Zara's First Field Trip

Last month, Zara's preschool class went on their first field trip and Adelaide and I tagged along. We went to Petit Creek Farm out in Cartersville, Georgia. It's only about a 30-45 minute drive north from Marietta, but it definitely feels more rural. We drove through historic downtown Cartersville on our way out to the farm and it had all the charm of a small historic town that I love. They have several museums there too which I'd love to go back and check out. 

Our first stop at the farm was to feed the goats and sheep. Adelaide has absolutely no fear of any living creature and walked right up to them.

Zara, on the other hand, kept a respectful distance. 

After feeding the animals, the kids moved onto stuffing scarecrows full of hair.

Zara and her classmate Leticia were paired up and tried to get to work.

Their final scarecrow. He could have used a bit more in the middle.

Next we went on a hay ride through the farm's grounds to see the other animals they had.

There were horses, cows, sheep, pigs, and all of that, but strangely, also zebra, camels, and kangaroos.

Next, we went to the pig races. Here's all of Zara's class lined up waiting for the pigs to be released.

And they're off!

Our next stops included a bouncy house, a corn maze and then a picnic lunch. It was fun to be able to go with Zara on her field trip. Next month, they're going to see the Nutcracker and I'm hoping that I may get to go with them again.

Dinnertime at the Malones

Dinnertime is a comical affair in the Malone household since it's usually just me and the girls.

Let me paint the scene at dinnertime most nights. Two seconds after sitting down to eat, Zara will realize she needs to go to the bathroom and will disappear for at least 10 minutes. Eight of those minutes will be spent singing and/or playing with the bath toys. 

Adelaide will eat her food with varying degrees of cleanliness. When she's either offended by a food I've provided for her or decided she's done eating, she'll start throwing all her food, cups, bowls, and utensils on the floor and start waving her hands in the air, the sign for done.

Zara will return and pick at her food for approximately two minutes before declaring it's disgusting and asking for something else which she will be denied. She'll then find a puzzle,  coloring book, or book to occupy her while I clean up a messy baby.

Adelaide, finally released from her high chair will persist in climbing on top of the table, stomping her feet, and throwing Zara's uneaten meal to the ground with shrieks of delight. (This photo was taken just seconds before Adelaide threw that piece of naan she's holding across the kitchen.)

Finally banished to another room, I will get a chance to eat my own food which is now cold.

So who wants to come over for dinner?

Scrabble Battle

On Tuesday, we added Scrabble to our collection of board games so that night David and I had to battle each other for bragging rights.

David started strong with finest and racked in the points with fluent, jovial, zesty, and axed.

My best efforts included shiny, moped, jabot, zebra, desire, and glom.

(David didn't believe jabot or glom were words. I proved him wrong.)

By the end of the last round, David had 239 points but had effectively shut me out of the running with his irritatingly appropriate entry of "guano."

I couldn't play my follow-up word "quark" anywhere on the board so I had to settle for the disappointingly short "hag."

But I still won with 251 points.

I'm still mad about missing out on quark though. That would have made my triumph complete.

How to enhance your wardobe

On Wednesday, Adelaide and I were doing some shopping when Adelaide had such an explosive diaper that she started leaking everywhere. She hasn't done that since she was about 6 months old so I was wholly unprepared. Luckily,  we had just arrived at the mall when the explosion happened so we hied ourselves to the nearest bathroom where I stripped her of all her clothes and changed her diaper. 

Her jacket had thankfully been spared from the onslaught so I put that over her and went looking for a new outfit to buy for her. Mercifully, I wasn't subjected to a lot of judgmental stares about the fact that my baby was barefoot and naked under her jacket.

After visiting two stores, this is the new outfit Adelaide scored for her efforts (on sale). Then I took her to the mall's indoor play area to celebrate. She was certainly happy with the outcome.

Zara's Preschool Photo

Zara took her preschool photos two months ago. We got them back awhile ago but I just got around to scanning it. They took three photos but I only paid for this one. It's actually a pretty cute photo of her. The others of her were very Zara-like, with her giggling and being generally a silly girl. I really like this one.

But seriously....why are school photos so expensive? I was shocked at what they wanted for all her photos, which is why I only bought one.

Swinging Around

There's nothing Adelaide likes more about the park than stealing other people's balls and swinging.* And when you can combine the two....well, life is pretty much perfect.

Adelaide doesn't say many words very clearly except for Dada. But her two other favorite words are ball and zip  (said adorably when we zip up her pajamas). She also says done when she has finished eating and wants out of her chair. Now if only I could get her to say Mama!

*Please note that the ball pictured was not stolen. This one actually belongs to us.

Blackberries

All berries are not created equal, in my opinion. I love strawberries, will tolerate blueberries, and dislike raspberries and blackberries. But according to every other Malone, all berries are wonderful.

So when I found blackberries on sale this Monday, I let the girls tackle an entire carton as a snack. It was gone in minutes.

A House of Our Own

From July 2013 to July 2014 we moved four times. It was pretty miserable and not an experience I'm anxious to repeat anytime soon. We've moved a lot in our 6 years of marriage, but even this was excessive. We left Utah on the last day of July 2013 and drove across the country to live (we thought) briefly with my sister in Newport News, Virginia, putting the bulk of our belongings in a storage unit nearby. Our 1-2 month stay, however, turned into 7 months. During that time, my sister bought a new house and so we all moved yet again, albeit just across town.

In February 2014, David got a job offer in Atlanta with an immediate start date. With no funds for the move and no time to find a suitable place, we moved in the basement of David's sister's house. Again, we expected a short 1-2 month stay but that stretched out to 5. Although we were extraordinarily grateful to both our families for helping us during this time, we desperately wanted our own space again. Through months of searching, we could not find a place in the area we wanted at the price we could afford. I was starting to give up all hope of finding a place and had absolutely no expectation of finding something with all the items on our wish list.

Since we didn't think we could afford a single family home, we had mostly been looking at apartments and town homes. We found one apartment we kinda sorta maybe liked and decided to check out the new ward that we would attend should we chose to live there. That Sunday, we attended the Paper Mill Ward and it was a completely opposite experience from what we had experienced in the ward we were currently attending with David's sister. We were greeted and welcomed and people actually talked to us. When David mentioned that we were looking for a place to live, several people came forward with suggestions and options.

One man told David that he and his family were about to move and their 3 bedroom 1.5 bath house would soon be available. The rent was shockingly low but we didn't like the neighborhood where the house was located.  After looking at a few more disappointing options, David wanted to contact the man about the house but he had lost his contact information. Luckily we remembered the address of the house so we just showed up one day and the couple was gracious enough to welcome us in and show us around the house.

The house was built in 1960 and I think many parts of it (the kitchen particularly) have never been updated. But it was spacious, it was clean and it had a huge backyard. And we couldn't pass up the rent. So we called the owner of the home and asked if we could rent it when the current occupants moved. Our move in date was set for Fourth of July weekend.

We've been in the house for four months now. There's definitely a lot we'd change or update about the house but we can't complain too much since we got the space we wanted at the price we needed. We feel really grateful to have found this place. So here's a little tour of our new home.

 You enter through the front door into the living room. It's a weird configuration of a room, but pretty spacious and the floors are all the original hardwood.

One corner of the room is our family room area which is decorated with all our Asian artifacts. The window looks out onto the carport which has since been closed off and is now the playroom.

 The other side of living room has our bookshelves, piano, my beautiful Korean chest, and a picture wall, which I love.

The room was so awkward it took us forever to figure out where to put all of our furniture. David also bought that keyboard before we got married but didn't have a stand for it so we've never set it up to use on a regular basis. We finally bought a stand for it so we can use it.

 

The door from the living room takes you to the kitchen/dining area. It's a large space but not well used. Plus, it still has all it's original floor to ceiling wood paneling. Pretty awesome. Except not. It's a pain to clean and makes the room really dark. Can you even see our table and chairs in the corner? It totally blends in.

 

 Despite the awkward configuration and age, there's lots of counter space and the stove is gas. I much, much prefer cooking on a gas stove.

 

Off the kitchen is the entrance to the playroom which is a really fun space for the girls.

 Through the center door is the laundry room and extra storage space. We were able to buy a used washer and dryer for real cheap that have been really great.

 The girl's room is probably my favorite room in the house. We went all out in decorating it and it is a pink profusion. Zara picked out her comforter and the whole room was decorated from it. Most of their furniture is new too.

 

We got rid of Zara's toddler bed when we left Virginia because it was falling apart so we bought her a new twin bed. We also bought Adelaide a new crib because we'd gotten rid of our old one when we left Utah. We bought a new dresser and rug from Ikea. 

 The other side has the changing table (the only piece of furniture we've had since Korea when Zara was born) and a cute little cube for extra storage and books.
 

 Our bedroom is small and just barely has enough room for our bed and dresser. I do love our wall of accomplishment with all 4 of our degrees. (BA and MA for me and BS and MBA for David.)

There's a toilet and sink in the bathroom attached to the master and there's a small bathroom with a shower/tub down the hall. We have a third bedroom but it's currently being used as office space and the land where boxes go to die so it's not fit for photographing.

We're so happy to have our own space again.

Amicalola Falls

David took some time off work during the third week of September and so we checked a few things off our to-do and to-go list. First up was a trip into the mountains of northern Georgia and a day of hiking at Amicalola Falls State Park. It was a crisp, clear, beautiful fall day and we had a wonderful time. 

 It took a little over an hour to drive to the State Park and it was nearing lunch time by the time we arrived. We found a nice picnic table next to a little playground along one of the trails and ate the lunch that I had packed for us while David and I discussed which route to take to the Falls.

Most of the trails lead to the Falls, but they vary in difficulty and length. We didn't want anything too steep or difficult since Zara would be making the climb herself and David would have Adelaide in the carrier.

The hike was perfect. Not too steep or too long, well maintained and sufficiently shady. We did pass at least two snakes on our way though.

But the Falls were gorgeous.

I let Zara eat a sucker as a prize for making it to the Falls on her own.

You could climb about 400 steps from the base of the Falls to the top. Zara wasn't too keen on that but the view was amazing.

Of course, Adelaide conked out in her carrier but not until the very end.

After our hike was over, we headed just down the street to Burt's Pumpkin Farm where they had a large assortment of every type of pumpkin and gourd and some of the largest pumpkins I have ever seen.

These pumpkins were as big as Adelaide and ranged in prize from $40 to $80. We decided to try for something in a more manageable size and prize range.

After the pumpkin patch, we ducked in Ellijay, a small town nearby that is famous for its apple orchards. We stopped at BJ Reece's apple orchard where we purchased fresh apple turnovers, apple cider and a few pecks of apples which I then made into applesauce and apple butter.

Here was our haul from the day. It was a gorgeous day, beautiful weather, an absolutely delightful way to spend a fall day.

A New Promise

Everytime I come here to post something I promise I'm going to do better at posting more. Obviously, I'm a big fat liar. I've learned to live with it.

I do post a lot of things on Facebook because it's really easy to do. I can snap a photo on my phone and upload it to Facebook right away. Easy and done. But I have to log into my computer, upload new photos from either my camera or phone, then import them into Blogger and find something witty to say about them in order to post on here. It takes time and energy I just don't have.

But I want to have our memories documented on this blog for easier access and searchability, which Facebook does not allow. So instead of making this about big trips or special events (which will still certainly be featured), I want to try to post at least once or twice a week with just a photo or anecdote or update on the week. The girls are growing and changing way too fast and I'm forgetting too much already.

I have about 3 months worth of adventures to post about and I do hope to get to them soon but I don't want to neglect the here and now while I try to play catch up. So stay tuned. I hope to around much more from now on. (And I'm really thinking I'm going to really try this time. Or at least I'll feel actual guilt when I inevitably fail.)

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this snapshot of Adelaide from last night as I was getting the girls ready for bed.

Gives new meaning to bareback riding, doesn't it?

And rather appropriately, the book Adelaide is holding is The Red Pony by John Steinbeck.