Pumpkins, Parties, and Pudding

Happy October!  

We've been having fun, and as you'll see below, eating a lot of sugar.  

Ira has been obsessed with cars for months now, so I've been looking forward to making a car cake for his birthday in January.  That is, until he's broadened his horizons to include trains and trucks, both of which would also make really fun cakes.  So, I wanted to clear the car cake space in my brain so I could move on with other January plans.  Below is Ira's non-birthday cake: my second attempt at using fondant.

Ira was especially thrilled with the eyes.  When he ate the headlights he started calling the tires eyes and just sat at his high chair talking about them, not really eating anything. 

Ira helping Dad fix his bike.  Ant's bike has had a couple of run ins with the insane pot holes around here.

Dirt pudding!

We had lots of fun with our pumpkin carving party.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of our friends that came, but a couple from the ward and a friend from work showed up.

Jello Brain.  Maybe it's all those psychology classes in college, but I really look forward to making this thing every year.  When Ira's old enough I'll use it to lecture him about the difference between the prefrontal cortex and the occipital lobe. 

Cookies:  Ira seems to young to be spooked out by anything that's supposed to be spooky...fortunately.  He's recently kind of grasped the idea of monsters, loves the scary giant in Obiyoyo, and when strangers try to get him to smile and say hello, he usually responds with a little roar.  

Back to the party.  Here are three of the final products.  Left to Right: Anthony's, mine, then Maurice's.  My owl turned out kind of lame in comparison.  I even forgot the beak.  But in my defense I was putting Ira to bed and making sure everyone had enough cider.

Anthony's pumpkin not lit up.  I know, looks kind of crazy.  So cool when lit up though!  He found a way to take a photo on the computer and morph it into a pumpkin stencil.  He picked a kind of piggish picture of Ira and worked from there.  

Ira playing in the leaves after church.

In other news:

* We've been bowling every Tuesday night with Anthony's co-workers.  One of his teem-mates has never showed up, so I'm the sub.  Everyone's really nice despite my low average.  But this week I broke my record with 116!  Woohoo!  I think my average is 75, and somehow our team is in first place right now...out of maybe 15 teams?

*  Ant's project is moving along.  He has a big project that seems to be progressing.

* The pregnancy is going well.  I feel pretty great, just sleepy still.  We babysat a friend's 3 month old this week and Ira was really cute with him.  He spent most of his time bringing toys to him, blowing him kisses, and talking about his eyes.  Hopefully he'll be as excited when our baby comes.

*  Ira's cute as ever.  Not as excited about the potty lately, but saying a bunch of new words.  I'm worried I won't be able to get his Halloween Costume on.  Every time I whip it out, he runs away with an assertive "NOOOOOOO!"  Oh well.  Have a good week everyone!

Sharon

Fall Festival

Every place we move we try to get a feel for the community. Belleville had a family Fall Festival event yesterday and we decided to check it out. They had closed off the block where the Belleville history museum and library sit and people had set up a few little tables with activities and arts and crafts. They had a miniature old steam engine that looked like a tractor/train that was hooked up to a little corn husker or some sort of harvester. Ira really liked that. There was also a good showing from the local art community, which is amateur at best, but very expressive of the personality of the community.

Sharon and Ira at the Belleville Museum.

 They had some old chores for everyone to try out. I tried out the corn husker.

 Sharon took a stab at hand washing and ringing the clothes. It helped her appreciate our little and often less than stellar, but automatic washing and dryer.

 We even found a job Ira could do.

 The main street was lined with scarecrows that local businesses had created.

 The tin man - a little bit of irony in that one

 A weird moose thing

It was a classic small town America event, that made us want to go jump in a pile of leaves and go ask strangers for candy.  Ah, autumn. 

Wasem Fruit Farm and Talladay Farm

We returned to the Wasem Fruit Farm with a friend from work and his fiance. The homemade donuts are awesome, we need to get there earlier so we have more of a selection than cinnamon sugar. 

 There is always a line for the homemade donuts, apple cider, and fresh fruit. We can't resist it though.

 Ira in the miniature kids maze. He didn't quite get what to do, but we eventually made it through. 

We also found a great groupon for the farm next door, Talladay Farm, and their huge corn maze.

 Ira helped me navigate. I wanted to do it without the map, but I got out voted, so we did the challenge of finding all the 'hidden' posts.

Sharon, Beth, and John trying to figure out where we were.

It was a fun afternoon activity and Ira did really well. It made me feel very... Midwestern and got me in the fall mood.

De-fuzed

It's a cool autumn evening and after a long walk around the small ponds with Ira (he has short legs) enjoying the fall colors I prepared a big sippy-cup of watered down juice made from concentrate for him to drink, thinking I was so clever to give him something he loved so much, but in a rationed and controlled way. However, it dawned on me that I might be doing my son a dis-service, preparing and training him to only recognize and consume beverages that aren't all they profess to be.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating a bit, but I was really surprised this week with a small discovery. A friend I frequently eat lunch with at work has been sporting some fancy fuze fruit drinks lately, whose packaging oozes with the image of some amazing fruit drink with exotic flavors, like my beloved Brazilian Acai. I inspected the packaging expecting to see some marketing to the effect of "With this fruit drink you get XX servings of fruit". Luckily they weren't that blatant in their deception.

They had above the nutrition facts boldly printed 5% juice. Clearly they must be pumping it full of the vitamins a real fruit drink would give you. As I moved to the ingredient list I was extremely surprised that there were only two, that's right, two ingredients that made up 99.5% of the drink. Water and apple juice. The packaging then declared that 'less than .5%' of a long list of stabilizers, mostly foreign sounding (unless you are a chemist), and flavoring made up the rest.

I inspected several flavor varieties of the drink over the next few days of lunch and noticed they all had only two main ingredients, water and apple juice. I asked him, 'They are basically selling you watered down apple juice. Do you feel ripped off?' I was stunned at his reply. 'No. It tastes like the flavor I expect to taste. I can't complain.' I suppose that will do in some circles.

As I reflected I wondered what other products I might be consuming that are less than what they claim to be. Thoughts?

P.S. I wanted to work something in here about Mio, which I guess is this dye you squeeze into water to make juice? I don't even know. All I know is that when I see the yellow dye defusing through the water in the ads on hulu I'm a little disturbed.

Michigan

Alright,  I'm finally catching up.

As we left Minnesota, we had several days left in our apartment without our stuff.  And this is how we entertained Ira.  Family Dance parties are the best!

We had a about a week to unpack before the August craziness started.  I think we had boxes gone and pictures hung in a record day and a half.  Exhausting, but not as exhausting as living out of boxes.  I rather just get it over with quickly.  After the unpacking Anthony was off to New York for a training.  We were then able to see each other for about 24 hours before I was off to Hawaii and he was off to China.  It was about 5 weeks apart all together, and we NEVER want to do that again.  I made it back from Utah before Ant, and found flowers at the door, and this cool tape art waiting for me!  Ira kept running up to it to say "Das!"  Ira lingo for 'dad.'

Michigan has been treating us pretty well.  Anthony already has a calling: Elder's quorum teacher...which must be inspired since that calling has followed him 3 out of 4 of our last moves.  I don't have a calling yet, but was asked to share my testimony of missionary work in Primary the week that the 2nd councilor from the General Primary presidency (Sister Esplin) was visiting.  I know, crazy.   

 We went berry picking on Labor Day and are plowing through my first batch of jam ever.  Ant just suggested we go back before the winter comes.

GE had a family day at the zoo, which Ira was really excited about.  He loved the fake animals almost as much as the real ones.  

We've also made it to Ann Arbor a couple of times, including for my birthday.  We ate at possibly the coolest deli ever.  Zingerman's, we'll take you there if you come visit us!  Not that that's a bribe or anything. 

So, I'm starting to feel pretty pregnant.  I stepped on the scale this morning and found my weight 5 lbs more than yesterday morning.  Is that even possible?  Normal clothes are starting to look a little weird on me, so I'm easing myself into my maternity wardrobe, and tomorrow is my first appointment with my midwife.  I hope  she's amazing in every way, since we all know how picky I am with things like this.  

Ant's job seems to be going pretty well.  It's keeping him busy, and there's a cool lake for him to walk around when he needs a brain break.  He bike's to work almost every day.

That's about all that's going on right now.  I'm still playing the ukulele, and Ant just made an awesome batch of neufchatel, which everyone loves including Ira.  Speaking of which we need an Ira update:

He is trying all sorts of new foods!  I'm loving it!  Fresh tomato, lentil enchilada, pureed cauliflower, you name it.  We'll see how long we can get that to last!  He's slowly recovering from the potty set back of August travel, but pooped on the potty yesterday!  I know, so graphic.  But I was really excited!  Ah motherhood.  Anyway, he's been learning a new word here and there, and especially likes to count to three...not including one.  Actually it goes something like "two three two."  He's learning the difference between "choo choo" and "beep beep," and other important life lessons, like how to do summer-sults (video pending.)  

So, that's our life.  We're looking forward to conference this weekend!  Alright, love you guys.

Sharon

Shanghai Adventures

Life is finally starting to settle back down after our move to Michigan and our end of summer adventures. While Sharon was basking on the sunny beaches of Hawaii and enjoying being with the family and friends, I was hard at work in Shanghai...kind of. I was in a three week training for work, which besides teaching some practical work skills also gave us a great cultural experience. We were in classes 8-5, Monday -Friday, but had the evenings and weekends to get out and explore Shanghai and the surrounding areas. I ended up spending all my time in Shanghai and learned about pearls, bartered and bought, acquired some nice tailor made clothes, ate some interesting food, and enjoyed strolling along 'The Bund' (the river front). I've included some of the pictures from getting out.

 We had a subway not far from the hotel we were in so I got out a lot. I was surprised at how easy it was to navigate. It was also pretty clean and safe.

 I could never figure out why they had these 'Look Out' signs on ceiling that were not really that low.

 I loved running into these kids playing a pokemon type of game in the stairwell of the subway. I had never seen little boys so into a card game, they were yelling and jumping around, I think mimicking the actions of the characters they were playing.

 The TV tower.

 On Sundays in the People's Square parents gather with little ads for their single children (the pieces of paper you see hanging behind them) Then walk around and try to workout dating and/or marriage arrangements for their busy children.

 A presentation given to us on the many diverse cultures and races in China and their diverse clothing, language, and rituals.

 The Jade Buddha Temple.

Giant Replica of the reclining Buddha (One of the two Jade Buddha statues here)

The Goldfish were very beautiful. I know Ira would have loved seeing them.

Shanghai

 Downtown lights up at night, until about 11:00 or 12:00 then they start shutting all the lights off.

The old colonial building line one side of the river, this is what they call the Bund.

The newer development line the other side of the river. 

 Shanghai has been growing incredibly fast. Many of the skyscrapers and buildings are beautiful, modern looking buildings finished in the last 10-15 years.

 I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the traditional against the modern China.

 The following pictures are from the Yu Garden.

 This was a bustling tourist location in the day time. I went out a few times in the evening just as the shops were closing and got to see it practically empty with all the lights on. It was pretty cool.

 I liked the artful rock architecture.

 I like the round doors. I don't know if it is just that it reminds me of hobbits and Lord of The Rings or just the concept being so opposite our square doors.

 In many respects you don't get the feeling that his is a communist country. You see many many signs of capitalism including familiar franchise names.

 Water Village Photos

We went just outside Shanghai one day to a 'Water Village'. I guess they call it the 'Venice' of China. We got rides in these boats then shopped along the canal. It was authentic enough, but as I left and walked out onto the street I got the feeling the experience was more commercialized and tourist focused than I cared to admit while experiencing it. That became a theme on several of the planned 'tour' destinations. Really gave me a new appreciation for the 'Exit through the Gift Shop' mentality that tourist destinations have; a silk mill full of old equipment and few workers that didn't appear like it really produced anything, at least there was no way it produced the goods found in the immaculate shop as we came out the other end. The pearl and tea shops we stopped at were similar experiences.