Halloween!

We went all out for Halloween this year!

Pumpkin carving:

 Beebs thought the pumpkin guts were awesome. He would pick them up and go "Ewwwwww!"

 So happy! Pumpkins!

 Ewwwww!

 Team effort.

 We did it!

 Bebo and pumpkin

 We also painted a pumpkin (and hair, face, and arms)

 Hat tip to Pinterest for candy corn parfait, mummy hot dog, and bone bread stick.

 This was supposed to be a jack-o-lantern pizza. Lincoln laughed and said "No it's not." Fail.

 The costume that keeps on giving. Third year in a row, this year featuring Beebs.

 Robot! Antenna, working dial, glow stick panel, and CLAWS.

We got multiple comments while we were trick or treating that Lincoln's was the best costume of the night. Woohoo! They were troopers while trick or treating. We walked since there was no way Lincoln could sit in a wagon this year. It also came to our attention after the first house that he could not reach his bucket because there was a giant box in the way. Oops. Design flaw. By the end of the night, they were both exhausted and whining to go home. At one point, Lincoln actually said, "I just want to go to sleep right here in the grass." Lucas made them power through the last block home. No giving up! It's free candy!

 Gigantic pumpkin.

 At our local rec center Trick or Treat night. Robot costume wasn't ready, so we improvised with "The Squirrel." 

I love that squirrel.

On the 4th of July

To celebrate Independence Day this year, Lucas took Lincoln to see the fireworks put on by a nearby city park.  Many of the fireworks shows were cancelled this year due to the dry conditions, but this show went on as scheduled.

Bennett and I stayed home.  The fireworks were way past his bedtime.

Lincoln and Lucas set up camp in the back of Lucas' truck.  

The parking lot was behind the park.

Lucas told me when the first firework exploded, Lincoln practically flew across the truck bed and locked his arms around Lucas' neck.  Apparently he is terrified of fireworks.  "it's a widdle woud daddy.  it's a big woud!  go to wintin's house!"

(translations:  it's a little loud, daddy.  it's a big loud!  go to lincoln's house!)

Pretty!

Watching from the safety of Daddy's truck...but still a little nervous.

Look at those eyes :(  Lucas says at this point, he picked Lincoln up and they walked around the parking lot together.  He said Lincoln did better that way...

Boom!

Unrelated, but here is Bennett "playing" with the toys that Lincoln brought him.  "Need a toy, Beddett!  Need a fwicket!  Need a diraffe!  Need anoder wod!"  Bennett will be busy for awhile :)

(translation: need a toy, bennett!  need a chicken!  need a giraffe!  need another one!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

This could probably be 3 separate posts, but in the interest of time I am combining them. It's a post medley!

Lucas is currently cooking up a Valentine's dinner feast: Pasta with Sausage, Basil, and Mustard, salad with homemade vinaigrette, garlic bread, and caramelized broccoli. He is the best!

Lincoln and I made strawberry swirl pancakes today for lunch. So festive! I thought they were pretty good. Lincoln only ate a few bites, but he had also eaten a sugar cookie, a yogurt cup, and half a banana while he was waiting for me to finish cooking the pancakes. It was a late lunch-2:30ish-so I needed to tide him over :)

Recipe, for those who might want it:

Multigrain Pancakes with Strawberry Swirl

adapted from allyou.com magazine, August 27, 2010 issue

Ingredients:

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

2 Tbsp. cornmeal

2 Tbsp. brown sugar (oops...I forgot to add this. Mine turned out fine without it, so feel free to leave this out)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

1/4 cup applesauce (or yogurt)

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Strawberry ribbon:

1 cup strawberries (fresh or frozen)

2 Tbsp. sugar (I used vanilla sugar, which was delicious)

Directions:

1. Make strawberry puree: place strawberries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Cook until strawberries are soft and can be mashed into a puree (about 10 minutes).

2. Whisk together flours, oats, cornmeal, brown sugar (if using), baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk milk, applesauce (or yogurt), butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined.

3. Spoon strawberry puree into batter and lightly stir--do not completely blend in! It should look ribbon like!

4. Preheat a large skillet or griddle, coated in cooking spray. Pour batter 1/4 cup at a time onto surface, spreading into circles or whatever shape you desire. Cook until bubbles form on tops of pancakes, about 2 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until light golden and cooked through, about 1-2 minutes longer.

And now, an appearance from everyone's favorite robot....Wo-dat Lincoln! He gonna fiiiiind you....

And finally, my one Valentine's craft project. Soooo simple, and adaptable for other holidays, too!

1. Gather sticks from your yard.

2. Paint them white with tempera paint.

3. After they dry, stick them in a vase.

4. Cut out hearts from scrapbooking paper and hang them from the "tree" using thread.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Christmas Vacation

A small attempt at getting back into blogging...

A picture summary (with captions!) of our trip up to Omaha to visit my family for Christmas and New Years--we always forget to get our camera out, but managed to get at least a few good shots :)

(from left to right): Lincoln's concentration face as he tries to pull something out of his stocking on Christmas; Wheeling his very own suitcase through the airport; Helping Daddy and Grandpa assemble Grandpa's new entertainment center.

Shoveling and sledding fun with Grandma!

Halloween

In the weeks leading up to Halloween, I became increasingly more nervous that Lincoln was going to refuse to wear his costume and instead of a super awesome astronaut, we were going to have a super awesome kid in shorts and a t-shirt. We did several dry runs the week of Halloween--including one at Zoo Boo, where he even got to practice trick or treating! I'd say in that entire week (Zoo Boo included), the costume was probably on his person a total of 6 minutes. He was not a fan.

The night before Halloween we went to a party at our neighbor's house, and imagine our surprise when he wore the costume almost the whole hour and a half we were there! Sure, we distracted him with hotdogs and cookies and candy (hey, it was a holiday....don't judge!), but still--we thought he'd be begging to get the costume off just like every other time. This boded well for Halloween itself!

Halloween was fantastic!! He wore the costume, no problem. Took him 2 houses to figure out that going to the door meant candy would be given to him. He couldn't get enough :) He is pretty addicted to dum dum suckers and kit kats (don't worry, he only gets two a day--one after lunch, one after dinner). The rationing does make him sad, but since mama and daddy are generously helping him eat through the bucket, the candy will be gone soon and hopefully he will forget about it till next year :)

On to the pictures!

(these are out of order, but I'm being too lazy to fix it right now. There is candy to eat, and I'm not one to let it go to waste...)

He loved that glo-bracelet.

Showing off his mad haul of candy.

Picking out the first treat!

Getting the hang of it!

Commander Lincoln in his shuttle, with helmet bucket.

Hello, I am the cutest thing ever. If you look at me too long, you will melt into a giant puddle. It's true.

Daddy and Lincoln with the finished pumpkin!

Helping to carve the pumpkin with mama.

What's in that thing??

Omaha Visit, July 2010: part III, 4th of July

Although we weren't in Omaha for the actual 4th of July, we were there for the annual concert and fireworks show at Memorial Park. My aunt Vicki lives 2 blocks away from the park, so we are fortunate to always have a place to park, plus a place to hear the music and see the fireworks and avoid the crowd :)

Lincoln saw fireworks last year, but from waaaaaay far away. This year, we were up close and personal with the BOOMS. He was a little skeptical of their loudness at first, but then got into the fun of saying "Boom!" whenever they exploded!

Vicki has 4 kids, all highschool age or older, but she still had some great toys saved that kept Lincoln quite entertained. This is Uncle Doctor Jeff and Lincoln checking out the doctor kit.

Lincoln watching the fireworks with mama. I am quite impressed with the quality of the fireworks pictures our little point and shoot camera produced. Way to go, Nikon!

Boom!

Mesmerized by the sparkles.

Father's Day 2010

Get ready....I have about 12,857,930 blog posts I've been meaning to write, and I am about to knock at least 3 of them out tonight. They will probably be out of order, but at this point, I'd rather just see them finally done!!

First up: Father's Day! Lincoln and I gave Lucas his very own barbeque smoker. If you know Lucas, you know that he would gladly eat barbeque for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if given the opportunity. So, we thought it was about time that he learned to make his own (although, I'm sure our favorite local BBQ place will still see us fairly often) :)

We spent the day on a mini getaway. About an hour north of here is a part of town where we have never spent any time--so we drove up there for the day and ate pizza, checked out some shops, and rode the carousel. There also may have been some dancing involved...

Lincoln's first carousel ride.

All ready to smoke some brisket!

His hips don't lie.