Happy Halloween

We lucked out yet again this year and the weather was absolutely gorgeous for Halloween. So nice, in fact, that the girls didn't even have to wear jackets over their costumes, a fashion don't that they find simply unacceptable. Mom, ever the killjoy, carried jackets for them in case the temps dropped while we were out but amazingly, we never needed them.

JiaJia was Ariel, the Little Mermaid, kindly recycling a costume that Laura wore two years ago and Laura was a genie, a repeat of her last year's costume. An amazing event in that for once it didn't cost me a dime.

We don't have trick or treating in our neighborhood so we went into the historic district in Shepherdstown, where it seems the whole county congregates. Most of the old houses have big front porches so the adults gather there, often in costume, to sip cocktails and admire the various witches and goblins and princesses. The one thing that really struck me this year is how few houses participated as opposed to in years past. I guess the economic downturn is being felt everywhere.

It didn't really matter to the girls, though, as they still amassed a mighty haul of candy, which I am attempting to dole out in small doses, hoping to keep the sugar insanity to a minimum (I know, fat chance).

The day after Halloween was a quiet one but Sunday we spent the day at Jane and Ken's for a pizza feast to celebrate Barbara AND Thom, Sam and Aunt Cay being in town. It was, as always, a loud, crazy, fun time with conversational groups forming and reforming like amoebas. We were all stuffed and happy by the time we piled into our cars to head home.

I had the special treat of having Jane and Barbara come up here today to take me out to lunch for my birthday. Jane has the knack for bringing perfect weather with her when she visits so we had lunch (although not at our favorite restaurant, Stone Soup Bistro, which was closed for cleaning) and strolled through town. We paid our traditional visit to the Herb Lady and ended the day with me forcing Jane and Barbara to take a big loaf of homemade bread with them for dinner tonight. In return they forced me to take a bottle of wine from them. It was a struggle but ultimately they overcame my resistance. Now I'm basking in the afterglow and wondering what to fix for dinner.

Random Pictures from Our Random Summer

I have been a very bad blogger this year but wanted to post a few pictures from late spring and summer since I know the only reason anyone looks at this is to see pictures of my children.
This is an unusual pic because they are actually posing together and they look reasonably happy.

I don't know about you but I always wear leopard print satin pajamas and fluffy mules when I water my tomato plants...

Okay, not a picture of the kids but I was pretty happy with my tomatoes this summer.

Auntie M. took us to the Catoctin zoo. A good time was had by all but am I the only one who finds it a bit ironic to see deer in a zoo?

This is JiaJia and her best friend, WeiWei, plus their dads. This was the River School graduation but since JiaJia missed the cutoff for kindergarten by two weeks, we'll be graduating again next year.

Best Wedding Ever (or at least recently...)

Yesterday my niece, Katherine, (John Hugh's daughter) got married on a boat in the Baltimore harbor. The weather was simply glorious, the bride was lovely, the groom handsome, and most important of all, the food at the reception was delicious.

The actual wedding ceremony took place dockside then the boat (a big paddle steamboat called the Black Eyed Susan, of the kind that used to traverse the Mississippi river) left for four hours cruising around the harbor. The scenery was fascinating - from the French Quarter type party of Fells Point to the Inner Harbor to the working port of Baltimore - and the sunset was gorgeous. There was dancing on the upper deck (Yes, I did my crazy aunt thing and made all the girls do a conga line to "Dancing Queen" because it threatened to be an all wallflowers reception. I had to take action) and the bar and food on the lower deck.

There's no such thing as too much crab for me so I was thrilled to see backfin crab cakes as the centerpiece of the dinner. They were fantastic - just big lumps of crab with a little something to hold them together but no bread and nothing weird like wasabi or coriander. Can you tell I'm a crab cake snob? At any rate, I was really surprised they were able to turn out such a good meal from what had to be a very small galley kitchen but the crew did a great job.

Larry and Justin made it up from New Orleans so I had a lot of fun reconnecting with them. It seems incredible that we haven't seen in each in the flesh since Mom died in 1997 but it was just as if no time had passed at all (except for the grey hairs we all seem to be sporting these days). Many fences were mended in both the bride's and groom's families and everyone seemed to get along swimmingly. I even found myself with a tear in my eye as John Hugh and Katherine had their father-daughter dance to "Mack the Knife," not your typical wedding number but they really did quite a rug cutting routine. When we finally disembarked after four hours cruising, John Russell (John Hugh's son) handed us each a tiny gold box with two delicious truffles in it as a favor to savor on the way home.

All in all, it was the happiest afternoon/evening I've spent in a long time. I didn't even get a parking ticket even though I was over on my meter by an hour so obviously the universe was watching out for us wedding goers. I was so relieved I gave my truffles to a homeless man so someone else could enjoy a tiny piece of our wonderful day.

Sadly, none of my pictures turned out particularly well so I'll add some illustrations once I get a few from the thousands of other photographers who were snapping away.

May Day - Our Little Pagan Celebration

As expected, the day of the May Day celebration and parade dawned clear, beautiful and COLD. Fortunately, by the time we assembled the children at the assigned meeting place it had warmed up to the point that the various fairy and elf costumes didn't have to be covered with unsightly and distinctly unmagic coats. JiaJia did a sort of half and half thing - a hip ensemble from Target with fairy wings and lilac blossoms in her hair. It was, well, interesting.

As it happened, our meeting spot was at the bottom of German Street whereas the staging area for the parade was at the top of German Street. It was an exercise not unlike herding cats getting a group of wildly excited four year olds from one end of the street to the other (about four blocks but all uphill). The street was already closed off, thank heavens, so at least we didn't have to worry about anyone getting run over because they were completely crazy by the time we got to our spot in the parade line.

Then we waited...and waited...and waited...

About one second before we finally took off JiaJia decided she wasn't going to walk but we were saved by WeiWei's mother, who had a wagon. My first parade experience ever was dragging a very heavy little fairy down the street in a red wagon although I suppose it could have been worse. At one point I looked back at her and saw she had positioned herself not unlike a beauty queen, with legs just so and was waving at the assembled multitudes. At any rate, we made it to the end of the line and met up with Daddy, Laura and Auntie M to watch the rest of the parade. Sadly, since I was pulling her highness in the wagon I didn't get any pictures but suffice it to say it was quite an event.

The parade was led by the Green Man accompanied by a lady playing Spring. Now keep in mind that the same gal has been playing Spring in the parade since we've lived up here so she's probably a little more like late Summer by now but she did a good job of it, all swathed in flowers and flowing draperies. The guy who plays the Green Man takes it VERY seriously. He's already of quite imposing size and wears a green robe with an elaborate mask of carved leaves and a wooden staff. Quite a sight. The Green Man and his consort were followed by many troups of Morris dancers and traditional musicians (including bagpipers!), some community groups (of which the River School was one), the girls with the Maypole, and finally, as will only happen in a small, weird town like this, a group of people walking their dogs. This would have been sort of normal except that the dogs, not the owners, were in costume. I really wish I had a picture of that one but Auntie M has decreed that next year she and Rosie will be marching along. I will definitely capture that performance in picture.

We didn't stick around for the Maypole dance as the kids were hungry and fractious so we capped our traditional English/pagan celebration with a Thai lunch. Only in America.

We are now excitedly preparing for a visit from our friends from New York who adopted their daughter at the same time as we adopted Laura. We shared a wonderful trip to China with them and have stayed in loose contact since. Last time we saw them they hosted us and we spent a fun day in New York City so this time they're coming here to get a taste of small town life. The kids will run wild, the adults will cook, eat and drink. It promises to be a very fun time.

Lilacs and Cows and May Day, Oh My!

It has been way too long since I've posted and a lot of water has gone under the bridge but suffice it to say that spring is definitely sprung here in Shepherdstown. Our lilac bush, which Vince and I bought at Monticello almost 15 year ago (!), is blooming non-stop and has gotten so big I can see the top of it from Laura's window on the second floor. Buddha in the living room has a lovely offering of flowers from JiaJia's school hike yesterday and a very small lilac bloom. He seems happy (although, being Buddha, he usually seems that way). I'm happy too, even with all the pollen and the sneezing, because it has been an unusually long and beautiful spring, unlike recent years when it has seem to shoot from winter to summer without us having much of a break in between.

The grass is also riz here and I'm reminded I need to nudge Carl, our lawn guy, to come and mow us out of our meadow. He's a great guy but a little casual when it comes to sticking to a schedule so we're not looking as manicured as I'd like.

The Wolfe Pack's most recent adventure? The Cow Caper at South Mountain Creamery. One of my foodie friends in town got me started getting milk delivered from South Mountain and it has been a great experience so far. We put a cooler out on Tuesday mornings and later that day it is filled with milk, cream and buttermilk. The buttermilk is like nothing I've ever used before - thick and rich and extremely buttery tasting. I've baked with it, made panne cotta (yum!) and also made cheese. I think it even improves the flavor and texture of Vince's mother's Hershey Bar Cake and that is saying a lot because I thought that cake was already perfect.

Anyway, forgive my food-induced rapture, the point of this discussion is that South Mountain has a festival every spring called the Cow Caper, where the community gets to come visit the farm, see the milk processing facility and basically get free run of the place. We arrived at milking time so the girls got to see where the milk actually comes from, then we visited the calves and baby goats. They have a chicken house and JiaJia got to hold a baby chick in her hand. It made a big impression, let me tell you, as she is still talking about it. Laura, fastidious little soul that she is, didn't care for the aroma in the barnyard (that's her grimacing at the smell in the milking parlor in the picture to the left) and REALLY didn't care for the mud so I don't believe I'll have to be concerned that she might turn to dairy farming as a future career.

The total hit of the day, even more than the calves and chicks, was making butter. We each got a little canister of heavy cream that we shook for what seemed like hours and ultimately ended up with about a tablespoon of butter. A miracle! We kept the canisters and have since made more butter. More miracles! It seems funny but what I loved about this was the fact that the girls made the connection between the foods we eat and where they come from. Seeing the cows being milked, talking to the guy who runs the dairy, making butter - it makes food something real as opposed to just stuff that we buy at the store. Now, if I didn't have to keep explaining how chickens lay eggs I'd be very happy indeed.

May promises to be a busy month for the Wolves. On May 3, JiaJia's school will be walking in the May Day parade, our town's own little pagan celebration. It is led by the Green Man and ends with a traditional Maypole dance, with intertwining ribbons and the whole shebang. From what I'm told, we have one of the only two Maypole celebrations left in the U.S. All in all it is a nerdishly jolly sort of event, with lots of tree-huggers in evidence, and the kids are happy because they dress up as fairies or gnomes.

May 4 is Vince's and my 17th anniversary. How we've managed to get to this point without killing each other is a mystery to me but there it is. What can I say? He can fix anything and has every tool known to mankind. A man like that is useful to have around the house.

I'll be taking lots of pictures at the parade so watch this space.

April showers are here, May flowers must be around the corner...

Here we are on another gloomy day here in the mountains of WV. The kids are at school and I'm recovering from a week walking on the political quicksand of my office in VA. I'm exhausted but nowhere near as tired as I was last week when I had both girls home from school plus Sophie here for the week. Three screaming children running around the house for a week had me wishing for a cocktail about noon every day. I wonder how our mothers did it (except maybe they did give in to the urge for a martini in the afternoon once in a while).


We had a nice quiet Easter with a visit from the bunny and much chocolate all around. Laura, in her typical way, has her candy still, organized in a box in her room to be doled out as she sees fit. I discovered, much to my chagrin, that she actually still had candy left over from LAST Easter tucked away. Thankfully that has been disposed of, to be replaced by this year's batch. Now that I know she's such a little hoarder I'll be sure to check in a month or two to be sure the mice haven't moved in for a feast.


JiaJia, on the other hand, had to be restrained from consuming ALL her candy at one sitting. I had to take hers away, put it up on top of a bookcase, and create rules for when a piece of candy can be earned. She tries to wheedle it out of me by promising, "Mommy, I won't be WILD" but she can't help herself. This is one candy-crazy child. She's also promising to be every bit as fashion conscious as her older sister. The photo at the left is her with her interpretation of how to wear a kid's dress as a pop star might. I think she is preparing to be the next Hannah Montana.


Looks like it will be a quiet weekend. Vince is working on Saturday and the big excitement will be a visit from the cable repair guy who has to replace our cable box. I can hardly wait!

A Visit with the Aunts and Uncles

We got together with the extended family last weekend at Jane and Ken's because Barbara was visiting. Tyler and Janey K. made it in from Southern Maryland and it was an especial treat to see Thom and Aunt Cay up from North Carolina. The biggest surprise, though, was Kix and her kids. Turns out her son and Alec play on the same baseball team. What a small world!

At any rate, we had great pizza (of which I ate WAY too much) and lots to talk about including, in no particular order, our crazy relatives, politics, why you shouldn't "reply all" on e-mails, the benefits of local vs. shipped-in organic foods, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Janey K., in her usual Pied Piper way, took the girls off my hands, for which I am eternally grateful. They played restaurant and generally ran around like the insane urchins that they are. It was wonderful because I actually got to converse with the adults a little. You don't realize how much you miss that until you get to do it. I also got to hold Baby Kenny a time or two. He feels like a feather when you're used to hefting a 40-pound, solid muscle pre-schooler. The boy is ready to walk and once that happens all hell is going to break loose.

The only bummer of the day was that NOBODY brought a camera. Unbelievable!

A funny followup story (which some of you have already heard...)

Sunday, I came upstairs after working out and found the girls had built a huge nest of pillows in the living room. It was their restaurant, called "A Big Smile on You," presumably because that's what you'll have once you've eaten there. They were wearing their aprons that Aunt Janey K. had given them and Laura had made them name tags. She was Mrs. Tiffany and JiaJia was Mrs. Flower. Laura took my order, JiaJia cooked and served my lunch, then they gave me a hug, because as Laura said, "that's just the kind of restaurant this is." It was a hoot.

I'm embarrassed to admit we did a big nothing for St. Patrick's day. The girls didn't even wear green to school and I schlepped around the house in workout clothes all day (which are definitely not green). No green beer, no corned beef and cabbage (which I don't really mind since I don't particularly like corned beef), no soda bread, nothing. My Irish ancestors are spinning in their graves at this greivous omission. Oh well, maybe next year.

So next Sunday is Easter. Laura announced to me last night that her little buddy, Isabella, had told her there is no Easter Bunny, its really your parents. What?!?!? I thought I had at least a couple more years before we had this conversation but no such luck. I pointed out to her that Isabella hadn't proven herself to be a particularly good source of information in the past but I think she is on the verge. I hope I can convince her to believe for a little bit longer. I'm just not ready for my first baby to be that grown up.

But all things considered, whether she believes or not, I will be expected to pony up with the candy. Some things never change...