Summer 2011

I'm so far behind and have missed posting about a bunch of fun things we've done this summer. So here is a very brief rundown (especially for me!).

We went to the lake in Minnesota back in June. Hightlights for this year included the fact that we could not get Molly to stay out of the water, even though it was freezing (thank goodness for the wet suit), and with her life vest on she was able to swim around by herself and made us both very proud. She went on the "Disco" for the first time, which is a large flotation device pulled behind the boat at frightening speeds, to which she exclaimed, "this is the greatest thing i have ever done!" She became fascinted with fishing, and is determined to catch a fish someday. We hunted for dinosaur fossils and found a T-rex! (a model out of a box, but still) And she became a bit obsessed with her cousin's Nintendo DS and comic books. Here is all the fun summed up in 261 photos!


Near the end of the trip my camera went kaputz (AGAIN!) and so there aren't many more pics from the rest of the summer, but we did a ton of fun stuff!

The Montessori House of St. Johns had another ArtFest, here's a video of the kids singing their Summer Song...you can really hear Molly!


Charleston Ave had another block party, with special guest my brother-in-law Sean, which was awesome! We sang songs, played in kiddie pool and ate delicious food! Here are some pictures (mostly thanks to our wonderful neighbor Cosette and her super cool new camera).


Molly announced her "best friend" was Adriana from across the street! Here they are playing together, with wings of course. And Molly is in her "kid flash" costume (i mentioned the obsession with comic books, right? Tiny Titans is her current favorite)

Though you would not know it to look at it, we did a lot of work in the yard this summer. Check out Molly's gardening ensemble!

And we did get quite the strawberry crop this year!

Zero started up his historic walking tour of downtown St. Johns. If you find yourself in our neck of the woods on some Saturday morning, you should really go on it. Here is a sneak peek from his beta test tour for Shani, Sarah and I, with Molly as his sidekick...


and here is the "show" Molly refers to at the end. an interpretive dance showing the "spirit of St. Johns!"


Speaking of performance, here is a great (but long) video of Molly's singer/songwriter talents (she made up this song on the spot).


And last, but certainly not least, I finally listened to my friends and took the family to Enchanted Forest last weekend and we had so much fun! There were fairytale houses to explore, rides the whole family enjoyed and you could even pan for gold! Here is Molly and Zero at the entrance to the castle.

And here are a bunch of videos of our super fun day!

Molly and I talk about what we'll do at Enchanted Forest when we get there!


Molly and Zero go down the "there was an old lady who lived in a shoe" slide!


Molly tries out the bumper boats!


On the kiddie train - she wanted to go by herself, and ended up getting seated with another family - pretty cute.


A big girl all by herself on the ferris wheel. This was her favorite, next to the log ride of course!


[big thanks to Greg, Frank and Jen for convincing me it wasn't just some creepy place off the I-5!]

Hope everyone else is having a lovely summer as well!

ballet...and more!

Molly and her good friend Adriana, had their first ballet class last Saturday! between Cosette (Adriana's mom) and i, we got tons of great pictures of the girls twirling, and jumping, and dancing on tip-toes! they went to two classes, to see which they would like best. the first was very fun, with lots of jumping and running around, it was call Twirling 2s and 3s. then they stayed for the pre-ballet class, which was more subdued and they learned about ballet, did their feet positions, and pliés. both girls enjoyed the fun and frolic of the first class, but really seemed to enjoy the second class. and when we asked them later, they decided pre-ballet was their thing. so we'll be back for that next week! here is a slideshow of the wonderful morning...


i also took some videos, of course!

this first one is from the first class, where they got to jump and roll on mats! notice her and Adriana holding hands, they are such good friends! BFFs!



this is also from the first class, all the little girls on tip-toes! and check out all the tutus! speaking of tutus, Molly is wearing one that she got for her birthday from her Aunt Beth and Cousin Sinead! so pretty! the leotard and tights and ballet slippers are all hand-me-downs - what a beauty!



this is from the second class, Molly "being a star" - i think she went first, note how all the other little girls copy exactly what she does! :)



and here they are doing pliés, including grand pliés (which Molly calls "wrong pliés")



also, i have to take this moment to brag about my BRILLIANT child! of course, many of you have heard this (i've been telling everyone is see!). this past Monday night we were working on Valentines and when we started, i'd show Molly where the 'To' spot was and the 'From' spot and she would doodle in both. we did one for my mom and she wanted to put an 'M' for Molly, so we did that. and then honestly, i wasn't paying much attention while she was working on one for Grandma Mike when i heard her say, "M-O-L-L-Y" and then she handed me the Valentine and well, she had written her name! perfectly! just take a look!!now i should mention that after writing her name several times, she decided to go see daddy for a bit, and when she returned she had no memory of writing her name and insisted she didn't know how. so i'm guessing this is going to be a lot like rolling over for her, she does it once, causes me to totally freak out with joy, and then we don't see it again for a while. but seriously, it was the coolest moment since she crawled for the first time. wahoo!

so with that, i say farewell from the little ballerina, hope everyone is doing well and keeping on their toes!

happy things

as you all know, we've had some tough times recently - thank you to everyone for their kindness and support - but we've had some happy times too. i wanted to share a couple.

first, another song from Molly. they've been learning all about building houses in school, and what it's like to be a carpenter, and Molly's become quite knowledgeable about pipes and wiring and foundations. it's wild to be having a conversation with her about the pipes used to bring water into the house, or sheet rock, but that's our genius girl for you! here's her latest song with some interpretive dance in the background by her father.


also, we've had so much fun with her many, many amazing Christmas gifts. some of her current favorites being her TAG books, all of her new games like Candyland, Shutes & Ladders, Eric Carle's ABC and Memory, and her new wooden blocks. here is one of her latest block creations, a combo fireplace / space station. it was a surprise for me, probably because she knows i really want to be a astronaut, and i like fire places. cool!

and speaking of Christmas presents, Zero and i got a cookbook this year from my Uncle Lonny and Aunt Ritsu on traditional Hawaiian cuisine, in which they talk about Hawaiian plate lunches, one of Zero's favorites! he's been reading through the cookbook/history since we got it, and this past week made his first meal from it. he made adobo chicken, pickled cabbage and (of course!) mac salad. i BBQed up some tofu and we got some POG, and sat down to a delish Hawaiian plate lunch. Molly enjoyed it as well. thanks Lonny and Ritsu!

lastly, Molly's really getting interested and excited about letters. we work with letters here at home, and they do at school, and she's starting to recognize them more, and in the case of M and O, write them herself! just today, after writing several Os, she said to me, i'm going to write and M now, and sure enough, she did - near the top left of the picture, isn't that a perfect M?! she also drew a cat today, with ears and claws, and an owl with a beak. yep...brilliant!

take care one and all!

Fall is in the air

we'll start this post off with a song for you...


is that not adorable?! she learns so many songs at her preschool, and with that amazing, sponge-like brain of hers, she hears it once and boom, she's got it. there's a whole second verse to this that she just sang to me at the park today. too cute!

of course, she also likes to play with it too, she's a bit of remix-er...


so fall is here, i guess, the weather has been pretty much cold and wet most of the summer so it's hard to differentiate seasons anymore. but according to the calendar fall is here. which means, i had a birthday! for my birthday this year, Molly and Zero gave me a hammock and wind chime (that Molly hand-painted!). here is a little slideshow with Molly and Auntie Shani playing in the hammock!
you can see the wind chime hanging from one of the hammock posts. it's like my own little paradise in the backyard!



for my birthday a group of friends came together and after some craziness and tears (on my part) we met up at one of Portland's famous food cart pods in North Portland and had a wonderful time trying all different kinds of food and topping things off with the best salted caramel ice cream, ever! Molly enjoyed the chocolate ice cream herself! i got some delicious homemade beer, a lovely bottle of wine, some handmade note cards and a chance to hang out with my really wonderful friends and family. i'm a very lucky woman!

a week later, a group of us came together for the 1st Annual Birthwich 2010 (a sandwich making birthday party) for myself and friend Scott whose bday is a couple weeks after mine. Scott and i love sandwiches! it was really fun and Auntie Shani made a beautiful cake which Molly helped her decorate.

i should also mention that for my birthday, my mom spoiled me with a flip video camera! which is why this post (and possibly all future posts) is chock full of videos. it's almost too easy to do!!

fall means the days are getting shorter and in the evenings before bed, we read a couple stories out-loud, but we also take some time to read our own books quietly. i instituted this for two reasons, 1) i'm slowing working towards Molly reading herself to sleep in a few years and 2) i needed some time to read myself! plus it's some nice quiet time before we all hit the hay. but on this night, Molly decided she was going to read aloud to me from the book i was currently reading, Discord's Apple. the plot took a real turn on the chapter Molly read!
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notice she can read right-side up and upside down!

so, we all know Molly is very advanced and a genius child, and she amazes us pretty much constantly. but one thing that has really blown my socks off lately is her work with her magna-tiles. first off, huge thanks to Grandma Mike for giving us magna-tiles for xmas last year (i think they were mostly a gift for me, but Molly has really taken to them!). she'll spend long stretches of time completely absorbed by them, building all kinds of different buildings and landscapes. i remember the first time i came home and there was this amazing structure in the middle of the living room. Zero had this goofy grin which i took to mean, "see what i did, isn't it cool?" so i said, "good job honey." and that's when he burst out, "no, it wasn't me! it was all Molly! she built it all by herself!" i didn't believe him really till she did the exact same thing on my watch. here is her giving a little tour of one of her "high-tech" barns (she likes to make things "high-tech" - no idea where she picked up that term).

Hey Papa...i see a future engineer! it just skips a couple generations! ;)

an engineer maybe, but she's still very much a girl. take this picture to the right.
every once in a while she insists on putting on every last piece of jewelry, and every frilly dress-up item she owns. it doesn't last long, but it's fun. i dress up too of course.

so fall means my birthday, but it also means a couple other big events. Zero and i will celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary on October 27 (17th year as a couple was on October 4th) and Harley, our sweet, sweet poochie will turn 16 on Halloween! but another big day happens on October 29th...Molly's Birthday!

every day Molly finds something new she loves to do. she learns a new word or new song. she figures out something she's been struggling with. she acts up in a whole new way. it's wonderful! (and exhausting) i can't believe she turns three on October 29th. how time flies! speaking of which, we have the party of the century next week (i won't even tell you how many people are coming, you wouldn't believe me if i did). and after that BOTH GRANDMAS are coming for our annual bday trip to the beach! what a lucky girl! i'll try and get some pictures and video up in early November from her bday celebrations (plural). in the meantime...

SMOOCHES DARLINGS!

we're baaaack!

ha! you thought you'd never hear from me again (heck, i thought you'd never hear from me again), but we were both wrong! (and the crowd goes wild)

i had to make some tough choices in regards to how i spend my awake time, and i decided that a) i needed to get more sleep (of course, after 2+ years of sleep deprivation, i'm finding that no amount of sleep is going to repair all the damage done to my addled brain, but i got to try, right?), b) i needed to spend my time with Molly actually being with Molly and not wondering how i could post about being with Molly, and c) i needed to put the camera down at least once in a while.

but it's hard, this blog is a great way to not only keep everyone informed of her goings-on but to chronicle her milestones - something for her to look back on - which is good because you can't rely on my memory anymore (see Point A above, lack sleep = addled bran). but my hiatus has meant there are some big gaps, which makes me sad. now that Molly is in preschool on Fridays (one of my days off), i've got a bit of free time every week to keep all of her wonderful friends and family up-to-date on her adventures. and it doesn't mean taking time away from her (or sleep) so i don't feel so guilty. a win-win! this post will most likely be epic, as we've months to catch up on, but i will do my best to keep it brief (not my strongest suit, i realize) and you really want to read to the end, cuz there are cute pictures of Molly with an adorable baby! and some priceless videos!

where to begin...

we last left off with Molly's first day of school back in May. she is loving school and starting this month is up to five days a week. it feels like a lot to Zero and i, she's such a little girl still, but she honestly loves it. i went to pick her up early one day and she didn't speak to me for hours (except to say she wanted to go back to school). i watch her with her little friends and she is just so happy and smiley. she talks about them all the time and she's learning so many new things. a couple highlights...one morning, she's sitting on the potty (did i mention we are completely diaper free now and have been for a few months, yippee!) and she starts belting out Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Zero and i look at each other and shrug, neither of us is into Evita. then she starts telling us about Argentina, how it's in South America, she can point to it on her globe, etc. At the end of the week we get her notebook where her teachers let us know what she's been up to and sure enough, the day before, they had had a lesson on Argentina (which included dancing around to the song). hilarious!

also, toward the end of August her whole class had an art show, called ArtFest, to raise money for the school and celebrate the kids who were moving on to Kindergarten. it was a wonderful event that showed off the children's paintings, sculptures and photographs. Molly displayed a couple photographs she had taken at school, a paper towel roll sculpture she did of a blue house with a chimney that she titled "Papa Goof's House" (we have no idea why), and a painting she did of a "dinosaur in a tree house" (in the photo to the left, it's the one on the bottom with the red border!).

also at the event the kids put on a little performance. they sang two songs up on stage. Molly was amazing, she had the biggest smile i've ever seen on her, her eyes lit up, she sang her heart out and did all the movements that went along with the songs, it was wonderful to see! except for that you couldn't. she stood directly behind all the big girls and you couldn't see her at all (see the photo to the right, if you open it up, you'll see i've pointed out Molly - or what you can see of her). she didn't even care that she was completely blocked, she still sang her heart out. our sweet little girl! i tried to get video, but ended up hitting the wrong button (argh!) but i did manage to get this little video ahead of time with all the kids screaming for Annie, one of the big girls who was moving on to Kindergarten. you can sort of see Molly to the right of the girl in pink. Molly is wearing a blue dress.


earlier in the spring and summer we celebrated our friends Adriana and Jasper's 2nd birthdays, partook in the annual St. Johns Parade, saw our friend Jane get married, went on another Sunday Parkways adventure and made our yearly pilgrimage to beautiful Northern Minnesota where we spent time with the Feeney clan (pictured to the right). it was another cold, wet one, but we had tons of fun nonetheless. here is a lengthy slide show of our trip...


upon our return we had our 2nd Annual Charleston Ave Block Party. have i mentioned how much i love our neighborhood? well, i do! the best was when our neighbor Josh got out his guitar and Molly got her harmonica and they jammed together!


and right after that we went to California for my 20-year high school reunion (i'm getting so old!). it was great to hang out with the entire high school crew and all their kids. i made some fantastic forever friendships in middle and high school, i'm so lucky. i can only wish the same for Molly.


this was immediately followed by my first ever triathlon. it was a sprint triathlon, but still kinda tough. and much like not taking time away from Molly to work on the blog (or clean the house, or take showers, etc.) i didn't want to take time away to train. but for a few months before, i was running, biking and swimming twice a week. it meant very early mornings for me, and i've completely fallen off since the event. but hope to get back on that bandwagon soon, because i loved it and plan to do it again next year. the best part, the very best part...was seeing the look on Zero and Molly's faces as i passed by (check out the picture at the very top of this post) and at the finish line (pictured here). you simply couldn't ask for a better cheering section!

so that takes us to August...phew! August was the ArtFest mentioned earlier and washing the very dirty car (i just had to include this shot, look at her getup!) and our neighbor Mishya's 9th birthday party, and tons more stuff i can't even remember. this hasn't been a true summer in Portland, weather-wise, i think we had about 2 weeks of real summer, so we haven't gotten out and done a ton of things.

but one thing we were able to do a few times was get to the Portland Beavers baseball games. the Beavers have been around since 1903 and this was their last season here in Portland. the city has let them go in favor of soccer (boo!)...and just when we were getting into it! Molly loved going to the games, she would cheer the team on, enjoyed the popcorn, and most of all, had a huge crush on their mascot, Lucky the Beaver. our very good friend Denise got her a glove (and a hat, and a pennant, and so on) and we were lucky enough to get Lucky to sign her glove (no pun intended). Molly was so thrilled. she asks about Lucky often, not sure how to tell her he's gone for now (hopefully Portland will wise up and get their Beavers back some day). in the meantime, Roosevelt High School's sports teams are playing again, so we'll cheer them on! this year, we're going to check out volleyball. go roughriders!

and that brings us to September. the big news for September? first train ride! we took Amtrak up to see our very good friends in Bellingham, WA. what a great way to go. you can wander up and down the aisles, you don't have to be strapped into a car seat, lots of leg room (for Molly), great scenery, and a bistro car! plus Molly met and totally hit it off with some little girls across the aisle from us who happen to live in St. Johns too - cool. she told everyone she saw on the train she was on her way to Kell's house.

you may remember Kell from earlier this year and back in 2008. well now big Kell (almost 4!) has a little sister, Tessa! Molly fell totally and madly in love with Tessa (as you can see from this picture). Tessa was truly the highlight of this visit, along with getting to see her daddy Drew play with his band, "Assisted Living" at an anniversary party on Lake Whatcom. beautiful view, great music and good fun.

the whole experience did make me a bit nervous about Molly's future however, as she kept attacking Kell (with hugs mind you) and tackling him to the ground with her embrace. may i present Exhibit A, Hope and baby Tessa lead the children in a nice little conga line, and then...

and yes, i think that is the sound of Kell's head hitting the ground, but he popped right back up!

and Exhibit B, everything seems nice, good music, fun times and then...

and by the way, that's Drew singing "Brown Eyed Girl" - isn't he awesome?! he's also obviously great on the guitar and plays a mean harmonica!

so this coupled with the fact that Molly was totally fascinated with and kept running up to this one woman there who was all makeup and tan, with bleached blond hair, wearing jean shorts, doing this odd cowboy-like dance, and being flirty. here she is leading her own conga line (starts about 10 seconds in)...

that lady was a groupie, through and through. and Kell looked appropriately frightened, but Molly looked like she wanted to join right in. but i have to say, the lady was really nice. Molly kept interrupting her conversations with other people and she would stop and talk to her. and she was having a ton of fun, so maybe Molly's on the right track!

many more wonderful pictures here, with lots of baby Tessa!...


which leads us to today, the last day of my 37th year, tomorrow is my birthday. this was my birthday present to myself, taking the time to start up the blog again. i hope to keep it up on my fridays. it may not be as important as sleep, but it's important to me, and that means something. it is my sincere hope that this finds you all well. our love to everyone!

update from Mollyland

things are pretty fun and exciting here in Mollyland. here are some examples of what Mollyland is currently offering...

a phrase we hear often around our house is, "you be Oscar, daddy is Cookie Monster, i'll be Big Bird" or "i'm Mary Ann, you're Mike Mulligan, daddy's Henry B. Swift" (all characters from Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton) or in the case of the picture here, "i'm a princess, mommy's a mommy princess and daddy's a daddy princess". and then we all run around pretending to be princesses which usually involves some flying and using tools to fix things. we are very talented princesses! Molly's imagination is in full swing, and i think we have a little actor here, rather than a little librarian. ah well, i do like theater!

of course she may be destined for a different kind of performance...

for those that didn't know, her father was a dancer before he started acting, and Molly seems to be following in his footsteps there as well. actually, more in the footsteps of one of her favorite books, Josephine Wants to Dance, about a kangaroo who discovers ballet and against all odds, becomes the prima ballerina! and actually, i love to boogie too, so she was destined to have dancin' feet. in the video above (and yes, it does look like maybe she's picking her nose, but what can you expect, she's a toddler!) you'll note that she's wearing a red sock on one hand. she likes to wear it around - a la Michael Jackson - and say she's Santa Claus. we may not stop talking about Santa in this house until next December!


so as you can hear, she can also really belt out the songs. one day, many, many weeks ago now i was home from work, sick in bed, and Molly climbed in with me, stood up and sang in full "abc", "twinkle, twinkle", "baa, baa, black sheep", "farmer in the dell", and "sing, sing a song". she has added many songs to her repertoire since then, including Bruce Springstein's version of Bob Seger's Pay Me My Money Down, almost every song ever sung on Sesame Street, a couple sea shanties, and a few she's made up herself on a variety of topics such as snack time and mommy's boots. singer songwriter? perhaps! here are a couple videos of two songs she made up about Clifford the Big Red Dog after she saw him at the Portland Children's Museum. the first song focused on "Clifford" and is a bit more mellow, the second is more about his coloring..."red"...and gets pretty rock n' roll. you'll note there's even a performance injury at the end!



or maybe a different art medium? like painting! for Christmas her great-grand Papa and auntie Sharon gave her finger paints. we already need to buy more, she wants to paint all the time. and our collection of "masterpieces" is growing on the wall. here is a little video of her painting. you'll note she talks about big bird, and Karl (from the Zen books with Stillwater the Panda). you'll also note that at some point she gets paint on her fingers, tries to shake it off, and then chooses to lick it off (which is where i quickly turn off the camera).


we keep mentioning Sesame Street...we had been reading Elmo books and the like for some time, but when she turned two we started watching a little "tv" (DVDs on the computer) and Sesame Street was one of the first. we instituted popcorn and Sesame Street nights on Sundays and Thursdays. after dinner, when the dishes have been cleared, i make popcorn on the stove, and we all sit down and watch Big Bird and Ernie and Bert and the whole gang. other favorite shows of Molly's are Bob the Builder, Handy Manny and Blue's Clues. Auntie Sarah recently introduced us to Yo Gabba Gabba, that for me feels like what a psycholdelic trip must feel like (and not necessarily a good one), but Molly loves it, of course, so we may need to add it to the rotation. the picture above of Molly and Zero eating popcorn totally cracks me up! check out those silly faces! like father, like daughter!

another current family tradition is going to see high school basketball games at Molly's future high school! those of you who have known me a while know that i played basketball all through high school, and loved it! Molly seems to love it too! she can actually sit through an entire basketball game, we are constantly getting comments from people who are amazed by it. we bring her pom-pom and at half time she runs around and makes friends with other little kids. she yells "Go Riders" and "Go Roosevelt" and claps and talks about the "girls running" and the "girls throwing the ball". and if the concession stand is open, we get popcorn. good times!

Molly's love of reading is still very strong. she picks up books, sits down and reads them to herself! she's memorized them word for word and as i read books to her i watch as her mouth moves along to every word i'm saying. and this is not just one or two books, oh no, this is twenty, thirty or more - she currently has over 50 things checked out from the library, and she reads them all! this very morning we co-read A Wish for Things That Work - i would read a line and then she would say a line - she's brilliant i tell ya! she asks to be read books many times a day, and she takes the stories we read about and uses that amazing imagination of hers and builds on them - it's wonderful! and i think all this reading may be the reason why we can have entire conversations with her already, which i wasn't expecting quite so young. her language ability is quite astounding. at lunch today she said to me, "i am going to walk you to work with mr. ant [an imaginary friend] and he will say 'i want to go back to Molly's house' and i will say, 'no, not yet' and we will walk you to work". wow!

she is also starting to truly make friends. not that she didn't have friends before, but now at play gym she'll actually walk up to some other little person and ask if they want to play ball with her or run around. she has one little friend named Rowan who she likes very much! due to my work schedule, i rarely make it to play gym, but lately on Fridays we've been going together. i had heard her talk about Rowan, but had never met her, so when Molly introduced me to her it was very exciting. last Friday when we showed up, Rowan ran across the gym yelling "Mollly!" and they gave each other a huge hug. this is a picture of them playing together!

and speaking of friends, last month we were finally able to see our very, very good friends Hope, Drew and Kell. the last time Kell and Molly saw each other, she was only four months old. Kell was the big boy at 15 months, and i remember being so amazed at his ability to walk, and sign, and eat solid food with all of those teeth he had! this time, Kell had just turned 3 and he blew my mind again - he is an amazing little boy! and so are his totally awesome parents - if only we could convince them to move to Portland...ah well! you'll note in the pictures here, compared to the last time they saw each other, they are much closer in size. and they played together quite well! they played with cars, listened to stories together, were thrown dangerously around by their fathers (us mothers couldn't even be in the same room), threw rocks into the water at the park, and took a bath (of which we got the best video ever, but it will forever have to stay within our two families as there is some brief nudity).

so yes, the adventures here are great indeed, and sometimes we even dress the part! especially if there are boots involved. to the left was her get up to go hike around the Columbia Slough last weekend. she's starting to get into clothes, and want to play dress up (as you saw earlier in the post). it does make getting dressed a bit easier, she doesn't always insist on being naked anymore and fighting clothes. you just have to let her pick her own thing out, which can mean you end up with something quite "loud", but hey, i'll take it! sometimes it doesn't work out so well though, as you can see to the right, we only managed to get half-way dressed (and i think those boots might be a bit big for her).

thanks for enduring this super long post - i get to it so rarely anymore and then i have so much to tell you all! and this time, thanks to my new iPod Nano with built in video recorder and my friend Steph's flip video camera, we actually had some video to share, which is nice. for our final shot today, here is Molly and her friends all cozy in bed together.
so long, for now, from Mollyland! take care everyone!

gobble, gobble!

this turkey day we took a "jet plane" (as Molly likes to refer to it) down to bright and sunny Arizona to be with the Feeney half of the family.

Molly was, once again, an amazing traveler. we got up at 4:30 a.m. to make the flight and ended up having to sit in the plane, at the gate, for an hour while they decided about the safety of a dent in its side. Molly played and read and pretended to be the pilot and never once complained. did you know those buttons on your armrests do more than just move your seat back? Molly explained to us they actually help the plan take off and land - maybe that's why they don't want people messing with them during takeoff and landing. Molly of course is an experienced pilot so everything was ok!

as a special treat, we got her a big bird as a surprise for the trip and the minute she laid eyes on him she lit up like i've never seen before. she explained to him all about the airport and the jet planes and going to see Grandma and Erin and Ryan and on, and on. big bird was filled in and ready to go! here they are relaxing on the plane together...

Molly had been asking for weeks about "going to see Grandma Mike?", so when we arrived in Phoenix and she actually got to see her, it was very exciting and there was much waving at Grandma's car.

we stayed that first night in Phoenix at aunt Erin's and when we got to the house we saw cousin Sara (who Molly kept calling aunt Erin, but it all got worked out eventually). Sara is almost 16, has her learner's permit and talks about which colleges she's going to apply to...this freaks me out. i knew her when she was smaller than a bread-box, and now she's talking about college majors. where does the time go? i know that too soon Molly will be wanting to drive a car and go to a college on the other side of the country and i just can't handle that. nope, i've decided, she will live with us forever! :)

that evening we got to see our friends Dan, Mary Jane and Faith again. we went to their house for dinner where Faith was a most fantastic hostess! she is a beautiful, smart, gracious little girl with a wonderful imagination! i wish Faith and Molly could see each other more often. Molly and Faith played, us grownups talked, and it was a really lovely time. and to top it all off, Molly had her first ice cream sunday with sprinkles. delish! here are the girls smiling for the cameras (plural).

the next day we took our time getting started for the day and Molly got to see cousins Ryan and New Year - whom she adores! Ryan showed Molly around and let her play with all his toys. Molly especially liked the little playhouse in the backyard (to the right). and when we took Ryan to preschool later that morning, Molly was very upset she didn't get to stay and go to school with him - there were many tears! back at the house New Year played with her and helped her make a sticker book. she is very good with kids and Molly really enjoys playing with New Year (and i feel safe knowing i can step away and do some things and Molly is in good hands).

once everything was re-packed, dishes were cleaned and we were all dressed - it was time to drive up to Payson to Grandma's house. it is a beautiful drive to "Rim Country" with many saguaro cactus along the way. the minute we arrived in Arizona Molly was shielding her eyes and exclaiming, "bright! so bright!" her daddy and her have an aversion to sun (which is why Portland is the perfect place for them to live!) but personally, i was loving it, and the drive was breathtaking with blue skies and desert landscape. but in Molly's case, we were very glad to have a pair of Ryan's sunglasses (with spiderman on them no less!) to help with the brightness factor. plus, she looked stylin'! check out the shot to the left of our arrival in Payson...what a cutie!

by the end of the day, everyone had arrived. Grandma Mike's house is so spacious that we all had a room to stay in and our own bathroom. plus the kitchen is big enough to handle all of us in there chatting and cooking. it is the perfect place for holiday get-togehers! (and it's for sale, so if you know someone looking to move to the desert, let's talk!) that night we stayed up late, catching up, and i went ahead and threw together sweet potato casserole for dinner the next day (Zero's favorite). i really enjoy being part of the Feeney family, they are really, really good people. people make jokes about in-laws, and i just thank my lucky stars that i hooked up with the most perfect guy and his totally awesome family. and i am very thankful that these are Molly's people! to the right is a shot of Molly with most of her cousins (Declan and Sara were elsewhere). you've got Sinead, New Year, aunt Erin and Ryan all surrounding Molly on the couch. what fun!

Thanksgiving day was a blur (though it was the first day we got Molly to take a real nap, which was nice). everyone was hustling and bustling, cooking and caretaking and having fun. Molly got to watch part of the Thanksgiving day parade. when she saw Kermit the Frog floating by she totally knew who he was and screamed it out. very cute. and she like Pokemon, though she kept referring to him as the bunny. and whenever they showed a marching band or singers or dancers, she of course danced around. Sara, the young lady who is growing up way too fast, is an amazing cook. she made several things for Thanksgiving dinner including an amazing (vegetarian!) roasted pumpkin and leek pasta dish with goat cheese, and some amazing desserts (pictured here). her goal is to become ridiculously rich, but i think she should become my personal chef instead. the pay is bad, but i'd be very, very appreciative! :)

we also got a visit from the Thanksgiving superhero, Super Molly and her sidekick, Bikini Panda. here is a little slideshow:
the mask was cousin Ryan's, the panda belongs to Sinead, and the little bed is for New Year's American Girl dolls. what a combination that made!

after Molly managed her second good nap in a row, we took some time to walk around and check out the beautiful views from Grandma's house. here is one spectacular view from deck leading out from the front door. did i mention the house is for sale?:)

dinner time came and the table looked amazing. friends and family came together and we had a wonderful feast! there was butternut squash soup, the most amazing potatoes you've ever eaten, and for the meat-eaters, a beautiful turkey with cornbread stuffing. for dessert there was pumpkin torte and chocolate-covered cookie dough balls (my new obsession). and so much more! we were all very happy and very thankful!

the next day aunt Beth, Erin and cousin Sara were brave and got up to face "Black Thursday" at the Payson Walmart, and we all went and toured some houses in Payson that Grandma Mike likes. the day flew by and before we knew it, we were back in the car heading to Phoenix for our flight back to Portland. uncle Sean and New Year drove us back and we had a great time singing together in the car. if only i had a recorder to capture the entire car singing the theme song to Sesame Street with a certain special inflection of the word sweet in the line "where the air is sweet" - kinda reminiscent of sa-weet! what fun!

we got to the airport with time to spare and got to watch the planes taking off and landing, one of Molly's favorite past times! Molly was such a big girl, she walked up to the ticket agent and handed her her ticket, and marched down the jetway. she even stopped to chat with the pilot! and once again, she did a great job on the plane (though we have to remember lollipops next time, because her ears seem to really be bothering her on landings). we got in early this time, and made it home without a hitch. tired, but so thankful for our wonderful trip.

we hope your Turkey day was wonderful and that you're enjoying this holiday season. big hugs to everyone!