Sunday in the Park

We have a lot to do to get ready for Thanksgiving, but we took off for a few hours this afternoon.



Charlie finds it hard to relax in a park.


I love the Colorado winter sky. The blue and the rosy amber, the way it stretches out all around you.

Peach Turnover Bento

I made the turnover with this:

I found it in the clearance section at TJ Maxx on Tuesday for $3.50. It's so much fun. I can't wait to make empanadas, pierogi, gyoza, calzones . . . what doesn't taste good encased in a little dough package? I can make them with whole grains and healthy ingredients, and R will always eat them. But they take so long to make by hand that I rarely do it. I watched some videos on YouTube to perfect my gyoza-pleating technique, but it still takes me forever. This is the next-best thing to having a little grandma sitting in the kitchen cranking out dumplings all day.

Butterfly Bento

Dear Tooth Fairy, I Lost My Tooth But I Swallowed It

Big news at our house yesterday. This is tooth #2.


The tooth fairy came in through the window and left a trail of glitter (fairy dust) and some plastic groceries for R's toy kitchen.

School Bake Sale Cupcakes

The school had a bake sale today to benefit a family with six kids who lost their home and are living in a motel. It was kind of meditative to spend an afternoon piping and sprinkling.

And a good reminder to thank God for my house, my kitchen, my family's peace and security. My box of sprinkles and pastry bags and piping tips that is always in the same place in the cabinet. The stairs we go up at night and the roof we sleep under. I pray that the bake sale family is sleeping under a roof of their own very soon.

And finally, here is today's lunch--heavy on the Vitamin C.

Geranium Bento

Halloween, Or, Mama's Got a Glue Gun

R was a Snow Fairy. I had a bag of sequins, some glitter and a glue gun, and things got a little out of hand.

Her hair was plain white water-based tempera paint, some glitter hairspray, and some tinsel. I put acrylic jewels on her face with Elmer's Glue and it worked fine. I would have been more elaborate with the silver face paint, but she ran out of patience.





First Grade party.



My personal favorite was the little Elvis.

Trick or treating. The snow melted just in time. It was perfect. We went to a neighborhood chili-cookoff/Halloween party. They announced my name and gave me a ribbon and I thought I had won. I put it on my Facebook because I was so excited. The next morning, I retrieved the ribbon from D's pocket where I had stashed it, and saw that it only said "Muy Caliente." I guess it was the hottest? Not the best. It's amazing how crushed I was. I should have come clean on my Facebook status. But it had been so much fun for those 14 hours when I thought I had won, that I dishonestly left it up. If you bring it up, I'll admit that I didn't win. But I'm not going to go around telling people.