Halloween’s Past….

“Hi-ya Daddy”

I know in the past Daddy you have been able to work on some very elaborate costumes.   Mommy tells me you have found GREAT joy in coming up with the perfect costume and then crafting it in full. Lets take a little trip down memory lane…

There was Optimus Prime the Transformer…Didn’t you get stuck in this costume and Mommy had to rescue you?!?!……

There was Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc – Mommy’s most favorite little monster before me …..

There was “Bob Bob” – I mean Sponge Bob Square Pants….

There was Cobra Commander from GI Joe and whoever Mommy is supposed to be from GI Joe in this picture…who is she again???

And many many more – but these were my favorites….this year you are The Joker from Batman – The Dark Knight.  Unfortunately this year you did not have time to craft your costume to it’s fullest potentional, I mean it looked great this morning, but I know you were dissapointed and wish you had been able to spend more time on it…..Mommy and I were sick and you were helping take care of us, then we were doing fun family adventures like making ghosts out of milk jugs, going to find a pumpkin, going to the park, going to see Auntie Kimmmmmmm and hang out, going to Caden’s bonfire, and building a fort.  I know you would have never traded any of those times and moments with us for more work on your costume, but it is just that Mommy and I wish we could somehow create some more time in the day for you to have worked on it more.  But don’t worry Daddy, today you may appear like The Joker to others from the outside, but you are MY Daddy, “Tire’s Daddy”, which is the best thing to be in the whole wide world and something that you are AWESOME at!!! It may not win you any prizes in the costume contest @ work, but it doesn’t really matter – if there were a contest for the bestest, most fun, silliest, and just most wonderful Daddy in the whole world you would win hands down because you are! I love you Daddy – and don’t worry, Mommy and I will make sure you have plenty of time to work on a great costume for next Halloween! We’ve already brainstormed a list of possibilities for you….Elmo is my vote…what do you think?!?!

Remember this for next year….

A few Sundays ago we went to a local pumpkin patch.  The most interesting things to Tyler were the dirt (yes, just your standard dirt on the ground) and the tractors pulling everyone around on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. I have only a few pictures out of like 40 of him actually looking @ the camera – all the others are him looking in some random direction @ some tractor coming or going. The poor boy just kept looking @ each tractor that passed by saying “Tire’s tun” which is really “Tyler’s turn” because he wanted to drive the tractor – stupid mom and dad – being pulled behind the tractor in a wagon full of hay is NOT the same!!! We decided that next year we are just buying a pumpkin @ Meijer and taking Tyler to Pa Pa’s house to sit on Pa Pa’s lap and drive the riding mower for fall fun. It will just be easier on all of us!

The “Pumpkin Train” – He’s not picky what name you give it or in what shape or form the “cars” come – if it is a train, car, or truck, has a wheel of some sort and some sort of throaty engine noise – Tyler’s in!

“How about this one?”

“Ooooooohhhhhhhhh….TRACTOR!!!”

“Ummmm….did you know that there was dirt here?!?!?  Awesome!”

Of course that afternoon we had to carve our pumpkin – Tyler was most interested in the pumpkin’s “hat” as he kept calling it and let us do the dirty work when it came to digging out the guts of our pumpkin. Once it was all done he kept saying “Hi-ya pum-kin!”

Who’s feeling crafty???

Tyler, Craig, and I had some family fun and made these little ghosts – each responsible for their own – me for the mommy ghost, Craig for the daddy ghost, and Tyler for the Tyler ghost…..I saw them in Family Fun Magazine and thought they looked cute and easy.  Here’s what you’ll need to re-create your family in the form of milk-jug ghosts

You will need some empty clean milk jugs, paint – preferable washable and non-toxic some paint brushes, white lights, and a craft knife/scissors….

….and some very willing and excited helpers….

First, drink milk.  Then wash and let milk jug dry.  Peal the labels off the milk jug and then cut a large hole in the “back” of your ghost with craft knife or scissors so you are able to stick the lights in once you are finished.  Next, listen to your “kids” make loud noises with milk cartons….

Next paint faces on your “ghosts.”

Mmmmmm….blue paint….

Finally, let your little ghosts dry and then fill with lights.   Have fun and enjoy!

May I see your licence and registration please?!?!

Ahhh….Craig’s List…how I love you!!! You came through for me yet once again! I was stoked when I found this truck listed and when I emailed the owner asking if it was still available (for sure it had been quickly snatched up like every other Little Tykes cozy coupe I have been trying to score since the beginning of the summer) and he said it was, I knew this truck and Tyler were meant to be!!!

He was so so excited about it, he ran right for it going calling “truck, truck” and climbed right in. He of course had to check it out from all angles. He seemed pleased with what he found once he had kicked the tires a little, looked under the hood, and checked the specs. He says “beep….beep” when he is backing up so all will know to move out of the way and he is quite particular about his snack being in the back in the truck bed.

We knew that Grandpa “Pa Pa” would be extremely jealous of Tyler’s truck, I mean he has his own truck Big Blue, but does that even compare?!?!? – So we took Tyler’s truck to Pa Pa and Me Me’s house a few weeks ago and parked it in Pa Pa’s truck’s spot. He’ll never admit it, but secretly Pa Pa was a little jealous of Tyler’s new set of wheels!

A special little something to Jen, from Tyler….

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

JEN!

Hey Jen! I just wanted to wish you a VERY HAPPY birthday with a few of my favorite things…smiles, sidewalk chalk, and sticks (of course!).

Perhaps we should have named him NEMO….

Vera Bradley….the FALL OUTLET SALE!!!

As if I don’t have enough Vera Bradley….as if I haven’t already spent enough money on quilted totes & purses in various patterns in my lifetime….as if I needed a second outlet sale this fiscal year….well….as my mama and grandma always say – “You can never have enough Vera Bradley!”

The fall outlet sale, (new this year – there is ALWAYS a srping outlet sale in May, but having a second one in the fall was new) was October 2, 3, 4 and 5th and yes I did attend, and yes I did spend. Don’t worry Craig, we will still be able to pay our mortgage this month, but I’m not sure about eating….

We went on Friday and took Tyler with us….poor Tyler….or maybe poor Daddy – would the picture be easier to look at if the little bag he was carrying was blue and not hues of pink?!?

Of course he had a great time because Auntie “Ka” was there – which has now advanced to Auntie “Kimmmmmmm”. No matter how he says it or when he says it the last part, the “M”, is always long and drawn out “Kimmmmmmm”.  If only we could clone her so she could be @ school for her classes and with us every minute of the day Tyler is awake!!!

The Park

We live in a condo, our association doesn’t have a play area or little “park” if you will, so we have to either walk/bike to a neighboring addition and “borrow” the use of their park/swing set or bike/drive to one of the community parks near us.   Tyler gets so excited and just runs toward all the brightly colored equipment/slides/swings saying “park, park”.  Not a problem, I am very thankful for our condo, I love it, it is cozy and bright, we don’t have to do yard work, and it has been perfect for us.  I am truly thankful for what God has blessed us with and given us.  However, with the addition of Tyler, I do find myself coveting other people’s attics, basements, and closet spaces to store the toys and clothes we have grown out of in the past year and a half.  This summer and as Tyler grows increasingly more active, curisous, and boyish, I am also finding myself strongly coveting other people’s yards!!!  Now our condo is on the end and up by a tree line so we have some privacy on the side of it and a nice grassy area and turly much more space to let him run than if we lived in one of the other condos in our addition….but a little piece of my heart cried for him the other day in regards to a big yard for him….

The other day when Tyler and I were at my friend Meg’s, after we took the boys for a wagon ride, the boys got out and ran around out back where other toys and a very lovely swing set were.  Tyler caught site of the very nice swing set with a slide, swing, sandbox underneath and all and started running for the back yard calling out “park, park, park” all excited like.  The poor boy, he thinks every swinset is THE PARK, he doesn’t even KNOW he could have HIS VERY OWN “park” in his back yard if we had a house…how terrible of us as a parents, he’s totally missing out.  A little piece of me was sad for him….then I said to myself “pull yourself togeather!  #1.  Because we own a condo and not a house, that is more time we get to spend with him and not in the yard working on/in it mowing, fertilizing, edging, and watering, and whatever else you do with it, and #2.  He’s only 1 1/2, he doesn’t know what he could have – and if it WAS in our backyard, he’d probably never want to play with it anyway.” It will just make all of us that much more thankful to have our own yard (a grassy space of our own – that is not considered “common area”) with a swing set, oh excuse me, I mean “park”, when we decide to more from our condo!   For now, we’ll just relish in the fact that we don’t have to rake leaves this fall and go to the park instead

A snack for our birdy friends….

A few weeks ago or so Tyler and I had some fun with pinecones (or according to Tyler, “nnn-cones”) and helped feed some of our birdy friends. Thanks TJ and Cousin Caden for letting us raid your yards for the pinecones!!! Here’s what we did….to start here’s what you will need to get….

Pinecones, peanutbutter, pipe cleaners, & birdseed….you will also need a bowl, popsicle stick, and scoop from around your house.

Most importantly, you will need a very excited, very willing little helper

First, take a pipe cleaner and wrap around bottom end of pinecone.

Second, take popsicle stick and spread peanutbutter all around pinecone and in between the “branches”.

Next, place some birdseed in bowl and put peanutbuttered pinecone in bowl. Then dump bidrseed ontop of peanutbuttered pinecone with scoop or hand.

Pat pinecone gently with hand to help it stick.

You may also find the “dunking” method helpful as Tyler did

And this is what you get….

Finally, find a tree to hang your little treat on…..

…and just wait for the birdies to find and eat! We hung this on a tree outside our kitchen window so hopefully, while Tyler and I are eating breakfast, so will the birdies…..we are still waiting for A, ANY, JUST ONE little birdy to find it Have Fun!!!

This was Tyler as I was trying to put the bag of birdseed away after we were done…he kept tyring to grab the bag and kept signing and saying “more…more”. Next time we are bored, I’ll just give him a bucket of birdseed to play with

Hey Meg….it’s all about the boys….but not exactly like it used to be!!!

It seems that not that long ago, my best friend Meg and I were in high school enjoying the Summer of Boys as we refer to it….really it was more of a drought for me and I was living vicariously through her and her Summer of Boys….wishing it would develop into even a Summer of One Boy for me….don’t feel too bad for me, toward the end of the summer a boy named Craig called and asked me out….the rest is history   Any-who now we both have 1 boy, Tyler is 1 1/2 and Hayden is 2.  It is always the best sort of fun to get together with Meg – although it doesn’t happen near enough, but we were able to get together last week and we had a blast!  Here are some pics of our fun!!!  Can’t wait to get the boys togeather again…and I am looking forward to whatever “manhatan” awaits us @ MCL!!!

It was interesting to hear the Boy’s perspective regarding current issues such as the economy and the upcoming election….OK, really Tyler was just interested in finishing what Hayden didn’t eat for breakfast.

Yes, Tyler, that is not your chew toy…it is the dogs….

Poor Siera….Tyler just wanted to hold her tail the entire time.  The best part is that the Alena, their other dog who I don’t have a picture of is a Chihuahua, which Tyler kept chasing around to pet (“pat…pat”) calling her “cat…cat”.  Poor Alena, as if she doesn’t already have enough issues!

I love the second pic., Hayden is like “Ummm, yea, and who exactly invited you to play with my Thomas the Train set?!?”

Best of buds!