And you thought walking a mile uphill both ways in the snow was bad...

My business trip came and went, and I really enjoyed New Hampsire and Maine, but I hated to have to leave Isa while she was sick! She had a cold this week and missed both days of preschool. I left her presents for every day I was gone, so she enjoyed those.

I also brought her this game, Feed the Kitty, from a toy store I went to in Portsmouth. Portsmouth has some great shopping and eating. Isa figured out how to play the game two turns in, and she loves it. We've played it about five times already and I'm sure Dan has played it with her quite a few too.

Another fun present I brought Isa was a book about the Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine. I just grabbed the book because it was cute and it was about a boy and his pet seagull. The boy is the lighthouse keeper's son, and they have to find a way to get him to the mainland for school. So the lighthouse keeper rigs up a cable with a pulley and a box hanging from the cable, and reels his son to and from school across the channel between the lighthouse island and the mainland. When we got to the end of the book it had a note saying it was based on a true story. Crazy, eh? It's included in this page of facts about the lighthouse. When the story got out, the Coast Guard made the guy stop sending his son across in the box. Sheesh, it's not even that far...

We have got to go back here on vacation soon!

We had Isa's parent-teacher conference this week too. Dan went and I stayed home with Isa since she was still feeling sickly. She got great reviews from both teachers. Miss M. said she was very, very advanced. They both said she listens well, follows directions, plays well with the other kids, and there's nothing we need to work on as far as preschool goes. We're very proud of her. We also got commissioned to collect acorns to bring in next week for the preschool kids because they're learning about fall. :)

Tomorrow we're off to Lowe's Build and Grow to make a firetruck. But before that Isa and I are going to make scones. We use a basic recipe that has heavy cream, flour, a little sugar and whatever goodies we have handy. Right now we have pomegranates so if I get up in time I'm going to seed one and make pomegranate chocolate scones. Another combo we like is chopped apples and walnuts. Here's our recipe:

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
milk for glazing
 various tasty stuffs: fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc

Preheat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or grease it. I'm lazy, I use parchment paper). In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, fillings, and salt. Add cream and vanilla, and stir until moistened.

Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it. Knead a couple times, then pat into a disc about an inch thick. Cut into 12 triangles. Place each scone on the baking sheet and brush with milk.

Bake 15 min. or until golden.

New school, and counting down the days until Halloween

Our September is going great so far. Isa started school on the 3rd. It's a half-day program three times a week, and she really enjoys it. She loves making art and singing songs the best. When we go to pick her up, we can hear all the kids singing the "Pollywog song" through the door.

Here's her smiley first day of school photo:

Her favorite lunch is peanut butter and jelly, but she also likes monkey sandwiches (Justin's hazelnut spread and bananas). This week I made her some pepperoni rolls cheese rolls since she decided she doesn't like pepperoni. Hopefully she'll eat those for lunch as a pb&j alternative. Dan and I sure loved them. The recipe is here. But since Dan is allergic to eggs I used a blob of vegan mayonnaise, and it worked fine. I also stuffed the cheese-only ones with ricotta. We'll be making these again soon.

We were going to go to the museum today, but it rained, so we mostly stayed inside except for a quick trip out to collect acorns and draw on the deck with chalk. We painted some butterfly magnets and then we got the Halloween bin out of the attic.

Ohhh, the Halloween bin. Isa loves Halloween as much as we do. Halloween may be my favorite holiday. I don't have to shop, I don't have to cook, and the sole purpose is to dress up and eat candy. We had a great time going through the decorations, putting them out, and playing with all the Halloween toys. Isa came up with a great costume:

She also made up a Halloween song. It went something like this:

Spooky spooky spooky spooky halloween!
Tall trees that have lights on them
You better run away
Or you'll get a surprise
Spooky spooky spooky everything
Spooky spooky spooky spiders

That's all I remember but I got a recording of the part where she switched to singing "Monster monster monster." I'll post that later. I'm being summoned to play Sims 2 before bedtime.

I've been meaning to come back to this!

Time flies when you're having fun. It was before Easter when I started this blog, and I kept meaning to come back to it. I hadn't yet invited anyone to it since I only had one post! Maybe I'll invite some people now that I have two.

Our Easter trip to the beach was rainy and cold, but we got to see a lovely wedding, and Isa enjoyed her basket. Here she is at the wedding. It was her first wedding; she was fascinated with the bride's beautiful dress and very glad to be there:

We filled her eggs with about half candy and half rocks. The kid loves rocks. She says she is going to be a geologist when she grows up.

Since Easter we've had a busy spring and summer. We went to the Festival for the Eno, where we had a blast listening to music and wading with the minnows. We went to a birthday party at Pullen Park. It was our first time there but it won't be our last since there are so many fun things to do.

Isa had her first day of preschool summer camp in July. She had a great time, and is excited about starting back for good this Wednesday.

We had visits from four out of six grandparents this spring and summer, and just got back from a trip to WV where we we saw all six grandparents and almost all of Isa's cousins.

I'll try to update more often with what we're up to! We just joined the YMCA, so there's lots of swimming in our future.