Big Boy Haircut

Jack got his first big boy haircut this week. It happened by accident really. Up until now I just tell the barber to do the best to get the hair off the neck and out of his eyes. Jack usually lasts about 5 minutes before melting down. This time I sang songs with him while Mr. Ray at All Cuts worked his magic. He did a little bit at a time so as not to "get into something that Jack won't let us finish." With the exception of the clippers, Jack was a real trooper and managed to get his first truly short 'do since he grew hair.

I'm not sure I was ready to have the beach hair chopped, but I wanted to strike while the iron was hot as long as Jack was having a positive hair cut experience.

The funny thing is, I think Jack sees himself as older now with the new cut. He's talking more and even made improvements with potty usage (don't ask). Now if he will just make his own bed...

Halloween Pics

Xavier was a construction worker and Jack was an owl. We opted for daytime trick-or-treating at the Ames Main Street Trick-or-Treat on Friday. Tim took off work for the afternoon and the boys had a blast.

A Tale of Two Coats

Nearly six weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa McNicholl sent the boys their very first full-fledged winter coats via the fairies at Land's End. Jack loved his so much that he refused to take it off for about an hour after arrival. These coats are fantastic: lots of pockets for little boys, built in fingerless gloves, water and dirt resistant fabric, and even the ability to add two more inches to the sleeve legnth as the boys grow.

It has been an unseasonably warm autumn here in Iowa so up until now the coats haven't gotten much day-to-day use. Since we are such an outdoors-loving family the coats did come in handy for all the weekend camping trips where we were outside first thing in the morning and the temperatures were quite chilly.

Here are the coats at Grinnell college's homecoming weekend.


At Rock Creek State Park.

This morning it is finally a very chilly 24 degrees with an expected high of 45 degrees. Our first official Coat Day!

Why Is It...

Why is it that whenever I don't have a camera with me, we see the most unusual things? I suppose I should start from the beginning. I had the best intentions this morning of doing craft time at the library and then heading out for a few hours of play and picnic at one of the many local parks. I'm finally getting around to reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv and am feeling even more inspired to make sure my kids get plenty of time with nature.

So we woke up, dressed, threw a load of laundry in downstairs, and had breakfast. We were all set to head off for our planned adventure when, as often happens, life had other plans for us. Tim had accidentally gone to work this morning with our car keys in his backpack.

Desperate not to give up so soon on my resolve to spend more time outdoors, I took the boys on a little walk around the office park that encircles our hotel. It is still Iowa you know and the development is surrounded by corn fields and woods. The funny thing about walking when you aren't going anywhere and don't have a set time frame--you start to see things. Sure enough we saw something...goose poop. And lots of it. Then we began to notice goose feathers too. Xavier spotted first the rarest of finds. A goose egg! I have no idea why it was there and I imagine the mama goose was long gone on her flight south for the winter. I just wish I had brought the camera but even then I'm not sure a photo would have captured the amount of awe and wonder we all had at the discovery. It was as if we had found a secret door into fairyland or a leprechaun.

The Great Lakes of Iowa

This past weekend we decided to out drive the rainy weather and headed north to the "Iowa Great Lakes" region. If the name is confusing, no, there hasn't been a great shift in geography--Iowa doesn't border on one of the Great Lakes (Superior, Eerie, etc.). These are the Iowa Great Lakes, folks. See, it's different.

Actually despite the name confusion, this area earns its moniker as "Iowa's number one resort." Frankly, it is probably the only resort but who's quibbling? It reminds me of a midwestern Highlands, NC or Seaside, FL. Lots of big houses, lots of resorts, lots of cabin rentals. It being September we were there in the "off season" so things were relatively quiet.

We enjoyed some quiet camping by one of the lakes. Temperatures got a bit chilly—it was about 45 degrees in the morning with the bonus wind coming off the lake. Some good coffee and cocoa warmed us up quickly though.

Here's our new 6-man tent that we got for the bargain price of $100 after triple markdown and end-of-season sale. (Frugal note: September is a great time to get camping equipment on sale!)

Here's a quick shot of Xavier helping daddy tote water back from the pump a few campsites away.

Our plan is to keep camping on the weekends until the weather just doesn't allow it anymore. We love being outside and enjoying Jiffy pop around the campfire at night and singing campfire songs. Good clean family fun.

Main Street Music Night

Thursday night after dinner we all went down to Main Street for their annual Music Night. About 40 different shops and restaurants had small musical acts in or just outside their doors. Not only did the event encourage folks to take a closer look at some of the downtown businesses but to also get a sense of all the musical talent in the city.

Most of the acts were amateurs but obviously very talented. Some of the acts fit the store. For example the candy store had a series of recitals by the local Suzuki violin students. (Xavier wanted to "take a turn" on the violin after seeing a young boy play.) The genres ranged from bluegrass barn dance to xylophone jazz.

Jack had as much fun watching the people go by as dancing to the music.

This was Tim's favorite...a jug-band styled group.

Xavier enjoyed the acoustic guitars too.

TILAA--Sidewalks

This is the first in what I hope to be a short series of musings about Things I Love About Ames (TILAA). I reserve the right to extend my love to all of Iowa if the topic warrants it!

Pretty much all of Ames is connected by sidewalks. It is lovely. People use them. We use them. Walking is such a nice way to start and end the day. We regularly go on walks as a family now.

One thing that I've noticed about having lots of sidewalks, it makes drivers drive differently. Taking a left turn? You look for cars but also pedestrians. Theres a soft subtle shift in the brain when this happens, you no longer feel isolated in an impenetrable SUV-bubble.

Sidewalks. Love 'em.

Oh Happy Day!

We finally got an honest-to-goodness piece of forwarded mail here in Iowa. While it was nice to get the thank you note from my nephew, it was even better to be able to go to the Ames library and use the envelope to get our library card. The boys and I have been on a meager book diet over the past few months. While in Winston-Salem we did hit the Goodwill to stock up on a few new books at the bargain price of $0.50 a piece but there just wasn't enough room in the truck to get too many.

The Ames library has a single location downtown with a very active bookmobile program that goes all over the city. I don't know if the lack of branches accounts for it but this is the loveliest community library I've ever seen. They have all the whistles and bells of technology: self check out, online reservations, MP3 downloads, e-mail reminders when books are about to be due, extensive and current DVD collection...and I've only been on the first floor!

The children's section is equally impressive. They have a dedicated room for storytime, which occurs about 12 times a week. Some of you may have heard my complaints about our usual storytime in Beaumont. The folks who run this do a fantastic job of really engaging the kids while also giving the parents pre-reading tips. The rest of the children's section includes a fish tank, a puppet theatre, several play areas, rockers for mothers to read to their children in, picture books in kid-friendly bins rather than standard stacks, and so much more. The collection for kids includes toys, CDs, DVDs, musical instruments, puzzles and other toys. It is a godsend for us since we don't really want to fill our small apartment with new toys but do want the boys to have a variety of playthings to keep them interested.

I fully plan to make this library a stop several times a week while we are here.

A Tale of Two Gardens...

...and two cats.

On our way to Iowa we spent a few days in Winston-Salem with Grandma and Grandpa M. Each day we took the boys on a little outing to see some of the sites of Winston-Salem. Sometimes it was just a playground but we did get to see two lovely historic gardens while we were there.

The first was Reynolda Gardens on the campus of Wake Forest. The formal gardens and greenhouse host dozens upon dozens of vegetables, roses, and rare plants. These were the most manicured vegetable gardens that I've ever seen. The dirt in these gardens looks like brownie mix. I can't imagine that the suns sets on a weed in Reynolda gardens.

While looking around a little one-eared, white kitty took to being our tour guide. The boys were enchanted. I suppose I was too as all my photos are of the boys with the cat...none of the garden itself. I'm such a poor archivist! Anyway, here is a photo of Xavier taking an imaginary photo of the cat with his map.

The second garden we visited was a historical recreation of the garden at Historic Bethabara Park. It is a Williamstown-like recreation of the original Morovian settlement of Winston-Salem. It was a weekday so there were no reenactors other than in the gift shop. We had a fun time exploring the fort but my favorite part by far was the community garden. They rent out space with the two rules that you can't plant corn (as it was considered a field crop only in the past) and tomatoes (as they were considered poisonous!). We saw lots of okra, herbs, flowers, beans, peppers and these HUGE sunflowers. Down the middle was a grapevine-covered walk. At this garden we met a black cat/caretaker who was very interested in our turkey sandwiches!

After seeing the gleam in my eye at both these garden tours, my husband told me he thought we might need to get a house with a larger yard. I'll admit I'm inspired to begin planning the winter garden when we get home to Texas.

Hello from Ames

Hi gang,

Due to the personal nature of this blog, I'm putting on privacy settings for the months we are in Iowa while Tim is on sabbatical. Sorry for the extra time you'll need to spend signing it but it was either this or writing in "code" about our adventures here, or just not posting at all.

Viewership of this blog is now by invitation only.

Posts and photos to come soon about our vacation and our life here in Ames. The short version is that we are living in a 1BR extended stay hotel room for three months. It is a small but totally manageable space. We look forward to finding lots of things to do while we are here.

Xavier is napping in my room and the camera is in there too so no photos for now. Soon, I promise!