the nutcracker.

katie and i went to see the Nutcracker tonight, performed by Peninsula Dance Theatre. it was a nice evening, though the ballet was a little slow in parts and katie asked a couple times if it was almost over and when were we going home? for the most part though i think she enjoyed it. i'm pretty sure her favorite parts were the dinner before and the chocolate silk pie we had during intermission LOL


katie with a BIG nutcracker, and she is holding a *little* nutcracker that she got as a souvenir.


waiting for the show to start.


the sugar plum fairy. tried to get katie to go stand by her. yeahhh, right.

a fun "girls date"......i would LOVE to take her to seattle next year though to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet perform it.

thanks for looking!

wintering.

i know that it's not *technically* winter yet.....but tell that to the weather we've been having the last couple weeks! record lows for this time of year, earliest snow in the last 20-some-odd years......it just FEELS like winter. we're not complaining though......we *heart* snowwwww!











now if only we could just convince it to stick around for longer......

thanks for looking!

meet frank.

i have pegged this little guy as "frank"......because, well, i just think he looks like a frank. i got the free pattern for him over at craft schmaft (who also has THE MOST adorable owl softies!) i hope the little buckaroo he is intended for likes taggies!



thanks for looking!

Sam's Seussical Birthday Celebration.

today we celebrated sam's birthday with a Suess-themed party. i loved this theme from the second i saw it on the {so wonderful, so marvelous} blog that i follow.

the decorations:


banner: i downloaded the "grinched" font and the hats were just some clip art that i found.




water bottle labels (these were one of my faves :)


tissue paper flowers (they reminded me of the truffula trees in the lorax)


cake toppers (ignore the scary looking cupcakes. i swear i don't know what happened. the cupcakes WEREN'T hot or even remotely warm when i frosted them and the frosting was SO runny, it just melted down the sides of the cupcakes almost instantaneously. i've already fired off an e-mail to pillsbury.)

the guests:


sam, of course!


L to R: lillyanne, violet, logan, kaylee, sam, alex, katie, alyvia, CJ, hannah


jackson, looking very studly in his lil' striped polo shirt :)


quincy ♥


mollie and miles


gabby


grammy

the activities:



we played "pin the hat on the cat" (and for the record, i had NOTHING to do with judging whose hat was closest, we recruited nathan's buddy dan to be the judge. thought i'd throw that in there since my kid won LOL)


"guess the correct # of candies in the jar" game.


storytime. we read "the cat in the hat", of course!


daddy helping sam open presents.


cupcake time! excuse my gaping mouth, we were mid-song. and i love my kid's expression here, doesn't he look SO excited?! :D

we had a wonderful time with all of our friends, and i was very pleased with how everything turned out! well, with the exception of the cupcakes. thanks to all who helped us celebrate ♥

and thanks for looking!

halloween recap.

i started halloween morning out by doing a 12K trail race up in port gamble with several friends. which would have been quite enjoyable, had it not DUMPED rain on us the night before, rendering most of the course slippery and muddy. nevertheless, sunday morning turned out to be *beautiful*, and it was worth braving the mucky trails just for some of the costumes. my personal favorite: the hooters guy. oohhhhh yeah.


pre-race. michael, ruby, dee, audi, me, rocky.


the sun getting ready to poke out at us.


audi and i, post-race. it looks like i have no halloween spirit, but that's just because you can't see the really cute orange and black striped tights i was wearing.


my vote for best costume LOL

and some pics from halloween evening, spent with the fabulously fun Hughes fam. jeff kept nathan company in front of the fire pit in our driveway where they handed out candy, while heather and i walked the littles around the neighborhood.


jeff, nathan, and all the littles. i am still not quite sure what jeff was supposed to be....


daddy and lil' red.


the girls ♥ violet the princess; katie as little red riding hood, and lilyanne as a fairy princess.


katie, pushing sam around on the floor at the Reider's. they thought this was great fun :)

thanks for looking!

3 years ago today.....

samuel made his debut into the world. thank god it was today and not a day later or his name would have been kent LOL (ask me about that story sometime.) today was a pretty lazy day, we pretty much just hung out around the house and watched scary halloween movies all day, and then grammy bought us pizza for dinner. we did head out long enough to go to the "no-scare" haunted house on base (which was pretty scary still, both littles had to be carried throughout the entire thing and sam let out quite a few cries. happy birthday to you sam, now let me scar you for life.) then back home for presents and brownies.


watching a scary movie on grammy's lap.


waiting in line at the haunted house.


grammy brought a halloween trunk with goodies in it for all the littles.


katie is apparantly VERY excited for her B&N gift card.


opening his new "camping" set.


just what he's been wanting....his very own scooter! (can i get a little help with this thing?! it's kinda heavy!)


trying out his new tent.


it even came with a headlamp!


happy numero tres, buddy.


he HAD to go try out the scooter in the garage.

thanks for looking!

costume reveal!

VOILA!

here we have the littles' costumes, which have cost me precious blood/sweat/tears the last week or two.





LIL' RED: skirt is made from house on hill road's tutorial with an added apron front. shirt is loosely based on the top of a dress she already has. cape is loosely based on a dress-up cape she has as well. faux corset i just winged it, 2 rectangles of polyester satin crap invented by the devil himself (can you tell i don't like sewing with it?!) with ribbon "lacing" up the front. oh, and the *perfect* basket for the part that i scored at value village for 99₵.






CUTE LITTLE WOLF (as opposed to "big bad", he's just too cute :): found the hat/mitten thingy at a store up in canada. winged the tail and some shoe covers outta gray fleece.


the wolf "gettin'" lil' red.

please-please-PLEASE just don't let it rain on halloween night now!

thanks for looking!