Our first Fiesta

Somehow Erik and I managed to live in Albuquerque for four whole years without ever properly attending her annual Balloon Fiesta. But last month we remedied that and were so smitten by the beauty and excitement of the event that we can’t wait to go back next year. Plus, our new house affords a spectacular overlook of the balloon dotted city to entice us.

The ten-day festival was long enough for Luke and Eleanor to fall into the routine of running to the window each morning to look for balloons. Then we’d take to the driveway in our PJ’s for a closer look, watching to see which way the balloons traveled and where they would land.

Our first official event was the evening balloon glow, during which the balloons all inflate, filling the field with glowing jewels of light. But first Luke fed his need for speed with some rides down the super-slides!

Even more than the Fiesta, my weekend highlight was having Papi in town! We were delighted that my dad’s business trip brought him out our way.

After a little time for sideline attractions, twilight fell and the balloons began to glow, sometimes blinking in unison and swaying in the light breeze.

As it got darker the balloon lighting grew even more surreal, as you twisted and turned through crowds in a forest of glow. {Made much brighter below by Erik’s slow shutter on a tripod.}

The next morning we underestimated the notorious Fiesta traffic a bit, and saw the first of the 500+ balloons ascend from Solveig.

We feared that we might miss much of the spectacle, but thankfully traffic sped up and there were crowds of balloons left to launch when we arrived.

It was chilly, and early, but the kids were mostly enthralled.

The balloon propane tanks flashed flames and whooshed noisily slowly giving form to limp plastic that awoke in wild shapes.

All around us the riot of colors and shapes soared off filling the sky.

There was always a new shape to point out in the sky or puzzle at as it filled on the ground. Here Spidey-Pig and Lion King face off.

And my favorites, the classic bumblebee lovers.

Instead of being kept behind caution tape, the crowds stream freely amidst the balloons. In fact, if you aren’t watching your step you might trip on the anchor ropes held by the ground crew or bump into an inflating balloon.

We didn’t get quite that close because the propane tanks were so noisy, but we did catch a basket photo op.

By mid-morning we were starting to run out of steam, but nonetheless we all left exhilarated. Being so close among the balloons as they filled and sailed away, it felt like we were part of the ascension event, rather than mere spectators. What a blessing to find more and more to love about ABQ each year, even though we do miss being closer to family and friends. Any more visitors for next Fiesta? (:

{More pics here.}

Under the sea with L & E

After their initial debut at Luke’s preschool party, Luke the Shark and Ella the Fish paddled back for Halloween, ably crossing boulders and bushes alike.

They checked on their glitter-painted pumpkins,

Biked the perimeter,

And inspected our pebbles.

We had to watch out because you never know when a shark may sneak up…

And ATTACK!!!!

After our backyard photo shoot, we had a lovely time trick-or-treating with friends. Happy Halloween, from the cutest pair of fish in the sea!!

{More Halloween pics here.}

Weekend recap

We just finished a typical weekend of projects and playtime. Being relatively new Wild Oak homeowners, we are still plugging through the string of initial projects that came with the house and setting things up to our liking. Since we did a slightly better job photo-documenting than usual I thought I’d share a little recap here.

We started off with some shop time on Saturday morning, auto shop that is. The chief tech was relieved that handy helper #2 didn’t lose any lug nuts.

After a while the helpers lost interest and took to climbing on our stump challenge course. I’m not sure exactly how we’ll configure them for the long-term, but I think there’s promise for a playcenter in these tree sections. They came from a cottonwood that died tragically in the septic work just before we bought the house, but the silver lining is all the tree materials that it left us with. {And a big thank you goes to Grandpa Nielsen for cutting it down with Erik a few weeks ago!}

After the balance warm-up was complete, it was time for a little stump-dancing!

The other future for the poor cottonwood is firewood. Last weekend we bought a new-to-us wood stove from a fabulous vintage boutique and this weekend Erik went to work installing the pipe in our chimney. Of course I couldn’t help calling him “Jim” and humming “chim-chim-en-ey” all afternoon.

Our primary time and money investments in Wild Oak so far have been on the roof. I can’t wait until we move that focus to more exciting eye-level projects! But here’s a rare pic that shows a glimpse of what we’ve done… solar panels, reflective sealant, radon mitigation system, rooftop ducting, and now a stove pipe. To think this roof was empty and black when we first saw it!

After shocking himself by looking in the mirror after the chimney project was finished, Erik asked for one more pic, the final ‘after’ just before showering.

The weekend also held a visit to the playground, pumpkin cookie baking, church, and much, much hand-wringing over ordering a couch for our back room. I decided on this one while it was 40% off, we’ll see what we think when it arrives in a month or so! Then we capped the weekend off by testing out the new wood stove. The kids carted in a pile of branches and eagerly awaited our stove’s first flames. Magical indeed…

Until we realized that smoke was escaping into the house, cutting the fireside show a little short. Of course it’s nothing Erik can’t fix (we hope!). Now we’re excited for a little Thanksgiving get-together this week, my darling harvest dolls included. I think I hear Eleanor awaking, so it’s off to buy a turkey for us. Gobble, gobble!

{More weekend pics here.}

A Busytown art party!

More pumpkin and Halloween pics wait in the wings, but I’m interrupting our autumn theme for an event that reaches back to February… Luke’s third birthday party!

We finally got in gear for two little parties for our precious boy, just after he turned three and a half. Of course decorations were in order, and Luke had just the tool to help us blow up balloons.

Eleanor helped too.

While we made a few other preparations, they tested out the party activities. First up was coloring some Busytown vehicles that can be cut out, folded, and glued into little cars and trucks. These came from a terrific out-of-print activity book by Richard Scarry.

On the other side of our back room was the second party activity: bean bag toss! Featuring a hand-painted beanbag board by Luke and Eleanor.

After the game, everyone went outside for some easel time.

Next up was an art snack-tivity. Grape and apple toothpick sculptures! Check out Eleanor’s apple car with balloons.

Then came cake time. Luke drew all sorts of expressions in icing on the ‘Bananas Gorilla’ cupcakes.

Eleanor approved!

We ended with some open playtime. {More pics here.} Happy late late birthday Luke! It was so much fun to throw a party with and for you. I love how you’re developing your own opinions and can think through decisions with me. This party tapped into your long-standing love of painting and Richard Scarry books, and recently we’ve been watching the Busytown Mystery cartoon too. Now Luke and I are always solving mysteries in imaginative playtime together. I think Luke chooses his identity based on the characters’ vehicles and most admires the red motorcycle. So when we play, Luke is always Sally and I’m Huckle! Eleanor gets to be Lowly or Goldbug. It’s a mystery!

Bringing autumn indoors

When we first moved to New Mexico, I was underwhelmed by her seasons. The dry climate seemed to mute the annual display of leaves and blooms, and many of the plants that I associated with seasonal color don’t grow well here. But as the years have passed I’ve become attuned to the splendor of our native plants and the local traditions that mark the seasons. Hot air balloons dotting the skylines, chiles roasting in front of every grocery store, and bands of bright yellow aspens on the mountaintops all mean autumn to me now. This year, the mounded yellow masses of wild chamisa that surround our house have been magnificent, and doting Luke has picked many a stem for me. I displayed a few of those sweetly given yellow blooms inside for our autumn mantle.

My beloved crabapple tree in our backyard has been a glorious masterpiece of orange and yellow leaves and deep red berries.

The perfect backdrop for my little artists’ glittery pumpkins. They’re still cute even though most of the paint has flaked off, thanks to curious hands.

Inside their aquatic themed costumes are foreshadowed on the dining buffet along with grandparents’ sweet Halloween cards.

More autumn décor near the entry.

And a painted pumpkin craft in the front window. I just love how these wooden ones turned out with liquid watercolors!

In case you’re bemoaning the lack of kid pics here, you can check out an autumn decorating video featuring our little pumpkin pair here!

Preschool party

Luke and Eleanor had so much fun at the Fall Festival at Luke’s preschool. The biggest hit may have been the box maze. They raced through the twisting tunnel of boxes with sparse lighting countless times. But it was in the dim courtyard and came at the end of the evening, so no maze pics here. Most of the evening was spent on various throwing games. They led us to discover that we could work with Luke a little to improve his accuracy before next year’s fall festival, but the ‘prizes’ were awarded indiscriminately at each station so no heartache was caused by our less than stellar throwing skills.

He did nail a few shots given close range advantage and some sisterly encouragement.

We also made masks,

And sticker quantity was of course valued over visibility concerns.

There was a book walk and this was where we received my favorite prizes! Here I’m coaching the kiddos to ‘stop!' as the music pauses.

Eleanor was aglow with joy at being included in so much fun and excitement at her big brother’s school. Since then, it’s been even more difficult for her to say goodbye to Luke on school mornings, and I’m looking forward to when she can join the 2’s class next fall!

{More Halloween pics here.}