*tap tap*

Is this thing on?

Are you there God? It's me, Noella.

Yeah, I'm just wondering what the plan is. I'm sure you get this a lot, I'm just one of many. We've always seemed to be on pretty good terms, but I'm having a hard time. Is this like an open letter? Or an open prayer?

I'll take whatever you've got.

I've been trying to be responsible and plan accordingly, but I'm getting some pretty strong hints that you're not particularly interested in my plans. Since my plans are apparently a big ol' pile of stink, I'm more than open to hearing what you've got.

Really. I'm just looking for anything right now. Lay it on me.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Noella

Happy 30th Birthday! (x2)

 

We celebrated Linda’s birthday towards the end of August.  She was turning 60 (shhhhh . . .) but we decided that “60” just didn’t fit her.  So instead of having a 60th birthday party, we had a 30 (x2) birthday party.  The décor, the cake – everything!  It was so much fun!

The 30 (x2) cake

Todd was so awesome – he did a 15 hour smoke on a pork butt that made THE MOST INCREDIBLE pulled pork sandwiches.  Not only did he smoke the pork butt, he also smoked a few racks of ribs.

Still not enough?

Todd also made HOMEMADE soft pretzels.  Have you ever been to a party that served homemade from scratch soft pretzels? I will have another blog post dedicated to the glory that are the soft pretzels.

Glory of Ribs.

Pulled Pork Heaven.

Luke and Great-Grandpa enjoyed a “Look and Find” Cars book.  Always a lot of laughing coming from those two!

 

Luke and Great-Grandma are so cute together.

Of course, it is Luke’s responsibility as the sole grandchild to help “blow” out candles on everyone’s birthdays.  And by “blow,” I mean spit on the cake.

 

While it is certainly a few months late, Happy 30th Birthday (again) to my most fabulous Mother-in-Law!

New Experiences

 

We decided that it was part of our “parent responsibility” to take Luke camping.  I’m not a camping girl.  Not because I’m fancy or find personal cleanliness particularly important, but mostly I’m just lazy.  Camping takes a lot of work and I don’t like pretending I don’t have a home. Or a bed. Or a potty I have to walk down a road to find in the middle of the night.  But Luke might like it. His friends go camping. So maybe we should too.  The Gartins were kind enough to bring us along for the trip.

Please note: I have not been camping in at least 9 years. And that last camping trip . . . well, it was a one night deal and I didn’t have to do much since I was only 12. Now I am an adult and responsible for others. Or so I’m told.

How grossly underprepared the Bickels were.

Camping in August? Hot, right? No. No it wasn’t.

I can’t say that I have ever been so cold in my entire life.  We didn’t even bring pants for Luke. Not even pants.  It was so cold and wet . . . that part was pretty miserable.

We did have fun though – the boys had a great time and it was nice to relax and hang out and be away from cell phones and tv.

How did it become “Noella-style” camping? We went out to breakfast the first morning. Woot! Why you ask? Because everything was soaking wet the first morning and raccoons attacked all our food. But I got nice warm breakfast at a restaurant! Score!

Off for a walk with the boys

Just because one is camping in the woods does not mean that one does not take one’s Sally with them.

Luke figured out how to ride a scooter – he thought that was pretty awesome.

After the first wet and abysmal night, we bought a pop up screened in tent-y thing at Walmart to cover up the table and the gear.  Please note – it did not rain.  The condensation was so heavy that it fell like rain.  But only in certain parts of Mt. Madonna.

You know, our campsite.

The pants came from the excursion to Walmart post-breakfast as well.

As long as we have a thumb and a Sally, we can go just about anywhere and do just about anything.

Fire and fruit snacks – life’s simple pleasures.

The boys had so much fun chasing each other in the woods and searching for banana slugs.  They thought banana slugs would both repulsive and awesome.  I’m more in the “repulsive” camp, myself.

Every Saturday night during the summer, they have a folk group that plays live music at their amphitheater.  It isn’t much but it was a lot of fun.  We ended with smores (a hit) and glow sticks (also a hit.)

Overall? A lot of fun and we’ll do it again, definitely.  The clean up stunk as everything was completely soaked.  But the kids had a great time and admittedly, I did as well.

 

Day Out with Thomas!

 

Do you have this in your area? Apparently, Thomas goes around the country so kids can have a “day out” with him.  Luke’s cousins went a few years ago and we didn’t think much of it.  Clearly, we didn’t have a preschool age boy at the time.  Lesson learned. We decided to go with the Gartin family so Luke could go with his very best buddy Jake.

We met at Starbucks in the morning for chocolate milk and treats. (petite vanilla scone for Luke)  It is quite funny that Luke knows my coffee order and can recite it perfectly: “Triple grande non-fat two splenda latte.” The baristas get a kick of out it and it embarrasses Todd. 

 

“Yeah yeah Mommy, I’ll smile.”

 

“I love chocolate milk. And special treats.”

I love that boy and his blue eyes.

 

Luke was so excited to see Thomas! We got in line to take a picture with Thomas before the train departed at Roaring Camp Railroad in the Santa Cruz mountains.  It was cold and misty, but Luke was determined to wear his sleeveless Thomas shirt.  We took a family picture with Thomas, but . . . man, none of us looked very good.  We bought a copy of course. But I don’t want to post it. Bleh.

 

Our Thomas train departed at 9:30 in the morning.  I am SO glad that we went early – if Luke had been older, we would have been able to do all sorts of fun things that were offered as part of the “experience.” But he is really not into coloring or painting, though he did get a Thomas tattoo.  Since we were one of the first people there, nothing was busy and we could have enjoyed ourselves without all the crowds.

Luke and Jake

“Brothers don’t shake hands . . . brothers gotta HUG.”

Our family.  Luke was super goofy by this point, but I’ll take what I can get.

Todd and Luke enjoying the beautiful redwoods. 

By the time we got back to Roaring Camp, the place was packed. To note for the future: Be the second train that leaves.  Get there right at the beginning, enjoy all the additional activities, take your ride and then get out! It gets crazy!

So we left and had a delicious breakfast down the street. Second breakfast? I love second breakfast.  Especially when it involves two of my favorite things: biscuits. gravy. Oh, and bacon. Always bacon. But that’s a given.

A’s for Life

 

Yup, he’s my little thug.  I know, I know . . . all the cool kids like the Giants. But we’re not the cool kids, we like what we like and we love the A’s.  We’ve outfitted Luke’s room in A’s gear (please note Oakland Stadium – O.Co Park or whatever it is now) and he wears his A’s jammies faithfully.  When Todd got an A’s beanie, even though it was the dead heat of summer, Luke just had to try it on. And sport the attitude.

But just like is Daddy, he may put on the tough exterior, but really he is just a funny, sweet kid.

 

Who turned off the lights?

Sleeping

 

I love pictures of kids sleeping.  I love how they will sleep in 800 different ways and only a few actually look comfortable.  So I enjoy this picture of Luke, sleeping with his legs crossed, surrounded by a few of his “favorite things.” Obviously, Sally is there, as she is omnipresent in his life. 

And the new passion in his life . . . Spiderman.  All Spiderman, all the time.  I have learned more about Spiderman in the last few months than I have ever known or ever felt that I needed to know.

Seriously. This is a villian. A guy in a Rhino outfit.  I laugh every time I read the stories with the Rhino in it. *snort*

 

That being said, watching Spiderman cartoons has been a nice break from Thomas the Train.  Do you know what Spiderman series Luke likes to watch the most? The 1967 version that streams on Netflix. I appreciate that my son shows taste and good humor.  He has absolutely no interest in the flashy CG 1990s and after versions.  And I find the humor in the 1967, cheap animation and serious gender inequality humor.

 

So of course, that leads to the inevitable conversation: “Luke, what do you want to be for Halloween?” Is there really any question now? Luke will be one of the Spidermans at preschool. The challenge? They have to be able to go to the bathroom by themselves, even with their costumes on.  I will need to be creative to be able to make this happen.

Calm

 

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally we do have moments of calm around the house.  This was the last moment of calm, back in August.  I guess you could say it happens quarterly in the Bickel residence.

We’ve noticed that Luke’s focus has improved this year with preschool, as well as his interest in participating in these calm activities. They don’t last long (15 minutes, tops) but it is fun to see that he will color.  The artist in me keeps hoping he’ll become more interested, but the athlete in Todd seems to be winning so far.

What do I really enjoy about all of this? The father/son moments that they have together.  They’re so cute.

 

Focus, focus, focus . . .