Chip and the Giant Peach

We knew the last set of pictures would buy us a little time before we had to blog again, but now we’re stretching it. Actually, we’ve all been a little under the weather with various and not totally identifiable ailments - mostly colds and allergies - so we’ve needed all the rest we could get.

Last Saturday, we didn’t do much except tutor and go to a new church, where we all three made new friends. P invited the mommy and Gabriel’s new friend to MOMS Club, and they joined on Tuesday, but we’ll get to that. The church was tiny but very nice. It had beautiful chandeliers and an all-wood ceiling. The music was the kind we grew up with, and the cantor was a little shaky, unlike the professionals at the Cathedral, so we liked it a lot. The only problem was that the priest's microphone wasn't working, so we couldn't hear very much of the mass out in the cry area/narthex. Gabriel behaved really well, thanks to Cheerios, a book, and people-watching.

On Sunday, we did a lot of housework and earned an outing to the toy store and Starbucks. We got Chip a puzzle ("things that go in the air") and toy (a Winnie the Pooh airplane, of course) with his Halloween money, and we used our Starbucks gift certificate to relax and people-watch for a while. While we were there, Gabriel decided to age 18 years. Here he is with his coffee at work sweeping the store:

On Tuesday, we had our MOMS Club new member breakfast at IHOP. There were probably over 20 babies there with their mommies, and we had a great time. Gabriel’s friend Ty made room for us so we could sit with them, and his new friend Christopher was there, too, and joined the club. Mommy ate chocolate chip pancakes for the first time at IHOP since she was a kid, and it was a special treat. Later that day, we went to a new park called Laurel Park and had a great time before we picked up Daddy from work.

Fast-forward to today. We went to the members-only preview of the expanded High Museum, and it was fantastic. We got to see the Andrew Wyeth exhibition, the relatively small African art section (briefly, until Chip tried to climb onto a throne), "Balzac Petanque", aka "Peaches and Pears" (by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, who did that crazy flag thing in Central Park among other, er, interesting things), and the Renzo Piano (he designed the new section of the High and is an amazing architect) architecture exhibit. We also listened to a great jazz band, where we waxed jazzy with an ivy league jazz professor. Gabriel played (who are we kidding, we all played) in the awesome new family art center, which is like a giant playground of art, where kids can draw with markers on glass while looking at their subject on the stool on the other side of the glass (see the photo of him drawing a "peaches and pears" still life, below - those things were everywhere!), build forts out of architectural pieces, dress like their favorite character in a painting, play with puppets, and create magnetic art on a metal wall. They can also build the High Museum from small blocks, and they can read books. We could have spent all day in that one room, but we moved on to a family workshop, where we all three pitched in to create a folk art angel, which is our first Christmas decoration this year. We had a great time. Oh, and we brought Flying Biscuit home for dinner. Woohoo! Here are a few photos from the museum:

The Old Gang

[Thanks, Diana, for the title] The little rascals got together again today at Jake's house, along with a new friend, Sophia. Gabriel gave his buddies kisses, and they all played very well together. Jonah and Chip seemed to have a conversation (although we'll be darned if we could tell you what they said), and they all three used the slide at the same time: one going up, one going down, and one sitting in the middle. Jake is very good at sharing his stuff with his friends.

After playgroup, we came home and made the hottest curry ever made. It nearly burned a hole right through the wok, and we're pretty sure that we will need to undergo gastric bypass surgery because of this, but it was darn worth it. If it weren't for the Thai jasmine rice and the beer, we would also need tongue transplants.

What we're watching right now: the first season of Lost, Extras, My Name Is Earl, How I Met Your Mother, No Reservations, Kitchen Confidential (both of which are Tony Bourdain joints), and Everybody Hates Chris. For Patty, add Trading Spouses, Wife Swap, My Fair Brady, America's Next Top Model, and the View. She's getting stupider by the minute.

What Chip's up to: He's finally getting the hang of sign language. He knows more (which also means "no more" and "eat" to him), the sign of the cross, bird, dog, plane, and he knows where his toes, feet, belly, belly button, and nose are. We're working on "thank you" next. "More" and "bird" are the only ones we've taught him; the others he's just picked up or invented.

He is also good at following directions. He will throw away things when we ask him to and turn off the lamp on Daddy's nightstand, and he turns on and off wall switches when we ask him to and also opens and closes the garage door even though there are two other switches next to that one. He sits down on the bottom step when it's time to put on his shoes, and he always brings us matching shoes for us or for him, depending on who needs the shoes. It's getting hard to keep track of everything!

May The Force Be With You

Sorry it's been so long, but we've been so busy doing Halloween stuff that we haven't had much time on the computer. It would have been impossible to pack more into this Halloween. We had a party at a retirement community, went to a fair, went on a night hike, and trick-or-treated. We're all Halloweened out! Here are some photos from our week, and the rest are at Shutterfly. It's password protected; please contact us for the password.

Party Time!

We had a great time at the Halloween party today with the MOMS Club. It was at The Legacy of Dallas, an active retirement community. Yoda spent the entire time walking from place to place, and he began by leading all the kids to the fountain, where they all splashed and made slipping hazards all over the floor.

Laura and Daniel left on Wednesday, ending almost a week of lots of fun. Gabriel adores his Aunt Laura and can't wait to see her again. Some of the highlights were going to the park after church on Sunday, where Chip and Laura threw dirt at each other and the Chipster pointed out dogs to Daddy, and just hanging out at the house. We grownups had a great dinner on Saturday night at Imperial Fez, although we had to take out a second mortgage on the house to pay for it.

Costume Crazy

We got it! By the time we got around to buying Chip's Halloween costume, it was sold out on every web site we could find (and we couldn't find it in any real stores, either). So we did what every other 21st-century consumer does: we went to eBay. We lost two auctions for it. One of those went from our $30 bid to $67, and the other went from our $36 bid to $76. Someone wanted to pay almost $80 for a costume! We were prepared to cut holes in a sheet for our little ghost, if sheets weren't so darned expensive.

Anyway, while we were watching those losing auctions, we continued to watch the e-stores and found one that restocked their costumes in Gabriel's size, so we bought one. Now, they've sold out again and the auctions are heating back up. One is currently at $66 and rising with just over half an hour to go.

We got our housewarming/anniversary present from Mom and Dad K today. Isn't it beautiful?!

You can see in the first photo in this post that we've been to the pumpkin patch. We went to Burt's Farm and couldn't believe how many people were there! You can see below just about half of the crowd. We stocked up on pumpkins and gourds of all sizes and have them all over the house and porches. It feels like autumn now. Here are some photos from our trip. Can you find Matt and the Chipster in the first one?

Since the mornings are beginning to get a little chilly, we figured that we should have the chimney cleaned. The next day, Tuesday, we had our first fire in our new home. Here's a picture:

And one more thing... it was Katie's birthday on the 9th of October, and although we thought about it for weeks ahead of time and many times since, we didn't call her or even send a card. BAD COUSINS!!!!! But Belated Happy Birthday, Katie, and just think - my dad got his birthday present a couple weeks ago, and his birthday was in August. That means that if you get a card before Christmas, you're way ahead of the game. Ha!