Carrying the Banner

This is the first year Charles has really participated in Halloween. Chris and I weren't sure we were going to do anything but decided that we would give it a go. Our good friends the Hildens invited us over to their house for pizza and trick or treating in their neighborhood so after a stop and Nana and Papa's house so they could see Charles, we headed out for some Halloween fun.

I had wanted to dress Charles up as a garden gnome but he was not having it. What did he want (agree) to be? A NEWSIE! Be still my Jack Kelly loving heart. It was a bit last minute so I had to make do with what we already had. Good thing I snagged this hipster vest at Goodwill a few months back.

'neva fear, Brooklyn is here!'


We switched out his conductor's hat for a more newsie-esque one that Papa lent us. With a paper tucked under his arm the costume was complete. "a penny a pape!"

'what's a matta? You scared a Brooklyn?'

It was so fun to see the little kiddos dressed in their costumes. Max was Max from Where the Wild Things Are- isn't he darling?? I could eat him up :)

'let the wild rumpus start!'

'look at this, 'Baby Born With Two Heads'.. must be from Brooklyn'

Charles had such a fun time. Thanks Hildens for inviting us!


And Jess, this one's for you:
'dear me, what is that unpleasant aroma? I fear da sewer may have backed up durin' da night'
'nah, it's too rotten to be the sewers.'
'it must be... the Delancey bruddahs!'

I will most definitely be watching The Newsies today.

Love at First Scoop

I love pumpkin. It' one of the best things about fall. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin scones, pumpkin butter, pumpkin PIE! The only thing I don't really like pumpkin in is drinks- not a fan of pumpkin spiced lattes. I'll stick with my dirty chai thankyouverymuch.
Last fall I discovered another pumpkin love. Pilgrim Joe's Pumpkin Ice Cream from Trader Joe's.



Now, don't misunderstand me. I have had pumpkin ice cream before and loved it. It's one of those seasonal things I look forward to every fall. But THIS pumpkin ice cream blows all the others out of the water. or the park. or whatever..

I bought some last October and knew I had found something amazing the first second it touched my tongue. The rich creamy texture, the spices, and the amazing pumpkin flavor, all partying together in my mouth. Like a perfect waltz. I made a mistake, though, that has haunted me ever since. I only bought one carton. Thinking that it would be around at least through Thanksgiving I figured that I would be able to get another when we finished the first. Wrong. They  had completely sold out by the end of October! WHAT?? So I was left to only dream about this wonderful frozen goodness and cry myself to sleep at night wishing I could have just one more spoonful.. ok, maybe not that bad.

Anyway, as the cooler weather approached this year I was anxiously waiting to see if they would have it again, and when. About a week ago we got our newsletter from TJ's and I rushed to the store as fast as I could. Behold! There it was! and pretty well stocked, for now. Not wanting to make the same mistake as last year I quickly put three in my basket and headed home. Yes, that's right. I bought three. I am not ashamed. I am determined to make them last as long as I can. Or at least until Thanksgiving. To be honest, I don't know if I should even be sharing this with you because if you know whats good for ya, you would run out and get some as well. But then there will be less for me.. if I cant control myself. which I can.



Ya know what, forget it. Forget everything I just said. It's not that good. honest.

Family of Four

WARNING: this is a long one!

Lawrence is a month old- while that doesn't seem like a long time it feels like he has always been with us and yet I can't believe it's been a month already. Life as a family of four (and an at-home mom with two) has been going well so far. Yes, we are sleep deprived. Yes, I don't always get to shower. Yes, we feel so blessed and are thankful for our two beautiful boys!
What have we been up to since Lawrence came? Let me show you..

 We went on our first outing to the  lake


With the weather getting colder and the days getting shorter we have again started going to the playland at Ridgedale. It's a perfect place to take Charles in the evenings to get some energy out before bedtime. (Or anytime of the day as it gets too cold to go to the park!)


Charles has been getting to know his baby brother and helps me out at home with him- reading books, singing songs, and watching me change his diaper. ha! He has even on occasion shared his very special bear with Lawrence.
   

I love seeing my two boys together- my heart is full.

Of course we have been taking tons of pictures of our new little boy- they change so fast and I want to remember every second!

    

Charles turned THREE last week. I can't believe I have a three year old. He is such a big boy- so smart and sweet and funny. I love him to pieces. To celebrate we started off the day with a birthday donut just mommy and Charles. Chris took a half day so later in the afternoon we headed to the Minnesota Children's Museum.
   
Charles LOVED it. He especially liked the water/bubbles area and the little town with the shops and market and city bus. I foresee many more trips to the museum in our future- thank goodness for free admission once a month!

Great Grandma Betty visited over Charles' birthday too and met Lawrence for the first time.

Charles wanted a dinosaur birthday cake so after seeing some ideas on pinterest I gave it a go.. he was pretty excited!
 

Of course, Fall isn't complete without a trip to an apple orchard.
   

And that's what we've been up to.

probably our last fall trip to the park..

Last Friday was pretty nice for a mid-November day in Minnesota so Charles and I took advantage of it and headed to the little park near our house to slide and swing and collect pinecones. It was lovely.

On a side note. I think it's time we retire Charles' hat. I love it but it's definitely gotten too small. Here he is wearing it as a wee babe.. maybe three months old? Yea, I'd say it's time.

The Apple Of My Eye..

..Turns TWO today!



I love this little man SO much. I am taking the day off so that we can have some special Mama and Charles time. So far? Birthday-pancake-breakfast date, a trip to the library and a stack of books to bring home, a quick lunch with Dada, a trip to Target for a special birthday gift, and now it's nap time.
It's such a beautiful day today- sun is shining and it's in the 80's! In October! In Minnesota! Saying a prayer of thanks to Jesus for giving me this kind of weather for our first fall (and soon to be winter) back in Minnesota. After Chris gets home from work we are going to try and go to French Regional Park to play and see the 'big water'.

I love you Charles. To the moon and back.

Betsy's Visit

 It was SO fun to have my sister here for a long visit. I miss her already. We had some really good sister bonding time which as so good. As we have gotten older we have become much closer and although we live far apart we are still able to be there for each other.

For my birthday we went and got our nails done in the morning and then went to the staff Thanksgiving lunch at church. Chris had to work that evening so it was just us and Charles. We went to the Park and she sat with Charles in the cafe while I went for a birthday run. I am SO thankful for that!  Afterwards, we stopped at the Tea Lounge and got some of my favorite red velvet cake to bring home with us. Good thing I ran! 

After putting Charles to bed we made some chai tea, and watched a movie while eating our goodies. As a surprise Chris got off early and brought home cupcakes from Crumbs. Another favorite :)

We saved the cupcakes for another night, however.

Betz brought with her some stuff to make a special beer bread which we baked together. Its was pretty good but the snickerdoodle cheese ball we make was even better! We did a lot of baking/cooking together. Even if most of it was me, she still helped a TON by watching Charles while I was working in the kitchen- especially on Thanksgiving morning while I baked two pies and PW's Corn and Wild Rice Casserole, which has become tradition. (If you have never had it, make it! It will change your life.) Chris made sweet potatoes, his specialty, and everything was a hit. We had so much good food on Thanksgiving! 

Charles sure enjoyed having Auntie Betsy here too. Every morning he would run into the living room and wake her up. They read together and colored and sang. She definitely kept up her daycare skills while she was here! She is a great Auntie and I wish we weren't so far away so that Charles could spend more time with her (and his grandparents and uncle).  We sure are thankful for the technology (although frustrating at times) we have though so that we can skype and share photos via email and facebook. 

I am very thankful for my sister. Isn't she pretty? 

I heart my sister

manicures +

coffee +

baking +

laughing +

shopping +

park +

movies +

talking +

walking 

all add up to a really good time with my sister here and

= me not wanting her to leave on Tuesday! 

At the Park

Bird musings

Charles and I ventured to the park today despite the cool weather. While we were there Charles enjoyed swinging on the swings, climbing the steps on the playground and sliding down the slide. He also put his hand in fresh bird poop. I caught him before he smeared it around too much. Good thing I had my BabyGantics 'The Germinator', and some extra napkins with me.

While we were swinging I saw a bird flying toward us and as I watched it get closer I thought to myself, 'that looks pretty big to be a pigeon'. It swooped right over the top of the swings and about 15 feet behind us and I quickly realized it was no pigeon.. It was a hawk! It made a grand landing showing it's strength and wingspan as if it was trying to pounce on some small animal and then took off again. I couldn't tell if it was carrying anything in it's claws as it flew away. I heard two guys behind me say "oh, wow, did you see that?!" Turns out we had just seen a red tailed hawk and there are at least three living in Prospect Park.

It sure was a sight.. like national geographic or something. I used to follow a local blog about Brooklyn events/sightings and I remember one post someone wrote about seeing a hawk, in another park in the area, attack and kill a small animal. Or maybe it was a pigeon.
You'd be surprised at the wildlife we have here in the City!

Fall Festival

Yesterday was the Fall Festival at our church. It's a crazy time of games, prizes, candy, and craziness. Half way through there were two hundred people lined up outside waiting to come in! I was assigned to the face painting booth along with another woman. I must say, it was much less crazy than some of the other stations. I think partly because they didn't get a ticket for getting their face painted, instead they had to give us tickets. 

I put Charles in my moby while we were making the final preparations before the doors opened. He was getting tired fast and fell asleep pretty much right as we were starting. I had him in the stroller next to my chair and was surprised he was able to sleep through all the noise. He slept for a good hour and sat with me for a while before getting anxious to get out of his stroller and then was passed around for the rest of the festival. He's such a good baby!

The night before we were at the church setting up and I made a sign of the different things we could paint on faces. It was simple stuff; a flower, spiderweb, lady bug, the batman symbol, a rainbow, a basketball.. etc. I knew that I would need to learn how to draw Hello Kitty, she's pretty popular with the little girls around here, and I aim to please. One of the girls in the youth group showed me how to draw her but I was nervous about doing it myself. I had to get over that fast because as far as the girls were concerned, she was what I painted the most! I'm pretty much a pro now. 

At the other stations the children got tickets for put-put golfing, tossing a football through a hole, bean bag tosses etc.. There was cotton candy, crafts, a cake walk, popcorn, and cupcakes. I'm telling you- craziness! For some of the volunteers who had the privilege of experiencing this event for the first time they were left with jaws dropped. For any of you readers who have come to do BUMP NY- imagine the craziest day at BUMP, times ten, on steroids. I'm not exaggerating. BUT, it was a definite success! 

The following photos were taken while we were setting up..

Half-way point.. getting ready to watch a skit..

After the skit we had to clear out the people who were there so we could let in the other two hundred or so people that were waiting on line outside. 

This year's Fall Festival was an even bigger deal because it's the first we have done in two years. Before that, our church put on not only a festival in the fall but also one in the spring for Easter. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do them for a while because there just weren't enough volunteers to work it. With such a high volume of kids (and parents) coming through the doors we need A LOT of volunteers, not only the day of, but in the weeks beforehand to prepare. We were very blessed to have a lot of the kids from the youth group, people from our congregation, as well as a church from upstate that had come to BUMP, all there to work to make it happen. We left exhausted, hungry, a little overwhelmed, and talking about plans for the Easter Festival in six months. 

This is a huge outreach for our church because it brings the people in from the neighborhood through our doors. A brief message/skit is given as well as information about our church and sunday school programs. A flyer is sent home with each child in their goody-bag and, because we required everyone to register when they arrived, in the next week a followup mailer will be sent to everyone who walked through our doors.We can definitely say that from these types of things kids start coming to Sunday School and through them we are more able to reach the rest of the family. It is so important that we are able to continue doing this so we are praying that this wont be a one time thing but that it will be the beginning of bringing the festival back as something our church puts on every year. Like many churches we need more people from our own congregation to step up and volunteer. It is the responsibility of EACH of us to get involved in our churches programs, to do so with a happy heart, because it is more than serving a snack, running a game, teaching a craft or painting a face. It's about bringing Christ's love to the community in which we live. The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. 

As our Associate Pastor often says "we pray that our church would shine God's light from our little corner of Brooklyn to the ends of the earth."