We House

Quoting another of McKenzie's often misused terms, this entry is about 'we house'. I know as a proper parent I should correct her and instill the standard use of 'our' for plural instead of 'we' but I love to hear her ask about 'we house'... 'we car'... 'we family'.

Matt and I moved into our house in April six years ago and the time has flown by. We bought the house knowing it had good bones but needed a lot of work. We've invested a lot of time, sweat and tears into the house and love that our kids added the final touch of making it a home. It's amazing to think back on all the changes we've made and all the lessons we've learned about home improvement projects. One recent project has been on the list forever. We finally did the front yard landscaping and front porch reconfiguration.

Here's a before shot of our house in July 2004 shortly after we moved in. You can see Matt's brand new truck - still our favorite car. This shot also shows off the fantastic paint choice by the previous owner of peacock blue trim with bright yellow siding. We haven't done the remodel to add on over the garage at this point. The front porch rail is still on taking you across the entire length of the porch to the front door. If you try hard enough you can see Matt and me on the porch with Indy and JonesZ in my arms as a tiny pup.


Similar shot from October of this year, the 2006 remodel is complete with a master bedroom over the garage. The new front porch is on replacing the old worn out one. The railing isn't up yet because we were waiting for the path to the front door. The trim is white and we have a new roof and accent peaks which changes the appearance of the house a lot. We have also added on pavers to each side of the driveway to widen it.


A few short days later and a lot of hard work by Matt and some of his friends and we have a totally new look for the house and front yard.


The front porch now has two entry points - one next to the garage for easy access and then a second more welcoming entry that leads you across the treed yard on a winding cobblestone path to a nice wide set of stairs directly in front of the door. The only thing unwelcoming is our 'No Solicitors' sign but we can't be wasting our new landscaping on just anyone.

We had our friend Tom Hartzell, draw up the landscaping plans for us back in the early summer of 2007 before McKenzie was born with great intentions of doing all the work that summer. Needless to say we didn't quite get around to it for a while. Matt did an amazing job of following the plan and making a concept on paper come to life.

View from the porch looking out at our birch trees and winding path. Matt also installed lights along the path and then spot lights under the trees which added some much needed light in the front of the house.


View down the porch to the access next to the garage. We love 'we house'!

Silent 'S'

Less commonly known than the very popular silent 'E' or 'H', the elusive silent 'S' is used often at our house by McKenzie. I've become an avid interpreter of the silent 'S' for those who don't speak McKenzie. Some of my favorite examples are 'no' for 'snow', 'nail' for 'snail', 'nake' for 'snake'... you get the picture. You have to be very alert when listening for the silent 'S', if you come to a point in the conversation where you aren't following what she's saying, just stop and listen for words that might contain the silent 'S'.

One night last week before bed McKenzie asked me to get in her bed and 'nuggle' her. Normally I'm not one for hanging out endlessly in her room at bedtime but how could I resist the offer of a 'nuggle'? Now she knows my weakness.

Someday, McKenzie will learn that she's been using silent 'S' incorrectly but for now I'll enjoy every one of them. Just for the record silent 'S' is part of the English Language.


Silent S
S is not pronounced before L in the following words:
- island
- isle

Here's the kids 'nuggling' on the couch on Saturday morning - adorable! Note McKenzie does not suck her thumb, she is just being silly for the picture.

Clowning Around with a Mouse

Every year Halloween ends up being a bit off kilter from the plans I make. But the one thing that is never different is the fun we have despite straying from my plans. Trying to change our fate from last year we decided to avoid costume shopping online and headed out to the costume store in early October to pick our perfect costumes.

My Plan: Pick out something coordinating for the whole family, like Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad. Kind of like these people, only we'd be much smaller and cuter.

Photo Courtesy of rustytanton.com

Reality: We enter the costume store and they are completely out of Mario and Luigi costumer even though it is only October 9th. Unwilling to face ordering online we press on. Family costume dream is out the window. Now we're just focused on the kids. We point McKenzie towards a wall of princess costumes in every color of rainbow. Something catches her eye, her face lights up and she says quite clearly "I want to be a clown."  Matt is aware of my clown phobia as he jumps right in steering Kenzie's eyes from the brightly colored clown costume on the bottom row towards the array of princess costumes. Undaunted she points again and says "A Clown." I give it a try, "What about Jesse from Toy Story" but get interrupted by a firm, "A Clown." So we cave, there is genuine excitement surrounding the clown costume. We ask for her size, hoping they are out but imagine that they have her size. Next we are directed to the clown accessory section where we are sure we can end this plan. No luck, she loves the nose, the wig, the shoes, even the giant fake lollipop. Then she suggest that Mommy dress as a clown too. I agree thinking that we are going to have some serious buyers remorse over this clown costume purchase and that 'match - match' clowns will be a much better selling point later when I'm trying to force her into the clown suit on Halloween. I should have never doubted her. She loved every minute of it. I dressed as a clown for nothing or maybe it helped me get over one of my phobias.


Visiting with Aunt Bonnie who was in the hospital on Halloween. Such a fun way for a kid to visit someone in the hospital and fun for Aunt Bonnie to get cute visitors.


Ben on the other hand is much simpler. We look at the boy options and try to buy Superman since it has a cape but they are out of his size so we leave empty handed. Then Matt takes the kids to the Disney store and they come home with an adorable Mickey Mouse costume for him. Only issue is he hates the ears and also the gloves.  So we end up with just the puffy body so he looks like a little fat man with a tail. Oh well, he's still adorable and even more so when screaming "All Done" every time we got the ears and gloves on for a second.


Here is where the silver lining kicks in. Aunt Jennifer saved the day by actually capturing all three kids in their costumes somewhat looking the same direction. Adorable. Claire the Park Ranger, Kenzie the Clown (has a nice ring to it!) and Benny the Mouse.

Photo Courtesy of Aunt Jennifer

The Fun: McKenzie did some serious Trick Or Treating this year. No more of this hit the immediate neighbors then head home. We headed out and ran into three of the older girls in our neighborhood and went around with them learning the ropes. At each house McKenzie would drop my hand in the driveway and hold her hand up saying "Mom, you wait here. I'll go with the girls and ring the doorbell and get some candy."  Then she would do just that. She wouldn't let anyone put candy in her bucket, instead she would take it in her hand and immediately turn and yell, "Mom, look what I got!"  The pure joy was amazing. She was also given a miniature can of pop at one house that caused her to look into her bucket when walking to check out that pop. That was big time! Looking forward to next year already even starting my plan!

Works of Art!

McKenzie loves art, anything from coloring to stickers to cutting and gluing but if it involves paint she is in heaven. She would paint all day if we let her. This year McKenzie got to be more involved in pumpkins than she was last year and that meant a chance to paint her pumpkin. She was very serious about painting her pumpkins and wanted to make sure it was just right.


Matt and I handled the carving again this year and ended up with three carved pumpkins and two painted ones. Very spooky for the trick or treat-ers.


McKenzie was very excited about the lit up pumpkins. This year she really got into the spirit of the Halloween season.


Ben is learning to love art too but he is still not sure about getting his hands into all that mess. Luckily he has a big sister like McKenzie who is more than willing to show him how things are done. I am so looking forward to many more works of art with these two as they grow up. I have so many memories of making things when I was a kid. Time to start stocking up the art closet.

Should Have, Would Have...

what could I have done to prevent my bad online karma striking again?  I ordered adorable outfits for the kids first school pictures but as is the norm when I order something for a specific date the outfits arrived a day too late. I didn't let this little set back get me down.  Clearly I had other cute clothes my kids could wear for pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't realized that sibling pictures were an option.  I would have thought about two dueling striped shirts being a bad choice for picture day. Luckily for me their cuteness was able to overpower the fashion faux pas.

McKenzie 3 1/2

Ben 21 months

Above Pictures from Artis Photography

Here's the kids in the outfits that should have been. Definitely cute as well.



Okay maybe dueling stripes was better than coordinated outfits after all. No combo shot for me.

The Great Pumpkin Is Coming!

Here's our very own Linus waiting in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to appear.


Lucky for Ben, McKenzie is a nicer friend than Sally and seems to believe him that the great pumpkin is coming.


We had a fantastic day at Bob's Corn  pumpkin patch this year, they really stepped it up a notch from our last visit. Way more going on than just pumpkins and a corn maze. The parking lot was packed when we arrived and continued to fill up out into extra fields while we were there. We met up with Gina and Atticus to share a sunny fun filled Sunday morning hunting for pumpkins, riding the cow train, a hay ride and pony rides. There was even more to do but nap time was fast approaching so we had to end the fun before no one was having fun.

McKenzie and Atticus were happy campers to be on the move at the farm and they were exploring all over. Due to the fact that we had three small kids and only two adults, Ben was relegated to the baby backpack for most of the visit. Next year we'll plan better and bring more adults than kids.


Though who really needs an extra adult when you have three kids to drive the wheel barrow around.  It's pretty scary what can get accomplished once these three put their minds together.


Kenzie in the cow train, which may have been the highlight of the day for her. She loved riding wildly all over the farm and through the barn. She has her golden token ready to pay for her ride. This is one of her series of 'funny faces' she does when getting her picture taken these days.


Gina and Atti in their cow train car, looking almost as excited as Kenzie to ride.


Our pumpkin cutie, getting so big. I can't believe it's her forth year of pumpkin hunting already... time really does fly by.

#winefueledquotes

For those readers who don't 'tweet', I'll help out with the title by giving you a little definition of hashtags and by saying even with our fair share of "wine fueled quotes" this years Crush Festival was better than ever. We had an active banter going on via Facebook while we were out tour the wineries around Lake Chelan with many of the crowd posting quotes as we went. While the story Facebook will tell might be more risque and exciting, I'll stick to the facts for my yearly update.


A little math to start you out:

  11 ladies + 7 wineries = 72 bottles of wine purchased
+ 2 small kids = 2 exhausted grandparents
who are happy Crush is only 3 days per year
and 1 great time had by all.

We had an amazing turn out this year and I'd like to think we boosted the mood of Crush and the general economy of Chelan a little with all our adventures. This year we decided to try to leverage our Friday a little more than we have in previous years.  Most of the crew was in town by dinner time Friday evening. We had some great appetizers and then played a few rounds of Bunco. It was my first time for Bunco and despite being at the losers table for almost the entire time, I loved it. Can't wait to get really old to have lots of time to play.


We were up early on Saturday getting ready for our big day. Kim made us all a new set of headwear for this year's tour. Last year we had the doodle-le-bops and this year we had the twinkle-le-bops. Tiaras complete with some fuzz and of course wine corks. It was so funny how many people asked us what the occasion was. "Crush" we would answer only to have mostly blank stares.  Apparently we might be the only ones who got the memo about the festival. You'll see the twinkle-le-bops modeled in the pictures.

Here's our route through the wineries along with my personal reviews.

Mellisoni, in my opinion this was the crown jewel of our 2010 tour. This winery just opened two months ago.  They are only open for private tasting which is one of the key components that made this visit so amazing. Their view of Lake Chelan is amazing as is the genuine love of the area and wine making business that you get from the owners. We were treated to a tasting paired with appetizers while seated around a bon fire. I think many of us have a new favorite bottle of wine as well as a new favorite cheese after this experience. One of the things I love the most about the Chelan wineries is the people who make the dream happen and being able to get to know them over the years as we visit. This one is already on the list for next year.


WineGirl Wines, a very cute new blending room in Manson on the north shore of Lake Chelan. They had a great space for a large group to do tasting and were very organized with the tastings. We got to pick between two different menus of tasting based on what you preferred. They had great labels which is always a plus with our group, we love a good story to go with our wine. Looking forward to another visit to WineGirl in the summer as they have a lovely side yard all setup for bocce ball.


Benson Vineyards, always a favorite of mine. Their setting with its hills covered in grapevines rolling down to views of Lake Chelan takes you to another world. We hit Benson near the end of our tour last year and decided we had better move them up on the list this year so we could truly enjoy the visit. As usual Benson did not disappoint. The vintners brothers Scott and Jeff, and their dad Paul were all pouring during our visit. They are a real class family who really mean it when they say they are an estate winery. Our new favorite wines there were the Estate Curiosity and the Estate Curious - imagine that!



Chelan Ridge Winery, another newbie this year, only open about a month. They had a fantastic new tasting room with a great viewing area that let you see into their production facilities. We enjoyed our visit, getting to meet the owners and hearing about how they came into this love of wine. My favorite was Henry's story, he told us he used to be a commercial pilot and now he drives a tractor. Looking forward to seeing them expand and grow with the wine community in Chelan.




Hard Row to Hoe, is another of our longtime favorites. We even loved them before they changed their name from Balsam Root. They have a very open and welcoming location that lets you get a real sense of the wine making process and their passion for the wines. When we arrived they had a sign out that said parties of more than six couldn't be accommodated due to the crowds.  I headed up on foot and then called back to the bus when we got the okay to come up. Rudy, our favorite wine guy, vouched for us and then shared with us all the interesting folk lore of the area that gives them their new and colorful name.  Check out their website for that folk lore.


Firehouse Tasting Room, this was a first time visit for us as well.  It was not on our original tour plan but after chatting with some people we met at Hard Row they suggested we should check it out. So throwing caution to the wind we diverted our tour and ended up having a great time and experiencing a different view into Chelan wine tasting. They had an amazing selection of wines, lots of local stuff that we already had stashed in the bus along with a lot of interesting specialty wines from outside the region. We also got to taste more great cheese and tour the party room that was setup for their wine club event later that night.


Vin du Lac, again a tried and true favorite as our last stop on the tour, I think we save them for last since no one is really into tasting by the time we get there so we can just grab up a few bottles of our favorites, hang out in the snuggies and then head the bus back to my folks' house. This year we did get a peak into the new restaurant they are opening and it looks great. I'll have to find time to get back there on one of my other visits. This years pyramid wasn't as strong as last years, perhaps we should attempt it earlier in the day.


We ended the evening back at the house with our crockpots of savory creations to bring us down from our day of glory. Another great year in the books for Crush Festival.


My favorite wine fueled quote was "Crush weekend is like Christmas for grown-ups!" #winefueledquotes Counting the days until next year already.