knitting, creating, and loving life in the Midwest
As the days of Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, there is another event that we honor every year – Family Picture Day.
This year I am considering a very neutral theme:
Special friends such as my oldest’s Soft Elephant and my youngest’s Zebra & Rabbit are always welcome – they are part of the family ;D
Do you take annual pics?
Something my husband and I have always made sure of is spending time together, even during the madness of the holidays.
Even if it is just for a few minutes while the kids are (gasp!) watching a video, it is very important to us to have some time to chill and talk about what’s going on in our lives, what our plans are for the next few days, to make sure we’re in sync and not forget anything in our busy schedule.
We don’t have fancy china or a lot of heirloom pieces but I like to set a table for two with items that mean a lot to us:
The runner on top of the off-white tablecloth was made by my mom. The yellow napkin underneath the leaf and mug on the right is part of a set made by me. Yep, I sewed a set of 16 napkins because I loved the color of the fabric I found. The three little pumpkins in front were purchased at my youngest’s pumpkin patch field trip, and then the boys and I painted them with a clear glaze, then sprinkled glitter on top. They look so sweet and remind me of the fun I had with my boy that day. The ORB-painted candlestick is my on of my beloved fleur-de-lis candlesticks, which I found on sale at Goodwill. The little ceramic holder (you can see it better in the second pic) was gifted to us full of yummy almonds last year, after we ate the almonds I couldn’t part with it 😀
Some hot chocolate and good conversation makes for a nice break – we are lucky that my mother-in-law watches the boys often for us, and we get to spend some quality time together.
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I’ve been posting about the costume my husband made for our little one. 
I was very surprised that my youngest chose this, as the one who had loved this character to begin with, was my oldest (he even had his latest birthday party with this theme), but he’s moved onto superheroes.
Thank goodness our oldest went with a store-bought, because my husband needed every last minute to get our youngest’s costume done.
The Saturday before Halloween, our cousin needed help for his costume, so most of that day was spent working on that. His costume was (luckily for my husband) just the headgear to become DeadMau5. Yeah, I’m old, because I was seriously creeped out and had no clue who that was. My oldest, though, had no problem sitting on DeadMau5’s lap for a pic.
Sunday was the deadline, then, and my husband went to work, the level of detail in this costume blew me away.
The base of the costume itself was carpet foam that he got for free just by asking carpet installers. The spikes were cut from foam, primed, then spray painted. The texture all over the “skin” is small stripes of silicone. The teeth were cut from foam, then painted and attached to the upper and lower jaws, same with the foot claws. The feet are cut to go over our son’s shoes. We decided to not make claws for the hands in case our little man got overenthusiastic and scratched one of his classmates.
Here is the head, almost done:
My husband helping our little man right before his parade:
Waving to one of the people taking his pic. Kids and grown ups wanted to have their pic taken with him, people were filming him, it was hilarious!
After his parade was over, my husband and I and my in-laws (who joined us for the morning) had breakfast, then headed over to my oldest’s school.
A quick wave from a busy Captain America:
His good friend S. was Wolverine so there was lots of superhero talk 😀
So this was our morning, now we get a few hours of quiet before the madness of “candy extortion” as my husband calls it. And oh yeah, Godzilla was made for under $35.
Happy Halloween from Captain America and Godzilla! Be safe and have a great time!
My awesome husband is almost done with our little man’s costume. Good thing because he has a parade tomorrow morning!
The attention to detail keeps amazing me. Also, he helped with his cousin’s costume Saturday afternoon. I am not posting that yet, but it came out great. I think. Because I was a little creeped out by it and wasn’t really sure what/who it was. I looked it up and I’m still creeped out. Today my hubs is putting the final details on this costume and I can’t wait to see it finished!
My youngest’s love for oatmeal cannot be denied. It is a love that is all encompassing, and it is also a love that keeps him regular – win/win! It started with my oldest, in fact, who started eating some of the oatmeal my mom would make for her own breakfast, and then it became a ritual. He outgrew his love of oatmeal but once my youngest started eating it, he was hooked.
Because of his autism, my little boy was slow to speak, and when he wanted his favorite food, he couldn’t say oatmeal, so he settled on “nuh-oh”. Now he has no problem saying oatmeal but he still prefers to call it nuh-oh and I think it will be nuh-oh until he’s all grown and out of the house.
My mom uses the packaged instant oatmeal but I’ve switched to the quick 1-minute oats that come in the big tubs. And I know, I know, everyone knows how to make oatmeal, but I just wanted to share what I do to make my boy’s breakfast as nutritious as possible.
This is about twice the amount that would be in an instant packet
The gorgeous canister label is from Leen’s shop, I love them.
We use rice milk because of my son’s (and my) allergies
Trader Joe’s has the cheapest price in rice milk, and since my son eats oatmeal 3 times a day AND drinks it as well, I make sure to stock up.
After two minutes in the microwave
I add a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter for some good protein.
The bulk oatmeal has a lot less sugar than the instant packets, but I do add some honey
both for flavoring and because it helps his allergies.
The last touch
is a bit of cinnamon, yum yum.
I usually add a sliced banana, but the ones I had were super green, so this was Sunday’s breakfast for my little guy:
Warm, hearty, flavorful, and it fills his belly with lots of goodness.
It’s so good that I’ve been known to make myself a bowl to warm up on a chilly morning. I usually skip the banana, but it gives me a good start to the day. As I was editing this post, my son came over and smiled as I showed him each picture in sequence. When I showed him the last one, he threw his hands in the air and said, “nuh-oh!”. He REALLY loves his oatmeal.
BTW, have you heard that peanut butter prices are going up? I’ve stocked up, just in case!
We are enjoying these last few days of school vacation – we recently went up to a local park and rode on the train, it was wonderful. The day had cooled down and my three men were having a lot of fun together:
In a few days my sons are back in school. Is it just me or did this summer just fly by?
Our neighborhood has a garage sale that we’ve never been to – until this past Saturday. We went with my mother-in-law and her two sisters, and I have to say, my boys scored big time. Gran bought them eight – EIGHT! – Godzilla videos, assorted toys, a book, etc. I left with some cute Halloween candle holders (4 for $2) and this hose hanger ($1):
Later the same day my husband went to Lowe’s and found the same hanger for $24.97 – score!
We had a lovely breakfast and on the way home we stopped at another garage sale down the street. This was just one family, but they had a great punch bowl set, which I brought home with me for $5. We don’t have one and since we host holiday gatherings, I figured it would be so nice for serving hot apple cider or some other festive drink:
Then we came home and my oldest watched about 9 hours straight of Godzilla movies 😀
Here are some of my favorite moments in the past month:
My handsome men worked on projects around the house, we saw friends and family and celebrated the Peruvian team’s victory in the America Cup, were happy to have family always nearby, and my youngest turned 5.
This Sunday is going to be a little rough. Rather, a lot rough. You see, it’s the first Father’s Day without my dear dad. We would usually have lunch with my in-laws and then head over to my parents’ for dinner.
I will be celebrating my husband’s fatherhood and delighting in his neverending love and patience for our little boys, but at the same time I will be thinking of my dad. I miss my dad every single day but this Sunday, maybe a little more poignantly.
Here is my dad enjoying his youngest grandchild, my little one:
I don’t remember what we got him for Father’s Day last year, or what we ate, or what we talked about. I had no idea he only had another couple of weeks left to live. My heart breaks at the lost moments I wish I could remember, but someday, I know I will get to see my dad again. Until then, happy father’s day, daddy. I love you.
I am stealing this idea from the lovely Rebecca at Simple as That, and participating in her May 2011 photo collage party. I love the idea of highlighting some pics from the month – thanks for the idea, Rebecca!
Casa de Berry 