Living in Munchkinland

We spent the last five days in Taos. It was our annual "trip with no kids" that we do with mom and dad every fall. We chose to go to Taos this year because the dates of our trip aligned with the Taos Balloon Rally. Michael had balloon festival on his bucket list and we were so excited to attend. We also really wanted to see some fall foliage and mom told us that we would surely see the aspens, willows and cottonwoods in their fall glory. We were sold! We flew to Taos on Thursday and after a full day of travel, arrived in time to drop off our stuff at the house and make it to KTAOS for happy hour. KTAOS is my happy place. We drank and ate and had a wonderful time. It was my dad's birthday so we had lots to celebrate! Friday morning we got up and went to brunch at Gutiz. I love their food there. After breakfast we drove to the Fechin house were we saw some truly amazing art and architecture. I highly recommend that you go there if you are in Taos. When we lef...

Before the party, we had a fabulous Saturday afternoon. We took a break from party planning and house cleaning and took the boys the San Marcos courthouse square for Foodstock. From their facebook page, here is a description of their mission. FOODSTOCK is a concert & benefit for the Hays County Food Bank. This free show and event happens three times a year on the San Marcos Courthouse Lawn. Though the event is free, the Hays County Food Bank staff will be on hand accepting fresh produce, non-perishable food items, and monetary donations. Your donations will go directly to feeding those in the community who need our help. Visit http://haysfoodbank.org/ for more information on the Hays County Food Bank and its mission. We love to go to foodstock. This time the Derailers were playing and they were awesome. The weather was cool and crisp- perfect fall weather with bright sunshine. We met all our friends there and spread out picnic blankets on the courthouse lawn. The kids ran ...

We had a fabulous party last night to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. It was also Uncle Larry and Sean's birthdays and my mom's birthday is a week away, so we celebrated everybody! My sister made 25 buttons that said, "It's my birthday!", and we handed them out to anyone who had a birthday with a week or so. It was so fun. The theme was New Orleans and we flew in our favorite musician, Miss Sophie Lee and her band. She plays Thursday nights at the Spotted Cat and we always go to see her when we fly in. I can't believe we got her to agree to come! She was so amazing. Michael and I got to pick her up from the airport on Sunday morning. The kids made a sign and we stood at the bottom of the escalator to greet them. We worked so hard to make the party festive. Tiffany and Keith made a gorgeous banner to hang behind the pool and they made cups with the birthday boys' names on them with their favorite beverage. Dad and Mom and I hung tons and t...

I emphasize third because yesterday I excitedly blogged that he had lost his first tooth. This morning he matter of factly informed me that this was his third tooth and asked me why I didn't remember the others. Ooops. It was a long time ago! So, anyway, it was so long ago, that this lost tooth was all the more exciting! And the tooth fairy did not forget, so that's a point back to me. The gap looks huge since his teeth had big spaces inbetween anyway, and all his s's sound like, th which has been great fun around here.

I made this last night and it was delicious. Cutting up the pumpkin took some wrist strength, but other than that, this was so simple! I topped mine with generous squeeze of sriracha and left off the cilantro because I didn't have any. Crock Pot Pumpkin Lentil Stew A perfect fall crock pot recipe, this Pumpkin Lentil Stew is not only hearty and delicious, but very healthy and satisfying. A great low calorie recipe idea for a chilly fall day. Ingredients 2lbs fresh pumpkin, cut into bite sized pieces (butternut squash can also be used) 1 cup green lentils 1 large onion, finely chopped 4 cups fat free vegetable broth 2 tbsp tomato paste Juice from 1 lime 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp ground ginger 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp salt (or more to taste) 1/2 tsp black pepper 1/2 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt Fresh cilantro, chopped Instructions In a 4qt slow cooker, combine all ingredients except yogurt and cilantro. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. When ready to...

Michael's Uncle Roy passed away last week, unexpectedly. We were all shocked and are so sad. He was so interesting and smart and funny and kind. He always took such an interest in our family and supported us so much. We will miss him very much. Here is some information about him from his memorial page. Full Name: Roy Phillips "Bunky" Miers Roy "Bunky" Miers was a true public servant who never knew a stranger. To know him was to love him. His smile was full of warmth and friendship and he always went out of his way to be gracious and kind to everyone he met. He was born in Dumas Texas to Roy Samuel "Shorty" and Mary Miers. He remained in the Panhandle until the 1980s. He then spent over 25 years in Kansas City, Missouri where he had a large and wonderful circle of friends and was a very active volunteer with Meals on Wheels. In 2005 Roy decided it was time to return to his true native Texas & and he moved to Sugar Land, Texas to be n...

We had a lovely, rainy weekend filled with friends. I had such a good time, which I needed 'cause I was seriously down in the dumps on Friday. Saturday started out well with a nice run for me. Then I cleaned the house and went to get my hair done. This was so overdue and I had a lot of grey hair showing! Corey put my hair up into a super cute up-do when we were done. I drove home and picked up Michael and the boys and the picnic basket and we headed to the pumpkin patch to meet up with our friends. The threat of rain had loomed over this outing all week and I was worried we would have to cancel, but despite the overcast skies, no rain had fallen and everyone agreed to brave the weather and attempt the pumpkin patch outing. We got there and it was hot and muggy, but the pumpkin patch itself was beautiful and not too crowded and all our friends were there and so I was happy. The kids all played together and had a great time and Cheris took a cute family pic of us in front o...

Monday: Maple Baked Sweet Potato Lentils Tuesday: Taco Salad Wednesday: Pasta Con Broccoli with Chickpeas Thursday: Quinoa and Rice salad with Nuts, Chopped veg, dried fruit with miso sesame dressing Friday: Roasted Red Pepper and Chickpea Soup

We had our fall campout at Palmetto State Park this weekend with the cubscouts. We drove down Friday night and came back Sunday by noon.Here are some highlights: 1. Our new tent is awesome and water tight. We discovered the water tight part during the torrential rainstorm on Saturday night. 2. When the weather is 800 million degrees at night like it was on Friday night, you can take off the rain guard and watch the stars through the mesh dome of the tent. It's slightly cooler and very beautiful. 3. I cooked breakfast for 33 tigers. It looked like vomit, but according to Michael, it tasted good. My foodie pride has been crushed. 4. I always decide that I will never camp again on the first day of the campout. 5. The kids had the best time ever. They played baseball, football, frisbee, washers. They went fishing and hiked and biked all over the playground. They stayed up late and made s'mores and played with flashlights. 5. Davis got his new pocket knife and learned...

Davis is all about how things work. Often he starts conversations with me that go like this, "Mommy, do you want to hear about how I would make a propellor that spun faster than the rest? First, you would get one propellor that would spin way and another that would spin the other way. You would get two fans from an air conditioner and ...put a gear that meshes perfectly in the one and get two small gears about 1/4 the size of the propellor inside...you hook up any ww2 plane engine...pulley...gear..." I tune out and come back in, but this can go on for a good fifteen minutes. Do I even need to tell you that he loves legos? And that his amazon wishlist is full of lego gears and motors? That he wants to build his own go-cart? His dream is to grow up and design solar cars. Let me know if you have any suggestions of great camps or classes or activities that he would enjoy with this theme. He can't get enough of it.