Happy Autumn!

It must be all that cool air because it's a quarter to 8 AM and Sophia is still asleep. Naturally, I have an eye appointment this morning, but Doug is taking the day off so all should be well.

We're going to have some sort of little autumn party (just the family!) but I am not sure what to do now. I already made cupcakes, but that was just because. They are coconut and they are very nice but I forgot to put vanilla bean in them (I'm out of extract). The cupcakes look more like spring than autumn. I will mention here that I am a coconut fanatic. I made chocolate tapioca pudding the day before with coconut milk and it was sort of like a almond joy pudding (I also put almond extract in). Fiona didn't like it--I thought it was probably the texture, which I admit may be an acquired taste--but she said it was the taste. It was not that sweet, more bittersweet, which is why it was so good, of course. Oh well, more for me. Sophia inhaled it. This is the sand connoisseur, however. But back to the autumn celebration. Maybe we'll go for a hike if it doesn't rain and then come back for spiced cider? Make some sort of craft with leaves? I am not all that crafty--I have to find craft guides and use the internet to come up with projects for Fiona. Plus we can't keep ALL her crafts and I feel like a horrible mother throwing any piece of paper she draws on away. Believe me, I have. I've had to, okay? Leave me alone!

So this weekend is Fiona's school potluck, which includes both schools, and I find that odd because the two schools aren't exactly close to each other and the parents don't know each other and the kids don't know each other so why...? Anyway, before that is the local library's centennial birthday party which we are going to because Fiona won the poster contest in her division. I'm making "Chili Non Carne" from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything which will probably end up pretty different from the recipe because...it's chili. It's not even real chili. It's spiced beans with condiments and chips. I like that, but it's not chili. I don't even know why I am using a recipe. What can I say, I love cookbooks.