I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Brooke went to New York on business and I got to tag along! Isobel and Jude had a great time here in Greensboro with Brooke's parents, who came down to watch them. Lucky, lucky, lucky!

I haven't spent much time in New York, but I love what I've seen of it. Highlights this time included visiting my friend Claire in Brooklyn, eating incredible French food at Les Halles, hearing Jeffrey Eugenides (a favorite author) read at the 92nd Street Y, and seeing a tiny fraction of the amazingness that is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a fantastic trip.

AND I got new boots. Yaaaaay!

RenFest Instagram Photo Dump

Saturday last we did with joye partake in ye olde Carolina Renaissance Festival. Forsooth, the Shiffleren did party like 'twas 1499! Feast thine eyes anon!
























































(ok, a few explanations: Isobel rode the camel with total strangers because we were too cheap to pay another $5 for Brooke or me to ride with her. She was also asked to dance on stage with some rather unenthusiastic child performers who were accompanied by their father on the lute. And she got to hold a very sweet goose or duck or something and pet it. Brooke bought me a stem of beautiful orchids. It was a good time for all.)

October IV: Halloween

For the last few years, we haven't made Jack-o-Lanterns. It makes a mess, it's one more thing to do in a busy afternoon before trick-or-treating, and (this is the main reason) I'm not very good at it. But this year Isobel was old enough to know that pumpkin carving is a part of this holiday, and she really wanted to do it. When I asked what kind of face she wanted to do, she requested "sneaky." So I tried, but we wound up with something that looked kinda like a demented hillbilly baby. The photo above doesn't really capture it. I guess that's one good thing about jack-o-lanterns: I am so clumsy with a knife that I usually wind up with something way weirder-looking (and, hence, creepier) than I intended.

Hope you had a safe and happy Halloween!

October III: Grandma and Papa Visit

Brooke's parents came to celebrate Isobel's birthday, too, a few days after the fact. It has been a whole month of celebrating Iso!
We had several outings with Grandma and Papa. One was the Lexington BBQ Festival. As you might remember from this post, Lexington is a town south of here that is famous for its own special style of barbeque. I expected the festival to be sort of a small-town podunk affair, with various local barbeque restaurants hawking their pulled pork.
Boy oh boy, was I wrong. It stretched on for blocks and blocks! We never even found any actual barbeque, there were multiple stages set up for ongoing live music, and there were all kinds of vendors. It brought on flashbacks of the State Fair experience last year. I kinda regret passing on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to taste deep fried butter.
Another outing with Grandma and Papa: our pumpkin patch expedition. This was our third year visiting this farm and, as always I took lots of photos.





















Isobel and Jude had a great time. I get a little sentimental when I see my kids frolicking on a farm, and especially running through a cornfield. Even though I don't really have a rural background myself, it still feels like going back to our roots somehow.

And finally, a few recent photos I'm proud of:

(The old tree stump in our back yard has erupted with mushrooms. They are the perfect subjects)

(one more from the farm)

October II: Isobel's Birthday Party

Here we are in the second installment of the Brookstinobelude October series! Huzzah!

We held Isobel's birthday at Artquest, an art studio for kids downtown. Last year was a church friends party, so this year was a school friends party. And I'm not gonna lie, it was so much easier to do it somewhere other than our house. Artquest had a party coordinator who kept the kids pretty well entertained. They made birthday crowns, then ate pizza, then made play-dough, then had cake and finis! Very low stress for mommy and the other parents, and lots of fun for the chilrens. So without further ado, the photos:































I love looking at these photos! Isobel is lucky to have so many good friends to celebrate with her. Yesterday she said "Mommy, I wish I could go to school every single day," and I know it's because she loves all of her friends (and her teacher) so much. I can't believe she's four already! Such a big girl. I am so proud of her.
P.S. - Note which hand Jude is using to stab that play-dough! I suspect him of being a southpaw.

October I: Nana and Grandad visit for Isobel's Fourth Birthday

Oh boy, it's been another month! And what an eventful October it has been. I was going to do one huge monster post, but I got overwhelmed just thinking about it. So I'm going to do a series instead.
My fantastic parents came to visit for Isobel's birthday, and we did lots of fun things. One of those things was visiting Pilot Mountain State Park.

















This was my dad's first time ever visiting North Carolina, and my mom hasn't been here since Jude was a newborn. So we were especially excited to have them here.

Here are some photos of the actual birthday day:

Why do I have so much trouble coming up with post titles?

Yay, it's time for our monthly Brookstinobelude update! I'll start posting more when we have more news (which, actually, could be soon) and/or when I have more free time. Stay tuned, bear with me, all that junk. Until then...













We haven't had too many opportunities to hand down clothes from Isobel to Jude, so it's pretty exciting that these skeleton jammies are seeing their second Shiffler family go-round. I love them. I also just really like Stella in both of the photos with Jude. She's like a doggy model or something. Isobel is fresh out of the bath in that photo, so that explains the slicked-back mullet hair.

I don't usually think the kids look much alike, but seeing them at around the same age and wearing the same clothes, I can kinda see some resemblance.

Here they are on the first day of school! I've spread this picture around a bit, so it may not be new to you. I like it because it captures their attitudes toward school and their personalities in general. Isobel is eagerly looking to the next exciting thing; Jude is warily clinging to something solid and safe.

Actually, it's not fair to simplify Jude that way. He's very loving and enthusiastic once he warms up. He totally digs school now. And both of my kids are wonderfully easy-going if we're considering the broad spectrum of neuroticism.

I guess Jude is a sitter and Isobel is a rover.

Moving on, I'm going to post a few images I've been using to make greeting cards, in case anyone wants to use them. Aaaaand, I was going to post "via"s, but I'm too lazy to find the pictures all over again. So I hope nobody gets too mad.



I used the first for a first birthday card, with a number one on the chalkboard. The second and third were for new baby cards, for a girl and boy respectively. I actually upped the exposure and contrast on the girl one to get rid of the gray- let me know if you want that version and I will gladly send it to you. Enjoy!