Halloween Parts I,II and III (Finally)

This post is dedicated to my parents because no one else on earth would want to see this many pictures of Isabella dressed as a monkey. So here it is, Halloween in 3 parts (and in reverse order):

Part 3: Trick or treating on Sycramore St. in Mill Valley. Seriously, this is the place for the goods.

Isabella loves Curious George. She too, is a good little monkey and is always very curious.

This was the year she got it. She loved dressing up. She loved going to strangers' doors and getting candy. She'd probably do it every day of the year if she could.

Then she met her soulmate: Toby from Thomas and Friends. The night could not have been better.

Part 2: Ward Halloween Party. Isabella and Allie. She loves Curious George too. And candy. And her pacifier. So much in common.

Allie: Jedi (sans costume), Scarlett: Minnie Mouse, Maya: Pink Princess, Isabella: Monkey on the floor.

She discovers the sheer joy of winning the candy bar walk game.

She was so distracted by her winnings that she and Allie needed a little assistance to keep the game going.

Mark, the mad doctor, was in charge of the donut on a string game.

She won the best costume award for the night.

Trunk or Treat

Our friends, Leslie and Maya

Tired little monkey.

Part 1: Stanley Lane Pumpkin Patch

Barrel full of monkey.

We went out for ice cream afterwards and she chose banana-chocolate chip, appropriately named, "Going Bananas".

She couldn't part with her little pumpkins from the patch.

Harvest Time!

She's only ever known the vines. Once when we were out for a run we spied a kitty cat on the property. When retelling her sighting to my mom a few days later, my mom asked, "Where did you see the cat?" Isabella replied,

"Outside. Just passed the vineyard" She's a true Napa Valley girl, where location is measured by proximity to a vineyard.



The workers begin in the middle of the night and work through the following morning. The tractor lights light up our room at night as they go up and down the rows.

Isabella doesn't like the sound of the tractors. Teddy (4) is our landlord's grandson and has grape juice running through his veins. Isabella loves him and will follow him anywhere.

The workers work amazingly fast sprinting down the rows. They have a bucket for collecting grapes that they push along between their feet as they cut the grapes with a small tool. They whoop and holler and laugh and yell for agua! agua! when they reach the end of each row because they are thirsty from working so fast.

Grapes! This vineyard produces 3-4 tons of 'em.

Teddy follows the tractors. Isabella makes sure Teddy follows her.

She helps the workers out by picking a few of her own.

Isabella eventually follows Teddy into the goat pen to play on the old oil drums. I guess they got tired of the grapes.

End of Summer Delights

A slow and happy end to Summer. No fuss. No frills. Just hanging out with the fam, riding on merry-go rounds, and the making and eating of many a baked good(s).

Isabella loves to close her eyes when she swings on swings, so I guess it seemed like a fine idea to her to close her eyes on the merry-go-round. This however caught the eye of the parents waiting behind the gate for their kids, who thought it was quite funny. Even the merry-go-round operator asked me if Isabella was ok as we circled around. She was loving every minute of it--eyes closed.

She would've stayed on that thing all day long if we'd let her, but at $4 a ride, that wasn't going to happen.

We went to a Cal game with my Dad. It's been years since I've been to a game with him and the first college game ever for Mark. Fun times had by all.

Game ready.

Go Bears.

Mark celebrated his b'day with a good old fashioned party.

My brother and his girlfriend were in town that weekend, which was SO much fun! Who doesn't have fun playing pin the tail on the donkey?

Or eating a Magnolia bakery chocolate buttercream cake?

(I use everyone's b'day as an excuse to use my Magnolia bakery cookbook and bring a little New York to the par-tay. Unfortunately my cake was rather dry...)

Family Night = fingerpainting night.

By the time I got back from going inside to grab the camera, the finger painting had migrated from paper, to self, to the car. (p.s. homemade paint, so totally washable)

My first ever attempt at an Apple Pie. Our neighbors gave us apples from their tree, so why not try? Ah, summer.

The Story of Us. At Five Years. (An Essay)

The night before our 5th anniversary I inadvertently found a stack of cards Mark and I had written to each other while we were dating. Starry-eyed, I presented them to him as a kind of Anniversary Eve gift. While I think he thought they were cute-- sweet even-- I wasn't satisfied with his reaction.

The following day, we celebrated by spending the day in San Francisco. While we drove around I asked Mark deep, probing questions in an attempt to elicit the same kind of sweet nothings he so easily communicated to me five years earlier.

No such luck.

"What are your thoughts of marriage now?" I asked.

"Um-- it goes by fast" he slowly responded.


What? No, 'you've transformed my life?' No, 'I couldn't live without yous' ?


I'd even brought along the journal we bought the day we got engaged, (a journal with a wrap-around leather cover that he helped me pick out after I rejected his original choice of one with fuzzy, pink hearts on the cover) so we could capture our profound 5 year insights.

"What have you learned?" "How has marriage changed you?" I pressed.


"Uh, patience?" He stated in the form of a question. (?!)

Not good enough, my beloved!


Mark finally turned one of my questions back on me, and to my surprise, I had little to say as well. Disappointed, I put the journal down and focused on our drive.

We didn't feel like getting out of the car. We liked the feeling of the warm sunshine while we rode around. (It's been a very cool summer). We drove from the Golden Gate Bridge toward the Bay Bridge and back around. We drove past the ball park and passed judgement on the Dad who was purchasing baseball tix from the scalpers with his young son in tow. We would NEVER...well, maybe if our kid wasn't with us...which she was not. We looped around again and inquired of the nice scalper men the starting time of the game. Too late for us, so no tickets, but because we walked their shady line, they suddenly had our backs--defending us against the big truck trying to cut us off as we merged back into traffic. Ah, flashback to NYC.

We reminisced about our own Bronx Tales back across town. We critiqued each other's driving habits and conversed about hidden talents. We made each other laugh over our foibles and blunders. We eventually did get out of the car to indulge in one of our favorite pastimes: eating dessert, at Ghirardelli Square.

In short, we were having a grand time.

And then the sentiment came without even saying a word. He likes being with me. I like being with him. We like being together. Our five years have covered some of life's ups and downs: the loss of a parent, the birth of a child, a move across country, several smaller moves, job changes, job losses, health issues, a religious conversion...

And in the end (not end-end, just the end of five years-end) I guess the moral of the story of Us is that we (still) like each other--a lot. Happy Anniversary, Mark!

On our way back from San Fran, we accidentally took the wrong exit and not even knowing where we were, we drove right by the place where we got married.

Road Trip!

Our big event this summer was to take our first- ever family road trip to Washington to visit our friends, the Whittons. Look at the anticipation on this girl's face. She has no idea what 13 hours in the car will look like. (Neither did we)

Isabella was a champion passenger the first day. We made good time to the Redwoods in northern California for a night of camping. Campsite #66 was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L: smallish, with 2 giant redwoods, a fire pit, picnic table and streams of sunlight.

The harrowing adventure actually began that evening when Mark, the tent constructor, got a big fiberglass splinter deeply lodged in his finger (picture withheld for all the right reasons).
Mark calmly drove himself an hour a way to a hospital to have it removed. Sadly he had to miss out on all the camping fun (foil dinners, s'mores, corralling a two year old in the tent) but he made it back safely and with finger intact.

Prepping the foil dinners

SUPER yummy.

It took a while for Isabella to get settled, but once she did she slept pretty well. I was just anxious to have Mark come back, which he did around 11pm. We all managed to fall asleep and have an enjoyable time despite the minor drama.

Day Two of driving was long and arduous, but we arrived safely at the Whitton's that evening.

Emily, Matt and their daughter Naomi (2) are friends that we met in Napa. I met Emily in the pediatrician's office where we learned that we lived (at the time) in the same apartment complex. We soon discovered we had a lot in common: we were both teachers, married to teachers, we both had daughters born 10 days apart, we both went to college in the Seattle/Tacoma area, we were married to our husbands in the same month and year. We clicked and our families became friends.

The Whittens moved from Napa about a year ago to Ridgefield, WA, just over the Oregon border.

The girls.

Isabella has personal space issues and doesn't love to have other children touch her. Naomi showed Isabella how to hold her hand. Isabella let down her guard for a time and enjoyed a nice walk with Naomi. So sweet!

Both girls were excited to have a bath, but also decided after the bath to have meltdowns that lasted long into the night. It was a long night for the girls and their parents.

We visited the Portland Zoo. Isabella loved the animals but melted with the heat. She was a serious trooper though, and made it through.

We were able to see a bit of the city of Portland after the zoo trip and then ended the day with a pizza party.

We ended up staying with the Whittons for 4 nights and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. We took lots of walks, played in lots of parks, had lovely dinners and we can't wait until we can see them again!

On Saturday we began our return trip home leaving Ridgefield at 4 am hoping to take advantage of Isabella's sleeping time. It totally worked. We reached Ashland OR, our half way mark, at 11 am! We arrived, played at a park and had a picnic, then went to our motel to take naps. We swam at the motel pool then went out for dinner.

What we loved about Ashland:

1. Lithia Park - It has a creek you can swim in and a great playground and it's just plain beautiful.

2. Mix Dessert Shop's Browned Butter Pecan Cookie Dough Ice Cream

3. All the Renaissance-y people inspired by the influence of the Shakespeare Festival.

Isabella's sleeping pad at the motel. We didn't know if she'd actually stay in her bed, but to our surprise she made it until 3 am before she crawled in with us.

Isabella loved the safe in the room. She would hide her pacifier and our toothbrushes inside and then shut the door and press the buttons on the keypad. The keypad would then light up green and she would say, "Green means go!" (a game she played in the car whenever we would stop at a stoplight).

We arrived home safely on Sunday afternoon. Isabella was great on the car ride home. Overall, it was a WONDERFUL vacation. Can't wait to do it again. Someday.

Dear Sleeping Blogger, WAKE UP!

Isabella has a new little game. She casts a spell on you to put you to sleep then, at her leisure, she shouts, "WAKE UP!" If you feign a loud, snarly snore, she thinks it's the funniest thing ever and begs to play more.

I wish she could channel this game into some kind of reminder for me to keep up with our family blog. I love it, but then I forget that we even have it. Then I think to check in on my friends' blogs and discover one has moved across the country, or another's newborn is now 5 months old. Or, I learn that my best friend's mom's sister, who lives in Utah, follows my blog (hi Patrice!) and I think: WAKE UP! Write more!

So here I go again, renewing my blogging vows to the few who follow...more Holsten Happenings.
The latest: the cousins reunite. Isabella (2) and Jack (nearly 10).

More to come...

A Little Less (Dinner) Conversation, Please

Dinner. My favorite meal of the day, especially at Nana and Papa's house. I like pasta, most of the time with a red sauce, unless I specify otherwise by shaking my head and hands and whining loudly. This indicates that I instead would like my pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese. Put the pasta in a bowl, but don't offer me the bowl. It has to be at least 6 inches away from me and it must be given to me one noodle at a time, preferably by Papa. Shredded carrots are fine, but only if they are dressed in raspberry vinaigrette, not vinegar-y light ranch dressing. The carrots and pasta must be accompanied by baked snap peas and a sippy cup full of milk. If my specifications are met, I promise to eat 1/3 of the food on my plate, and win you over with my adorable smiles and lively dinner conversation.

Signed,

Isabella C. Holsten