The Calm Before the *Storm*

Chilling for a moment before the birthday party; reading a dinosaur book with his cousin Dorian. T-minus two hours until go time.



The legs belong to Aunt JoAnne.

[*I mean that figuratively! You hear me clouds? FIGURATIVELY!]

Party of Five

The bouncy house has arrived.


Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Pap-Pap was here for the week, visiting from Virginia. As usual, it was a great visit. He and Kiernan got along famously and had a great time getting up at five in the morning together. Crazy.

Sandi sent a project along with my dad, a fall cookie project. This included a recipe for cookies Pap-Pap and Kiernan were to bake together, along with some fall-themed cookie cutters (a pumpkin, an acorn, and a leaf). Yesterday we stopped at the grocery store on the way home from school and grabbed some ingredients, and when we got home the two boys set about baking.


The cookies turned out pretty good, which was both a surprise and not a surprise. It was not a surprise considering the source of the recipe. Sandi is a world-class cookie baker, and the recipe was an interesting one, calling for a box of white cake mix as its primary ingredient. I was curious. The surprise was that the cookies turned out at all given that at the beginning of the process I had to explain to my father what a stick of butter was.

When all was said and done the boys turned out some pretty tasty cookies reminiscent of the cookies you get at Christmas time. Also, I've got a bowl full of dough in the fridge waiting to be baked. This is particularly fine as I just got back from the airport, where I dropped Pap-Pap off for his flight home. The promise of a week full of fresh cookies does little to help the fact that we miss him terribly, already...but I'm willing to let it help.

Thanks for the cookies, Sandi. And, most importantly, for sending Pap-Pap.


[Here we see the bakers after yours truly has pointed out that they forgot to include a key ingredient--chocolate chips--before rolling out the dough. I mean seriously. What is the world coming to? How does someone forget chocolate chips?]

A Sort of Homecoming

Saturday was a fairly busy day with a soccer game in the morning and a Harvest Festival at Kiernan's old school in the afternoon. The Harvest Festival is a yearly fundraising event at CSUN Lab School, where Kiernan went to pre-school. Oddly enough, this was the first year we could attend. In years past we've worked to help organize it (I was in charge of the bales of straw, if you must know) but have always been out of town for the event.

This year we were in town, and although Kiernan has moved on to a new school, we decided to attend the fundraiser at his old school. We decided to do this for a couple of reasons. First of all, we love the CSUN Lab School. It's such a wonderful place with incredible staff and faculty. So going to support them was a no-brainer. Also, Kiernan's BFF from pre-school--Nicholas--was sure to be there. Finally...cake walk. Who can resist a cake walk?

Well, I can, for one. Call it a 'pie walk' and I'm in. Cake walk? Meh.

Anyway, we went. As we drove up and scouted for a parking place Kiernan looked over at his old school and said, wistfully, "My old school!" Suddenly I heard Steely Dan in my head. Sweet.

We got there close to the beginning, so the festival was sparsely populated. It took a little while for Kiernan to warm up to the place. I love these moments, these moments when he gets all shy and hides behind my legs. When he won't let go of my hand. He's usually so gregarious, so outgoing. He's amazing at meeting people, which he totally gets from his mom. And I cannot tell you how happy I am about that. He makes friends so easily and naturally. But it's also nice to see this shyness crop up from time-to-time. It's nice to see a bit of me peeking through in these moments. He's a good mix.

Nicholas and his sister Veronica--pictured at the top of this post--arrived shortly after we did. It was beautiful. I mean Gone with the Wind beautiful. Okay, maybe not that, but it was pretty nice. They yelled and then ran to each other and wound up in a big hug. So cool. Moments later they were digging in the sand, as you can see over there to the right.

The Harvest Festival was a great success, and far more crowded than I would have imagined it would be. Although, to be honest, for Kiernan it was all about Nicholas. The games and activities and contests and food were of almost zero interest to him. All he cared about was seeing his friend.

But then...that's what homecoming should be, shouldn't it?

Picture of This Day

Kiernan's old school, the CSUN Lab School, had its annual Harvest Festival today. We dropped by and Kiernan was reunited with his best friend from preschool, Nicholas.


Saturday, November 7, 2009

Picture For This Day

Kiernan with his friend Sam, right before trick-or-treating. Kiernan is holding aloft Reader the Dog. More about him later.


Halloween Night
October 31, 2009

Also I carved these pumpkins. Kiernan and Wendy drew the patterns.