enchanting

In an attempt to find out just exactly what makes New Mexico the "land of enchantment," we headed down yonder south after Thanksgiving to see if we could find anything more enchanting than Albuquerque.

 

Hello, they have a giant pistachio! I made a goal to see it after I read about a bunch of giantized sculptures around Australia. Awesome and enchanting.

 Then onto the best sledding of our lives... in sand. I may never sled in snow again. It was so fast and we didn't start to freeze after ten minutes! Good thing because there was a little bit of this:

 

Roman dramatically plopped down and then raised his head to say, "cheeeeeeeese." hahaha

 It was such a fun trip. Sometimes just getting out of town and staying at a hotel over night is just what is needed to cheer everyone up after all our family leaves after Thanksgiving. And I daresay it was a bit enchanting down there in Alamagordo.

leaves are falling

Our neighbor's tree sheds all its leaves in one go. It's amazing. Yesterday the branches were completely full and this morning it is raining leaves and filling the lawn. I love how there is no warning, as the leaves don't even bother to change colors before their mass descent . So there's really no other choice but to head out on Leaf Shedding Day and have an early morning leaf fight. And the cute thing is that this house is in the middle of us and a family with a four year old and they were already out in their jammies with the same idea.

Ps. My favorite part of this picture is Banks over on the side.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love,
The Black Swan, a Newsie, Harry Potter, Fire Ninja, and Little Monkey

critical update

Good news! My nails have already dressed for the occasion so I might just throw on a costume to match them on Monday.

boo october

 These little guys have been sick this week. It's been kind of a crappy week, honestly. Between the sickies, and trying to adjust to newly cold and murky weather, and waiting for Halloween to get over with already has put us all (ok well mostly me) into poor spirits. I got all the costumes done early this year (!) leaving time for me to create a costume for myself even, but now that I feel so bah-humbug about Halloween I've lost all desire to dress up in it. Bah. Humbug.

 But I'm excited for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!! Ma famille is coming to celebrate and I'm so excited!!!!!!

Whoa. I just looked at that picture and had a moment where I totally spazzed out because I have three boys. Sometimes I seriously wonder how I got here. Crrraaaaaazy.

thoughts mostly for me

Benson is mad in this picture and no one remembers why. It's probably better that way.

I've been wanting to write a little ditty about Benson for a while now, you know the kind of thing you store away and stroke on your cheek when they are big and scary teenagers and have too many other things to do than frown in pictures in front of balloons. He is truly the sweetest boy, and I keep waiting for him to change into a regular 6 year old that is totally obnoxious but he's still the sweetest thing you ever did see. For example:

This morning when Roman was screaming his head off because he (and consequently all of us) woke up too early, and I was feeling tired and was short with the children, Benson came and found me in the bathroom and sweetly asked, "mom, what can i do to help you?" Even though I was short with him too! He learned this exact phrase from his father, by the way.

Banks was crying on the trampoline a couple of days ago, so I peeked my head out to see if there was any blood spilled and what do I behold but Benson holding and rocking Banks, stroking his hair and giving him kisses. And when Roman started to get a little jealous, he reached for the little one, pulled him into the hug, and rocked him too.

I could literally go on and on, but I'll stop with these two little occasions. Sometimes Ben and I talk about what we are going to do when our kids face problems as they get older, but in the end we often joke that everyone else will probably be okay because they have Benson going first to show them how it's done. And I don't think it will even be from the typical oldest child pressure to be perfect, he's just one of those kids who wants to do the right thing.

I feel lucky to have him around. We all learn a lot from our little Benson.

missing my sunshine.

come back soon.

math i like

Dad

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Mom

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B-one

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B-two

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Babykins

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Lizard

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Happy family night

haiku monday

Roman at sunset

His Einstein hair orange with sun

He touched a cactus

she blogs

I've enjoyed this little break, but on this, the first day of fall, I declare that today is the end of the blog vacation. I think. We'll see.

But in the mean time we haven't had too much going on, honestly, but here are a few of the comings and goings since I last blogged (in the order in which they appear in my brain). Ahem:

:: finished harry potter IV. benson is hooked and will be harry potter for halloween. haaaaappy mom. banks is stuck on a "minja" costume, and roman is now taking suggestions.

:: roman learned he can push chairs around to get to the formerly high safe havens of all things sharp and scary. he permanent markered on my computer this morning. sad sad day.

:: i discovered trader joe's salsa. my new fav.

:: ben and i discovered seared (read: raw and pretty much cold in the center) tuna. also so good!

:: i got my haircut exactly like snape's. like i literally took a picture of snape to my stylist and said "can i have this exact haircut?" (i didn't. it was olivia palermo)

:: ben started his second year of med school! woo woooo!

:: i started ballet again and i loooove it. i have boys in my class so we get to do mini pas de deux sometimes. (giggle giggle)

That's about it really. And there isn't much more on the horizon. But we are smoothly sailing and quite happy!

to michigan, to michigan, to play at the beach

at the top of sleeping bear dunes


this was actually banks' best shot, believe it or not


the best part of the dunes: running down at top speed!

We returned from our trip to Michigan on Saturday. It was a blissful two weeks of picture perfect summer.

Lots of frog catching, salamander hunts, BEACH, walks through the forest, cousins, ice cream, fireflies, marshmallow roasting, and all around fun. And all of that sandwiched between lots and lots of driving. Ben and I even got away alone on a little side trip to check out residencies. Perfect.

We miss it already but it's good to be back home in our own beds. Benson starts school tomorrow and Ben on Monday. Crazy!

swimmy

I wanted the $5 swim shorts from Zara, but they don't ship so I had to improvise with some swim fabric from Joann's. Ship to the us already, Zara!

Sometimes Ben and I are pretty good parents.

But most of the time we are crazy.

This summer we decided our children's unwillingness to put their faces in the water was reeeediculous and so we've spent the summer torturing bribing them to take baby steps toward our olympic swimming dreams for them.

Bribe 1: Get in the pool or I'll throw you in. (We ended up throwing at least one of them)

Bribe 2: Try putting your face in the water or I'll take you under myself. (...you can probably imagine)

Bribe 3: Jump in for a square of chocolate (Lots of prodding but eventual success!)

Bribes 4- 793: Swim, dangit, Swim!

And at the end of the summer, we have two swimmers, and two boys who want speedos so they can swim with more "freedom."

I've always heard you shouldn't force your kids to do things before they are ready, but after this summer I'm not sure... It seems to have worked pretty well. :)

lists

Source: flickr.com via Mary on Pinterest

I, like my friend Mellie P, love making lists. I have long lists of plants for my someday vegetable garden, flower garden, and peony garden. I have lists of books I'd like to read. And places I'd like to go. And a short list of things I'd like to do. My to-do life list only includes two things (so far):

1. See a fashion show at a fashion week

2. Walk the Coast to Coast Walk with Ben. I wish so badly I could beam myself (and him) there right now, and we could spend the next two weeks strolling through the countryside from village to village, just him and me, walking and talking and walking some more. I think this is my new happy place for this week, when it is 95 degrees inside my house and I'm trying to not end up like the guy blinded by the heat in The Stranger.

and the living is easy

This is the stuff of summer. Mouths full of cherries, riding tandem on the tricycle, shooting cherry pits at the "Momster" as Benson has taken to calling me.

Ben has been calling this summer "The Summer of Our Lives" as this is probably the last time we'll be able to spend this much time together (Ben's only working 2 days a week). And it really has been.

Three cheers for summer!

gotta git down on friday

We are all putting on our dancing shoes cause it's friday night! Date night, woo hoo!

Of note:
1. He makes his own music to dance to.
2. The shoulder shake is his signature move.
3. Benson is embarrassed about being in his undies. Don't tell him you saw this.
4. Yesterday was thursday. Today it is friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. Sunday comes after thaaaat.
5. Happy weekend!

this week according to my phone

First ever popsicle


Peonies for my table


Tennis lessons at 8 am


Hardhats are not flattering but essential on date night


City

Sliding


Water fight!

my darling,

, originally uploaded by Annedear.

Well.

I just wrote out the greatest tribute ever to you, my dear, but as luck would have it, somewhere in the wild world between flickr and blogger it took a wrong turn and appears to be lost forever. I hope it didn't end up on someone else's blog. That would be uncomfortable.

Suffice it to say when it comes to the subject of dads: At the tip of the top, cream of the crop, is Benjamin Tracy and there we stop.

Though our children don't fully understand yet how lucky they are to have you, I do.

I do. I do. I do.

same sun, two states

Setting sun in Utah:



Setting sun in New Mexico: