We like to pick apples. It’s one of the best things about fall. This year, however, the local apple crop is not what it usually is. We had a very warm March, which made everything bloom early–and then when the weather went back to normal, the freeze damaged it all. While we usually have an abundance of “U-Pick” farms to choose from, there are very few orchards that are able to open up this year. It sucks.
My sister-in-law managed to find one in the area that was still picking, so a couple of Saturdays ago, my whole family made the trek out to this farm.
Due to the Apple iOS update, my entire family (in two separate cars) got lost on the way there. That maps thing that everyone’s talking about? It’s no joke. We made it without any problems because we haven’t updated yet! Our version of the map was fine, but everyone who updated ended up going 20 minutes out of the way. Whoops. So we were there first and had some time to kill before everyone else was there to meet up with us. After trying to keep Nora busy for that long, she was in a little bit of a mood.
Once everyone arrived, we thought she’d perk up as we took the wagon ride out the orchard, but she wasn’t feeling it.
We managed to get her to pick a couple of apples, but she wasn’t that into picking, either.
She was, however, into EATING. Girlfriend ate like 392 (okay, four) apples out there.
Some of the apple trees were picked pretty clean already. Michael and Tyler had to get creative to get the good apples up top!
Hunter was helpful in getting some of the apples up high, too.
When all was said and done, we ended up being out in the orchard for a couple of hours! It was a beautiful fall day; it was hard not to enjoy every minute of it.
On the wagon ride back to the market, Nora insisted on riding right next to Hunter. I’m pretty sure she thinks he hung the moon.
We picked around 30 lbs. of apples. We’ve made a big batch of homemade applesauce, which is divine. We need to get back out for one more round of picking!
How have you been celebrating fall?
If you’ve been reading my blog since circa 2008 (or before, wowza!), you might remember the last presidential election, and my semi-regular and passionate rants and raves on the subject. I was dedicated. I paid close attention to the primaries. I read political coverage. I debated with friends and family in the months leading up to the election. I backed Barack Obama, and when Election Day finally came, Obama won. Which felt—well—amazing, because my guys had lost in both 2000 and 2004 (years during which I had been almost as passionate about things as I was in 2008).
So, I don’t know… maybe some of you are wondering where I stand now. Maybe some of you are wondering where my rants and raves have been this time around. Maybe some of you are glad they’ve been missing. And of course, a lot of you may not have been around for four whole years, so you wonder nothing.
Here’s the thing: I don’t have much to say.
I admittedly haven’t been paying too much attention. I barely knew the names of the Republicans in this year’s primaries. The only reason I know anything about Romney is because I learned about him in 2008. I’ve taken a few of those online quizzes—the ones where you answer questions about issues and rate them based on your priorities, and it tells you which politician(s) you align most closely with—and I’m not surprised to find that I’m still firmly in Camp Obama.
But this process? The campaigning, the debating? I can’t take it anymore. The fiery discussions with friends and family aren’t happening, because I do not feel well-informed enough to defend my position. I don’t like feeling this way—I like to know what I’m talking about—but I just do.not.have.the.energy.
Sure, my priorities have changed dramatically since 2008. I have a child. I have a different, more demanding job. I have a house with seemingly endless projects. But more than anything, the past four years have shown me that it really doesn’t make a damn bit of difference who is in the Oval Office. Change? We can want it, we can believe in it, but it’s not going to happen.
People bitch about President Obama and how there has been a tremendous lack of progress throughout the past four years. And hey, dislike him if you wish, but from where I’ve been sitting, it has looked like Obama’s hands have been firmly tied. What do you expect him to accomplish if the Republicans disagree with him JUST TO DISAGREE WITH HIM? I know that this goes both ways, but it’s infuriating.
At the end of the day, we can’t get two groups of people to agree. Each group has their reasons for believing what they believe, I guess, and whether those reasons are for the good of this country, I can’t say. Until politics change—until we can somehow rid ourselves of this completely f-ed up system—nothing is going to change for the better. I can’t see how we are ever going to move forward.
When I read and hear about politics this year, the only thing I really feel is deflated.
With all of that said, I can still appreciate some political comedy. Because these pieces of commentary by Jon Stewart, in response to last week’s debate? Hilarious. I may be voting for Obama, but it doesn’t mean I can’t laugh at his expense. (And yes, we did have the debate on. Although I will admit I was only half-listening because OH.MY.GOD. it was so dull and boring.)
I swear; the older Nora gets, the cuter the clothes are.
Girls’ clothes are ridiculously irresistible from the very beginning, of course, but you can only do so much with a roly-poly baby. Sure, Nora had sweater dresses and leggings and peacoats… but somehow, they don’t look quite as adorable when the kid can’t stand on her own. :)
For her birthday, Nora got a pair of RED skinny jeans from my mother-in-law. I can’t get enough of them.
{They’re from Old Navy, by the way. And there are about a dozen colors, all of them awesome. When I was in there the other day, it was all I could do not to buy another pair. IN EVERY COLOR.}
Sadly, we have to retire the custom Elmo shirt now, because I noticed on this day that her belly kept making its way out of it. :) Aw well, it had a good run. This was her only piece of “character clothing,” so it was one of her favorites. She actually has a pair of Elmo jammies now, so I hope they can fulfill the void in her heart, haha.
One of the best things about the change of seasons? Being able to buy and dress Nora in a whole new wardrobe. I’m sad to say that it’s way more fun than dressing myself!
This girl, I love her. She is growing and changing so much every day. Luckily, growing = an excuse to buy more clothes. It’s a sickness.
{This is what she does when she hears something. A train in the distance, a dog barking in the neighborhood. Anything that is “out of the ordinary.” We’ll ask, “Do you hear [the dog barking]?” And her little voice excitedly answers, “Yeah!”}
I mock myself here, but I’m actually pretty “responsible” when it comes to buying Nora clothes. I try to get the best deals by leveraging sales and coupons, I try to buy things a little big at first so that they last a little longer. I don’t think I go nuts. But it is SO.HARD. not to.
What are your favorite baby clothing items? What are your weaknesses? Where are your favorite places to shop for kids?
I’m on the hunt for a good winter jacket that is compatible with being in a car seat—so something relatively thin, looking at good fleece again. Last year, she had a North Face jacket and a Columbia one as well (both gifts) that were wonderful. North Face is expensive—too expensive, really—but with our winters as long as they are, a good coat usually more than pays for itself… we’re looking at 5-6 months of near-daily wear! And with her North Face, we actually got two winters out of it; maybe we could again? Columbia has more affordable options. What do you put on your toddlers in the winter?
A few months ago, when we started thinking about Nora’s 2nd birthday party, I wasn’t sure what to do for a theme. It was Michael who first mentioned that we should draw inspiration from the Disney/Pixar movie, “Up!”
Nora loooooves balloons. “Boons” are pretty much one of her favorite things ever. When my dad was visiting in March, he bought Nora “Up!” and now she loves that, too.
For the party, I started Googling for ideas, and we soon decided to go with it.
We had a grand plan to do a much smaller birthday party than last year, and although it was smaller, it wasn’t much smaller. We had invited a bunch of friends last year, in addition to our large families, but this year we basically let our friends off the hook and stuck with family. It still amounted to 40+ people (including children), so I had my share of “OMG What were we thinking?!” moments in the week leading up to the party.
To further complicate matters, the weather was a little less than cooperative. In the days before the party, we got a ton of rain here, and our backyard—in which we had been hoping to host the party—was essentially a swamp. The temperature for the day of the party was also on the cooler side, so we ended up having to move the party into our house/garage. Was it the picture-perfect affair I had planned in my head? No. But Nora had the time of her life. And that, my friends, is all that matters.
I struggled for a really long time about what to do for a cake. There are a ton of beautiful, truly incredible “Up!” birthday cakes out there in the land of Google. But given that we were just finishing up our floor project and things were otherwise busy, my goal was to be kind to myself and do only what I could easily manage. What is the most important part of an “Up!” birthday cake?
Balloons. So that is where I focused.
I loved how this turned out. And truthfully, it was one of the easiest cakes I’ve done. Lots of layers, though, as you’ll see in a minute. :) I frosted the whole thing with sky blue buttercream, not even trying to make it smooth and perfect. I figured a few imperfections just gave it some texture and character. We bought a ton of miniature gumballs, and I painstakingly cut each of them in half so that they would sit better on the cake. When I tested one by putting it on whole, it didn’t hold onto the frosting as well, and the ones on the side looked like they were going to slide off.
Just so you know… cutting gumballs in half is a little dangerous. Ha. I had to hold them in between my pointer finger and thumb on my left hand while “sawing” them in half with a paring knife in my right. Thankfully, no trips to the emergency room were necessary. The candy coating on some of the gumballs cracked a little bit from the pressure, but once they were all on the cake, you couldn’t really tell. Once the gumballs were on, I was unsure of what I was going to do to finish the whole thing off. At the last minute, I came up with the idea of writing out Nora’s name in a sort of “cloud style,” and wrapping balloon strings around them. A few fluffy clouds around the perimeter, and I called it a night.
Everyone loved the cake, but the real surprise came when we cut into it.
I didn’t think to take a picture of it until it was half gone, so it’s not looking so hot here. But you get the gist. It looked really cool. (Thank you, Pinterest.) To do this, I made two batches of white cake, then divided each batch equally into three parts. I added Wilton gel colors to achieve the rainbow colors, then baked each separately. Sure, it was a little more work than a regular cake, but it wasn’t bad. The only catch with making a cake with six layers? You need A LOT of frosting. I think I ended up making three batches.
Anyway, back to the party.
We brought Nora’s little house out of the backyard swamp and into the driveway for the kids. We also needed it as a prop—see the balloons on top? Just like Carl and Ellie’s house. Well, kinda. ;) Oh, and I also made that giant balloon banner in the back there. It was pretty easy, except for the fact that I blew up almost all of the balloons by myself. My lungs were seriously spent. {Tutorial here. Thanks again, Pinterest.}
I also made this cool balloon wreath for the front door. (You guessed it: Pinterest. Tutorial here.) The problem? When we moved the party into the garage, people were entering through there instead of going to our front door. I wanted to make sure it was seen, so I ended up having it on the door leading into our garage. Problem solved. This was time consuming to make, but it’s a really fun decoration, and one that I plan to bust out in celebration of birthdays—not just Up/balloon themed ones!–for years to come.
This year, I was smart and planned the party around Nora’s nap. She woke up just before people started arriving, which was perfect.
In the beginning, the weather was still really gloomy, so most everyone was hanging out in the house. The playroom came in handy, that’s for sure. Check out Nora’s birthday crown, made for her by her daycare provider, Mary. Super adorable. And she was obsessed with it—wore it for the entire party, and after. In fact, she didn’t take it off until bathtime that night!
By the time we served pizza, the weather was improving, so everyone eventually moved outside. SUN!
We did gift-opening in the driveway. Nora was really into it. She kept ripping into gifts and grabbing things out of bags before I could even get to them, ha!
The basketball hoop (from my in-laws) was a big hit. She audibly gasped when she saw it. LOVE.
With our big 2-year-old girl. Amazing.
After presents and cake, we thought people would take off, but surprisingly, most people stuck around for quite a while longer! The kids were having a blast running around the front yard playing with each other, and the weather had officially turned into a beautiful fall day.
Then we started handing out balloons. Oh, did I mention that we had lots and lots of balloons? I mean, it was an “Up!” party. It was a necessity. :) We ended up getting one of these Balloon Time at-home helium tanks. It was only $20ish at BJ’s Wholesale Club, and it was a large tank—the ones that fill approximately 50 balloons. We ended up getting more than 50 out of it, so I made several balloon bouquets and had them scattered throughout the house, on our mailbox, etc.
For favors for the kids, I found balloon bags (Target) and put just a few little things in them. (After attending my cousin’s daughter’s birthday party this past weekend and seeing everything she stuffed in there, I feel like a huge loser. But oh well, what can you do… I didn’t want to give them candy!) The bags had little “Adventure Books” in them that I was able to download off of Disney’s website, as well as a bunch of stickers, and a box of raisins. Yeah, I know. Kind of lame. I’ll try to do better next year. :)
(At least Ryan loved his Adventure Book.)
Eventually, people did start drifting out, and soon we were left with just us, my mom, and my in-laws. We continued to hang out outside, letting Nora play with some of her gifts and her other outdoor toys while we chatted over beers and a bottle of wine. We let Nora stay up quite a bit past her bedtime because she was having so much fun… and so were we. Perfection.
When we finally did head back indoors, we ripped down the balloon banner and brought it inside. My mom had fun “wrapping” Nora in it and playing a version of “Ring Around the Rosie.” So funny.
Happy Birthday, sweet girl. It’s such a privilege to get to watch you grow “Up!”
When I was 12 or 13 years old, my mom took me to New York City. We went for just a day—a quick trip in from New Jersey, where we were visiting my mom’s best friend, Susan, and her family. The four of us girls (my mom, Susan, her daughter Nina, and myself) left the boys to do whatever boys do in New York City, and we headed to Broadway.
I actually still remember what I wore that day. It was one of those ensembles with the thin cotton floral spaghetti-strap dress, worn with a white t-shirt underneath and a denim vest over the top. And those work-boot style shoes with white socks. It sounds horrid now, but I assure you that it was all the rage in 1994/95.
ANYWAY.
As I recall, I think we went to lunch first, where my mom and Susan may have attempted to tell Nina and me a bit about the story behind the show we were about to see… Les Misérables. As a middle schooler, I had never heard of it before. I didn’t know that it was the Broadway musical sensation that it was.
Soon enough, we arrived at the Imperial Theatre, and sat down in our seats. The lights dimmed, the music started booming and I was captivated. I became lost in the characters and their songs… their stories. I remember feeling deeply moved by several of the scenes (I’m defenseless against intense emotion combined with music), so much so that I had tears. I looked over at Nina and she was solid as a rock, so I did my best to hide the waterworks so as not to feel uncool.
When the production ended with the powerful “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and the final curtain call was over, all I wanted to do was see it again. Alas, that is not possible with Broadway. One of the many reasons live theater is so.freaking.amazing.
My mom ended up buying the album, and I was actually kind of disappointed in it. It was a recording of the London production, which just was NOT the same from what I had experienced in New York. The voices were (in my opinion) not as beautiful—I remember being particularly displeased with Eponine. :) But it was the closest I could get to reliving the Broadway experience, so I listened to it over and over and OVER again.
It has been years—many, many years—and I still have not seen another production of Les Mis. Yet I remember many of the words to the songs, as if it were only yesterday. I still love it all.
Imagine my glee, then, when my friend Megan posted this link on Facebook last week. I have already watched it probably a dozen times, and I still get chills at the end.
They’re singing live. There is Hugh Jackman. And Russell Crowe. And Anne Hathaway (which, by the way, who knew??). And some hot guy as Marius.
Is it just me, or does this look amazing? I mean, most musicals turned movies are tolerable, entertaining, sure—but not much to write home about. But this? I CANNOT WAIT. I’ve been walking around humming and singing Les Mis tunes for the last four days. It’s unlikely that I’ll get out to see it on Christmas Day, but you can bet that I’ll see it within the first week. Just another reason to look forward to Christmas!
Anyone else as excited for this film adaptation? Or fun Broadway and/or musical theatre memories to share?
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
