Happy Halloween

When inspiration hits, grab it and don't let go!  There are bunches of amazing family costume ideas floating around on the Internet, but I never gave the idea of a family costume much thought...until I was watching cartoons with Seb one morning and realized our little family could easily pull off Jake and The Neverland Pirates.

 

With that idea, and a few phone calls/texts, the whole family was on board with our Peter Pan theme.  Ever since our Gilligan's Island theme, I've found it's loads more fun to do a family Halloween party when there's a theme.  Here's what everyone came up with, we're just missing Captain Hook!

Tiger Lily, Tink, Smee. Tick Tock Crock, Peter, Cubby, Jake, and Izzy

And here's our interpretation of Cubby, Jake, and Izzy.  I think we pulled it off pretty well!

Trick or treating with Seb this year was an adventure and it was fun to experience it through the eyes of a 14 1/2 month old.  He tried to go into several of the houses (mental note: work on teaching him about stranger danger), didn't take too well to the man down the street who had dressed up, but oddly wasn't afraid of any of the masks and monsters he set up in his walkway.  He loved when the neighbors would hold their candy bowl down at his level and he thoroughly enjoyed sticking his hand in the candy bowl and hearing all the crinkling noises the wrappers made as he swished his hand about.  When he would finally grab a piece, he'd hold it out and try to give it back to the resident.  On that note, why is it our neighbors gave us handfuls of candy???  It's not like Seb's gonna eat it!  All in all, we went out for about half an hour and hit up 4 neighbors before returning home with a tired toddler and a pumpkin full of candy.

It was too hard to snap pics while we were out, but our next door neighbor took a few with her camera, I just need to wait for her to email them to me.  At home we dumped out Seb's candy and had fun watching him explore it.  The Dots and Lemonheads were popular because he could shake them and it was an instant rattle.

Just like exploring the candy bowl, the shapes and noises the various candies and wrappers were most fascinating to our little guy.

*Gulp* I even let him try a few bites of candy for the very first time.  He liked Kit Kat and he loved the Hershey bar.  After that, there was no more playing with the candy by shaking and squeezing it, he attempted to put every piece into his mouth for further exploration.

I know it's a Wednesday night and there are tons of community and church events to attend, not to mention, lots of kids enjoy Halloween parties at school, but our doorbell rang a disappointing 3 times.  The last time I held out the candy bowl and told the two boys to pick out 4 pieces each.  As they headed down our walkway back to their parents I hear, "We got to pick out  FOUR PIECES!!!"  Heck, had I known they were the last kids we'd see, I'd have dumped my bowl into their bags.  :)  Now I gotta figure out how to dispose of a ton of extra candy (minus the Twix of course, I'll pull those out for my enjoyment).

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin patch?  What pumpkin patch?  Halloween is tomorrow and we haven't made a trip to the pumpkin patch.  I'm a little disappointed, but sometimes life has other ideas.  Between Adam's crazy work schedule and my Dad's surgery, we just couldn't pull off a visit and everyone wanted to go.  Adam had today off so we picked up and carved a pumpkin for Seb.  We let him play with it prior to the actual carving, here's my take on his thought process.

Once we cracked it open, he got to play around with the little scooper and at one point, would dip it into the pumpkin and tap it in the plastic baggie we set out for the guts.  Very helpful buddy!

Once I took over and started scooping out the guts he got this horrified expression on his face, like I was hurting his friend.  :(  As I mentioned before, I gut the pumpkins and Adam carves them.  This year I had a special request, so Adam carved the pumpkin to have 6 teeth, just like Seb. 

Happy Halloween!

Covert Operations

This sneaky photo actually turned out (unlike my attempt to snap a shot of the Stanley Cup), maybe I won't have to resort to taking my spy pictures through a curtain of my hair like Dr. Lahiri on The Mindy Project.

He really does exist!

Just a little photographic evidence that the Starbucks Frappuccino drinker does, indeed, exist.  Unfortunately, he sat down on the bike directly in front of my elliptical.  I'm not sure if watching him sip his drink while he pedaled was more distracting than the time someone left Man VS Food on the TV, but it was certainly a test of focus (and will power), especially since he sat down 7 minutes into my 30 minute block of time.

Hehe, I just noticed he was watching The View.  :P

Blue Stripes

In the mountain of new parent paperwork we received for Seb's daycare, they ask you to bring in a camera so they can capture the things that go on and you don't feel bad for missing a huge chunk of your child's day.  The camera was in his drawer the other day because the battery died, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to browse his pictures and see the things he enjoys.  If he could talk, here's what he'd tell me:

Crawling in this ginormous room is so much fun!  It's way bigger than the living room.

Can my fishy friends see and hear me blowing raspberries?

If I sit right in the doorway, I can see what goes on both inside and outside.  

I won't miss out on anything, like Mamma coming to pick me up.

I got tired of painting on the paper so I painted my leg.  

Mommy likes purple, she'll think it's pretty.

Too bad I can't count yet, I bet there's a hundred balls in here! 

Do I roll this, bounce it, throw it, or chew on it?

It's a masterpiece and I didn't even paint my leg this time!

In looking at his pictures I've realized I dress him in a lot of stripes and a lot of blue.  I love how blue clothes makes Seb's eyes stand out, but maybe I should explore other color options since it's finally cooling off and we're getting ready to invest in winter clothes.  My favorite comment about his clothing came from Adam (who has been working like crazy for the last 6 weeks).  He saw a picture of Seb playing and said, "Why is he wearing some other kids clothes???"  No dear, those are his clothes, you've been working so much you really only see your son in his pajamas in the morning.  Yes dear, he really does have a cute green Kermit tee.  Why?  Why not, it's Kermie.

I love, love, love this last picture.  It's from the day they did a sensory activity with blue jello and I dropped off a little boy that morning and picked up a smurf.  It was fun to see pictures of the activity and see his little toddler hands squishing the jello and eating it.  I just think this is a really cute picture and he looks like he's having fun.  I love the expression on his face and that one of his teachers pulled up his hoodie for the shot.

Toddler Toys

My son has become fascinated with this object.  Apparently it's his new favorite toy.  He can't resist it.  I don't know how to deter him, short of moving it into the garage.  It's like the trash can has a magnetic pull and calls to him.  Seeeebaaaaaastian.....

In an effort to better understand, I sat on my kitchen floor and examined my uber fascinating kitchen trash can.  Here's what I came up with, but I'm eons away from being 14 months old, so who knows how on track I am here.  If only my son would talk and tell me.  :)

It has wheels so it moves when he pushes on it, just like his cars and trucks do.  So it's a toy.  Right?

It's tall, so he can use it to pull himself up.

It is hollow, so it makes a nice pounding sound when he bangs on it.  Or kicks it.  Or tries to knock the whole thing over if it's recently been emptied.  It's a giant drum (if only he knew what  drum was)!

It has a lid that lifts up and flops back down, sometime smashing his fingers, but he doesn't seem to care that it's biting him.  He loves playing the 'up, down' game, and the lid does just that.  It goes up.  And it comes back down.

But most importantly, and this is what I think fascinates him the most, stuff goes in...and it disappears.  I can practically see him spinning his wheels as he tries to figure out why we put stuff in there and walk away.  He puts toys in his toy bin and immediately takes them out again to play with them - the concept of cleaning up is one that he still needs to learn.  Maybe he thinks we forgot to take the trash out after we put it in there and he has to go over and help take it out for us so we can play with it?  If only, my son, if only that were the case.

He is so curious right now.  He is at that age where every.single.thing is utterly fascinating.

Fuzzy on the carpet, AMAZING!
String at the seam of your shirt?  AMAZING!
Rogue piece of paper from the shredder?  AMAZING!
The price tag on his new toy.  AMAZING!
The safety label on his changing table. AMAZING!
His belly button?  AMAZING.

So, I guess, to a 14-month-old...why not a trash can?

Gym Observations

After taking a week off from the gym, I needed to occupy my mind today while I churned away at the elliptical and bike, so it was time for some good ole people watching!  I do 30 minutes on each machine and that hour brought some observations today that I share because they are most likely far more interesting than what I did this weekend.

• An over sized tunic off-shoulder style top may look cute, but if you're constantly pulling it up your shoulder, only to have it fall back down (as it should since it's an OFF THE SHOULDER top), maybe you shouldn't wear it to the gym.
• To the old man wearing bright banana yellow sneakers.  You rock!  Great style.
• Cement colored work out pants are unflattering and look dingy.  Be safe, wear black.
• The juice bar girl walking around the floor of the weight area with a tray and samples, is *sigh* probably handing out energy bar samples and not cookies or cupcakes (as I found myself hoping she was while I was pedaling away).
• My black and purple accented gym shoes seemed boring in comparison to a funky and fun pair I saw jogging away on a treadmill.  Think watermelon: fun bright green with hot pink laces.  Super cute!
• What's a bigger offense?  Gym clothes that smell moldy, or being stuck on an elliptical next to a chick who has on so much perfume you can barely breathe?  Thankfully this did not happen today, but has in the past, and as perfume girl walked by today I was silently praying she'd keep right on walking and find a machine far, far away so I'd be out of her over-perfumed zone.
• If you're going to hold up your towel to cover your nakedness, but only in the front, and leave your butt hanging out, I'm going to be glad you're headed down the hallway to the showers and there aren't any mirrors so you can see me smirking at you behind your back.  It just looks funny!
• An older woman approached two of the OCFA guys as they biked and spoke with them for a few minutes.  Flirting with the firemen ;)
• Are you addicted to daytime TV if you program not only the TV on your bike, but the one on the empty bike next to you so you've got your talk shows covered?  Do you hate the gym so much you need the extra distraction?
• If your gym towel, when draped around your neck, has me wondering if you're wearing a cute polka dotted scarf - is it stylish or extreme?  Or do you just have such fancy towels that your gym towel puts my version of a gym towel, an 8-to-a-pack washcloth from Target, to shame?

I've had other gym observations in the past, believe it or not, the above list is just from today!  One member appreciation day saw the gym handing out Monster energy drinks.  Pretty sure they intended for you to take one on your way out, but one guy took one heading in and proceeded to drink it while doing a cardio workout.  But the worst offense had to be grandpa walking around with his venti Frap, complete with a large fluffy dollop of whip cream.  Not only did he make me want to stop at Starbucks, but what the heck was the point of going to the gym if you're just going to consume a beverage like that?

Then there's 'bat man.'  An older guy, who wears short booty compression type shorts and a large do-rag getup with the long tails trailing down the back of his too tight tank top.  He's in shape, but when most of the women in the gym are wearing more clothes than you, maybe you should invest in a shirt with sleeves, or maybe shorts that hit mid thigh.  I call him bat man because he always catches my attention because he uses the machines for very unique exercises, most recently, hanging upside down to stretch? or something, not sure, I had to look away at that point.

There was also the grandma who initially had me applauding her fitness level as she used various machines on the weight room floor - but when she came up and hopped onto the bike next to me, had me wondering if she was a germaphobe.  She wore a large, long sleeve peach button down shirt.  She wiped down the bike with paper towel and Purell, then put a large towel down, completely covering the seat.  Then more Purell for her hands. THEN she dug around in her gym bag and pulled out a pair of brown mittens so large they looked like they belonged to her husband, and proceeded to put on the mittens before she could touch the bike to program her workout.

But hey, maybe I shouldn't judge.  I show up in my boring black gym pants and a solid colored tee, my gym towel, as mentioned above, is a washcloth, and since I've most likely just dropped my son off at day care, if he happens to have a runny nose, I could be walking around with snot on the shoulders of my shirt and end up being the target of someones gym observation list.  :)

Happy Anniversary

Last week Adam and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.  Well, we haven't officially celebrated since he's been working around the clock, but I got a Happy Anniversary kiss in the morning when he left for work and we exchanged cards when he got home from work at 10 that night.  We'll have to get a babysitter and go to dinner, or Disneyland, or a movie, or something...but not until his work schedule calms down.

We were married on October 3, 2008 at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club.  It brings a smile to my face just thinking about all of the memories we have of the day.  The venue, the food, flowers, dancing, and most importantly, all our loved ones there celebrating with us = perfect day!

The first year anniversary is paper.  I asked Adam to take me to the Kings home opener.  It was easy to remember because paper = ticket in my mind, so it was a no brainer.  Oh, and I *may* have filed a few pictures of the ice at Staples Center in the "Anniversary" photo folder along with us digging into a delicious re-creation of the top tier of our wedding cake.  Mmmm red velvet and cream cheese frosting.  Love that most bakeries now make you a fresh cake so you don't have to save, thaw, and then eat a freezer burned year old dry cake. 

No pictures of us eating the cake, it was after the gym and I was in my pajamas.  Also, no pictures from the game, apparently I only took pictures of the ice, there don't appear to be any of us.  So here's a picture of us..driving in the car.  LOL  The time frame is correct within a 4-6 week span.  

Happy 1 Year Wedding Anniversary

In 2010 we were driving home from Vegas for our anniversary.  We went to Frozen Fury at the MGM the day before.  I'm noticing a trend here and I'd be perfectly content to be taken to a hockey game every year for my anniversary.  A few days later we went to dinner at the restaurant where we held our rehearsal dinner.  

Photo not from restaurant, but was taken in October

As with Halloween, in 2011, we were new parent zombies.  We went to dinner at Maggiano's and drooled over their seasonal pumpkin spiced cheesecake for dessert.  Apparently zombies don't carry cameras because I have no pictures.  We did do our first official family pictures the following month, close enough!

Photo by Cat Palmer

The NHL is locked out, so I can't be taken to a hockey game this year.  I'd like to let the owners know they're interfering with my anniversary.  Maybe they'll listen and end the stupid lockout so I can enjoy a hockey season?  I'll keep dreamin!  In the mean time, we did family pictures to mark Sebastian's first birthday, so lets keep the visual time line rolling.

Photo by Jenn King

Maybe when we do finally celebrate I'll get us a red velvet cake as a throwback all the way to 2009.  :)

Happy Anniversary Adam!  XOXO

Stanley.

I saw the Stanley Cup today!!!

Today I met the Stanley Cup.  It was beautiful.  It was huge.  It was shiny.  I touched it, but I really wanted to hug it and run my fingers over the Kings name's engraved on the base. More than anything, I would love to pick it up just to see how heavy it is.  I had all these thoughts, plus Seb and I posed for two quick pictures, all in the span of about two minutes.  It was so worth it.

The Stanley Cup was doing a local rink tour.  For $5 you could purchase a raffle ticket to win a chance to get access to view the Cup and get a picture.  One of the stops was the Aliso Viejo rink.  How could I pass up an opportunity like that when the rink is less than 10 minutes from my house?  So Saturday evening I dragged the family down and purchased 4 tickets and I got the call yesterday afternoon that I won a spot!

Sebastian meets Bailey.

You were only allowed to bring 1 person to be in the picture with you and no personal cameras or cell phone pictures were allowed.  They had a professional photographer snapping the pictures and in a few days we can go online and download them.  I carefully set Sebastian down on the table with the Cup and posed behind him.  I think it'll be neat to see how he compares size-wise with the Cup.  Lets just hope he was looking at the camera.  Heck, lets hope I was looking at the camera too and not overly worried about Sebastian falling off the table while I'm smiling for a picture with Stanley!

I did try to sneak a picture of the Cup with my phone, but, I totally missed it.  One of the people working the line stepped in front of me right as I took the picture and you barely see a teeny spot of the Cub below their elbow.  So much for my covert undercover photography skills.

I'll post my official picture when I get it, but being lucky enough to get in and get a picture has been the highlight of my week so far.