A Cerney Periodical

(there aren't really any pictures that are relevant to this post. so here's a random shot of Brock getting eaten by a snugly shark. more randomness to follow.) So Brock has recently become quite the ladies man. Nearly every day he'll tell me something new he learned about the ladies that interest him. I thought for sure that Alex and Lillian were leading the pack. He had been practicing spelling their names and had even memorized their birthdays. So imagine my surprise when he came home and told me he was getting married to Sophie! It's a long engagement. Brock says they will wait until they are both grownups, but he refused to guess what a good age was. Yesterday they practiced being married during recess. Here's how Brock described it: "First we built a house. It had four rooms and a bridge. Then I spent all day out looking for vanilla yogurt squeezers and I brought them home and we keep them all in the fridge for when we get hungry." Gotta l...

I know we live in a concrete forest, but that did not stop us from having a country holiday tree outing. The place we went last year was closed to give the baby trees more time, so we headed the other direction to Woodstock IL. to find our new tree friend.   We were very tempted by a Concolor Fir. Its smell was a citrus variety that reminded us of some our favorite beers. In the end I vetoed because I was denied the coveted smell my heart and nose were dreaming of last year with what we think was a pine, and I was not to be veered from a fine Frasier. So after a horse drawn carriage into the grove, some hemin' and hawin', and plenty of sniffing, we decided on this beauty. Did I mention that this tree farm, Oney's, had camel rides? After Matt's low down on the ride he took in Egypt, the boys quickly declined. All the boys.  Best car freshener ever! Lunchtime! We found a DELICIOUS restaurant in Woodstock. This quaint little picturesque...

What could be scarier than the streets of Chicago taken over by three suck-thristy mutations from the sea? It was a good plan, but the littlest starfish was so cute that citizens of Chicago were too threatened.  So, a bit of history in regards to what I have named Starfish Gate, a crisis that occurred when Brock and I went on his school field trip to the pumpkin patch. Which there are no pictures of. Because that day, pardon my french, SUCKED (and not in an awesome starfish way). It was 15 degrees colder than anticipated, and Brock, who was so excited to wear his costume, has a breakdown and would not wear it. Which was a shame because I had chosen his layers of warmth based on the edition of a giant felt body sack (as seen above). The whole class was miserable.  Here is Brock's number in the works. He insisted that his starfish be "purplish-pink", and that the boy starfishes were all purplish-pink. Girl starfishes, aka, mommy starfish was allowed to be ...

Brock's been up and personal with some sinister friends lately.  There's a naked mole rat in there somewhere. Brock insisted I take a picture. Meh. Boring post? Yes, maybe. The World Series is on so it's either blogging or online shopping (no, folding laundry is NOT a viable option). This is a bit more productive and he's cuter than anything Anthropologie has right now. I shant disturb Matt to get Halloween pictures from his phone so this will have to tide you over til STARFISH INVASION.

Brock's school offers classes in Spanish and Mandarin. As is true of Montessori, he chooses of his own free will when he wants to attend. He has been quite regular with his Spanish and shares with us new words on a regular basis. Yet it appears that he has been attending Mandarin as well. This is what I coaxed him to share. and it appears you also get a tour of our quite messy living room.

Good ol' jackolantern time up here in the Cerney casa. We select our pumpkins during our anniversary weekend annually, first week of October. They then linger in our living room for a while till the faithful day they are given their personalities.  We always roast up the seeds. This year we had a little competition for which of our pumpkins produced the most delicious of seeds. It was a worthy endeavor as our pumpkins were noticeably varied visually, Matt's green, Brock's white, and mine traditional orange. Does the inside reflect the outside? But before conclusions, Brock wanted to give us the recipe for pumpkin seed sandwiches.   Apparently bread is not the best flavor back drop to pumpkin seeds.  Side  note: this is Brock's special nut shell/pepperseed/old cilantro sauce. I think I was feeling a little guilty pouring it down the drain last night after it had been on the counter for over a week, so I took a picture of it and immortal...

Some quick early fall memories.  Brock's first day of Montessori Gifted Prep year 2. Notice they are in uniforms darnit and much to brock's dismay. Luckily you can still wear whatever pants you want. For Brock that was octopus shorts. He did not really want his photo as you can see. Maybe a funny face is better? Since Brock can't wear crazy shirts anymore, he is into crazy pants. My friend Hana and I found so great ones at the craft fair so I sent Brock this picture to pick one out. He went with owl. The cicadas were a pretty good size crop this year. Here Brock was making cicada taco for grandma. And Matt and Brock actually caught one in the action!! We live in the hood. On a trip to the botanical garden Brock insisted I take a few specific shots. Here he wanted me to focus on the fungus growing on the bridge banister Brock is really into volcanoes right now. He had been building them in the park with his pals and showed ...