Happy Halloween!

I should totally have a cute pic to go with this heading, but I don't. Will make it today's goal to get one but, really, it is SO much harder to get anything snapped with 2 tykes in tow.

It is also much more complicated to travel with two kids, as well. Thank goodness for Grammie who has accompanied me on this fall getaway to our former NYS stomping grounds! We're looking forward to the 2nd annual Havalchak family candy distribution tonight!!

Oh, y'all. This IS the most boring post ever! Let's see what I can do to make it a titch more interesting for at least a few of you:

Loyal reader JC, it was fab to have dinner with you last night!

Loyal reader Carrie, they've reopened Crystal City and the long johns are just as good!

Loyal reader Karen I, Brooks has become quite the lover of Settlers of Catan on the iPad and I think of you guys every time he yells out, "I traded sheep for ore!!!!"

Loyal reader Jill, heard you had a wonderful baby shower!

Loyal reader Paula, hope your week is calmer than the last ones have been!

Loyal reader Lyman Green, TAKE THE ROAST BEEF AND RUN.

:-)

...contd.

At the doctor's office yesterday, we learned that C is exactly as long as B was at 9 months (30.25", also known as giant).  Strangely, as brutish and solid as she is compared to how we remember him, he had her by a pound at this age.   She weighed "only" 18 lbs 11 oz.

Hope you have a weekend filled with as much fun as these two had sharing a grocery cart for the first time earlier this week!

NINE....Times Harder Than It Used to Be

So....I think we're done with our "monthly photo shoots on the pink blanket" thing.  It was already difficult last month with her crawling all over (ooooh!  a camera!  something to grab!) and Miss Nine Months proved to be even more curious:

This pic pretty much sums up the little miss at three-quarters of a year:

She's already cruising.  As you can see above, she started at the very end of a coffee table.  Then we introduced her favorite duckie:

Made it all the way to the end!

And was none too pleased when I moved it out of reach again!

Her 9-month well check is this morning and I'm curious to find out her measurements.  She seems gigantic to me but it's not like she's busting out of her clothes or anything.  So who knows.   What we do know, however, is that she is a girl on the move and a strong one at that!    Thank goodness she balances it out with a big grin and lots of sweetness!

Wordless* Wednesday

*except for props to Chris W for this awesome shot!

Hot Dogs!

Remember this weenie man from April 2008?

Well, it turns out he has a weenie sister!

Unfortunately, as an actual Halloween costume for a big January baby, it was a little snug.  Good thing I'd found a $2 backup costume at the thrift store!   'Course, we didn't get any pics of her in that one from the big weekend party, so that'll be a "wait and see"!!

PS:  On the topic of babies and food, there was an AMAZING late entry to Friday's challenge that obliterated the competition!!  Lindsey C, it's like you're IN MY HEAD!  Indeed (and to Grammie's apparent dismay), it was pears, cauliflower, and turnips!!   And she ate all of them!!

Heroes

This is my all-purpose, problem-fixin' hero:

FAC and FUE came over Friday night, brought me a delicious sushi dinner, and proceeded to take care of all the finishing touches (read: pretty much the whole thing) on the B-man's Halloween costume.  Chisty was quite dismayed at my lack of crafting supplies (read:  I have none. couldn't even find any glue), but she managed to do all kinds of impressive things with a needle and thread.

We needed a complete costume so that B could wear it to the Oktoberfest shindig hosted Saturday evening by these two, my party-throwin' heroes:

HOW CUTE ARE THEY?!

I wish I'd thought to take pictures of all the Bavarian-influenced touches Jen and Chris did to make the party quite the festive affair.  We dined on all kinds of yummy food and were even gifted personalized mugs and glasses, too!  (Oh, look at this!  The hostess herself shares some deets!) And it never hurts to be able to travel by foot, either!!

Finally, we have the fiercest little hero ever:

What kind of hero, you ask?!  Well, my friends, let me tell you about the little guy's current obsession....or better yet, check out this exciting video trailer to learn more.

Indeed, the highlight of every afternoon is the release of that day's hero.  We decided it was only appropriate for him to dress like one of the early historical figures from the game.  (Fun fact:  sometime in February, a hero will be released bearing the name of a certain big guy!)  He seemed to enjoy the caveman look-- hopefully it'll still be fun on the 31st!

Friday Food Fun

What 3 foods did the little miss eat?

You don't have to tell me which is which, but the first one to guess the 3 beige ingredients correctly wins............A HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!   

PS:  Speaking of babies, congrats to Tom (aka T-Dawg) and Amy on the birth of Julia Anne earlier this week!!

Why The Internet is a) Awesome and b) Evil

Like so many of you, I adore autumn and all the harvest deliciousness that goes along with it. (I could TOTALLY do without this seemingly nonstop rain we've been having for months, but that's neither here nor there.)

Baking is an activity that the B-man seems to truly enjoy so since we stayed home all day yesterday (see: dreary rain), I decided we should bake some sort of pumpkin treat after his nap.   I remembered to surf on over to the awesomeness that is Pinterest and did a search for "pumpkin muffins."  I quickly found this recipe for Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins and decided to whip them up with an AKHG-approved ditching of the raisins (and walnuts)* and the addition of chocolate chips because what isn't made better by chocolate chips?  (Right, Polly?!)

I have never bought canned pumpkin pie mix so I just added some high-quality Penzeys pumpkin pie spice to the pumpkin puree I had.  I'm thinking I probably should've upped the brown sugar a little bit, but the muffins are still quite yummy.

When we were done with that, I decided NOT to just put the leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge only to forget about it, per usual, so I returned to the wonder that is the internet and typed the following into google:  "1/2 C pumpkin puree half and half" since I had some h&h leftover from this Curry-Spiced Sweet Potato recipe I made recently. 

And my beloved google returned this Pumpkin Scone recipe that I just couldn't resist.  (although I did resist the glazes...you know, because I'm trying to be good. HA HA HA)   These scones are especially tasty and I would recommend them highly!!

Blah, blah, so much text... here's the end result:

Mmmm.....PUMPKIN GOODNESS!

* Question for you nuts about nuts:  how many of you use walnuts regularly in your baking?  I can't even tell you what walnuts taste like because I would substitute pecans every time if using nuts at all.  I'm thinking that might be due to my Texan roots.   What think you?

Being Bold

I like pink just fine,  but I definitely prefer some shades over others. (Come to think of it, I actually have quite a few opinions about baby/child clothing which is fairly noteworthy considering I generally eschew strong opinions in the name of easygoing happiness!  :-)   That would be a whole other post, although it's probably one I'll never write for fear of alienating half my readership!!!!)

ANYWAY.   I'm not anti-pink at all.  But I do love me some strong colors, rich tones, etc.  So it should come as no surprise that I would buy a bold red and blue shirt for the little miss.  It should also come as no surprise that no fewer than 4 people referred to her as "he" when out and about yesterday afternoon!  

It is, however, most decidedly a shirt for a wee lass-- see the ruffle?!

 In any case, she doesn't care at all.  She's too busy crawling so fast her hands blur:

Or chewing on anything and everything:

 Ah, Meelie Worm.  Such the lady!

Baby Boys, Bigger Boys, and the Little Miss

C had not one but two potential suitors born within a few months of her own arrival.  We hadn't gotten to see 3-month old Camp in a long time but he was looking like quite the scrumptious pumpkin:

(and yes, he gets to rock a rotated picture.  it means he's extra cool!)

Mr. Kellen is a mere 6 weeks younger than Camille and already understands arm positioning to become a master archer:

The lady in the middle, rocking the sweater-suit:

The bigger boys were busy, busy.  Brady was pretty much on cloud nine with all the cars, trucks, and trains.  He built himself quite the pile-up!

And our B-man was working on being grabby just like his baby sister!

Kinda hard to believe that there was only one wee child (on the outside) among the three of us when this picture was taken in August 2009....and now there are FIVE!!!!

Fall Weekend Math

+

=

Frugal/Frivolous Friday

FRUGAL:

 YES!  'Tis true!!  I know I always say this, but BEST DEAL EVER.  This lovely holiday party frock still had a Gymboree price tag affixed to it when I scooped it up at a thrift store last week.  It also had another tag on it....and since it was green, the price was cut by 50%.   Being a math wizard, I just went ahead and wrote it out for you!   ;-)

 So now, we just need to have a snazzy Christmas party, I guess.   Who's in?!

FRIVOLOUS:

 Trader Joe's gets me every time with fun stuff at the register.  Having now sampled one (or maybe more) of these little treats, I can go ahead and say that they're deelish.

Bonus picture--  doesn't this look like mayo?*     But it's not!  Check it out!

*Okay, in this pic it does kinda look like a bottle of milk that you'd find in the refrigerator case, but it's actually really narrow/flat from back to front like those newish Kraft mayo bottles.  Promise.

TJ's is so smart.  Sometimes you just don't need the whole can of condensed milk, you know?!  

mmmm.....sweetened condensed milk.  Methinks today might need to turn into FAT FRIDAY with some baking!

Happy Frugal/Frivolous/Fat Friday!!!

Precious Ruby

The kiddos and I headed south to meet Miss Ruby yesterday morning.  What a (wait for it...) gem she is!   :-)   Seriously, she just is as cute as can be and looked so teeny next to my giant baby....who may or may not have kept trying to gouge out her eyeballs.

We decided to try to take a pic of all three wee ones and I baby-wrangled while Alison took the picture.   Well, tried to take the picture.  Here's what resulted instead:



It cracks me up everytime I watch it.  I feel like it's the perfect fodder for a joke like "How many nerdy Phi Beta Kappa types does it take to snap a picture?"   Thankfully, the answer was eventually....TWO!

Too bad we couldn't get everyone took look at the camera--what's with the 3-week old?!  :-)  (KIDDING!)

Alison and David, we are SO excited for you as you begin this parenting journey!!!  Can't wait to see Ruby complete her first Excel spreadsheet!!!

What the WHAT? (Crib Edition)

Sometimes there's a wee little girl who doesn't quite nap as long as she should.  In those cases, I've taken occasionally to putting a few "toys" in her crib so that she can stay in there and entertain herself while I complete whatever task it was for which I thought I had more time.

Imagine my surprise when I walked back in on Monday to discover a much-augmented collection of playthings in the crib:

 Whoever could have done such a thing????

Okay, that made me giggle.

Yesterday's crib surprise was a little less happy-making:

So long, crib bedding.  Hello, mattress on lowest setting!

"Alabama Is......A Little Bit More Green."

As it turns out, the BG is an awesome teacher. (Who knew?! ;-)

He was swimming in a very deep pool of papers to grade Sunday night so I put the B-man to bed. I wasn't expecting the dynamic presentation that quickly followed. It seems that father and son have been talkin' states at bedtime:

(you may need to turn up the volume-- he's kinda quiet.)

Of course,the initial performance is always the best...and also the one without recording equipment!   After a few moments of initial wonder, I grabbed my small camera and took the video above but then wasn't sure if the sound recorded so I tried with my phone camera as well.   That led to a few more entertaining clips for those of you who want to "spend some time" with the always-amusing Brookster:

The "I'm training to be a drill sergeant" recitation.

and

The "My teacher is here with a pointy stick" recitation.

Together

We don't get much together time during football season so we really appreciate it when the Jewish holidays observed by the district lead to an altered schedule that allows for some family adventures.   Yom Kippur began at sundown on Friday: all events had to be over by 4 pm and nothing could take place on Saturday.   (While we enjoyed staying close to home and relaxing this year, I couldn't help but remember a similar Yom Kippur Fri/Sat schedule that led to a really fun Western NY adventure!)

The little miss enjoyed her daddy being home so much earlier on Friday and got to celebrate by swinging for the first time:

 (Note:  family fun days resulted in the carrying of sub-par photographic equipment!)

Saturday morning, we decided to take advantage of the fantastic weather and walk around our charming state capital.  The boys wore their green & gold, and actually were the happy recipients of some loud honking and "sic 'em, bear"-ing from a passing car at one point!

 We had no idea the Boat Show was taking place so it wasn't really the best-planned excursion.  All the parking lots were super-high flat rates for "boat show parking" and the entire bay/harbor area was fenced off and covered with advertising banners so there was absolutely not even one peek of water available.  Crazy.

Thankfully, we found meter parking only several blocks away and managed to have a wonderful hike around town nonetheless:

Then after returning home and all taking naps, we went to the 5 pm church service which, of course, required some serious playground time afterward:

She looks so different to me in this pic than she usually does.  A woman of many faces, I guess?

In true kentobean fashion, we got next-to-nothing on our "to-do" list done this weekend, but sure appreciated all the hours just hanging out.  We also appreciated this awesomely-decorated homemade apple pie--fired on the Big Green Egg-- from the neighbors you all wish you had:

Shadow on the Wall

If I were into music, I'd probably be able to cite that line in a song because my guess is it's appeared somewhere.  (Impromptu contest!  What song(s) talk about shadows on a wall?)

Speaking of walls, do I get points for knowing about Another Brick in the Wall by.....Led Zeppelin..??  (hold on-- lemme check....NOOOO!  Pink Floyd!  I always get those confused.  Sorry, BG!!)  That's what I get for trying to be cool!  ;-)

ANYWAY.

We're finally having a stretch of beautiful (and beautifully crisp, at least in the mornings and evenings) weather after what seems like endless rain.  And then some more rain.   Someone was pretty excited about the sun shining in the window:

And just let me put this out there:  if we were to fill our infamous big blank wall in the living room with a flatscreen TV like the BG advocates-- then WHERE would we make our shadow art??!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Let's Hope It Will Always Be This Easy!

(but I won't count on it!)

The B-man had his first teeth-cleaning at the dentist's office yesterday.  I would like to go on record as saying I intended to schedule it back in the spring, but they said he could just come in with me for my next appointment in October.  Then I actually ended up going last week for my own cleaning due to a cancellation, which worked out even better since yesterday could be all about B's teeth!

I was advised last week by the dentist to talk to B about the moving chair, the funny glasses with the light on them, and what he would be asked to do (open his mouth, etc).  Brooks is such an upbeat little guy and responds quite well to any sort of "Isn't this going to be THE BEST THING EVER?" suggestions, so he was perfectly excited about his first trip to the dentist.

I am relieved to report that he was a fantastic patient.  He charmed the hygienist and the dentist with his polite and cheerful responsiveness.  And apparently it's even a good thing that his teeth are so far apart:  more room for adult teeth to come in and fewer spaces for cavities to fester!  All in all, the trip was a big success!

Cool cat:

Chomper-check:

Entertaining himself while waiting for me to finalize paperwork.  Methinks he needs a bit of help with his toothbrush-holding technique!

(Many thanks to Jen W for keeping the little miss so we could get this done!)

Back to the Basics

So much for trinkets and trivia-- where are those kids?  (Is that what you've been thinking?)

The days fly by with to-do lists a mile long, but the actual things on that list comprising the day are zzzzzzzzzz.   In an effort to have some photographic evidence of actual humans, however, I present to you a snapshot of a common sight around here these days:

She's a lady on the go.

Emphasis on lady:

On The Nightstand

(but nowhere near this neat normally-- who am I kidding?)

I'm nothing if not a big ol' mix of interests.  From top to bottom:

• Beverly Connor's mysteries featuring Diane Fallon, forensic anthropologist.  I devour book series (in order, of course) like I do television ones.  I think I picked up one of hers randomly before my trip to CO, enjoyed it, and then realized it was not only a series but was the first book in it!  So now I'm working my way through them.  Nothing earth-shattering but enough complexity to keep my interest...as much as a paperback thriller aims to do!
• Francis Chan's Crazy Love.  Our "young adult" (so totally not an accurate description anymore) group at church read this book for Bible study sometime in the last couple of years but we missed it. Since I also have heard lots of positive review from many friends in Texas, I was happy to find out our library system had it!
• And.....the latest example of how my free Amazon Prime membership (earned from Amazon Mom purchases) is dangerous because the shipping is always free regardless of item cost.   Sooo excited about this collection of essays reflecting on such a fine television program!

Status:  Top book = finished yesterday.   Second book = 1st chapter read.   Third book= haven't yet cracked the cover.

Whatcha been reading out there?

They've Got It All Wrong

It's not fences that make good neighbors.

It's actually a shared love for the sweet victory of a new-with-tags thrift store find, bought especially for the ones who live nearby, that solidifies the neighborly bond:

Thanks for the fabulous Olivia metal treasure box, Jen W!!  We love it!