Pie is pie, . . . right?

This morning while I was getting ready, Reese was doing her usual thing at the table which is talking to herself and her toys and carrying on an entertaining conversation.  We've already established what an animal-lover the girl is, and I'm pretty impressed at her memory for the more 'unusual' ones we mention- usually only once.  'That's a gemsbok, mom.  It lives in Africa.'

Suddenly her voice changes and I hear her exclaim - to me this time instead of the stuffed dog she was playing with -

"Mom!  There's a pumpkin pie!!!"

I gave one of those automated mom responses, you know- the ones where you answer, but you're really concentrating on the five or so bobbypins in your mouth and trying to get a stubborn piece of hair to just lay flat.

"Nope hon- not time for pumpkin pie yet,  but we'll make one for Thanksgiving, K?"

"No, no, no mom.  Outside.  The BIRD."

Now I was intrigued.  A pumpkin pie bird?  I'd never heard of that.  So was Ryan, and we walked to the kitchen where, just outside our glass door, there sat a magpie staring at us.

A Mag-Pie.


Well, everyone's bound to slip here and there I guess.  :)

The Book of November

It occurs to me that we never discussed reading The Help.

It was a stellar book- loved the humor, loved the urgency to turn the page and keep reading.  So well written, and a wonderful style to do it in.  I loved the changing points of view throughout.  It felt like a mystery, an action-thriller, and a history lesson all rolled into one.  Awesome.  

In fact, I wept as I turned the last page.  A sure sign of a great story. It's definitely on my favorite books list.  And now I can see the movie- the great part about always being a step behind is that it's probably bound for the cheap theaters in no time.

Huzzah.

One of my favorite parts was the 'interview' with the author in the last pages where she describes her own experiences as a white family with 'help' in Jackson.  I love fiction based on true stories!

We'd love to hear your thoughts too!

Well, this little book club has definitely gone through an interesting evolution through its first year.  Mostly we've been ambitious, overly busy, and consistently behind, but thanks for following anyway.  :)

Here's what we're reading this month. . . 

It's an beautiful book; it's poignant and honest and life-changing.  

We hope you'll pick it up, read with us, and join us December 1st for a discussion.

Storm a'brewin'

Last night Ryan and I went out on a real, live DATE to see a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest by the Actors from the London Stage on campus. 

It. Was. Phenomenal.

Background- the only  production I'd seen of this particular play was my own back in middle school (I played Sebastian, by the way), and as you can imagine the caliber was. . . er, lower.   Make that, much lower.  I had never counted The Tempest as one of my favorites, but these actors were seriously AMAZING, and it's climbed up near the top.  They did the entire thing with only five actors and no set but a small piece of stage and a few props.  Their talent blew us away; it was incredibly moving and then, in the next moment, made us weep with laughter.  

I absolutely LOVE that I married a man who will revel with me in my love (obsession?) for Shakespeare and all things literary.  That's when you know you're with "the right one"- when you can both be unabashed nerds together.  By evening's end, we were giddy with plans to attend the Shakespeare festival, the Globe theater in London, and even become actors ourselves.

It was that good.

So, if you're ever in a vicinity to see this INCREDIBLE company, do it.  You'll love every minute.

Yay for dating and nerdiness and standing ovations so well-earned.

Holy Halloween Costumes, Batman!

I'm sorry.  That title was pretty misleading since there will be nothing about Batman, Robin, or even a glimpse of Batgirl in this post.  But I felt, after a month-long fast from blogging, there was a serious need for punchy enthusiasm.  And how can you go wrong with a show that flashes fluorescent-colored 'Bams', 'whaps', 'biffs', and 'zowies' across the screen?

Anyway, here I am, bound and determined to ignore the guilty feeling inside from neglecting to document the happenings around this little den, and start fresh.  So to begin, here's our Halloween happenings- we had an absolute BLAST this year!  Reese finally got what was happening, made a friend and life-long fan of each bestower of candy, and even did the snorty laugh we taught her on cue.  (That may or may not have had anything to do with the fact that we told her in no uncertain terms it was the only way to get any candy at all.  Hmm.)

Without any further ado, I give you a family of Erkels.  Except that we're white.  And we didn't end the night signing  a TV gig.  Oh well.  You can't have everything.

On a side note here, the candy haul was much better this time around-- thanks to our patient teaching, Reese was able to bring in SEVERAL more pieces of chocolate than last year.  And, best of all, she happily handed them over in exchange for a few suckers.

Score.

Carve it up!

We got ambitious with our pumpkin carving this year and decided to tackle actual pictures.  We finally settled on Monsters, Inc. as the theme.  I took Mike Wazowski (sp?), and Ry opted for Sully.

The kids just had fun hanging out around (and on) the table, playing in the goop and pumpkin seeds, and occasionally taking a bite or two.

"No, it's good, Mom.  I promise!"

Despite all his effort I take FULL blame for Ry's not working out. :(  I was the one that insisted we didn't need the special pumpkin carving kit, we had plenty of knives at home.  

He finally ended up swinging his pumpkin around and free-handing a very Headless Horseman type face instead- 

Well, you live you learn, right?  

Mike, fortunately, was an easier pattern to cut.

Autumn in Logan Canyon

A few weeks ago we decided to take advantage of the fabulous weather and trek up the canyon for a little morning hike.  One of our new-found favorite places is Tonys Grove.  Absolutely gorgeous!  They have a ton of hikes to choose from, so we opted for a fun little nature hike that circled the lake and had lots of "did you know. . ." markers.  They were Reese's favorite thing!  

We did a little climbing,

 plenty of exploring, 

and oodles of basking in the glory that is Fall!

Sigh.

Logan Canyon, I love you.