Aloha

Here today... Gone to Maui!

It is 6 am and Darren and I are on our way to SFO to begin our 8 day kidless vacation to Maui and Kauai. Did I mention it is just the two of us? With no kids? We are thrilled!

Don't fret for the kids though, they were thrilled too, last night at 10:00 pm at Jenny's house :)

My year without Facebook

One year ago - on November 1, 2010 - I deactivated my Facebook account.

You can read about it here.

I can say that I am still so happy I made that decision! When I go to Superfranks or the park, I look around and see that almost every parent "present" is on their iPhone. That used to be me. Now, I am totally *mostly* present with my kids as they play, instead of just surfing Facebook to kill time.

One of the reasons I got off of Facebook was because it was such a time-suck for me. Honestly, sometimes I don't like my iPhone (don't tell my Apple-Addict husband!). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it as a phone, map, camera, traffic checker, kid-entertainer, etc. etc. But I don't like how much I use it, still, even after getting off of Facebook. I am on it way less, but still. Sometimes I long for my tiny, boring Nokia days.

That doesn't mean I'm going make a trade though.

Because I would I never again be able to capture this picture of Noah wearing Faith's costume from when she was not even two yet, combined with bony legs.

**full disclosure** I do sneak on to Darren's or Jennifer's FB every now and then to look at pics :)

Instafriday

I love Instafriday so much that it is Thursday afternoon and I'm getting the post ready! I always take pics with my phone, so to be able to make them look cool and share them is awesome :)

The kids hamming it up for Jenny

Faithy: "I can't wait to show daddy that I'm swinging!"

She will actually ask to have her picture taken

Working on transforming Noah's firetruck into an Alameda Sheriff's car - more pics to come on Halloween!

Jeans and leopard print slippers.

Yeah, being a stay-at-home mom pretty much rocks.

Two words: yummy goodness

LOVE LOVE LOVE having a hubby that works from home and can sometimes join me and the kids on a walk to Starbucks. LOVE IT.

Faith wouldn't ride the horses at Del Osso because they didn't "go around and around and around"...

Fortunately the horses at Joan's Farm did so she was happy

Noah and I lost in the corn maze. I really am the worst person to send into that situation! We were at Joan's so it was a smaller maze than the others - which was good.

Noah wanted a pumpkin with round eyes and a jagged mouth. When I was done he said "but it doesn't look how I thought it would... I wanted him to be scary!"

So I offered to give him some mean eyebrows. Mission accomplished. Client satisfied.

Faith wanted her little pumpkin to be a pirate :)

She carried it around for two days until we discovered mouse poop in it from being in front of the house - so now it's an outside pirate.

Officer Noah reporting for duty

Caramel Apples!

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE being a stay at home-schooling mom? This morning after our first session of school, the kids and I made caramel apples. I have never made them before so I was very excited!

We dipped them in boiling water to remove the wax (mom did this)

The one on the left still has the pretty, shiny wax on it

The assembly line

Ready to dip!

Because we were dealing with hot caramel, I didn't stop to take pictures of the kids dipping, spinning, and coating their apples. But they had a ball :)

The finished product. A few will go to neighbors, one to our UPS guy if he comes, and a couple here for us (who am I kidding, I will be the one eating them probably)

Time to enjoy the results!

Vote for Noah!

I entered Noah into the Armstrong & Getty Halloween photo contest - it's a pic from when he was a UPS man :) You can use for Facebook account to vote - so please go vote!

http://community.kste.com/Contest/%7B1jRpC/UGC/ViewEntry?submissionId=1136

Our little singer

Faith decided to serenade everyone in Superfranks with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star :)