Halloween

I had grand plans this year.  Lenon would be The Man with the Yellow Hat and Ezra would be Curious George.  It was brilliant and it would be fairly easy.  When I mentioned it to Lenon, I expected him to jump on board.  Boy, that was the opposite of what happened.  He just looked at me like I had asked him to dress as a princess.  So we scrapped that plan.

My next plan was for Ezra to dress up as Woody from Toy Story.  I figured it would be pretty easy... find a shirt and hat at Goodwill, wear his own jeans, make a vest.  Easy.  Well, I didn't find the right shirt from Goodwill, but I refused to order a pre-made costume online.  The hats I found were either really flimsy or like real Stetson cowboy hats.  So I did end up ordering that online.  Ezra was delighted and actually left the hat on!  It was a miracle.  The shirt wasn't perfect -- it was supposed to be yellow with red, but I found one that was yellow with blue.  The boots were borrowed from a friend of a friend.  A couple sizes too big, but I didn't want to spend $30 on boots if I wasn't sure Ez would wear them.  The vest I made using a template from Made but I changed it a little - shortened it and rounded the front.  I glued on the hand cut cow print and stitched around it using embroidery floss.  It turned out really cute.  I also made a holster, but you can't see it very well in the pictures.

"Howdy!"

And wouldn't you know, as soon as we got outside to take pictures, my camera died.  Luckily, Stacy brought Marlee over and she (of course) had her big fancy camera.  I didn't realize until the next day that I forgot to put on the red bandana around his neck.  Oh, well.  He still looks so cute.

Lenon's costume seemed like it would be really easy.  He wanted to be a Mummy.  So I got 6 yards of cheese cloth and had him wear a grey sweatshirt and sweatpants.  But the 6 yards of cheese cloth wasn't enough.  My friend Sara was over with her son Mason and told us about how one year she was a mummy, but she was wrapped in toilet paper.  Light bulb!  We first wrapped Lenon in toilet paper and then cheesecloth.  It turned out really good.

It's a good thing he wasn't near a mirror... because about 15 minutes into walking it started to fall apart. His rear end from waist to mid thigh was drooping and was totally uncovered.  He was a really good sport though and allowed me to put grey eyeshadow around his eyes to look dead.

Here's the whole gang:

Mason as an "army guy" - Lenon as a mummy - Ezra as Woody - Marlee as a kitty

Ezra was delighted when he got candy... so much that he wouldn't let me carry his bag, even after one of the handles broke because it was so heavy.  :)

-Kara

Meeting Plex

One recent Sunday we decided to head to Toys 'R Us for their grand reopening.  We usually don't frequent that store because it's so much more expensive than going to Target.  But we decided to make an exception because a character from Ezra's favorite TV show was going to be there... PLEX from Yo Gabba Gabba!

Ez was very excited to go and wanted me to take his picture outside.  Seriously.  As soon as he sees a camera now he's like "CHEESE!" and makes a funny smile face.  It's adorable.

"Cheese!"

He looks so big wearing a hat.  It's actually an adult sized hat - but we had to make it as small as we could so it would fit him.

Anyway... so we head to Toys 'R Us and wander the aisles.  And there he is.  Plex.  In all his glory.  And of course, Ezra was terrified.  Granted, the Plex he sees on the TV is like 8 inches tall.  This Plex stands over 6 feet tall.

This was the best picture we could get:

Frank tried to get closer, but when he did, Ez would try to climb up him and scramble away.  So this is the shot we got.  It's better than nothing and it proves that we were there.  Maybe it's a good thing that we didn't go to Yo Gabba Gabba Live this year.  He probably would have freaked out.

-Kara

The Apple Orchard

The local apple orchard is about 10 miles south of town.  We've gone there nearly every year for the last 6 years.  It's become a September tradition.  Usually we go and pick apples... mostly Cortlands because they're beautiful red on the outside and crispy pure white in the middle.  They're our favorite apple.


This year, we went on their Apple Festival weekend.  They had pony rides ($3 for like 3 minutes) and inflatables and a few vendors selling country crafty wares.  They have an older gentleman driving a riding lawn mower and pulling a "train" of wagons behind him that are made from old metal barrels... it's a regular country ho-down.  It's so busy that they have people directing traffic and instructing where to park.  It's a pretty big deal.  They also have a Pumpkin Festival sometime in October.  We may have to hit that one too.

Instead of picking apples, we decided to just buy a bag of apples they had picked, but I was so sad when I realized they were OUT of Cortlands.  I didn't know what to do.  I stood in front of the Cortland cooler and just stared at emptiness.  Then I snapped out of it and grabbed a bag of Honey Crisps instead.  $18.95 later, they were ours.  Yes, they're expensive apples.


Frank and I enjoyed one on the way home and we kept going on and on about how good it was.  It wasn't like a trip my sister and I took once where our grandmother said... "This is the best apple I've had in a while!" and then 10 minutes later, "This apple's crisp but it doesn't have much flavor."

They have a dozen hay bales set up next to an old wagon so people can take pictures so I thought we should be one of "those people" who takes pictures at the apple orchard.

The boys had fun and Lenon got a $4 root beer float.  It was a good day.

-Kara

Ezra's first haircut

When Ez was born he had a sparse but soft head of light brown hair.  A few months later it had almost all fallen out... and in grew blonde hair.  And since then it's grown and grown.  Then the back started to curl and I couldn't bring myself to cut it.  


For months I've been talking about getting it cut.  Seriously.  Since June.  I had convinced myself that I was going to do it... enough so that I had my photographer friend Stacy take pictures of the "before haircut" Ezra.

I know.  He's seriously so cute.

Anyway.  Haircut.  So I put it off.  I'm really good at putting things off.  It kept turning into "this weekend" or "next weekend" and it never got done.  It almost became a joke.  So 2 weekends ago Stacy and I went to the Sidewalk Arts Festival downtown and she handed me her phone to call the place where I was going to get Ezra's haircut and said "It's ringing."

Yikes.  So I had to make the appointment, and sure enough it wasn't torture.

Here's some photographic evidence.

"Cheese"

The haircut was successful.  He got about an inch cut off from the front and sides and more than that from the back... his hair was becoming a mullet.  Thankfully he still has curls in the back, but the bangs are no longer poking him in the eyes.  

He looks super cute... as always.

- Kara

Super yummy three cheese pasta bake

In my Pinterest addiction, I have created a board of food.  There are currently 111 different recipes and I have tried 2.  This is one of them, and I liked it so much I'm totally hijacking the recipe and distributing it as I see fit... to the 4 people who read my blog.  (Hi!)


Anyway, I love pasta.  Any shape, any size, any color.  It's all delicious.  And I love alfredo.  So this recipe is a win-win.

My not so impressive looking pasta bake

Don't let this terrible picture fool you.  This was delicious.  And the recipe is courtesy of Southern Living, so you know it's good.

Ingredients

• 1 (16-ounce) package ziti
• 2 (10-ounce) containers refrigerated Alfredo sauce
• 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
• 1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

Preparation

• Prepare ziti according to package directions; drain and return to pot.
• Stir together Alfredo sauce and sour cream; toss with ziti until evenly coated. Spoon half of mixture into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
• Stir together ricotta cheese and next 3 ingredients; spread evenly over pasta mixture in baking dish. Spoon remaining pasta mixture evenly over ricotta cheese layer; sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese.
• Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

We used rigatoni instead of ziti, just for sport and it was so tasty.  But I must say, all 4 of us ate this and we ended up eating only about half of a 9x13 pan... so next time we are going to cut the recipe in half and just make an 8x8.  We had LOTS of leftovers, which - sadly - wasn't even close to as good the next day.


Try it and let me know if you like it.


- Kara

A transition

Tomorrow is Ezra's last day in the Starfish room at daycare.  He's been there a year and we've come to know and love the 3 teachers in his room.  It's going to be a sad day.  All this week he's been spending time in his new room, the Peacocks.  Each day it's been a couple hours more than the previous, and each day we get a little report on how the day went.  So far, he has gone right in and started playing with the other kids... no tears, no sadness, no tantrums.  He had lunch in there the last 2 days and napped there today.  I'm glad the transition has been so smooth, but I'm still sad.  Maybe it's because I know my baby is growing up, or maybe it's because I know how much those girls love him and will miss him.

So I decided they needed a gift.  I found this idea and thought it was so adorable...

(via)

I found an adorable yellow Gerbera daisy plant that just so happened to have 3 lovely blooms... one for each teacher.  I can't wait to give it to them tomorrow to brighten an otherwise sad day.

It's not quite as fancy as a typed and printed label, but I think they'll like it. :)

-Kara

Ezra-isms

Ezra has been talking up a storm.  It's like someone flipped a switch and our mostly babbling baby has turned into a sentence speaking genius. (Okay, I might be a little biased.)

• "More (fill in the blank).  Yes?"
• This is how he asks for things.  And when he says "yes" he nods.
• "Mow-en it"
• Not sure how he came up with this one but this means "open it"
• "Bloun choc-o-let muck"
• Brown chocolate milk.  He is very deliberate in his pronunciation of chocolate.
• "Mommy-chino!  Mmmm!"
• This is what he said the other day when I got a frappuccino from Starbucks.
• "Help you"
• This means he wants help.  Instead of "help me" he says "help you"
• "Hold you"
• Again, instead of saying "hold me" it's "hold you"
• "Hah-veet"
• When he wants to give us something...  "Mommy hah-veet" means he wants me to have something.
• "Oh, no! Do?"
• This is short for "Oh, no!  What did you do?"  I think I said this once ever; when he took all the diapers out of the drawer we keep them in and tossed them around the living room.
• "Jeffy"
• This is the name of Jessie from Toy Story

Recently he has discovered a love for powder.  I read in a magazine that the best way to get sand off wet, sticky feet was to keep a little container of powder in your beach bag.  Boy, they weren't kidding.  That stuff is like magic.  So anyway, I've been using it on his feet when he comes home from daycare, since he loves the sandbox.  He has started to ask for me to put it on his hands and then he rubs them together and nods and says "Mmmm" because it must feel good.

He also loves freezee pops.  Usually we cut them in half and he chomps them down.  He has even started requesting specific colors.  His favorite part is the juice that collects in the bottom of the plastic.  He will sometimes pull the popsicle out of the plastic just to drink the juice and then wants us to put it back.

A ritual when we leave the daycare each day is naming colors on vinyl play mats.  They have a few foam mats that are covered in colored vinyl, like the ones gymnasts use.  They are 4 different colors and he will go stand on by it and we will recite colors and he'll go stand on the right color.  We always cheer for him and lately he has been getting them all right.  See what I mean about him being a genius?

-Kara