cozyblue

happy halloween!

some super trick-or-treating this year!
 


drizzly wet weather, golden leaves blowing around, kids dressed up, creepy beautiful old houses and brick sidewalks, lots of sweets and treats... and the cutest little dinosaur and loveliest fairy ever.



griff's costume was store-bought (and will last a year or two more, for the dress-up collection) and adella's was the 'simplicity' tinkerbell costume, with some minor adaptations.  mom and i worked on it together, and it came together relatively easily.  i'm happy that it'll definitely get some dress-up action after halloween has passed.  adella really wanted the sparkly ballerina shoes, and she insisted on the polka-dot tights also.  adorable, huh?



griffin caught on very quickly to the 'trick-or-treat' routine, (though it sounded a lot like "a treat?") and he had a blast on our fun adventure.



more pics over on flickr!   .... and hello november!

griffin is TWO

our little guy turned two today.  



it started with a breakfast cupcake.  adella really wanted to start his birthday off right, so she went ahead and gave him the gifts and a card from her.  (she drew the card for him weeks ago, and had it hidden away until this morning!)



after dinner we continued the celebrating with another cake (strawberry frosting on vanilla cake), ice cream (strawberry), balloons and gifts.  so much fun!  griff had a great time.  he was SO excited to see the cake and candles, and all the fun new toys & books.  he loved every minute of it, and we had such fun watching the excited smiles and squeals.



it's hard to believe he's already TWO years old!  happy birthday to our sweet, funny, crazy little guy -- we love you!!!

today's post is brought to you by the letter P

we went to the pumpkin patch today,



to pick out the perfect pumpkin (or two).



piles and piles of plump little pumpkins,



and piles of pudgy ones too.



i'm all p'd out now...  see more pics over on flickr!

snuggle bugs

a good thing to do on a rainy day:

pile as many blankets and pillows as you can on the living room floor.



bring along a friend or two.

snuggle up.  be cute and goofy.  have fun.

francie the fish

say hello to francie, everyone.  she came to live with us last week.  old purpsie checked out, after almost a year (that's quite a while for a fish, isn't it?).  francie seems a little more shy, but she's a beauty and adella is very happy.

rocket boy

(i bet you can hear the "whoosh!" without me even mentioning it...)

ay-pround!

we've been getting out as much as we can to enjoy this AMAZING fall weather we're having, and spending lots of time at the "ay-pround," which is griffin-speak for playground.

these were the photos i took in the morning.  then we went home, i put griffin down for his nap, and stig stayed home with him while i went to have lunch with adella at school.  (i swear, i almost didn't recognize her -- she looks so grown up!)  then after school, stig took the kiddos back to this same playground for round 2.  what can i say?  the kids love it.  and adella found out that we'd gone without her, and really really wanted to go.  on a day as pretty as this one, how can we refuse?

hello, lovely fall

apple pickin' 2009

we finally got a break from all the crazy rain we've been having here.  the sun peeked out, the weather warmed up, and we took advantage of the gorgeous day by going for our annual apple picking trip.  

this was our fifth year at sky top orchard, and it was as beautiful as ever.  i'm going to let the photos speak for themselves, but please check out my flickr photostream, because there are many more there.

also, some links to past years at sky top:  2008, 2007, 2006.  it's fun to see the kid(s) and how they've grown and changed each year.  go see!

just one afternoon at the park, part III - the view from my bench

just one afternoon at the park, part II - the plants

just one afternoon at the park - part I, the (family) people

we've had days and days of rain here.  buckets of rain.  and more predicted for the next 7 days at least....  so here are some photos from last week, when the sun was warm and shining:

NC Mountain State Fair

the fair!  the fair!

we went last week, and tonight i finally started the big job of sorting through all the photos i took (over 250 - yikes!).  go over to my flickr stream to see some of them...

we had such fun.  the rides (adella's plan was to ride them all... we did many, but not all), the animals (oh!  the animals), the crazy folks (everywhere), the happy laughing children (mine), the overwhelmed wide-eyed children (also mine), the greasy fair food (we got some), the giant plastic toys that tempt the kids (we resisted), the lights (so shiny!), the chair lift (i was strangely drawn to it), the animals (did i say that already?), the happy friendly folks all around...  

the fair!

we interrupt this bike ride to bring you...

a praying mantis.



we happened upon this (big) little guy while adella was riding her bike and i was wandering around with griff, taking pictures of random stuff.





the kids were super excited, and i think he was mildly interested in us, but probably a little terrified too.  



adella ran inside to get her big animal book, (i have no doubt she knew the exact page to turn to -- this book has been loved and read and studied so much it's completely falling apart) and was happy to see another praying mantis that looked just like ours.

sweet feet are very distracting

griffin and i have been doing a little painting lately.  one day last week i set up the water colors for him and he happily got down to business.



so i was hanging around, supervising, observing as usual...



but then i noticed his sweet little feet peeking out and i couldn't resist.



eeeek!



and while i was busy clicking away, griff was getting into a little mischief.







"oh no!"  he says, innocently.  (quickly followed by, "yum!")

and then it was most definitely time for a bubble bath.