new year

Because the first month of the year will soon come to an end, I figure it only logical to finally get around to sharing how are year ended last year and began this year. The operative word: low-key (technically, that's two). My back went out two days before Christmas (it is still on a little vacation, if you find it, please tell it to come home) and I was a wee incapacitated for about three weeks. I was still able to get our Christmas stockings done, though (because I am, to be sure, a crafting champion). I figure these should last for a while, you know, until the kids have their own favorite nicknames and they start calling us Mom and Dad (which is always better than "hey you").Christmas Day was fun (I am pretty sure, I was asleep for most of it, but the pictures tell the story of great joy, so there you are). The pups were right and properly spoiled.

Papa wasted no time in removing the jolly from our house the day after Christmas, because that is how we roll.

We spent the days after Christmas and around New Year's Day messing about with holiday giftage. Santa brought Papa an HO scale train set, that will be the start of his collection (maybe he will get around to getting the trains from his childhood, too). The whole train thing is a big deal because it's why he got into engineering, and really, I am just glad for him to have a hobby that is, potentially, as expensive as mine (um, all of them).

And then the new year also saw us digging out of snow again. But we also got a chance to practice our snow angel technique.

Happy New Year! Tons of photos in flickr.

one weekend's worth of fun

There was one weekend, back in October, that I never got around to mentioning. I should do that now. During the weekend before Halloween, we went headed up to Maine for our annual LL Bean run. We ended up cutting the trip short because we wanted to have the pups dedicated at church, so we ended up in Maine for an overnight, which was all the time to we needed to do the things we most wanted to do.

We saw our good friend Amy.
We ate a great breakfast (BreaLu is very family friendly, though I love Bintliff's American Cafe, it's hard to have an enjoyable experience there with young children, in my opinion).

And then we went to L.L. Bean. SP1.0 got a winter coat and ski pants--there was a lot of dressing going on (the new duds will see a lot of action, because it will eventually go to SP2.0 (as is the nature of hand-me-downs).
And then we headed Connecticut so we could get the boys dedicated at church. Not a lot of shots from the dedication as we were all on stage (and it still amuses me that so many people in general; but, especially at church think SP2.0 is a girl).

After the dedication we headed to the apple orchard and picked apples.

We picked a pumpkin.And then went home and made applesauce. It was a good weekend!

um, boo?

Whoa, it's the Roaming Gnome! Totally scary, right?! Well, maybe try this face, this is kind of scary. Yeah, he wasn't so into the belt.

For Halloween this year, the Pup declared the Roaming Gnome to be the coolness. So I made him a costume so he could be all gnome-y. The hat is, clearly, the best part. If you are interested in how this costume came together, read this post here-recapping seems too redundant.

While Papa and I don't normally get all jolly over the ghoulish delights of Halloween, the Pup's excitement for it sort of won us over and we did (most of) the things parents who are raising main stream kids are supposed to do for Halloween. Like carving pumpkins.

Dressing up and going trick or treating (twice, no less).

And making festive cupcakes for cadets (or whoever you want, I realize that not everyone has a captive audience for culinary attempts at their beck and call) for the purpose of making them smile.
And, yes, let's not forget the costumery. I am particularly proud of that. So is the kid.

Happy Halloween, or if you are being politically correct, Happy Orange and Black Day!

As you can imagine, there are tons of photos sitting in flickr just waiting for your ghoulish perusal.

egg-citing

How were your Easter celebrations? Ours was EGG-citing!

Being too young to grasp the finer concepts of Easter, we focused on eggs. It was great.

The Pup became expert at the fine art of Easter Egg hunting, he had two opportunities. First we went to a hunt on Satruday.

There was also hunting at home on Sunday (with friends).

But I think he had the most fun dyeing eggs.

He was very proud of the great job he did, he has a fine eye for color.

We also took some time on Easter Day to make the Pup's birthday cake.

Mixing things is always the best part.

He was very adamant about having a "banilla" cake with "banilla" frosting. From scratch (of course; because that is what we do...), a classic white cake courtesy of Baking Bites and frosting courtesy of moi, I threw in confectioners sugar, softened butter, vanilla and heavy cream. It's frosting, not rocket science. This was fantastic. Truly tasty (if I do say so myself, and obviously, I do).

We had to do something special, not only for his pre-birthday celebration; but also, because our friends the Peas were coming along for Easter dinner (and hunting, don't forget the Easter Egg hunting).

He and CPea had deep conversations about ham, strawberries, and strategic methods of egg hunting.

Scintillating.

We are now gearing up for our "informal" birthday celebration with all the trimmings. The "do" (happening tomorrow) will mark the official close of the Pup's birthday week (or rather, 8 days of birthday fun).

It'll be great!

Easter pics are in flickr.

a low-fi kind of birthday

It is no secret that I really (really) like birthday celebrations. I will take any and every opportunity to drag out a week long (or 8 day's worth of) celebration out of my own or a friend's birthday; but Papa Seal, he isn't so much into the fun of it all. I once threw him a surprise party to which he responded, "we've done that once, let's not do it again." He liked seeing all of his friends and family but he hates being the center of attention, I get that; but I like celebrating.

A big part of celebration is food. Weight Watchers is going to hate me; but, it's true, at least in my world. Food plays a huge part in celebration. So you can understand my dissappointment when Papa asked for...a boxed cake. Seriously? Do you not know who I am?

Far be it from me to argue. So I made the boxed cake (or, birthday is a box, pick one). But then I made him a "real" cake later in the week, because seriously? Asking for a boxed cake from me on your birthday is just insulting on so many levels.

It's the souped-up-from-scratch version of the boxed cake, American Chocolate Layer Cake. I have become very close friends with Maida Heatter of late, she and Martha Stewart, they are my homegirls (they of course, don't know this; but, between you and me, they are).

Because who doesn't want 4 layers of birthday happiness?

This cake was enjoyed a few days after Kelly's birthday. On his actual birthday I was in Northampton, Massachussetts at Webs again (my own Utopia, of sorts) learning to spin on my new spinning wheel and Kelly was home with the Pup (I know, who's birthday was it, right?).

It was fun.

After my spinning weekend, Kelly went to San Diego for a conference. I thought the timing worked well, he got to see his family for his birthday...sort of (what's a few days when you are dragging out the celebration, right?).

After his return home, Anders decided to really help Papa celebrate right by getting the stomach flu and passing it along to him first and then to me. The last couple of days have been kind of miserable (we didn't even want look or think about food), but we are on the mend (the Patriots losing the Super Bowl didn't help, of course). Chicken soup, anyone?

Mom, tell Papa to get you an external flash, the built-in isn't worth beans.

In case you are curious, the first picture was how Anders felt when he thought he was going to be able to keep Papa's birthday scarf. No, not so much.

santa is one scary guy

After being out of commission due to some sickness here and some more sickness there, we needed something fun to cheer us up. Last week was the Christmas party for Coast Guard families at the Coast Guard Academy. It was a fun night of institutional pizza, cake and all the Capri-Sun we could suck down. Good times!

It was also an opportunity to chat up the man with the bag. Clearly, someone needs to work on his conversation skills. I really wish I could find the Poloraid pic that Santa's elves took; in it, the Pup is screaming his head off while giving Santa a high five. Seriously.

The Pup's pal, Gherkin, didn't have a successful conversation either. Clearly neither of these handsome young men would be useful in any sort of negotiating procedure. Hopefully, Santa will look past their phobia of all that is jolly (and hairy).


To get over the trauma of the Santa sighting, we decided to make tasty things.

Granted, the Pup isn't going to be eating most of these treats, but he is very excited about his cardamom and honey "stars".

Most of the treats when to local friends for making us smile through the year. Thanks, y'all!