Packing

Packing has begun and we're stacking boxes in the spare bedroom. Simone feels the need to climb as high as she can to get a good view of all family activities.

Mike and I took a break from packing yesterday to go to the farmer's market. We got some beautiful strawberries, a nice salad mix, some yummy kettle corn, and this tomato.

The tomato vendors grow big, beautiful, perfect tomatoes, but this one came from the red bin of half-priced "ugly or small" tomatoes. I think it looks a bit like a heart and it was deeee-licious.

Labor Day Weekend

Having a little cuddle with my Dobler.

We've had a relaxing Labor Day Weekend after a very busy week. The first week or two of school is always a bit stressful and very busy, but things should probably settle down in the near future.

On Friday night we had dinner and played games with our friends Heather and Devin. It was so fun! We played Rook, Clue, and Rummikub. (Don't worry -- I was a very good sport even though I didn't win at even one of the games.)

The weather was really nice over the whole weekend -- the temperature stayed below 90 and humidity was relatively low. Saturday morning Mike and I rode our bikes to the farmer's market in downtown Urbana, where we bought some lovely peaches and a squash. We're looking forward to some butternut squash lasagna this week.

Today we went to one of the county forest preserves: Lake of the Woods. We were pretty disappointed in what they call "hiking trails" out here. There were some gravel footpaths, but no real hiking. We did enjoy the botanical gardens and the historic one room school house.

We took a picnic lunch to the park, too!

Tonight we broke out the Whirly-Pop and made a delicious batch of caramel popcorn. Mike is very excited about the Whirly-Pop. He thinks it's a great kitchen toy.

Simone has been relaxing this weekend. Isn't she precious?

I just finished reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and really loved it. It's an interesting portrait of life in the U.S. in an immigrant family. Also fraught with identity crises, the difficulties of growing up, figuring out how to get along on your own, etc. A fantastic read. Next up: Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.