just cool down his breath. I'm not saying we are responsible for his brilliance, but we did give him a name that rhymes with clever.

Clara eventually managed to convince Trevor to join her in a stirring rendition of YMCA.
Their costumes are bathing suits because, in Clara's words, "You go swimming at the YMCA. I don't know why they sing about having a good meal and all that. The Oakland Y just has a snack bar. That's not exactly what I'd call a good meal."

The Very Hungry Cat

Lisa got to star in her very own show today! I wonder if Eric Carle ever considered using a feline protagonist. The only trouble was that Lisa was unable to turn into a butterfly at the end. Instead, she chased butterflies around the yard.

Later on, some secrets were passed around. I only mention this because I'm sure the kids won't whisper secrets in my ear (or each others' ears) forever, and I never want to forget how sweet and tickly their secrets are.

Flours of fun!

We were in the middle of making banana muffins today when the phone rang, and I had to leave the kitchen for a minute. I left Trevi mixing up the dry ingredients. When I returned, he was deeply involved in his own cooking show. The scooping, leveling, dumping and mixing lasted all the way until dinnertime.
The manhandled flour never did make it into the muffins (most of it ended up on the floor), but I really loved watching Trevi at work, reminding me that the process is much more important than the product (even when the product is dessert).

Yes, We Can!

Wow. What a day. Wow.

What the Great Pumpkin brought

In case you were wondering, the Great Pumpkin left each of the kids a lap harp, in exchange for their candy. Trevor, whose love of music centers around experimentation with sound, mainly just tunes and retunes the strings. He likes to make the music sound "spooky and loud", then "gentle and quiet".

As for Clara, the jury's still out as to the candy-equivalent value of the harp. It's definitely not what she was hoping for, but she hasn't threatened to forgo the gift and keep her candy next year, so that's a good sign. She's a keep-the-harp-perfectly-tuned-and- perform-real-songs kind of girl, unlike her brother.
Now, she can play "Ode to Joy" on two different instruments.
So, yeah, we heard that song a lot today.

The last soccer game

It's hard to believe that this is the same little girl who started the soccer season with zero confidence, and less enthusiasm than that. We are so proud of Clara. She has run and kicked her way through a great soccer season, and we look forward to many more!

After the game, Clara received her very first trophy, and a certificate which names her, "Most Improved Since the Start of the Season".
Our Saturday mornings are going to seem so uneventful now! :)