Roll-Ups, Cooked Pumpkin, and Costumes

Here are some more of my recent tutorials! 

PAINT BRUSH ROLL-UP

HOW TO COOK YOUR PUMPKIN

HALLOWEEN COSTUME IDEAS for FAMILIES

Halloween From Neverland

 

Happy Halloween!  If only Tinkerbell could have joined us in time!

 

Parley...

I decided our family would try a Peter Pan theme more than two years ago (a mom has got to plan ahead!), and coincidentally it was PERFECT for these pirate-fanatic boys.  Lincoln plays a remarkable Capt. Hook, and Parley's little raspy "roar" is adorable. 

Pregnant in Bahamas

 I know its a bit nontraditional to take maternity pictures with your THIRD child, but I had good reason.  I was offered this gorgeous maternity dress from Tiffany Rose to review, and formal night on our cruise was the perfect occasion to wear it!

 Would you believe this dress cost $425?!  That's more than my wedding dress.  I sold it last week on eBay for $250 (plus overnight shipping) to a girl in Minnesota who needed it for her wedding that weekend!

 Jason continues to bust out great photography!

 I think the key (for me) is to get pictures at 20 weeks, while the bump is still cute and contained.  After that, it just gets scary!  At 24 weeks now, I'm already getting asked if I'm due soon.

 *Baby name hint!

 

Catch Up

On one of the last warm days of September, we took the kids to the horse races at Suffolk Downs!  

We've been doing a lot of "School at Home with Mom" this Fall, and I've been surprised at how excited I've been to put these lessons together!  We've been alternating between "Picture Book Activities" by Trish Kuffner. and "Daily Preschool Experiences", which has complete lessons plans for 100 days, and lots of ideas that you can cater to where your children are.  I totally recommend it. 

 This was "Caps for Sale" Day, where we did counting, sorting, reenacted the story, pin the cap on the monkey, and played "hat shop".

This was a totally crazy day where we talked about "Scarecrows and Barns".  We made bandannas and paper vests, read barn stories, learned some square dances, made play-doh and corn cobs, played some math games with animals and painted a wooden barn! 

 

This is us being cute on my birthday, or atleast the day I chose to be my birthday, because the actual day was spent visiting Cornell.  (Grad school shopping is fun!)  Anyways, I spent it getting my hair done and met up with Jason for Indian food.  Can you guess who the bright yellow dress is for?!  I'm going crazy sewing for this little muffin!  Only 15 more weeks to sew! Ahhh!

For our 5th Anniversary, we went on a Bahamas CRUISE!  Tickets (both cruise and airline) were remarkably cheap at the begining of Sept, so we drove the kids out to my parents, and flew into Orlando for a relaxing and extremely chill 4 days sans the kids.  We went kayaking and snorkeling in two different ports, and found some pirate paraphernalia for our boys :)  The kids had a blast at Grandma's!  They just idolize their uncles.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

We could certainly call this warm chocolate melting cake the dessert of our marriage.  We've been consuming, taste testing, and trying to recreate this molten lava chocolate since the beginning of "Jason & Camille".

More on this gorgeous blue dress to come...

Fetal MRI

 Boston Children's is doing a fetal MRI study -- I signed us up and had a lovely nap for $100!  Diana hooked us up, since this is where she works and what she does every day!  

 I love seeing all these incredible pictures!  Baby Girl would NOT sit still, which is crucial to getting a good mri.  I'm surprised they got any images at all.

 Look at that big belly of mine, and that cute little leg!

This is her head and her arm pushing out.  This is what I feel like she's doing 24/7.  I'm getting a little nervous about how very active she is!  I feel like she's much more busy any the boys ever were, especially at 24 weeks.  I'm in for it!

When Jason Gets Bored at Work

Jason and I have been playing eachother in Yahtzee on our phones throughout the day.  It usually takes a day or two to get around to finishing a game, and he is crushing me.  

Yesterday, Jason emails me this:

So…I’ve had a couple free minutes in the last hour, so I thought it’d be interesting to see what the probability of rolling a Yahtzee is after so many progressive rolls.  Here are the results:

The key takeaway for dice with buddies is that the fourth roll (bonus roll) more than doubles your chances of rolling a Yahtzee, increasing it from 4.6% to 10.2%.  To have a probability of at least 50%, you’ll need to roll at least 10 times though. 

Fun factoid of the day.  

I'd like to know how many husbands send their wives emails with charts, probabilities, and the words "the key takeaway".  What a nerd :)

Every 4-Yr-Old Needs a Pirate Party

 Is there any event more highly anticipated with passionate excitement than your birthday when you're turning 4?!  This kid!  The joy was almost impossible to contain!

How fun to celebrate Marc's birthday as well!  We kept the party just between us and the DeGraffs, and I'm so glad we kept it small this year.  There is plenty of time for crazy kid parties.

 

I'd like to thank Pinterest for literally all of these ideas.  Sometimes you just don't have any creativity leftover after a crazy week.

More than anything, Lincoln has been wanting a "Jake Telescope" and  "Jake Sword" for months now.  Goodness knows what terror would have ensued had they not arrived in time!

It was all worth it when later that afternoon, he told Jason, "Dad, thanks for making my birthday so very very special!"  What a sweetie pants.

And now I have a 4-yr-old.

 My Lincoln turned 4 yesterday!  He is a joy of a boy!  As my mom puts it, Link is very talkative and very polite.   Every day, he kisses my belly and tells me how excited he is for his little sister.  He is already a stellar big brother, loyal as can be, and determined to follow the rules.  Lincoln, I LOVE having you as my son! Happy Birthday!

Hand Towels, Hand Sanitizors, and Taco Soup

Here's another round of projects!  There seems to always be something fun I'm working on!

HANGING HAND TOWEL TUTORIAL

A CUTOUT for my PLANNER 

 some HALLOWEEN HAND SANITIZORS

and a TACO SOUP RECIPE!

Happy Fall, ya'll!

Goodbye, Summer

Today was a particularly dreary and blustery day, and I'm feeling bummed about our lovely summer really at its end.  Despite feeling semi-crumby for the majority of it, I really loved this summer.  We sure had a good one!

We fit in a few more beach days (above is a beach on Cape Cod), and Lincoln had a BLAST with t-ball!  Poor Parley had to watch from the sidelines, but next summer, he can join the team.  My favorite moment was when the tee, bat, and ball were left unattended, and Parley (who has never tried this before in his life), picks up the bat, hits the ball pretty far, flings the bat, and runs to the base.  What a natural.

The Gutke's came to visit for a few days and we had fun playing all over town!  

My boys are just crazy about their cousins, and I had the time of my life at Amberlee's Feish!  So much big hair, glamor and dazzle!  It really took me back to show choir days and the thrill of a competition.  I'm going to the be worst 'dance mom'.

Near the end of August, we braved the Ward Campout, and it was actually super fun :) Jason and I were in charge of the Talent Show portion and the boys loved every minute of sleeping in a tent. 

The pictures on the right crack me up!  Usually these two are carefree, quick to jump right in, and just wild, and then on some days, they are cautious little spectators.  Best friends, they are, and I love spending my days with them!