A told B and B told C, I'll Meet You at the Top of the Coconut Tree. I mean, Pecan Tree.

Thanks to Hallie's slightly-flawed Texas tutorial, during which she maintained until the bitter end that the coconut tree - not the pecan tree - was the state tree of Texas, I've had pecans on the brain. I love pecans, but because we rarely keep nuts in our house (the possibility of peanut contamination always exists when it comes to store-bought nuts because most packaging companies use the same equipment to package pecans, for example, as they use to package peanuts), I only enjoy them once or twice a year.

Then on Saturday morning, a friend posted on Facebook a flyer advertising a nearby pecan farm's fall harvest festival. We'd previously made plans to spend the day hiking at Sam Houston State Park, but by the time the four of us were up, dressed, fed, and ready to go, the idea of driving nearly two hours to the trailhead was less than appealing. The opportunity to spend the day a little closer to home and at an authentically Texan establishment, on the other hand, sounded just perfect. (The possibility that Hallie might learn the truth about the Texas state tree was icing on the cake.)

We took the tractor-pulled hay/wagon ride across the farm and through the orchard; examined a few pecan trees and pecans up close; tasted pecans, coffees, olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and wines; and bought a few Christmas presents from some of the local vendors selling their wares. Oh, and a lovely young woman painted a heart - which lasted all of seven minutes - on Hallie's cheek.

Tom, Will, Hallie and I have visited plenty of apple orchards,
but Royalty Pecan Farm's pecan orchard was a first for all four of us. 

Tom and Will waiting for the hayride tour of the farm to begin.

Tom and Will rode in front on the hay, while Hallie and rode in the back on the wagon.

A pecan up close.

Our (Tom and my) favorite part of the orchard was the
precision with which the trees had been planted. Their lines
were perfectly straight, both horizontally and vertically, and cast
gorgeous patterns of light and dark when the sun shone through them.

The stripes of light and dark were even lovelier in person.

We rarely see Hallie's "natural" smile these days.

It's a shame, because even though I like her silly faces...

…and her "pained" faces, I miss her beautiful real smile.

Aside from having your entire face painted like a Disney princess,
you can't get much girlier than a pink heart on your cheek.

Trips to the apple orchard - followed by afternoons spent baking and then eating apple pies - define fall in the Midwest. I miss our favorite apple orchard, for the apples and the cider and the donuts, yes, but also because picking apples with fingers sticky from our cinnamon sugar-covered pumpkin donuts was one of our favorite Saturday morning fall traditions.

This trip to the pecan orchard, though not a permanent replacement, proved an adequate substitute for the time being. And while there were no donuts, at least we came home with pie.

Note: Hallie is still unwilling to admit that she's wrong about the coconut tree.

Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Texas I Learned From Hallie

Thanks to Hallie, the other three members of the Ferris family recently enrolled - some more willingly than others - in Hallie's self-created "Everything You Need to Know About Texas" course. She initially offered this 125-hour long lecture free of charge to just her parents and her older brother, but I know for certain she would schedule a second lecture if family members and/or friends expressed an interest. (Ok, fine. The lesson may not have lasted 125 hours, but it sure felt like it.)

Here are photos of the four visual aids she used to supplement her lecture, along with some of her notes:

Hallie: This is our American flag.
Erin: Are you sure?
Hallie: Oops, this is our Texas flag. I like that it has a star.

Hallie: This is a coconut tree.
Erin: Are you sure?
 Hallie: Yep, it's a coconut tree.
Erin: It's actually a pecan tree.
Hallie: No, it's not. Don't tell me it's a pecan 
tree because I know and say it's a coconut tree.

Hallie: This is an armadillo. It tucks into its shell 
when it sees bad guys and then the shell is like a shield.

Hallie: This is a Bluebonnet. I painted the Bluebonnet and 
colored the leaves. The leaves make food for the Bluebonnet. 

So the lecture still needs a little fine-tuning.

And while she may have been completely wrong, I admire the fact that Hallie wouldn't budge when it came to the coconut tree taking its rightful place as the State Tree of Texas…

High Five for Friday (11.1.13)

1. Halloween is over! I love Halloween, but these last few years the holiday has really begun to wear on me. Between costumes and parties and so, so much baking and decorating, I find myself completely wiped out by the time trick-or-treating rolls around. I power through the main event (and yes, I still keep track - with a sophisticated, hand-held "clicker" - of how trick-or-treaters visit our house in an attempt to "beat" my dad and my sister), but breath a sigh of relief when we finally turn off our front porch light around 9pm. Time to sit back, relax, and enjoy all of the peanut-filled candy I confiscated from my peanut-allergic son!

2. It's November! I absolutely love November: cooler fall weather, my annual girls' weekend in Chicago with my mom and sister, my birthday, Thanksgiving. Our schedule clears ever so slightly (in preparation for a jam-packed December), which means more homemade dinners, evenings at home, and early bedtimes. Ah, earlier bedtimes…sounds like heaven to me!

Perhaps the cutest introduction to the month of November that ever existed.

If you can't understand two-year-old Little Miss, the words to the song are here.

3. I have thick corneas! After 26 years of wearing glasses and then a combination of contacts and glasses, I finally reached my breaking point and decided to pursue surgery to correct my near-sightedness. After I'd made my decision but before my consultation, a friend shared with me that she'd once hoped to have laser eye surgery but had been turned down because of thin corneas. I had no idea cornea thickness was even a "thing", let alone a surgical issue, and since that conversation I've had a bit of anxiety about the state of my corneas. As if I need more to worry about…

Though there are still a couple of hoops to jump through, I found out this week that my corneas are thick and should handle surgery nicely. One step closer to eyes that can see farther than six inches in front of my face!

4. This "Mr. Holland's Opus-ish" story about children who build their own musical instruments out of garbage will bring tears - at least some of which will be happy - to your eyes. It doesn't matter the kind, where it comes from, or how it's made…music joins hearts, opens minds, and makes the world a kinder, more peaceful, and more spiritual place.

5. Catching Fire opens in 20 days! I purchased my tickets and lined up my babysitter weeks ago, and I've just about finished rereading both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, so now there's not much left to do but count down the days until the big release…

The final trailer, released earlier this week.

Linking up with High Five for Friday!

A Walk Down (Halloween) Memory Lane

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Happy Halloween!

I Can't Take Them Anywhere

Sometimes it's just too much, you know?

Last week I took Will and Hallie to Chick-Fil-A for an early dinner before Will's karate lesson. Because of the early-bird-special time of day, the restaurant was nearly empty; a 20-something man dining alone and a couple in their mid-40's were the only other customers.

As I stepped up to the counter to place our order, I instructed Will and Hallie to gather napkins, utensils, and sauces and choose a table near the indoor play area (so that after we'd finished eating I could keep an eye on them while they ran off steam on the jungle gym). As they scampered off I went about the business of ordering.

When I turned around after having placed my order, I saw them. They'd followed my instructions with regard to gathering what we needed to accessorize our meal and choosing a table, but that's where the good ended and the oh-so-uncomfortable began. Out of the approximately 40 or tables in the nearly-empty restaurant, Will and Hallie had selected the booth right behind the couple (who up until that moment had been enjoying a quiet conversation over their chicken sandwiches). And in an attempt to prove to the couple that I'd never taught them any manners of any kind, Will and Hallie were doing this:

(Thank you to Tom for helping me reenact the scene by portraying the female member of the couple.)

Both Will and Hallie had draped themselves over the back of the woman's seat/bench, with their heads hanging down by her butt. And while I didn't recreate this detail in the photo above, on that day Hallie's teeny tiny butt was covered only by her teeny tiny princess underwear. It was as if she planned this humiliation ahead of time, so much so that she removed her little shorts on the way to the car. (I found them, right inside the back door, when we arrived home later that evening.)

I gasped and made some sort of yelping noise that, while loud enough to startle the Chick-fil-a employees, didn't prompt Will or Hallie to even look up. Then from across the restaurant and in a voice that I hope conveyed my shock and disapproval to the innocent bystanders within earshot, I demanded that Will and Hallie remove themselves from this poor woman's personal telephone booth of space. They obliged, but did so begrudgingly.

I made my way to the table and began to apologize profusely to both members of the couple. The woman smiled at me and replied, "don't worry about it at all. I didn't even notice they were there at first, and then it took me a few seconds to realize they weren't our kids!" She nodded her head toward the play area and I followed her line of sight toward three, toe-headed kids of similar ages to mine who were wildly chasing each other up and down the slide. "We've been there," she added.

Side note: I certainly appreciated her nonchalance about the whole Will's-face-just-inches-from-her-butt circumstance, but really, who doesn't notice two kids literally crashing your dinner like that?

I'm so grateful the people Will and Hallie chose to basically harass happened to be kind, understanding parents. That doesn't mean I've ever setting foot back inside Chick-Fil-A again though.

Time for Some FUN.

A few months ago Tom and I bought tickets to see FUN. perform at The Woodlands (an outdoor amphitheater located about 25 miles north of Houston). Though crazy excited when we purchased the tickets, my enthusiasm had waned significantly by the time the concert rolled around. Not because I cared any less about the band or their music, but because the concert fell on a Sunday. 

On a "normal" Sunday, I clean the house, write and send all of my school and baseball emails, finish my Monday through Wednesday blog posts, make lunches for the week, prep dinners for the week, and finish the laundry. I usually tackle this lengthy list of chores starting in the late morning after church and/or an outdoor outing with Tom and the kids, and I continue working into the early evening hours; on this particular Sunday, however, I had to finish everything by 2pm. I had to make sure that care for our kids had been squared away. (They played at a friend's house until 7pm, when this lovely and gracious friend dropped them off at our house and their care was taken over by an equally lovely and gracious babysitter.) I had to spruce myself up, which, as the three peeps with whom I live can attest to, I rarely do on Sunday afternoons/evenings. And last but not least, I had to manage the dread I felt knowing that a late Sunday night followed by a painfully early Monday morning would in no way make for a good start to the week.

I'd begun to consider skipping the concert all together.

I've mentioned previously that I deeply regret not taking advantage of all Michigan had to offer while we lived there. In just a few short hours we could have driven to and enjoyed Lake Michigan, Silver Lake Sand Dunes, Mackinaw Island, and the Upper Peninsula, but excuse after excuse - too busy, buying a house, moving, working on the house, pregnant, newborn baby, toddler, second newborn baby, potty training toddler...you get the picture - kept us close to home in Ann Arbor.

I remembered this feeling - knowing I'd allowed incredible experiences to pass through my fingertips - the afternoon of the concert, and decided to stop worrying about the chores I wouldn't finish and how late I'd be up. It was time to see something new, to do something different, to expand our Texas horizons.

We made the right decision.

The 90-minute drive to The Woodlands cut through the flat, brush-covered landscapes we now consider familiar, but also past unexpected stretches of rolling hills, towering evergreen trees, and glistening lakes. We drove through typically-Texan small towns - typical in the sense that the high school football stadiums put almost all college football stadiums to shame - and were surprised to find ourselves considering day trips to further explore these "diamonds in the rough".

As relatively new Texans, we knew the The Woodlands only for its outdoor amphitheater and shopping mall, so you can imagine our surprise when we arrived and discovered that the area is actually one of American's first and now finest master-planned communities. We spent two hours prior to the concert walking around the Town Center and marveling at all the area had to offer - restaurants and bars, shopping, entertainment, outdoor art and water fountains, green spaces, a waterway and small lake, boat rentals, water cruisers (essentially waterway taxis), and trolleys - and repeating over and over how we simply hadn't left home early enough to experience even one block's worth of this bustling city center.

I've since learned that The Woodlands spreads far beyond the Town Center and is considered a completely sustainable community. Multiple residential neighborhoods that host parks, playgrounds, golf courses, schools, hospitals, and religious congregations blend seamlessly into the Town Center and its amenities, and, well, I want to live there. The Woodlands reminds me of my childhood home in Madison, Wisconsin, where I could walk from my house in a safe, residential neighborhood to school, the park, the zoo, the beach, the grocery store, shopping, restaurants, the University of Wisconsin (including all major sports venues), and the hospital (where my mom worked), all in under 15 minutes. Both Tom and I can't wait to visit The Woodlands again with our kids; we must have said, "Will and Hallie would love that!" at least 10 times during our short visit. 

And the concert? Incredible. The opening bands were nothing to write home about, but FUN. lived up to and far surpassed its name. I'm not an expert (though I'm not a novice either), but I found the three young men who make up the band - and their supporting cast of characters as well - to be some of the most talented and entertaining musicians in the business. 

Quite a few musicians survive on talent alone, and even more "make it big" because along with talent, their passion for music comes across to their audiences. FUN. takes it a step further. The talent is there. The passion is there. And more so than any other band I have ever seen in concert, they absolutely, positively LOVE what they do. They have FUN. and it's amazing to watch.    

This concert reminded me that life isn't always about getting all of our chores done and going to bed on time (though it's alright for life to be about those things some of the time - our kids were up too late on both Friday and Saturday nights and so the first part of this week is all about going to bed on time). I feel like we've done a decent job of getting to know our city throughout the last three years, but now we need to start making time in our busy schedules to get to know our area. (I'd say state, but let's be honest, I'm not taking a weekend, 10+ hour road trip to West Texas.) It's time to push both our literal and figurative boundaries.

Here are a couple of pics from our night with FUN. They're terrible, thanks to the florescent lighting prior and darkness during the concert, so my apologies for that. (The pictures are also only of the screen, because I didn't want to take the time to zoom my phone camera while all of the musical greatness was going on around me.)

As cheesy as it sounds, I hope that whatever you're up to this week, you have an opportunity to use your talent, fuel your passion, and do something you love. And if you feel up to it, push those boundaries a little!

High Five for Friday (10.25.13)

I mentioned last Friday that I planned to try something new this week, and now here we are. Today (and for at least the next few weeks), instead of a weekly wrap-up, I'm going to link up with High Five for Friday. High Five for Friday (H54F) - hosted by Lauren Elizabeth, a blogger I read occasionally - is an opportunity to reflect on the past week and then document five favorite experiences, moments, accomplishments from those seven days.

So without further adieu, here we go!

1. My Gal Hal loves to create. (And destroy, but let's talk about that side of her in a separate post. Oh alright, I'll link you to proof here, here, and here. Oh, and here too.) She could spend all day lost in her own little world of coloring, drawing, painting, cutting, pasting, stickering, and glittering.

On Tuesday night Hallie's preschool hosted its annual Art Show. When we arrived in her classroom, Hallie took my hand and led me from one table to the next, showing off the many different projects she lovingly created. I could see how proud she was of herself, and I hope she could see how proud I was of her as well.

2. Will and I enjoy a monthly lunch date at his elementary school. I joined him for our October lunch early in the month on his birthday, so he didn't expect to see me when he walked into the lunchroom on Wednesday morning. The look on his face, the excitement in his voice...I wish I could bottle seven-year-old Will so that one day, perhaps when he reaches the teenage years and wants as little to do with his parents as possible, I can uncork the bottle and enjoy the memory of what a sweet little Mama's Boy he used to be.

3. Starbucks technically serves Caramel Apple Spices year-round, but I only allow myself to order this delicious drink when there's a "chill in the air" (and once a week). In Michigan I usually enjoyed my first Caramel Apple Spice at the beginning of September, but here in Texas, September temperatures - even those in the early morning - rarely sink below 75 degrees. Not exactly chilly.

The daytime temperatures still reach the upper 70s or low 80s, but the gradually descending nighttime temperatures have finally made it possible for me to drink warm beverages again. As I headed out the backdoor to walk Will to school that first cool morning, I knew that whatever plans I'd previously made for the day were null and void, at least until I had Caramel Apple Spice in hand.

It was so worth the wait.

4. This - a wonderful glimpse into the very special relationship shared by father and son - is just the best. When he cried, I cried. When he laughed, I laughed. I highly recommend you cry and laugh along with him.

5. And this is pretty cool too.

I hope your week deserved a high five!