Fall Follow-up

Hi there. Yikes.  Life.

Where to begin.  I thought before things got too carried away and we were well into December's numerous celebratory events (Henry's and Jesus's Birthdays)

I thought I would give everyone a brief little synopsis of the past...three months.

We went to the Buffalo Round-up in September.  Henry had a blast playing cowboy :)  In fact, he asked Santa for a cowboy hat.  I think Santa will happily oblige ;)

In October we went to the pumpkin festival downtown and had a crazy good time.  I also performed in the Black Hills Symphony Concert: Danse Macabre.  

Here is Henry bouncing away at the festival.

Riding Daddy's shoulders and watching the pumpkin catapult contest.

Riding the pumpkin train (note the crazy hair...more on that later)

As an early birthday gift for Henry, gunka and nana got us all tickets to see Sesame Street Live!  Henry LOVED it :)

Austin and I got to scope out a fun party at an art gallery downtown where my good friend Brittany and her fiance have the honor of displaying their work

Quick switch up to some crazy pumpkin carving.  

getting all the guts out.

Austin cut a slit with a real knife and then let Henry jam his plastic one in and wiggle it around a bit :)  He wanted a Jack-o-lantern with "a square eye, a circle eye, a triangle nose and one tooth"

and, finally, Henry's FIRST haircut :) things were getting just a little too weird and uncontrollable

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  We have photos from that too.....and I will get them up here....as soon as I can ;)

THE lorax

Happy Halloween!   If you know Henry, then you know that he is a huuuuge Lorax fan.  He loves the book, he loves the movie, the music, pretty much all things Lorax.  So what was he for Halloween?   A Pirate!

Just kidding.

He was the Lorax.

If you don't know what that is.....then you need to go to your local library and look up Dr. Seuss.

Or just google it.

They don't really sell Lorax costumes anywhere.

So we had to make one.

Thank goodness my mom and aunt were here visiting (watching me dance at the Black Hills Symphony's Danse Macabre), so I enlisted their help.  (I might have done it on my own....but it would have taken me many sleepless nights and a lot of seam ripping)  We all worked on this Lorax costume and knocked it out in one weekend!

Of course, no Lorax costume would be complete without a truffula tree (once again, you may have to google).

 hehehehe!  Isn't Henry adorbs in orange fleece?   I used a monkey costume pattern and altered it to become more Loraxish.  i.e.  I free handed some yellow felt eyebrows and an enormous mustache instead of ears and a monkey tail.  I also decided to just go for the gold and make his trick or treat bag as well, since I had leftover Lorax fabric......and just in case someone didn't know what he was....they could just read it on his trick or treat bag :) 

 Also used leftover Lorax fabric to line the hood (remember those Lorax pillows from awhile ago?)

 Henry helped me make the truffula tree, and we really had fun with it!  We made it from a pink feather boa (henry's choice) a dowel, some paint, a terra cotta pot, a florist block and a styrofoam ball.  (we wanted to use real tree branches....but that didn't quite work :)

 "plant a truffula, treat it with care"   :)

 Henry's speech for the night was "Trick or treat please, I am the Lorax I speak for the trees"

 it was the first year he really got into it...and the candy

 I couldn't resist.....we needed some photos with our inspiration :)

 ......and a little more candy

 :)

AND

it doesn't end there.  because I had my sewing machine out, I had to try something that I saw on pinterest that looked super easy (and it actually was).  I picked up some extra felt when I bought fabric for Henry's Lorax costume and a cheapo hoodie.  Then, when the Lorax was done, I created a little dinosaur hoodie for fun :)  He loves wearing it, stomping around, and saying raaaaaaawr  :)

 He insisted that he wear it pulled over his bike helmet :)

 investigating things.

 my sweet dino boy.

 :)

If you're curious: here is the link for the dino hoodie: http://kirstyneale.typepad.com/gingerandgeorge/2011/03/dino-boys.html

henry's iphone photos

soooo....sometimes henry takes my phone, like most kids do.  And then, when I get it back, I see that he has taken, like, 50 photos of himself.  This is not an exaggeration, I literally have about fifty photos like these in my phone.  So I thought I would share, because they make me laugh out loud every time :)

I don't know if the big cheek pouffing thing is just something he does, or if its the angle or what.  But its hilarious.  

 that would be a balloon.

muffin man

I'm a few weeks behind......working a full-time and a part-time job while chasing after two boys has kept me pretty busy :)  

We had a visit from Deb (mugga) and John a few weekends ago.....we hung out, went downtown, and went the to the Deadwood Jam and had a ton of fun.  We saw Styx perform and did some serious boogying down :)

  Deb brought us some produce from her garden, including zucchini.....which I didn't really know what to do with, but wanted to do something.  So I found this awesome recipe for dark chocolate zucchini bread and morphed it into mini muffins (since henry is our mini muffin loving man).  And they were delicious!  I think we made approximately 150 of them....seriously.  We shared them with coworkers, daycare teachers, dance teachers, and fam.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but I did like that you bake with whole wheat and yogurt, which is better for you.  And, of course, they're good for you because of the whole zucchini vegetable thing right?  Henry gobbled them up, and we really enjoyed baking them together.  Henry loves helping in the kitchen.  I wish I had taken more photos while we were baking...but you pretty much have your hands full when you are working with sugar, a mixer, and a toddler simultaneously.  If I could grow extra arms, then we would have some photos :)  I think his favorite part was taking all the wrappers off of the chocolate so I could chop them up, and he liked watching me grate the zucchini.   

 nummers.

 haha

the artist