halloween cupcakes

we having a bon fire for our youth group tonight. since i like to make delicious treats and middle school and high school students like to eat delicious treats, well, you can figure it out.

as always, i had a very cute helper when making the frosting:

these aren't my best work. i was a little bit rushed.
i was also struggling with some spiderweb cupcakes and the black icing in a tube. i scrapped them and the pumpkin patch cupcakes are the replacement and a little bit rough looking. :) oh well, they'll still taste good.


happy halloween!

the park. again.

today, we went to the park. we do that a lot.

climbing the ladder. excited:

climbing UP the slide. i don't know what the appeal of it is:

in the tunnel:

enjoying some refreshment. check out the snot!:

hanging out in davie county

yesterday, we went drove across the county to visit lorena, josiah and zoe. lorena and i are convinced that isaac and josiah should be good friends, but i'm not always sure they're on board with that plan.

the performed a beautiful duet for us:

you can't tell here, but they were not playing nicely with this toy:

this would be the closest they would come to sharing:

and zoe just did her zoe thing:

josiah got tired of isaac after awhile and retreated to the upstairs where he could play with his toys all by himself. so we left. that, and because it was nap time. sweet sweet nap time.

nerds!

 

popper stomping

 

gingerbread skeletons

here are the finished gingerbread men that isaac helped me with.
note: he did not help with the final decor.

 

 

gingerbread helper

isaac helped me make some gingerbread cookie dough tonight.
stay tuned for shots of the finished product...

(licking the beaters is always the best part...)

thursday adventures

first, we went to joanie moser with judi, emerson and lincoln. it was chilly.

then, we went to lunch at jason's deli with chris, grace and liam. (and rode in the pattisall bus).

then judi carted us around town for awhile.

then we stopped back at the park and played for a couple minutes before isaac fell and got a bloody lip.

here is photo documentation of some of the aforementioned activities:

isaac is loving the curly slide these days:

judi and alden if a faux action shot, coming down the curly slide:

isaac and emerson in the middle seat of the P-bus:

isaac, in the second round of park play, pre-bloody lip:

vocabulary explosion

up until about a week or so ago, most of the things isaac could say were variations of "dah". his inflection and number of syllables helped us to make out some things, but for the most part, we just nodded along.

then, all of a sudden, he's started saying all kinds of things. it's really amazing to see how much difference just a day can make. i will try to catch some of it on video, but here's a sampling of the new things he's saying these days...

mom and daddy, car, dog, meow, tractor, boom, water, night night, bye bye, hi, hey and hello (depending on his mood), stuck, stroller, store, no, door, light, cheese...

ok, i quit.

The hike

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Getting set to go

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breakdown of naptime

for the first half of isaac's nap, i planted seven (almost dead) barberry plants along the side of our yard:

 

for the second half, i performed minor surgery on my left index finger to remove a broken thorn that managed to shove itself under my fingernail. good times.

our friday with cora

Isaac's friend Cora came over on Friday to play while her parents went to work and her Grandpa/Babysitter went on vacation. I think they had a lot of fun. It got a little touch and go just before naptime. Cora didn't want me to play with Isaac and Isaac turned into super clingy boy, so there was some crying and whining. Nothing naptime couldn't fix. :)

Here's some shots of when they weren't being jealous toddlers:

Each posing with the silly faces book:

 

 

Playing with the clock puzzle:

 

Eating a very toddler-y lunch:

 

Serious focus

The object of this intense gaze is a cartoon pup named blue.
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park fun with cora

isaac and i played with cora and doyle today.
we went to the park (an all time favorite).
and to lunch (kernel kustard, where else?).
and to forbush (to see old teacher pals).

i only documented some of the park and one special lunch moment.

cora was playing with isaac's trucks while he hovered over her to make sure they were not harmed in any way.

 

cute park picture:

 

getting ready to brave the curly slide:

 

after lunch, cora made her move on isaac and they frollicked about while holding hands for a few minutes:

 

(note: later, cora tried unsuccessfully several times to hold isaac's hand. i think he's moved on).

the cake that broke the camel's back

here's a shot of the cake i made last week for a rehearsal dinner for the wedding of the brother of one of the students i tutored last year. it really stressed me out and i'm taking a cake hiatus at the moment.

A world of possibilities

Isaaczilla has learned that he can use boxes and baskets to reach things previously unreachable. Not good.
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when it comes, i wanna wail...

"MAIL!!!!!!"

 

raisin bran catastrophe

i like how isaac seems a bit perplexed about how the raisin bran got all over the floor. As if, moments earlier, he hadn't deliberately thrown his entire bowl overboard, in a display of toddler beligerance.

 

lenoir rhyne softball cake

yesterday's cake creation: