cozyblue

happy 4th!

happy birthday, america!  here's to many more greatness to come...


we also did some fun celebrating on  the 3rd.  this is adella's 'most favorite things from my day' from that day.  



priceless!

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!

rain hike!

did everyone have a nice memorial day?  is it really the end of the week already?  our memorial day was fun.  stig had the day off work (for those of you who may not know, stig got a new job and it is fantastic!  yay!) so we packed up the kids and the car and headed south on the parkway to one of our favorite hiking spots.  milemarker 419 - skinnydip falls.  

the weather was wet and foggy, but we decided to brave it anyway.  adella was all decked out in her stripes (yes she does dress herself...  how did you know?), backpack, and favorite headband, "to keep the rain off of my face."

not too many great pics because of the dark/wet and the no-flash rule i have for myself.  but the hike was really fun.  we got a short shower on the way in, and then made it to our spot by the river.

 we were there long enough to eat our picnic, throw many rocks into the water, and do a little exploring.  then it started to rain again, and this time it was NOT stopping.  after waiting to see if it would pass, we decided to high-tail it to the car.  about 5 minutes later we were completely drenched so it didn't matter quite as much.  (at this point, i wrapped my camera in a plastic bag and left it tucked away until we were dry.  no more pictures.  i wish i had snapped one of the beautiful blue robin eggshell i found...)  luckily, adella LOVES getting wet and muddy, so she didn't complain a bit.

and of course, when we emerged at the trailhead, the sun was just breaking through and the rain had stopped.  lovely.

it really was a good hike.  and quite an adventure!

you can see the rest of my pictures from our hike (and many more!) here on flickr.

some good eggs

happy easter! happy spring!

hello!  whew!  it's been awhile.  i've really been neglecting the ol' blog lately, and i'm sorry.  maybe later i'll go into all the reasons why.  but not today!  today i've got some easter-springy-type stuff to show, before i slack even more and it's too late.  the past few days have been full of fun spring-time activities, such as...

seedlings!

egg dyeing!

playground outings!

birdsnest candy!

(that's what she looks like when i say, "now i'm going to put this one in front of you.  now put your face down there and look at it, but don't eat it!" right before she almost ate it.)

and oops - here's another little sneaky fingers trying to steal a bite...

i'll be back soon.  lots more to show...

happy easter weekend, everyone!

happy st. paddy's day

a little green:

(my february lady sweater in-progress.  impossible to take a good picture of.)

some irish soda bread (and a wee leprechaun trying to sneak a bite):

and happily, lots of green outside (in the sun today, finally):

and tonight, dinner with friends.  and very likely, green beer too.

adella is 5

i don't even know where to begin, to try to explain how much i love this girl.  she is truly the light of my life - filled to the brim with wonder and excitement, creativity and curiosity, love and laughter, joy and endless hope.  her spirit is so strong, so sweet, and always always inspiring.  in this past year she has grown into so much more.

part of me just cannot believe that my baby is FIVE.  how can that be?  these past five years have passed so quickly, as i was warned that they would (what is that saying?  the days are long, but the years are short.  so true.)  i can remember a time before she was born, but to me it seems like a whole other lifetime ago.  and now, i can hardly imagine a life without her in it.

happy birthday, my sweet girl!  i'm so proud to be your mama.  i love you endlessly, and i can't wait to see where the next year will take us!

party like it's 2-0-0-9

the party never stops around here.  just as we were recovering from christmas, here came the new year - 2009!  i totally missed posting on that one.  (as exciting as it was - me knitting a sock and reading the 'twilight' series, while the kids slept, and stig went out to play a gig.)  and with the new year comes another round of birthdays.  the first belonging to this special guy:

see stig checking out the fancy ice-cream log from Dairy Queen.  he thought i wasn't listening when he reminisced about the good ol' days and ice cream log cakes.  suprise hon!  i thought about re-creating the log myself, but then i waited too late realized i'd bettter leave it to the experts at DQ.

we also went out to a nice laid-back dinner of nachos, pizza, and good beer.  adella stuck some quarters in the 'the claw' toy machine and shocked herself (and us) by winning two toys at once!  awesome.  then a nice little boy gave griffin a stuffed cat, and stig came in 10th place in the motorcycle video game.  he is learning the sad truth about getting older - you just can't keep up with the young'uns like you used to.  (*wink wink*)

ah - fun, fun times.

happy birthday stig - we love you lots!!