Tree Hugger

Aubry is going through this phase where she tries to pick up the trees planted on the mow strip. She always asks "Can I pick up that tree?" and I always respond "You can try!". She used to try to pick up the telephone poles too, but stopped when the Verizon man told her to be careful or she'd get a splinter. Instead, she just says "The man says I get splinter when I pick up that tree", and keeps on walking.

This photo doesn't show it, but she's usually wearing a superhero cape....

Cousin Karen, y'all!

the italian market - yay, almond paste!

karen and nola at our house

My cousin Karen and her husband Mark came to visit this weekend. Karen and I both grew up (until middle school) in New Jersey. Our families lived about an hour away from each other, so we got to see each other quite a bit. We both ended up moving away from NJ and she ended up in Texas by way of Tennessee. Needless to say, a visit from Karen is a special thing.

Karen has recently inspired me in a couple of ways. First, she's already run a half marathon and is training for another one in a couple of months. (Not to mention the fact that she teaches kick boxing, has 3 kids and works 4 days a week!) Second, she's a coupon queen but still feeds her family healthy food. She's the one who kick started my recent coupon assault when she sent me the link to Refund Cents

Anyway, my whole family came to Philly to have dinner with Karen, Mark and their friend Billie on Friday night. It was really fun to eat, drink, chat and laugh together. My sister Stacey stayed the night while my parents drove home so they could catch their flight to Ireland the next day.

On Saturday, the cousins (and Billie) went to the Italian Market in search of truly fresh almond paste for Karen's almond tartlets. Stacey and I had quite an adventure getting to their hotel - we nearly ran over Barak Obama on the way!!! Not really - we just got stuck in traffic and watched his 2 security helicopters hover over the street directly in front of us.

The Italian Market was fun, as usual. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm becoming a one trick pony with that excursion, though.....

Field Trip!

Nola had her first school field trip! She rode the bus to the local firehouse and got to learn all about fire safety. She also got to squirt the hose, which was a real bonus. Then she got to pester us for weeks about practicing evacuation procedures and getting smoke detectors for every single room in the house. Go Fire Safety Month!

Did he just say "more"?

We think that maybe Declan's first word is "more". How typical of one of our children to have an oddball first utterance related to his desire for more grapes. Love you, Declan - you can have all the grapes you want!

bags, bags, and more bags.

Have you ever noticed just how many plastic bags seem to make their way into your home? It's really ridiculous when the baggers use a new plastic bag for pretty much every item in your cart. Sure you can recycle them outside the grocery store, but wouldn't it be better to try to STOP using those bags?

It seems that others think as I (and maybe you) do. Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the use of plastic bags in grocery stores and chain stores. Other cities and towns are not far behind. Some merchants like IKEA are taking the bull by the horns and charging customers for any bags they use. I personally feel that all this is a great idea. IMHO Americans en masse are unlikely to abandon the convenience of plastic bags without coercion.

A few months ago, I pledged to stop bagging in plastic or paper at the grocery store and to use alternate bags. I bought a few paper bag style reusable bags and a zip top cooler at Trader Joe's. It wasn't too expensive - maybe $10 in all. So far, I've done pretty well. I generally remember the bags since I try to keep them in the car at all times. I've even started looking for a small, collapsible bag to keep in my purse for trips to CVS and other retailers.

I do enjoy feeling responsible for less plastic in the landfills, but I'm also enjoying less bag clutter at home. Granted, Greg doesn't really like using the clear newspaper bags and bread bags for Clover's poop pickup, but that's a small (and funny) price to pay for doing our part.

Interesting articles/places to check out-
An Inconvenient Bag
Greenest Reusable Bags
Green Bag Lady (check out the video section on how to make a bag and a little about the bags)

Kung fu scarecrow

Today we went to the Morris Arboretum for their annual Harvest Festival. The Morris Arboretum is this really great place where you can let your kids roam on perfectly manicured grounds while you have EXTREME landscaping envy. Our neighbors are members, but we feel the pain of our black thumbs every time we go there so we've limited our exposure.

Our specific goal was to make a scarecrow. Last year, about half of our friends on the block ended up going to this event and their front porches were decorated with these great giant scarecrows for the harvest season. All Nola wanted to know was when we were going to get to make one for our house. Your time has come, little one....

at the arboretum

declan likes glue....

aubry stuffed the scarecrow's socks with hay

nola glued on a little "N" button she found in the pile. she looked for an "A" button, but couldn't find one..

almost done - please note who is helping daddy and who (ahem, nola) is in the background chatting with her friend from the block.

our kung fu scarecrow is finished and lookin' fine (and ready to vote for obama)...

aubry posing in front of a neighbor's scarecrow

posing again...