Tuesday, September 7, 2010

grapes, and other happenings

Isobel is in preschool! My oh my, where does the time go? She's being stoic here, but actually she loves, loves, loves "may shawome" and would be happy to spend all day every day there. Sometimes when I'm not giving her what she wants, she dramatically cries "I want to go back to my school!"

My latest favorite photo:

And Jude eats food now! I have a little bait-and-switch technique that I use to get him to swallow a few bites of rice cereal each day. He's more okay with the whole food in mouth idea than Isobel was, but still not particularly enthusiastic about the mush. Here he is, waiting patiently in a stylin' bib made by Anne Gish:

This last Saturday was mercifully cool and not humid, so to celebrate the imminent passing of Summer we went to Benjamin Vineyards,

where we picked two pounds of these beauties:

I had heard that wine grapes aren't like table grapes. Actually, I think someone told me that wine grapes are inedible, which isn't true. Brooke had eaten those two pounds of grapes by the time I returned from the E.D. Sunday night. Isobel and I politely declined. I can't abide seeds in grapes, and I think Isobel was also turned off by the thicker than usual skin. But the ripest ones do have a lovely, very sweet flavor that really is remarkably different from your run-of-the-mill grocery store grapes. Smell a glass of wine, and you'll sorta get the idea.

But even if I wasn't too interested in eating them, picking the grapes was a pretty cool experience. They're so aesthetically pleasing. This particular orchard had black, red, and golden varieties, and we gathered an assortment.
In lieu of grapes, Jude got his first taste of apple that evening:

Mmmm, fruit. Definitely a bigger hit than yucky mushy rice cereal, and I can't blame him.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Beached Shifflers


Caroline, the picture of childhood bliss


Hatteras Lighthouse


Brooke and Jude on the Okracoke Ferry


Some sort of alien flower on Okracoke. Anyone know what this is?


These girls LOVE ice cream.


Johanna


Isobel


Jude, meet Ocean


These last three were taken by Nicole Shiffler. Doesn't she do beautiful work?





Monday, August 30, 2010

In which we commune with nature. Twice!

I have a mental list of about a thousand things I've been putting off for the last few weeks, but instead of doing those things I am composing a blog post. Check out these two lovely ladies:

Jenny
and

Claire
When Jenny came to visit a few weeks ago, we decided to check out Hanging Rock State Park. We hiked, we splashed in waterfalls, we swam, we frolicked. A great time was had by all.

So, the next week when Claire was here, we decided to go there again. This time we wanted to see the actual hanging rock, and that entailed a more strenuous hike. We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into.

Isobel says "Nature is so stupid."

Jude says "Nature ROCKS!"

The views from the rock were totally worth all of Isobel's bellyaching.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Colorado and Two Good Things

I know, I know, long time no blog. This has been one wonderfully busy Summer. We visited my family in Colorado, then we moved to a new house, and for the last week we've had my sister Jenny visiting us. And the good times keep on rollin': next week we have our friend Claire coming to visit, and the week after that is the Shiffler family's Outer Banks vacation. THEN, the week after that, Isobel will be starting preschool at B'nai Shalom Day School. So much good stuff is going on up in here! How did we get so lucky?
Anyway, here are a few photos from our Colorado trip last month. Isobel had her first hair cut while we were there, and I like this "before" photo better than any of the "after"s. Her hair does look healthier after having about 3 inches chopped off, but the change isn't particularly dramatic.

We love swimming!



Jude is 5 months old! Actually, he's 5 and a half months now, but that picture is from his 5-month birthday. My, my, he's one handsome little man.
Every time we go to Colorado we go to the zoo and I take tons of photos of the children playing and climbing on things and sitting on statues. So here you go: Kimball, Simon, Eleanor, and Isobel on a giant spiderweb.

Stay tuned for photos from the week-long PARTY we had with Jenny! Till then, here are a couple of good things I've been wanting to share:
There's good:
Jenny and I made two recipes from this cookbook this week- the Shrimp and Grits, and the Crème Brulée French Toast, and they were both AMAZING.
And then there's even better:

Friday, July 23, 2010

Our first date




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Meet Gudrun!


Check out the latest addition to the Shiffler household! That's right, Jude is no longer the baby of the family. Gudrun is. And she is one sweet, sweet baby.

Friday, July 9, 2010

"Shake it like a Polaroid picture. You know what to do!"


Ok, this post is probably going to sound like a commercial, but I'm so excited about this app I can't help it. It's called ShakeItPhoto, and it was introduced to me by the lovely and hip Allison. (check her out!)

It turns your iphone into a Polaroid camera! Not literally (alas) but functionally. Isn't it cool? I feel like this photo could be me running around, it looks so legit 80's.

This is what Brooke looked like when I said I had spent 99 of his hard-earned cents on this app.

Just kidding. He digs it. Isobel is a fan, too, because it dispenses the photo onto the screen with a polaroidy sound and then you can shake the phone and watch it jiggle while you wait for the image to develop.
Here's my favorite:

(I applied the effect twice for this one. Don't you just want to poke that little tummy?)