Stacie and Zach » Family

Take Three; finally!

stacie — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:08:05 +0000

This is it! The last installment of Halloween posts. Thank goodness. I thought it might be December before I got caught up… I think I’ll still be behind, but less so.
On Halloween India’s school had pajama day. Rather than deal with the distracting costumes and all the blood and gore, they decided to host a story telling day. I volunteered to read to the class. Rather than read any old story, I brought in Cinderella Skeleton and even dressed up as one of India’s progenitors visiting from the grave. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. I am going in every Wednesday to help with reading time and each week I’ve gone a kid has mentioned the skeleton costume. I wonder how long my fame will last.
Ezra and I were dressed to the hilt. Too bad it was 8am. Once we came home it was bath time. That black hair spray is really messy. On our way out of the house Ez dragged his hands across our white wall. You should have see the look on Zach’s face. I told him it would come off… not to worry. And it did, easy as pie (does that mean it was easy, ’cause pie ain’t all that easy for me). Well, the bath was the last of my costume and Ezra’s was never as cool again.
These photos were taken by India’s teacher. How cool is that?

This is us later in the day:

The fury pants up close.

Professor Snape repairing a broom.

Jack made it to Denver. India added to our hanging with a candy corn and abacus bat. The invite to our party the Fri before.

All Hallows: Take Two

stacie — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:45:42 +0000

Ok, I am way behind. Keep coming back, I think I might finally be able to catch up! Zach is due back anytime from his second trip to Sydney. It has been 2 weeks without him! Thank goodness my mom could make the trip out here. She was such a help… even if she doesn’t think she did much. I would have been in really bad shape if she hadn’t come. The dishes are done, Ez’s room has been painted, and I think the house is put together. Can’t tell, ’cause I’ve been on the computer most of the morning. I had a shoot on Tuesday that I am editing. I posted it here.
Ok, back to Halloween. Sooo long ago…
We went to our Ward’s trunk-or-treat. Not very exciting; we showed up late and I talked with one other adult for about 2 seconds and had 3 or 4 trick-or-treaters. Oh well. It was fun for the kids and Ez got his “treat, treat” down pat. Here are a few photos from that adverture.

Zach went as Neo from the movie “The Matrix”. The costume was purchased for his true costume of Professor Snape… Harry Potter theme at work. See Ezzie’s furry pants? Oilily for $2 from Savers. Ha!

“Chreat, chreat?” (that’s treat in Ez talk). Ez’s favorite is lollypops. He was an Ez Monster for Halloween while India was a witch… with green hair even.

Harvest Festival

stacie — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:30:58 +0000

Last weekend we headed to the harvest festival over at the Little Museum. We got there a bit late and didn’t have any cash on hand. The story of our lives. But, by a miracle we were handed enough tickets by folks leaving to get us a hay ride!

These are the pumpkin pie pumpkins they were selling.

This is India pressing apples to make apple cider.

The apples

The donkey

This was the quaint fall spot we were looking for.

India on stilts and Ezra in the hay maze, which he didn’t want to leave

They both enjoyed washing the clothes. Put ‘em to work early.

The Children’s Museum

stacie — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:07:50 +0000

We had a blast of Saturday at the Chirldern’s Museum. What a cute little place. India was so excited to see the rabbit hole and dress up like an animal (she loves to dress up). Ezra was happy just running around… but he probably loves the fire truck the best.

Fall is here… and almost over!

stacie — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:38:10 +0000

I am a bit behind on life these days. I tried to get some plants for our yard in time for the fall season. I think I must be on Baltimore time or something. The nursery we went to was closed so we headed to Lowes. They had a hand full of plants for sale and each was $.25. Some would say that is the perfect time to buy plants. But really, that is when you know you have missed the boat. So I got a few ground covers and some flexible tube for a plant tunnel we will hopefully make in the spring. We checked out this awesome book from the library that has all sorts of great garden projects for kids… things they can do on their own too. The tunnel was one of the ideas. Once we get it going, I’ll post photos. You only have to wait a few months! Ha!
Anyway, I haven’t gotten too behind on fall to avoid raking some leaves. It seems that any yard work I start takes a few weeks to get done. Finally I was able to get my piles into bags. They had been on the lawn for a few days. It’s hard when you start to get into a groove and your kid wants to take a nap.
Both kids loved playing in the pile. I kept wanting to get the camera out and when I finally did this is what India was up to. Ezra was in the swing, done with the leaves. Oh well.

Go Rockies?

stacie — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:41:29 +0000

Ok, it looks like the Rockies and the Red Socks will be at the World Series. Now who do we root for? You know, I’ve never written those words before (and I’m not quite sure how to spell ‘root’, is it really like a tree root?). Um… rooting for any team has never, ever been an issue. But now it seems to me that it has some sort of connection to our old digs. I think Zach will be rooting for the Rockies while I might be cheering the Sox on.

We have been to a couple of Rockies games. Both had fireworks at the end of the game. They won the first, lost the second (which is pictured here). It has been nice having our little, itty-bitty point and shoot camera. I can take it anywhere and capture everything. Although I don’t ever look like I’m a photographer with it. Humph.

This is at the train stop on the way to the game. The sky was very pretty. Made me wish I had my real camera. I need to get down to the tracks and take some photos.

Zach at the game.

At the Fair

stacie — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:54:16 +0000

You know how a church fair can be really lame? Well move over lame church fair and welcome in the Denver Stake Fair.
I cannot believe the amount of cool stuff there was at this fair. Free concessions… which is always very cool… cotton candy, snow cones, home-baked bread, chili and pie cook-offs (with plenty of tastes), corn on the cob (which India will actually eat), cupcake walk, cookie decorating, fishing game, ice cream sandwich eating contest, dunk your friend in a pool of water thing, plus two giant bounce houses.
I kept joking that I only saw people we knew every 20 minutes or so because there were so many people. Our ward (congregation) is pretty small and the stake (regional congregation) is pretty big and apparently has good ideas and money to make things happen. In any case, loads of fun and if the cotton candy line were smaller we would have had some pretty hopped up kids.

hula-hoop contest. Zach beat India and I, if you can believe it.

India in the bounce obstical course

India ready to dunk a kid

Our friend William gettin the job done!

India and her friend at the end of the night with their cotton candy

Exploring Colorado

stacie — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:59:48 +0000

“Are we there yet?”
“How much longer?”
Luckily Ezra was asleep most of the ride so we were only getting it from one kid. But as we entered the mountain pass we saw all the traffic heading back to the city. I knew it would be a long day.
We began with pizza. Thankfully in fru-fru Vail they have a family friendly, hip pizza joint with skeletons everywhere (which India loved) and ’80’s music piped through the speakers. We ate, then headed to the trail that would eventually take us to a waterfall. India and Ezra really enjoyed hiking up the trail… even with the chilly rainfall. Most days in Colorado have a rain in the afternoon. We are still getting used to that. We hiked as far as we dared (who wants to be stuck in a flash flood… or just in rain?) and I think that was key to having a good experience with the kids… no pressure (even without the waterfall). After the hike I suggested we head back to Vail and really take a look around the place. I also had my eye on some shoes for Ezra around the corner from the pizza joint. I’m glad we returned because I ended up getting a really cute pair for him and we saw what Vail is all about… it is basically an outdoor mall.

These were under $20… great sale.
Most the shops were closing so we headed for home. Being Labor Day weekend we figured we would have a very long drive ahead of us. Once we hit traffic we pulled off the highway and had some dinner. We found this really cute little diner with the best peach pie around. I was very happy to eat dessert. Too bad India would only eat the ice cream. Some day she’ll appreciate the finer things in life. Hopefully.
A few photos from the hike:

Over the Rainbow

stacie — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:17:01 +0000

Since we’ve been in Colorado we have seen several rainbows. It feels like years since any of us have seen a rainbow. Is it because their are fewer buildings and trees where we live, or are there just more rainbows here? The last time I saw one was before India was born and when I walked from Cambridge to my work in Boston. We lived in Cambridge about 7 years ago. It was beautiful, right over South Station and between all those buildings along Winter Street. One of those times I wished I had a little Lica or even a little cheapy point and shoot… anything!
We caught this beauty in our yard last week. Since the sky and where India was standing were so different in exposure I took a shot metering on the sky and another metering on India from the same distance and swapped skies in Photoshop. This can also be done by bringing the exposure of India up to the same as the sky using a flash (preferably off camera). Since I was using my point and shoot, that wasn’t possible.
Where India is standing I have plans for a raspberry patch with maybe a few blueberry bushes and herbs mixed in. I can’t wait until the spring. I also would like to start a compost pile. If anyone has any tips on getting one started let me know.

4th of July Game

stacie — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:00:45 +0000

On July 3rd we had quite an adventure. We went to a Rockies vs. NY Mets baseball game. The Rockies beat the pants off the Mets which was lots of fun. After teh great game there were fireworks. Not only that, we were able to go on the field to watch them. Zach came home from that wanting to make our grass greener. If you have never sat on a professional baseball field, you hav no idea what you are missing. The most beautiful grass I have ever seen (oh, and the fireworks were good too… can’t really top Boston’s show). Anyway, the amount of water and care it would take to have a beautiful lawn is beyond us. I think we’ll just have to reduce to amount of grass we have.

This is us on the way to the game.