Daddy's Office (again)

We went back to Daddy's office to deliver our Cinnamon Toasted Almonds and to see the decorations.

I'm not sure what you think of when you picture a law firm's Christmas decoration...but I guarantee the pictures you are about to see are not what popped into your head.



(that's Adam's office doorway on the right)

They have multiple blow up decorations...



The Abominable Snowman...



And the boys are always a fan of the penguins...which are year-round decor items.



While it is not your typical corporate holiday decoration...I think it is a really fun and unexpected tradition. And the boys loved it!

More Christmas Fun

Christmas Parade...



A Gingerbread House with Mimi...





Gumdrop Tree...



Dressing up like the Wisemen...



Lovingly wrapped presents for Mama from her boys...




What fun!

Holiday Baking - Cinnamon Toasted Almonds

The Holiday Granola was well received last year, so we decided to make another edible gift this year - Cinnamon Toasted Almonds!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients



2 egg whites
6 teaspoons Spice Islands® pure vanilla extract
4 cups unblanched almonds
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

*In a large bowl, beat egg whites until frothy; beat in vanilla.
*Add almonds; stir gently to coat.
*Combine the sugars, salt and cinnamon; add to nut mixture and stir gently to coat.
*Spread evenly into two greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pans.
*Bake at 300° for 25-30 minutes or until almonds are crisp, stirring once. Cool.
*Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 4 cups.



We quadrupled this recipe and I made a few changes each time I made the recipe:

*I used the Convection option on my oven and reduced the temp to 280.
*I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar at the very end of baking.
*I had Carter sample each batch for approval and each time he said "good".



Happy Baking!

A Christmas Songfest

We got to see Carter's Christmas Songfest at his school on Wednesday. He had been practicing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" at home so I thought that would be the only song his class sang. I was very surprised when all classes stood on stage and sang for 30 minutes! It was really cute.

Here are a few of my favorite clips...

The Processional:



"Bells Are Ringing"



"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

Santa and Museum

We decided to visit Santa a little earlier this year - before the big kids are out of school - and boy did it make a huge difference. The past two years we have waited a couple of hours to see the Legendary Santa at our Children's Museum. Today we walked right in and sat on Santa's lap right away!

The boys did really well. Carter asked Santa for a Veggies Tales book and he asked for a Teddy Bear for Ben. What a sweetie. :)



After the visit with Santa we enjoyed some museum time.

Digging up bones...



Water play...



Getting money at the ATM...



And art time...



We were running from one exhibit to the next when Carter stopped and said "I want to make something for Daddy!"

He told me he wanted to write "From Ben, Mama, and Carter at the Museum" so I lightly drew some letters for him to trace. Then we made Daddy a wreath by cutting out the center of a paper plate, painting it green, then cutting up some red berries to glue on the wreath. Carter was so proud of his art for daddy and we can't wait for him to get home to see it!

Daddy's Office

We always enjoy going to Daddy's office for lunch. But our visit to Daddy's office last night was way more exciting!

First there were trains...



And then there were reindeer!





And a really big Christmas tree...



There was lots of chasing and laughing and hiding.

We skipped out on the "Grand Illumination" last Friday night and enjoyed having all of the reindeer mostly to ourselves. This holiday season is off to a great start!

So I don't forget...

The boys have some really cute phrases/mannerisms right now that I just don't want to forget...so here they are:

B: He says "choo choo" whenever he hears anything that sounds like a train or sees one. And when he says "choo choo" it is more like "chooooooooooooo choooooooooooooooooo!" and he clinches his whole body in excitement.

C: Sometimes he will tell me something random and then end with "you know that mama?" I just think it is really cute.



B: Wants to be just like big brother right now. A couple of days ago, C had to sit in his thinking spot for pushing Ben (I think). What does B do? He goes to sit beside C in his thinking spot.

C: can write his name all by himself! We have been working on lots of "mail" lately and he has really enjoyed tracing letters. Well, the other day his "mail" to me included his name, written ALL BY HIMSELF (no tracing). It was even spelled correctly.



B: He is so ready to talk! But until he can physically say more words he expresses himself by a sound that reminds me of seals barking.

C: Pretty sure he is going to be a lefty like his mama.

Those are just a few that I wanted to jot down tonight...love my boys!

Thank Goodness for Squirreloween

On Sunday we headed to the Diamond (our baseball stadium) for Squirreloween! They had a petting zoo, face painting, trick-or-treating in the press boxes, and Nutzy! What more could you ask for? (well, maybe candy, but they were expecting around 400 to attend and over 4000 showed up...so I guess I will cut them some slack!)

First our Bennie the Pooh and Tigger too got all suited up...



Notice their "Hunny" Pot. :)

Tigger did a lot of bouncing...



And Ben did a good job poking out his belly...



I think this was the highlight of the Squirreloween for Carter!



Here I am with my Tigger and Pooh. Pooh and I are watching the tractor/hayride drive around the track while Tigger is busy with his peanut M&Ms.



It is a good thing we got pictures and candy on Sunday...because this was our radar just before we headed out to trick-or-treat Monday night.



Carter had requested to go to 99 houses (we seem to be fixated on that number right now!) But with the rain, we only made it to 10 or so. Still, he was so excited to count his loot when we got home.



Ben enjoyed a lollipop. Notice how soaked Pooh's hair was! Tigger's hair stayed nice and dry because he was proud to wear his Tigger hat. The Pooh hat stayed on for less than 3 seconds no matter how many times we put it on.



Here are our wet costumes and full bowl of candy for the rained out trick or treaters drying and probably melting on the radiator.



Despite the rain, it was a fun Halloween, and I loved our little Tigger and Pooh!

Pumpkin Picking

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins last weekend. I had planned on getting 4 pumpkins (one for each of us) but on a whim I asked Carter how many pumpkins he wanted to get. His answer? 99! Thankfully we could only carry 4 and that is how many we brought home. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the pumpkin patch.









This is Carter's monster face!





Carrying our pumpkins back to the tractor.



Happy Halloween Eve!

Sponge Puppets

Wow...another few weeks have gone by and no blog post. Poor blog. So sorry.

On a bright note, my lack of writing does NOT mean that there are no new pictures. There are currently 532 pictures in my October 2011 photo album on my computer. And 107 of those made it to my October 2011 Picasa web album (which will be added to the blog by the end of the weekend, promise!)

But before I catch you up on our fun fall/Halloween activities, I thought I would share a quick craft project that Carter and I did one rainy afternoon: Sponge Puppets!

We got the idea from High Five (the 2-6 year old version of the popular Highlights magazine). Carter is always super excited when a new High Five shows up in the mail.

This month's craft project was sponge puppets. We went to Target and picked up a cheap pack of sponges and then came home to make our puppets only to discover they were really moist and the glue wouldn't stick! So we set them on a windowsil to harden for a couple of days then started the project again!

I first used a craft knife to cut holes in the bottom of the sponges for Carter's fingers. Then we cut out eyes and mouths from construction paper. He had a blast gluing them down.



Netx up? Coloring the eyes and mouths. Not sure why I gave Carter a sharpie marker for this project! Thankfully we both stayed neat and marker free.



Once our glue was dry we gave our puppets names (Hoen, Poh, Dat, and ???) and then carried on conversations with each other. Love seeing Carter's imagination at work...although our typical conversation goes something like this:

C: Hi! What's your name?
M: My name is Hoen (per Carter's instruction). What's your name?
C: I'm Poh. What you doing today?
M: I'm going to school. What about you?
...and so on.

Aren't they cute?

Hello?

Anybody still there?

I don't blame you if you're not. I just disappeared for over a month and didn't even say goodbye. It wasn't intentional, I promise. Life has just been busy. Ben is now 1 and walking everywhere he wants to go, which means mama is chasing after him everywhere he goes! Carter is back in school 3 mornings a week snd has started soccer camp too! Adam's work has been busier than normal and I have started a new business too!

Most of you know that I have been running a small embroidery business called Little Bittle Designs for the past couple of years. While I am still enjoying the embroidery industry...it was getting more and more difficult to find the time to actually stitch out products. So I decided to change things up a bit and start selling embroidery designs that other embroiderers could purchase.

It has been a fantastic process. I have learned how to digitize...how to buy a domain name...how to launch a website...and have my products available for instant download...how to use photoshop (very very basic level!)...and so much more!

Here are some of the designs I have created...would love to hear which one is your favorite!


And if you want to see more...

Please check out my website here.

Follow All Things Applique on Facebook here.

Follow All Things Applique on Twitter here.

Check out the All Things Applique blog here.

Oh, and I am selling designs on Etsy here.

See? I promise I really have been busy!

If you know anyone with an embroidery machine - please tell them about All Things Applique!

We've Got Wheels (or, Adam Has a Rickshaw)

Most weekends, we boys try to get out of the house and give Tracy some momma time to relax, stitch or design appliqués, or whatever she wants. Over the last few years our outing has tended to be a walk around the neighborhood in the stroller. We’ve got a great neighborhood, but after the fiftieth time around the same blocks, a little change of scenery is needed.

Enter the bicycle. Earlier this summer we finally got new bikes. And, since we’ve got additional passengers these days, we got all the apparatus for a full crew. Ben has a seat on back of my bike, and Carter commands the trailer. We tried both boys in the trailer, but after one round (picture the boys squished into a tiny trailer on a steamy summer afternoon, Ben wailing and Carter covering his ears) we opted for separate seats for the boys. Yes, we are quite the crew rolling down the road.



With wheels, our range has expanded drastically. We can explore more nearby neighborhoods, we are an easy ride to the ice cream shop, and we’ve even made it to the farmers market or the botanical gardens. Our most frequent new stop, though, is the soccer fields. When we are on foot, we tend to opt for the nearby school playground. But by bike, the bigger park—with its soccer fields and playground and ponds and woods—is an easy ride. Here’s some quick pics from our recent visit.