Funny Faces

I'm just crazy about the faces Calvin makes. It brings joy to my soul especially when he makes them while he's being scolded.

My Little Chefs

As stated before - William and Calvin love to lick the bowl bake. We've done quite a bit of baking and cooking lately.  Here they are helping me make Pumpkin Semifreddo. This is a dessert I make almost every year.  Not usually for Thanksgiving, but it helps me get into the Thanksgiving mood.  It has quite a few ingredients that aren't readily accessible here in Vienna: brown sugar, vanilla, gingersnap cookie crumbs, corn syrup and pecans, but thanks to a recent Grampy visit I actually had all these things on hand or close substitutes.

And a couple weeks ago, Worthy had a special pajama day at school.  His teacher likes owls and I had recently come across a cute cupcake recipe and I offered to bake them for their special day.  

These were fun to throw together and I baked them early in the morning, so it was too early for the boys to help... ah shucks :)  However, the did enjoy eating them.

Christian - Meal time

Christian is now almost 7 months old and it seems like he's finally ready to start eating.  I chose to put it off as long as I could.  This isn't my first rodeo, so I realized that beginning solids is a no-turning-back decision.  This also means that from now on I need to make sure I have at least 3 more things packed in a diaper bag when I depart - food, bib and spoon.  It also means that it's less calories I burn through nursing and therefore less liberty I should take with yummy treats :).  

He now has been eating for a week and has definitely taken to it.

 He's already a big fan of bananas, avocado, carrots and vegetable risotto.

And so it begins

Halloween 2012

This Halloween we had a party at church to celebrate.  We ended up "recycling" some outfits.  We had a Plan B, but about a month ago the boys decided they wanted to be the Chipmunks again. 

We'd done this back in 2010 when we were in Florida.  It was so funny to see how much they've grown.  We had to do a new shirt for Theodore.  

We also used the same Baby Pumpkin costume for Christian.  

I loved it when we first got it for Worthy and still adore it.

Worthy, William & Christian 

(Calvin had to stand in as Theodore for his first Halloween)

Our little pumpkin bundled up for the stroll to church

Three of our NCW babies

The Great Pumpkin... still fantastic!

William wanted Dan to carve an "angry" pumpkin

Calvin hung with Grampy and ate candy the whole night... seriously

Grampy's Here

Grampy's come to visit for a few days and that is always a reason to celebrate and enjoy.  

On his first night here we dragged him to Worthy's Fall Festival at school.  There were fun carnival games and the choirs sang a couple numbers.  The room was PACKED!  Calvin decided to take advantage of this and  weave his way through the tight throng (the compact crowd made it impossible for me to keep close behind) and managed to dance in front of the conductor to the amusement of many of the kids performing.

To the huge delight to William the evening ended with a couple of teachers getting "Pie in the Face". A chant eagerly screamed by the kids... which my kids kept chanting the whole ride home on public.

 Of course Grampy came with gifts galore.  

 The boys have loved the Angry Birds shirts.

I love this picture of Worthy doing his best Angry Birds impression

 We even went out on a carriage ride in downtown.  It was the first time we've done one and it really was a lot of fun.  I guess I have to officially stop making fun of the tourists that partake in it.  Yum... Humble Pie. We ran into a friend from church, Andrea, and she joined us on the trip.

Christian has gotten all sorts of cuddle time... I hope he doesn't get too use to it.