Some photos taken in my backyard, some taken on way down to visit friends in Southern Maryland. The fall colors around here seem to have peaked about a week ago. I hope at least some of the color is still around for Brenda and Bug to see in person next week!

Passing through my kitchen this afternoon, I noticed that the shadow of the window looked lovely, especially with the heart Annalie colored for me up in the window. Please don’t look too closely at the floor; it’s been a while since I mopped.

Here is the heart casting its shadow in the photo above. I think it’s nice how the light shining through the heart reveals its true colors. That sounds all deep and stuff, right? It’s also literally what is happening.

A while back Annalie spent a long time coloring and cutting out this heart for me. Then she added dots, and got a bit upset because the purple and blue dots looked black when combined with the red marker. I consoled her and told her I loved the heart anyway. She asked if we could hang it in the kitchen window. I got her some tape and helped her hang it just where she wanted it. When we stepped back, we noticed that the sunlight streaming through the paper brightened the colors considerably, revealing the blueness and purpleness of the dots. And we all lived happily ever after.

When I took my 7 Days photo, I was in the kitchen because Annalie and I were making cookies. Annalie did this sheet by herself and was quite amused at the smiley face she made with the balls of dough. I admit it, I laughed.

I’ve been meaning to make smitten kitchen’s crispy salted oatmeal white-chocolate cookies again for weeks now, because they’re delicious. What with one thing and another, I kept putting it off. Finally today I made them, and you know, I think this is the best batch I’ve ever made. They were perfect. The best part is the little bit of sea salt you sprinkle on them before baking. (This shot is also a 7 Days reject. You can sort of see me reflected in the foil on the bottom part of the pan.)

For Annalie’s self-portrait, she took a picture of herself taking a bite out of one of the cookies we baked. Sweet.

It’s that time again…time for 7 Days, the best self-portrait group around, full of the nicest, funniest, most creative people. So you’ll be seeing pictures of me and Annalie every day for a week, since I coaxed her into playing along this time too.

Bug lost a shoe at the beach the other day. We had walked a couple of blocks uphill away from the beach by the time we realized it was missing (she was sitting in the jog stroller), so I waited with the kids while Brenda went back down to look for the shoe. Annalie and Bug were having a fantastic talk about their wishes, mainly involving wanting the world to be made of delicious foods, so I scrambled for my camera and took a couple of short videos. They’re upside-down because I was trying not to interrupt the flow of their hilarious conversation.

Sadly, I missed taping the part where Bug was wishing the whole world were made of candy. Annalie informed her that if the world were made of candy, then she’d have to go to the dentist a lot. “Why?” Bug wanted to know.

“Because if you ate all that candy, then you’d get lots of cavities,” Annalie informed her.

Bug thought about that for a minute. “But I wouldn’t eat a LOT of candy every day, I would just eat ONE piece.”

“Then you should just wish for one special piece of candy every day,” Annalie advised her. “That way you’d enjoy it more.”

“Yeah,” Bug immediately agreed. “You’re right. I would just wish for one special piece every day.”

*Pah is Bug’s word for pacifier. She has pretty much stopped using pahs, but she remembers them fondly.