Precious Moments

They really are...

she loves the falling leaves

We walked down an abandoned train track right down 29 outside of Saratoga. The train used to run from

downtown out to Saratoga Lake. I wish I could remember more about it, but I just wish I could

have been there to ride it in the late 1800's.

Poppy really enjoys shuffling her feet, in leaves, on the floor. She's a dancing fool these days.

The Season for Pumpkin Pickin

2 big orange pumpkins and one tiny white one. 3 for $1 gourds. blue hubbard squash?

oh we forgot to buy you, but if we would have we would have cooked you.

too bad. maybe we'll get one soon.

pumpkins with peanut warts and teepees on an apple orchard. yellow jackets chasing

us for apple cider doughnuts. 2 hours on a saturday off Route 29

2 posts in one day?! This one's crafty!

I couldn't stand Poppy growing without me recording it, so I made a growth

chart for her! Her 10 month status is marked just above 2 feet 3 inches!

I used some thick brown paper as my base and sewed the sheets together

with a zigzag stitch. Then cut out some a trunk from an old sheet and

sewed it on with about 8 straight stitches down its length.

Next I cut the bushy area at the top, well I lied I cut it all out and arranged

it, some in front of the trunk some in back. And obviously sewed the

stuff in back of the trunk on first,

then the trunk, then the front stuff.

Gave it a neat effect I think.

Then I laid out the chart and put rulers down each side.

Marked the feet and each inch with a purple crayon, and at each foot I

used alphabet stamps to do the lettering.

Then punched holes on top at either side and tied twine with a loop

knot to form a hanger and a place to stick a white crayon for marking her height.

Hung it on the wall and boom! Beautiful.

I love dreaming up ideas like this using a little inspiration from things I've

seen in books and online,

and combining that with what I've got around the house. And believe me I've

got so much stuff piled around I could start a craft store!

This is a spot in the living room. Hopefully the walls will soon be crayon blue.

No internet at my house leads to lots of pictures all at one time!

Guess I'll just narrate each photo as it comes...

Mint tea, mint tea, o how I love thee!

Here's my recipe:

4 bags tea (Yogi tea's ginko is awesome!)

Sprigs of fresh mint

A few squirts of Agave

Hot water to fill up a pitcher!

Put em all together then throw in the fridge! Remember to pour the hot water slowly if you're using a glass pitcher, I've seen a couple explode from getting too hot too fast!

We climbed a summit called Sleeping Beauty near Lake George and the view was amazing. Lake George is in the background of one picture. Poppy decided to do a little meditating on the peaceful scenery.

I love this website for hikes in the area: localhikes.com

It's got each hike, spot on directions to the trailheads, pictures so you know which one you'd like to travel down today, reviews, and topography so you know how hard you're about to struggle and how sore you're going to be tomorrow!

We've been on several this summer to swim in waterfalls, upstate New York is so much fun in the summer!

I love these moments. You find yourself not doing anything else but playing and enjoying each

other. Poppy loves it too. That's when she laughs the hardest. When we're all acting like silly

monsters and making the wildest noises and faces and movements. Which by the way reminds me

I'm seeing this movie the day it comes out!!

Popudate: She's holding my finger with one hand and

cruising the apartment, searching for anything to pick up and carry to another locale.

She's falling on her butt then standing back up completely by herself like nobody's business. She's eating

eggo waffles and alfredo pasta at the table with us. In fact she wants nothing else but whatever

we're eating.

on the hunt for a zoo in Saratoga county

It started out a quick trip down 29 just to check out the road that we live on. We rode out past the apple orchards which are blooming nicely, then into Schuylerville to see the Zoo sign. We decided to follow it for the second day in a row. It's fun on the hunt for a place you know nothing about in a land you've never been in. The day before we had done the same thing, following a different set of Zoo signs, and it led us to a roadside yard sale with no seller. We picked up some wet plates and cups and left a couple of bucks and a note stuck in a door. We saw some farm land and neat lawn decorations and the weird way other people live out in the country. I love it by the way and can't wait to live in the country someday myself.

So here's one of the signs

Kinda makes you feel like what you're about to find is going to be very different from any zoo you've ever been to before.

We got lost of course cause the signs were so small we missed them several times, but we found other stuff...

A tire pile with compost underneath

Wildflowers

That's the kind of lake fun I want on my property when I have property

Amaizing corn.

Then we finally found it after stopping to breastfeed a bit!

But alas, it was $11.00 per adult and we only had $5! But what a cool looking zoo! It's like if I were to have all of these animals in my backyard, that's what it would look like. The peacocks were roaming, the crocodiles were behind chickenwire, ring-tailed lemurs caressed my hand, and handmade signs and gnome statues were everywhere. We are going back for sure!

Kinda glad we didn't go in cause about 10 minutes after we left: downpour!

Food and Fun!

First the fun, fun water fun!

Then the fun, fun food fun! We really do have have fun making food around here. We've been making

a lot of recipes from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair.

The beet soup is amazing!

And the huevos rancheros are amazing too!

And now Poppy explores textures and colors, how much fun is it eating purple food?!

New camera and new house

Yoga on the new carpet

And yes she is standing of her own accord. She can stand from sitting all by herself, steps are a different story, she lets

loose the rooster trot, forwards and backwards and bouncing up and down.

As far as the new place, lots of cars fly by right outside our front door and our porch has a traffic cone on it, I guess

they deemed the rotten, broken wood a hazard. I'm sure the black plywood they put on top will hold us up for the time

being. I'm trying to figure out this landlord game, their motto seems to be "screw 'em". We signed a lease that said

our place had to be in immaculate condition when move out (i.e. the walls primed, the carpets professionally

steam cleaned, etc.) BUT when we moved in the door to our bedroom was falling off the hinges, there were lots

of holes and nails in the walls and splatters too!, they steam cleaned the carpet the day after we signed the

lease, there were spiders in every corner and dust lining all of the baseboards, there are even piles of leaves

in the windows, the toilet barely flushes, the water's barely warm and they had turned the gas to the stove off

so we had to wait over the weekend to eat any warm food.

Crazy landlords, crazy! I'm going to send them a letter with a little piece of my mind for sure. This is the third

management company I've had to rent from in Upstate New York and not one of them has been timely or

helpful or even fair. The last one, where I lived in Albany, I had to call them 6 times in a day when the ceiling

in my bathroom had caved in from water leaking through and there was water dripping

on my head when I was on the toilet, before they took me serious enough to send someone out to take a look at it.

Why they treat us like this when we pay them so much money hopefully I'll never understand.

Width?

Purging my computer and found...

some photos from a lone walk through a park in Arbor Hill last summer, I think I was 8 months preg or closer to 9.