Happy 3rd Birthday...plus 21 days

Taking a break from slacking, err....being otherwise busy, to finally share some pics from the Tot's 3rd birthday. Aside from him coming down with an illness about half way through the day, it was a good day. The cake baking and decorating was less stressful, the gift opening and candle blowing out was actually performed by the Tot, and the mess at the end was slightly less messy. Oh, yeah - there was the one glitch where I discovered that the reason the chocolate cake tasted just a little off was because apparently the oil that I used (at my mom's house) was oil that she had already used to make french fries. Oops. She really should keep that in a separate place - or in something other than the original bottle. While I am all for reusing, I do not recommend this particular application. Although nobody said they had an odd craving for ketchup with their cake, so it was all good.

This was the happy child during his birthday lunch of chocolate milk and toast with jelly, still wearing his jammies. If I let him, he would probably indulge in this behavior every day.




The cake - he wanted a train and rather than do any of the actual train cake designs out there, I created the scene with tracks and used a vintage wooden train candle holder that my mom pulled out of her endless supply of vintage goodies.







And, yes, he did receive a hand knit sweater which I will have to blog at a future date as he has thus far refused to model it for proper photographing.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Ah, Fall!

Thanks to some cool weather and blogless Erin's request for some pumpkin colored yarn...I came out of my knitting slump! When I turned to my stash I found that I had lots of pumpkin colored yarn, as well as some green and brown (although not the right gauge for Erin). I found a simple pumpkin pattern on ravelry and now I have my first Autumn decoration of the year.



Finn holding it to give you an idea of size...



I only got one quick shot of the lone pumpkin before my assistant lay claim to the squash and would not allow me to continue, so I guess he likes it despite the look he's giving me in the photo. My yarn was bulky, which worked just fine for the chunky pumpkin, though the pattern did call for worsted. If I make more of these for myself, I'll probably do them in different sizes and try some light green and/or cream to make them more Fall and less Halloween-y. Now...I just may cast on my gray yarn and have another go at that sweater.

Week 1

I have loads of catching up to do and I hope that it will happen soon, but until then I just wanted to put this out there in the hopes that maybe I can recruit some others to play along.

If you're a flickrite, you've likely heard of this or other similar groups. 52 weeks - my kid(s) and me. The goal is to take a photo of you with your child(ren) every week for one year. I've thought about doing this for a while and now I'm going to attempt to make it a reality. So here's my first week...two pics, but whatever.



I got a remote for my camera for Christmas and you can just barely see in the second photo that the tot is the one holding it, so he actually took both shots.

If you've got a child, I invite you to give it go, share it on flickr, share it on your blog, share it wherever it is that you do your sharing. It doesn't have to be fancy and you can have someone else take the pic if you need to. No pressure, just encouragement to capture some of the daily moments that you share with your little ones. Hey, my first week is no make-up, straggly haired me and the tot in jammies - anything goes.

Bye, Bye, Baby

Two weeks ago the tot turned 2. I consider that the official end to babyhood and it is soooo clear that he has in fact made the transition from baby to boy. And I have to say...I love it! As much as I love babies and as much as I long for a little girl, I love this little boy running around.

As for the celebration, we had the festivities at my parents' house again. It was a fish theme. Yes, his name is Finn and the theme was fish. The cake, which looks sooo amateurish to me in pics right now, was a goldfish bowl.



Whatever...I blame the icing, but it was cute nonetheless. A marble pound cake for stability, chocolate rocks on the bottom, green fruit roll-ups made into seaweed, a couple gummy sea creatures not quite visible here, and of course goldfish (and starfish) crackers. I've decided that for future birthdays, the cake will be made the night before and decorated the morning of. Need more time to perfect it and to actually SEE it before the party starts. He tried to blow out the candle, but couldn't quite get it.



I know, it looks like I am pushing him down while I steal the show here, but I assure you I was just keeping him from landing face first in the fish bowl. Although, now that I think about it, I didn't get to blow out any candles on my birthday this year - probably the first time in my whole life - I was owed one (or thirty one).

You may recall the lovely birthday garland that I made for his first birthday. Well, I updated it with fish to replace the birds and then left it on my dining room table as I left town. :( I was sooo sad about this, but there wasn't much I could do but get over it.

We also had swedish fish to snack on and I made this fishing game for the little ones to play and take home as a favor. The game was a HUGE hit with the 4 year old in attendance. The tot wasn't really into it, but his 2.25yo cousin did enjoy cheating at it. I will say though that the magnets in this project were a total failure - not strong enough and couldn't be drilled through, even with a drill press, so I ended up using velcro with the addition of a large button on the end of the fishing line as a weight and surface for the velcro - worked like a charm.

One of his gifts was this apron and oven mitts that I made for him along with a chef's hat that was purchased.



I love them (the boy and the accessories) and I think he does too.



So, that's the birthday wrap-up and now we're less than two weeks from Christmas. We've got stockings, berry garland, and the advent calendar. Cards arriving from printer sometime next week. Tree arriving....?

Finn does chalk