Category: General News

Some years we make it to the apple orchard a half dozen times or more.  This year, we only went thrice.  The mosquitoes were non-existent, which was such a better situation than the blood-sucking horror of last fall.  We ate lots of apples, drank cider, but made not a cobbler, pie, or even apple sauce.  Oh well…my friends did!  And I made a few Dutch Babies (recipe here) with cooked apples on top.  Delish!

Have you ever noticed that I love hand-holding pictures?  They’re my favorite:)

Cute boy!

 

Love this picture of Sylvie.  It’s so completely her.

Happy girl with her apple.

 

Both kids love to get boosted up in our arms or on our shoulders to reach apples high up in the branches.

Mr. Andrew man with his bag.  I heard that our main orchard – Door Creek – ran out of apples by early October.  Must have been lots of crowds and an early season!

A little sibling love in the orachard.

“Is this what you want us to do, Mom?”

We said “hi” to the Black Welsh Mountain Sheep before heading home.  Oh, that cider we had was excellent.  I love waiting all year and then enjoying cup after cup of the rich, crisp deliciousness of fresh apple cider from the orchard.Until next year!

~Althea

During Melanie’s visit here last weekend, we enjoyed a walk at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center.  We had two fearless trail leaders to blaze the way.  One of them was sporting a new princess dress made by Granny as her Halloween costume.

Here Sylvie is jumping from stump to stump in a circle…a favorite and long-enjoyed activity.

Love this blue sky.  Still lots of leaves on trees, but we’re seeing more and more bare brances.

Melanie’s hair is so petty in the sunshine.  It shines like copper!Here’s our crew (minus me!).

There’s Bryan and Mel on a pier on the pond.

I just love the way that the dried flowers glow when back-lit by the sun.  Such a different look from their summer blooms, but really just as striking.

New favorite picture of Melanie and Bryan in the woods.

She wasn’t really taller than him…just standing on a rock:)

I love the energy in the look that Andrew and Sylvie are giving each other.  Wonder what they were talking about:)

Other new favorite picture!

Melanie with her niece and nephew.

Princess Sylvie running down the path.

Here’s Sylvia and Andrew sitting on the dock……and a few minutes later, Melanie and Bryan.  Sibling mirrors.

Such beautiful color!

Pensive princess examining the foliage.

Leaping and running!

Getting a lift from Aunt Mel

Spinning!!!  Sylvie’s hair is really quite long when it’s not all bouncing up in curls:)

Mel and Sylvie under a red maple.

Melanie taking a picture of Bryan and Sylvie.That’s what I’ve got for photos of our time with Melanie.  We’ll see her again at Christmas, which in some ways feels like a long time, but those two months of November and December are probably going to fly by!  Thanks for coming up, Mel! We love you. xoxo

Hello, and Happy Halloween!

It’s been over a month since I last wrote a post, but all that’s about to change.  I’ve got 17 posts cued up, so throughout November, you’ll get to see all the things we did in September and October!  I usually post pictures on Flickr as-they-happen, so you can always check out my Flickr stream to get a sneak peek when there’s a posting drought.  My plate has been wonderfully…almost overwhelmingly full on the photography front this last month, and work gets priority over the blog:)  But Bryan’s sister, Melanie, visited us last weekend, and I want to share pictures from that visit.  So you’ll get a peek at our last few days before jumping back to see the colors of September.

As I type, I’m looking out my window at our beautiful maple.  It’s a deep golden.  The leaves are damp, and the sky is gray, and somehow that seems to deepen and enhance the saturation of the colors.  It almost takes my breath away, it’s so deeply beautiful:)

We were all delighted to have Melanie fly up to Wisconsin to visit us last weekend, and as always, we had a great time playing together.  We watched the last game of the World Series, played Quirkle Cubed, went to a Badger Women’s hockey game, joined some hordes of costumed kids on State Street and saw Wayne the Wizard do his Halloween magic show, went for a hike at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, and in general, just enjoyed being together.

Since today is Halloween, I thought I’d share some photos of yesterday’s pumpkin carving…

Here’s Bryan and Andrew working on a little pumpkin.  They’re pounding golf tees in it.

Here’s our work station.

Andrew’s carving a pumpkin face for the first time.

Cute little triangle nose.

So proud of his handiwork!

Now Sylvie gets a turn.

Andrew and Melanie carve a detailed witch scene into this big guy.

Sylv with the finished pumpkin product.

Mel worked hard on this one, and it looks great!

Photo-taking

Our 2011 Jack-O-Lanterns.  The one on the right Andrew designed (see his picture), and I cut.

Here’s Bryan and his sister.  ❤

It’ll be fun to put lights in the Jack-O-Lanterns tonight and to see them decorating the front porch as we do our neighborhood trick-or-treating rounds!

Sylvia had a solo visit to Texas with Granny and Grandad over Labor Day weekend.  Boy, oh, boy did she have fun!  While she was enjoying some one-on-one time with her grandparents, we decided to take Andrew on an overnight canoeing trip – something we don’t yet feel would be wise with Miss Sylv.

We packed up on Sunday and headed west from Madison.  Bryan’s friends loaned us their canoe.  We left the canoe at Tom’s place in Lone Rock, and then we shuttled the van downsteam to Blue River and left it at the Blue River bridge.  We drove the other car back up to Tom’s, and put in to the lovely Wisconsin River in the mid-afternoon.

It’s so beautiful out there.  So peaceful and gentle and serene.  I ♥ the Wisconsin River!!

Andrew sat in the middle of the canoe on a milk crate, and he read Charlotte’s Web or helped paddle or snacked or chatted with us.  A couple hours later, we found a nice sand bar and stopped for the night.

Andrew helped us gather up kindling for our fire, set up the tent, and get our food all ready.

He also ran races with himself up and down the sandbar to that clump of willows below.

The sunset was so beautiful!

Photo by Andrew:)

Here’s the three of us.  Love.

Bryan got a good fire going, and he cooked up hamburgers.

This fire made some of the best marshmallow-roasting coals I’ve experienced in many-a-year.  We sat up late together and watched the fire until it went out.  Then we all snuggled in to the 2.5 person tent for a good night’s sleep. At least, Andrew and I slept well:)

The next day, we loaded up and headed back down the river.  We played lots of “In my father’s grocery store” and “I’m going on a picnic and I’m going to bring…” games.  We sang a little and snacked.  Mid-morning, we stopped at this sandbar for a little running, cartwheeling, and snacking.

Is there a prettier landscape in all the world?

There’s the boys with the canoe!

Happy kid!

Andrew finished Charlotte’s Web in the mid-afternoon.  We’d planned the trip to take us until about 1:30pm.  And sure enough, at 1:30pm, we got to the Blue River bridge.  But there wasn’t a parking area where we thought there should be.  Confused, we decided to press on, hoping that there was a second (??) Blue River bridge just around the next corner.  Three hours of heavy paddling later, we made it to the next boat landing in Boscobel.  It turns out that there’s a big island in the middle of the Blue River bridge.  We were only seeing one span, and what we thought was the shore was the island.

So we’d paddling an extra 12 miles or so to a place where our car was not.  Fortunately, a nice retired police officer drove Bryan back to our van in Blue River while Andrew and I waited at the canoe.  It ended up being a four-hour detour, but it all ended up just fine.

We got home around dark…tired and feeling good.  Can’t wait for more adventures like these with my family!

<Click on the map below for a bigger view of the route we paddled.>

On a beautiful evening in late August, we took the kids to Tenney Park.  Our first stop was to New Orleans Take Out to get shrimp po’boys.  We ate them on a picnic table and then took a walk out on the pier.  That combo has been a Babler summer evening tradition for decades.  And the warm light of the sunset was so beautiful on my boy as he froliced on the rocks.

Sun drenched, with blond hair and bronzed skin…it was a great summer!

The time has come (the walrus said) to talk of snacks and things…

Sylvia’s preschool is selling some great reusable snack bags as a school fundraiser.  I first learned about Snack Taxi bags a few years ago at a play date.  The kids had been racing around the playground for a while when my friend Laura pulled some cute grape-filled bags out of her purse and handed them to her hot kids.  I hadn’t been so prepared, and thankfully, her kids were willing to share with mine.  Laura said the bags were machine washable and worked great – the nylon interior is easily cleaned…so I went home and ordered a few of my own.  Since then, I’ve been steadily increasing our stash.  I love ’em!

I can’t begin to count the number of times we use these bags when we leave the house with a bag of crackers or nuts or carrots or grapes.  It feels good to not be throwing plastic baggies into the trash each day, and I think it sets a good standard for Andrew and Sylvia about not using disposable items – Reuse!  Plus, all materials are lead, phthalate and BPA free, and SnackTaxi is a mom-run business.

The Dotzour family currently owns two sandwich-size bags, four snack-size bags, and a cute napkin.  I think we need to double that amount since Andrew takes a lunch three days a week and Sylvie is taking a lunch to school a couple days a week, so our rinsed-out bags don’t have time to dry before they are needed again.  Now, the question is…which patterns to buy (that organic fruit pattern is one)!

Monona Grove Nursery School receives 40% of the proceeds from these sales, so you can place a big order, knowing that nearly half of it is going to support the creative, fun, and nurturing work of Sylvie’s lovely school.

To order, click on this Snack Taxi link that will take you directory to the school’s fundraising page.  You might also note “Monona Grove Nursery School fundraiser” in the comments box when you place your order just to confirm.  Your order is shipped directly to you.  The sale is open through September 30, so don’t delay.  Thanks so much, and feel free to message me (adotzour@gmail.com) if you have any questions.  Cheers!

Andrew and Olivia were at Monona Grove Nursery School together for two years.  Here’s Olivia in 2008.  What a curly-headed heart-breaker she was!

Here’s Olivia now in 2011.  Love her energy!

 

Three kids on a hammock.

Hailey and Syliva will be in the same preschool class together this fall, and they’ve been in the same Toddler Time class at Monona Grove for the last couple years.

What a cutie!  Love you guys:)

In practice, getting the kids to swimming lessons is often more complicated than it seems in my mind.  I imagine warm days of flipflops and swim suits…parking my car at Jessica’s and walking down to the pool together amidst a gaggle of happy kids.  Somehow, it seems that at least one kid is mad or hurt or doesn’t want to go or wants to be carried.  In my mind, the green trees and flowers sway in the wind as our pool bags sway in our hands.  We walk and catch up and breathe in the summer.  In practice, this often means suppressing eye rolls as one or more child bemoans an injustice or dawdles far behind or has a scraped knee.

We’re often late, and it’s usually not as easy as I imagine, but still, going to swimming lessons is one of my very favorite parts of the whole year.  I L.O.V.E. love it.  And when I’m not soothing or threatening or cajoling or comforting or consequencing we’re all smiles.

Post-swim, the kids like some “toaster time” while wrapped in their towels.  They’re both getting so comfortable in the water.

Thanks, Joe, for these pictures of my kids and me.  I love ’em.

On the way to the locker room, the kids are spreading out on the ground to bask.

Here’s a couple pictures of Andrew by Joe.  Silly guy!

So long, Monona pool!  See you next summer!

I’m writing this on a chilly September morning, and the idea of being in the pool seems waaay to chilly.  But looking at these pictures, I can remember those August days with a smile.   Andrew and Eli were both in Level II at the Monona pool, and the girls were both Squirts.  I asked the boys for a “buddy” picture.  Eli was more into the idea of a “zombie” picture.  I’ve got to say, this sequence makes me laugh.

Not one to miss out on some silly action Sylvia joined the fray.  Love this picture of her:)

Hopping up on Andrew’s back, the boys look a little more normal.  Goofy photo grins, but less zombie-esque.

There’s Jessica warming up a wet CC.  We sure had a fun August session of swimming lessons at the pool!  One of my favorite parts of summer.

My posts this week are harking back a month to early August.  Joe flew home to Wisconsin from DC for our weekend at Jack’s, and then he stayed a few extra days.  The kids and I really enjoyed hanging out with him!

Here’s a couple compromising pictures of Joe riding Uncle Kirk’s tractor from the 1950s.

We took Joe with us to swimming lessons, and one day, we visited the beach and the zoo.  Here’s Joe on the carousel. 

Andrew’s riding a caterpillar.

Sylv is on the otter.  I love how she gives her mount a kiss when she gets off.

Here’s Joe helping his nephew and niece see the tiger.

One night, we met up with Michael and Tom and Terry and Dad and had ice cream at Michael’s.  Then we played at Wingra playground and walked down to the lake.

Everyone got in on the swinging action.  Except me.  I get sick.

Sylv looks like she’s feeling a bit torn up inside.

Walking down to the water.

What a pretty night!

There’s Dad and kids and bubs on the pier.

You can feel summer ooze out of the image below…

There’s Tom and Joe and Terry enjoying the view.  Joe, it was so fun having you visit!  Come back soon!