While Daddy's Away...

Matt was in Scotland last week for work. Edinburgh to be exact.The bummer timing of the trip is that it fell over MEA week (which is a 4 day Fall break for kids in MN b/c of teacher meetings), so we didn't have our usual routine to keep us busy, and most of our friends were either traveling or having out of town visitors. So, how did we spend our week? I'll tell you in pictures. A lot of them.

Snuggled in for our nightly reading. We sent this pic to Matt, who was about to board his trans-Atlantic overnight flight from Philly to London

An early morning trip to Chevy for an oil change and tire rotation before school. I packed breakfast, and after they ate, the girls enjoyed looking at the new toy catalogs that had come in the mail the day before (nice timing, toy companies).

On Wednesday, we picked Jillian up from school and headed down to Des Moines to spend a few days at Grammy and Grandad's. This was a nice time for an extended visit, and honestly, it really helps the girls to have a fun distraction while Matt is away. Not that they don't miss him, but being amidst constant fun at G and G's really helps to cut down on the lamenting over Matt's absence.

On Thursday, we loaded up a yummy lunch and headed out to Grandad's office to meet his work friends. After lunch, we found the farmer in one of his fields and got to ride in the combine as he harvested. This was something I got to do a lot as a kid at my grandparents' farm, so it was neat to have the girls experience this.

Jillian got to drive

If you look closely you can see Jillian and I in the combine--she is on my lap

Our ride was on the right

Waiting with Grandad in the truck for her turn

Ready to be picked up by the combine

On Saturday, Aunt Mal came up to see us. One thing I wanted to accomplish was to get some pics of the girls outdoors in the Fall foliage. We ran around a local park for awhile, playing music for the girls to dance to as I attempted this photoshoot.

Momography

Cute subjects

Oh, Adrienne

There's one in every bunch. I took about 500 photos, and Adrienne has her tongue out, her hands down her pants, or a goofy grin in about 80% of them. We may have more of a humorous focus for our Christmas card this year.

We all headed to Tasty Tacos (a Des Moines delicious dive) after the photoshoot, and then Aunt Mal and I escaped for a few hours of shopping. The girls went back to G and G's house and played outside all afternoon.

My little pumpkins with a big pumpkin

At the park behind G and G's house

I see you, Adrienne

Helping Grandad with yardwork. There's Adrienne's tongue again. This one's a framer.

On Saturday night we decided to celebrate J's birthday a bit early with G and G and Aunt Mal. We picked up some delicious cupcakes, a few party favors, and surprised Jillian after dinner that night.

Minion Grammy is ready to party

I love this series of pictures as Jillian comes out of the bathroom to see everyone in party hats and minion goggles.

Time to join the fun

Tough choice--those were some gorgeous and rather tasty cupcakes

Adrienne needed a quick intervention after she finished that cupcake. That girl is passionate about her sweets

Time for a few presents

Adrienne in top form--half naked and hand down her pants. She is so ornery and funny right now, and reminds us all of her Aunt Meggie when she was this age. Sometimes I really think I birthed a mini-Malia and a mini-Megan.

An exciting gift--the wanna be chef gets a chef jacket and hat!

What are you scratching at, A? The girl is having some real underwear problems these days. When I ask her what the issue is, she always says, "My underwear just go right into my bottom!" She is learning what a wedgie means.

Silly sisters

Love love love this

We headed back late Sunday morning, stopped at the grocery store, and frantically cooked, unpacked, did laundry, and settled back in the rest of the afternoon. I was pretty happy to be settled and have our laundry done before Matt got home late that night with all of us. He brought us all some fun Scottish gifts--cashmere plaid scarves and a Harris Tweed bag for me, and the usual snow globes for the girls, along with some kilt-wearing teddy bears, and the hottest item in our house these days--"real big girl purses". These bags go everywhere with us now. Jillian even carried it downstairs first thing this morning, ready to roll.

A good bag--never leave home (or your bedroom) without it.

Handling Life

I've got a gem of a story from today that illustrates just how much Jillian is growing up and maturing. We've seen so many positive changes in her since school began, and she is very happy and doing great in school. As a side story, I had her conference last week and Mrs Dyer said she is excited to learn, is moving up quickly on her reading level, is very ready for all day school, and is a great friend. She apparently has taken on the role of helping another boy at her table who needs a little help most of the time. This is great for Jillian because she is the kind of kid who really needs a 'job'. The teacher told me that it has blossomed into this beautiful friendship, and is so great to watch. Anyway, back to today. Matt was home this morning and offered to take Jillian to school. This would be his first time doing this, and Jillian gave him the proper instructions for drop off. She also decided last minute that she wanted to take her lunch to school because last time "Zesty Italian Pasta" was served at school, it just wasn't what she expected. Later Matt told me that drop off took a long time because Jillian got out of the car without her lunch. So, he was worried she'd be freaking out, so he hurried to pull out of the line, parked, and went in to find her and give her the lunch. Whew. Crisis averted. So I asked her about this when I picked her up from school, and I got a bit of a surprise when she answered. She said she realized she had forgotten the lunch when she was walking into school, but then “I knew Daddy couldn’t get out of line so I didn’t have a choice. I had to go in. I wasn’t mad at him, I was mad at myself. You know, sometimes you just get mad at yourself for some things." I asked her what she was going to do about lunch since she didn’t think she had one. “I was just going to tell Mrs Dyer and she would figure it out. But then, I didn’t have to, because Daddy came INSIDE my school and brought me my lunch. It was a great surprise!" And it was a great surprise to me to learn that she handled this calmly and had already made her plan to get back on track for the day. So proud of her for not flipping out!

Out of the Mouth of Adrienne

Adrienne's been on fire with some funnies lately. She continues to be Elsa/FROZEN obsessed. Last week when we pulled up to soccer practice on a chilly evening, I encouraged her to put her jacket on as we got out of the car. She responded by declining and immediately singing Elsa's famous line--"The cold never bothered me anyway"--perfectly, and right on cue. Saturday morning we awoke to a frost covered landscape. Adrienne was mesmerized. "Wow! It's so frozen outside!" I asked her if Elsa came and froze it overnight, and she replied, "No! I did that with my magic powers." Got it. 

Also, I'm slightly concerned that we somehow haven't correctly taught her animal identification. Today she was outside playing on the playset for a few minutes before trodding up the stairs to tell me she wanted to come inside. I asked her why she needed to come in, and she said, "There's peacocks out there." I played along and looked outside and assured her that there were not any peacocks on our property, but she persisted. "I don't like them. They pooped all over my orange shovel and they are making loud noises". I asked her what color these alleged peacocks were, and she assured me that they were black. We do not have any peacocks, but we sure do have plenty 'o crows around here. Lastly, as we were driving home from picking up Jillian from school, a flock of geese flew low over the car and into a field. Adrienne shouted, "Jillian! Did you just see all those bats?!?" I thought Jillian was going to explode she was laughing so hard.

The "Healthy" Snack Cart

At the beginning of the year, I signed Jillian up for the "healthy snack cart" at school. This was advertised as a cart full of healthy snacks (ie fruit, string cheese, veggies) and milk that gets pushed around to the classrooms around 2 p.m. each day. I figured Jillian would be excited about this, and thought it would be a big win because she'd try more healthy foods (peer pressure seeing what other kids chose) and it would save me from having to remember to pack her a snack each day. I paid the $40 yearly fee, and pat myself on the back for checking that item off the list. In reality, the "healthy" snack cart is full of junk. Yes, there is apparently always the option of an apple, but those apples are displayed along next to rather unhealthy options such as Teddy Grahams, Scooby Snacks, and "some kind of delicious cookies". Really? What kid is going to ever choose an apple when presented next to those other options? I'm extra fired up about this because we just watched the documentary "Fed Up" last weekend, which I'd highly recommend. The biggest takeaway for me from that show was that it's really a shame that we try to appeal to such young kids with their food choices by placing characters on packaging and advertising it as healthy, and that our sugar intake in this country is out of control. Big-name food companies continue to worm their way into school lunch programs and healthy eating initiatives and throw their money around  getting us to ascribe to what they say is healthy. That's not really my point here, but it's related to the topic, so worth mentioning. Anyway, I finally had a little chat with Jillian about the "healthy" snack cart and we agreed that she could choose one of the exciting treats every other day, and make a healthier choice (apple or string cheese) on the alternate days. I don't want to deprive her of occasional treats (despite my rant here, I do believe in moderation of all things). She felt this was a fair compromise, and being the type A oldest child that she is, she is very diligent about following this "rule". We have a similar rule on days where she buys school lunch in relation to chocolate vs white milk. Today when Jillian got in the car after school, we were discussing her day as usual. I asked her what snack she chose and she said, "Oh, Mom. I was going to choose an apple, but they had these amazing looking cookies I'd never seen before, and I just lost my mind about it! I couldn't help it, I HAD to try those cookies!" I told her I could definitely relate to being wooed by desserts...that problem is just in her genes. She went on to say, "Mom, I don't think the healthy snack cart is really healthy anyway. Why do they put cookies and Scooby Snacks on it?" I told her that these were excellent questions, and that she'd just have to do her best to make the best choice that was healthy for her body each day. Later she brought it up again--"Mom, I just keep losing my mind over the snack cart. Can you un-sign me up?" Oh how I wish I could. Lesson learned, rookie mom mistake.

Official Photos

Here is my big, beautiful kindergartner in her official school photo. Such a great picture of a really great kid. School has been so, so good for her in so many ways.

And the soccer photo. We wind down our season this week, and it's time. I'm not sure how much Jillian has learned about soccer, but she's certainly had fun socializing with Will.

The Falcons, 2014. You can see Jillian and Will cozied up to each other on the left in the back. They are such sweet friends.

N'Awlins

Matt and I just returned from a kid-free trip to New Orleans. According to Adrienne, we were on a field trip. He had a conference to attend, and since neither of us had ever been there before, I decided to tag along. We had four days of constant good food, lots of walking and exploring, a little shopping, and a spontaneous trip to the spa for me (thanks to a rainy afternoon with Matt occupied at conference). Our hotel was gorgeous (thanks to the SCBT-MR for holding their conference at the Ritz) and within the French Quarter so was safe for walking for me. A huge thanks to my mom for willingly coming here to take care of the girls (and to my dad for sharing her with us)!

Mom arrived Thursday afternoon to get settled and updated on the routine before we left on Saturday. The girls were so happy to snuggle in to read with her

My Sunday breakfast. Yes, I ate all three of those beignets, and yes, they were amazing. I heart Cafe Du Monde. I took Matt back on Monday because I am such a good wife.

Goofy selfie before Sunday night's dinner--headed to NOLA, which is one of Emeril's restaurants and ended up being both of our favorite meals of the trip.

You see some crazy stuff in New Orleans. Most of that crazy stuff is unsuitable for photographing, and certainly unsuitable for this blog....trying to keep it PG on here! 

Monday morning I wondered to a patisserie and had a pretty awesome croissant and cappuccino while seated at this table in a little nook overlooking the street.

Loved this assortment of doorbells for various apartments within this building.

Monday afternoon we decided to take a cruise on the Steamboat Natchez down the Mississippi River. We were up on the top deck for most of it

Domino sugar. Did you know they produce 7 MILLION pounds of sugar every single day?!?!?

Rollin on the river

We wandered down to the engine room. Pretty hot in there.

Checking out the workings of the boat.

We passed several large ships and barges on the cruise. Here you can see a worker on a Panama-based ship waving at us.

Part of this building was blown away by Hurricane Katrina. When they replaced the brick, they added a nice little message.

One of many "live statues" we saw in N'Awlins

On Tuesday, we spent the morning on a tour of St Louis Cemetery. No one else registered for the tour, so we had a private tour with a quirky little tour guide. She was FULL of information and we learned so so much. I wasn't super excited about this tour at first (Matt's idea), but it ended up being my favorite part of the trip. It was crazy-fascinating and we learned so much. I told Matt that I really must be starting to get old because I actually am interested in all this historical stuff, architecture, etc. I completely regret not paying more attention in history classes in high school and not taking any in college. 

One of my favorite tombs. I loved the flower on top. The family actually owned this plot and tomb (yes, you can rent them--more on that later), so they were allowed to paint it. A man paints it to honor his grandmother who loved bright colors.

Gorgeous crosses and unique ironwork everywhere

And signs of "life" where death lies...plants and weeds growing out of the tops and sides of many tombs

Crazy, random offerings at the foot of the tomb of Marie Laveau (the famous voodoo priestess of New Orleans)

Offerings atop her tomb

This eyesore is to be the tomb of Nicholas Cage. He apparently fell in love with New Orleans, bought this plot and built a tomb where he intends to lie. All of this cost 12 MILLION DOLLARS. And it looks ridiculous and disrespectful.

Leaving kisses for Nicholas...so strange. The man is still alive, people!

Life

Fleur de lis ironwork

Apartment style tombs. The various tombs mimic housing styles--you can rent an apartment, or build a condo or house on a plot. Plots run about $50,000, then you have to pay to build the tomb. Wild huh? What's even crazier is how the bodies are laid to rest. They do not use  sealed caskets, just wooden coffins. Bodies are NOT embalmed and are sealed in the tombs for one year and one day. After this time they are almost totally decomposed--the heat within the tomb basically cremates the body. The tomb is then opened after 366 days and the remains (basically ash) are pushed to the back, where they fall down a chute and into the ground. New Orleans is on a swamp, so there isn't any bedrock below. The swamp waters rise and fall over time and basically absorb the remains into the dirt below. Now the tomb is ready for another body. This is how generation after generation of family members can be buried in one spot. Assuming everyone dies at least 366 days apart from one another, there isn't any limit to how many bodies can be buried in one tomb. 

A brief respite from the sun within the cemetery. You can see the sun trying to burn through that palm tree...it was hot as blazes that day.

This tomb held the remains of just one man and his wife. They desired for no one else to ever be buried with them because they loved each other so much. I hope they didn't have children, or this would have probably really ticked them off!

A row of the oldest tombs. White paint used to be the most expensive, so colored tombs were the norm at that time.

After all that info on a scorching hot morning, we had to refuel. We walked a few blocks back into the Quarter to Central Grocery, which is an authentic Italian grocery store that invented the muffaletta sandwich. We shared a sandwich and really, we should have shared a half. The whole sandwich was about the size of an entire pie and was loaded with cheese, salamis, pickled peppers, and olive relish. Totally divine, and totally bad for you. It hit the spot!

After a nice long nap, we cleaned up and set out to ride the St Charles street car through the Garden District (antebellum mansions galore!) and to the other side of town to eat at a cute little local restaurant inside a little house. I felt like we were on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

All aboard!

Trolley selfie!

It was so nice to have some grown-ups only time away, but always so so so sweet to get home to these little ladies.

We told them this is as close to New Orleans they are ever going to get--not a place I want my girls to visit anytime soon!!!