october 31.

holidays are so much more fun with avery around.  halloween was actually pretty cool this year because she really understood pieces of the holiday.  trick or treating didn't go all that well.  she didn't get the concept of saying trick or treat and she can be a little shy around strangers so she wasn't all that into actually going from house to house.  BUT she loved her costume and she loved getting henry dressed in his and she did pretty well handing candy out to people who knocked on our door.  

we started off the day in some halloween pi's.  with our usual coloring, sticking, and taping of pictures all over the wall.  charlie and i both worked and avery refused to nap for a second that day.  anyone who works from home knows how crucial that nap time is and just how hard it is when your kid decides to throw all of her stuffed animals out of the crib and scream at the top of her lungs instead of napping.

luckily she's been in a pretty awesome phase of playing by herself for long periods of time, which has really helped get some work done lately.  of course if i'm on the phone all bets are off.  anyway, after work i decided to take her and henry for a walk.  dunkin hurt his leg somehow and has been limping pretty badly so he's been missing out on his usual walks and ball playing.

it was really windy and avery fell asleep in about 3 minutes.  after we got back and avery finally woke up, we got ready for some trick or treaters and i forced henry into his costume that i make him wear every year.  spending $10 on a costume isn't such a terrible idea if he can wear it every year, right?  avery was so excited to get into her costume and i forced the two of them back outside to take more pictures.

don't mind the dying pumpkin and mums.  the pumpkin was carved 2 weeks ago and i never watered the mums.

avery really loved her costume and i was just happy to find something that was warm and still cute.  avery's really into animals right now so the leopard costume was pretty fitting and it was 40% off at old navy.  i was a little disappointed at just how skimpy some of these costumes for kids her age are already.  i figured we had at least 10 years before we had to fight that battle but i was not about to dress my one year old up as a sexy lady bug.

and just because i can, here was avery (and henry the squirrel again) last year on halloween.

weekend happenings ...

we had another pretty good weekend that seemed to just fly by.  how is it that tuesday and wednesday can take forever to go by but somehow saturday and sunday go by and it seems like it was just friday night?  we spent the weekend having a little fall fun and getting a few things done around the house.  sadly, i have no proof that we actually accomplished things around the house but i assure you we did. 

on friday night we took avery to a halloween party at the place where she takes 'gymnastics'.  i was thinking that she was going to boycott the costume but apparently she decided that she's the cutest thing ever when she wears it and has been asking to wear it almost every day.  of course as soon as she has it on she keeps saying "it's so cute" and "mommy, so cute", which means that she wants me to reassure her that yes, she does in fact look adorable.  so anyway, she happily put on her costume on friday night and we headed to gymnastics.  they had a few activities set up for them to do like fishing for candy, some obstacle courses, making bags for their candy, and then a few snacks.  she only napped for 20 minutes that day and i thought that she would pass out in the car but she surprised me by staying awake the entire time.

quite impressed with her cuteness. 

showing henry who's boss.

a little apprehensive about walking under the giant cat.

making her treat bag.

a cupcake.

AND a lollipop, which was her favorite.

on saturday charlie took avery to gymnastics, the car wash (which she's been begging to go to for a while), and grocery shopping and i headed to ikea.  i'm usually never alone and it felt a little weird to be spending a few hours without avery.  i have to say it was pretty nice to enjoy a 45 minute drive without listening to applause even once.  i got to listen to country music the entire way without anyone complaining.  i got a few random things there and avery's birthday/christmas present which was the main reason for the trip.  i figured with a baby on the way soon it was better to get the present now then worry about it with a newborn.  avery and i took henry for a walk and then we met charlie at the playground so avery could show off her climbing skills.  some other people showed up to play while we were there and they had a dog that avery wanted to pet.  after she pet the dog she pointed to his penis and said 'penis' and then charlie wanted to die.  all i can say is that we have four male animals at home and she's interested in body parts.  we did some more cleaning and random things around the house on saturday and finished by hanging even more shelves that night.  the good news is that i've officially put all of the tools away for now so i think that we're done hanging things for a bit.

some rock climbing.

sunday we did some more stuff around the house and then went to a birthday party later that afternoon.  it was at another gym and avery had a ton of fun playing on everything, except for the foam pit.  that she did not like.  we came home, watched the rest of the broncos game, saw a killer sunset, and read books before bed.

the foam pit.  not a fan.

lately she's been insisting on reading books on our bed.  i think this is 'hot fudge', which has gotten a lot of attention in the past few months.  

  

continuing our halloween tradition.

so every year since charlie and i have been dating we've always carved pumpkins and made riceballs for halloween.  we haven't always done it on the actual holiday and we have missed two years in the last nine.  i think the second year we were together we didn't continue the tradition and we missed last year because we were back in maryland for the two weekends before halloween visiting family and friends.  i was looking back on some pictures from that trip the other day and it really made me miss the east coast falls.  so pretty.  

anyway, we knew we definitely wanted to keep up the tradition this year since avery was old enough to get the whole carving a pumpkin idea and because she's really into pumpkins.  we actually have a ridiculous amount of pumpkins sitting on our porch currently.  i think the count for 'big' pumpkins is up to six as charlie didn't want to carve any of our pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch.  we actually picked up two more from whole foods, which shockingly had the lowest price for pumpkins that i've seen.  

avery was totally into the idea of carving them and helped me pick out the seeds and put them into a bowl for roasting.  we carved two pumpkins and avery and i did most of the cleaning out of the seeds work since charlie was making the riceballs.

once i showed her what to do she was all about it and helped for a really long time.  after cleaning out the pumpkins she took a break for a bit to play with dunkin.  she is really into him these days and it's so cute to see her hang out with him like he's her buddy.  i think he secretly likes her, too, especially because she's always trying to go outside and play ball with him. 

she likes to grab his nose and say 'honk, honk'.  he doesn't love this.

meanwhile, charlie was cooking the riceballs.  we probably should have gotten her more involved in this process as she really does like to cook and bake, but it's just so messy and there are so many uncooked ingredients like meat and eggs that i think it would be harder to have her 'help' at this point.  maybe next year.
  

and avery got bored again and went outside to play with dunkin.  or actually she went outside and then insisted that he come and play with her.  we had gorgeous weather on saturday.  it was in the mid 60s and it was so nice to have a few windows open while we were hanging out.

looking for his ball.

she settled for throwing a flower. 

tackle. 

we finally finished carving our pumpkins and cooking the riceballs.  i always forget how long this process takes!  the riceballs were delicious as always and avery loved having the candles in the pumpkins.  we put them back outside and hopefully they won't get destroyed by any animals before halloween so we can light them again. 

charlie's is the cat that he did for avery and mine is the face.  i should have made it a nose but i ran out of carving motivation and thought it still worked this way.  i've loved the fact that we've been able to do something fun and fall-like each weekend in october.  it's such an awesome time of year when there's fun things to do, the weather is perfect, and there's not the pressure of the holidays to decorate the house or bake fancy meals or buy a bunch of presents.  i really do love the holidays but sometimes i love the low-key ones more because there's not a lot of pressure to do anything special so anything that you end up doing is a lot of fun.  we've got one more weekend in october to enjoy and i think we're taking avery to a halloween party where she does gymnastics.  i did buy her a costume although she's been pretty adamant about not wearing it so we'll see if she actually dresses up for it.      

halloween-ish.

i never was a fan of halloween until charlie and i started our 'tradition' of carving pumpkins and making riceballs.  i think it's because after i turned 12 i always sort of hated dressing up and after i graduated college i've sot of hated bars filled with drunk people. 

anyway this halloween was no different.  we carved pumpkins, roasted seeds, and charlie made riceballs.  

i also dressed henry up as a squirrel for about 3 minutes and he hated ever second of it.  

warning: these are not healthy.  but they are delicious.

i have no idea what these cutouts are supposed to be.  actually, the one on the right is supposed to be "bat kitty" whatever that is.  and i have no idea about the one on the left.  

i think the best part about the weekend was enjoying the last of the warm weather that we're going to get.  

i never mind snow as much when i know it's going to be in the 60s after instead of sitting on the ground for 6 months. 

this is how we do it.

halloween, that is.

welcome to year 6 of our halloween traditions.

this is how we celebrate:

... carve pumpkins.

... make riceballs.

... roast pumpkin seeds.

... eat obscene amounts of candy.

... oh, and embarrass poor henry.

step 1: watch charlie make riceballs.

a little background. charlie's italian and our first thanksgiving together we went to new york to celebrate with his family. the entire 5 hour trip up to ny he raved about these riceballs. and all i kept thinking was 'what the hell is a riceball'? turns out they are fried goodness. we make them on halloween and thanksgiving. why? just because.

you make these babies by hand.

rice, ground beef, egg + milk, and bread crumbs.

basically, make a meatball, form the rice around it. dip it in the egg mixture and then roll in breadcrumbs.

sounds healthy, right?

fry said riceballs.

i use canola oil instead of vegetable oil. i pretend this makes a huge difference.

told you they were healthy.

and the finished product.

oozing their fat onto some paper towels.

step 2: carve pumpkins.

the pumpkin carving set up.

the cut-up trash bag is a necessity.

making progress ...

i finished mine first. toby was pretty curious.

actually, he's trying to eat the pumpkin. i'm not kidding.

aaaaand, they're officially jack 'o lanterns.

in case you can't tell the one on the left is supposed to be an owl on a tree branch and the one on the right is a cat.

i am an excellent carver so i blame the cutouts. :)

step 3: embarrass henry.

don't worry he got a treat for this.

step 4 and 5: roast pumpkin seeds and eat obscene amounts of candy.

i have no pictures of this because i was too busy stuffing my face with reese's pieces.

another successful halloween.

i love the fact that it doesn't involve bars, slutty costumes, or drunken people.

and i love that it's a holiday we get all to ourselves.

hope yours was a good one!

i'm trying to get better at blogging and taking pictures.

i swear.

i do it for me, really, so that when i look back i can remember what the heck was going on in my life, as in, the every day stuff. i mean we all remember to bring the camera when we go on vacation or celebrate the holidays, but sometimes the regular stuff doesn't get quite the same attention. and although life has been busy lately, i don't want it to fly by too quickly.

especially since it's fall now. at least it's trying to be fall now.

last weekend charlie ran the boulder sunset triathlon.

it was 90 freaking degrees and it was his first race.

i was pretty proud of him.

here he is before the swim, super nervous.

i didn't get a lot of pictures and i will say that i should have brought the zoom lens.

in other news, i cut my hours back at work which has allowed me to have a bit of a life, be a good student, and occasionally grocery shop and vacuum the floor.

it's also given me enough time to actually walk the dogs again, which is good for my thighs, my sanity, and the dogs of course.

we also said goodbye to some of our friends this weekend. :(

they moved out to colorado around the same time we did but decided to move back to be closer to friends and family.

as much as i totally understand the friends and family part, we're going to miss them.

there was lots of pumpkin beer and jack daniel's involved in their sendoff.

i also bought henry a halloween costume.

he's a rabid squirrel.

he's not that crazy about dressing up as an animal he usually is in pursuit of.

(i realize this may throw me into the category of "crazy dog lady", however i still believe that "crazy dog lady" is better than "crazy cat lady")

for some reason this picture reminds me of the wolf in little red riding hood.

"my grandma, what big teeth you have".

except henry doesn't eat kids. i promise.

Happy Halloween!

Charlie and I continued our annual Halloween tradition this year of not dressing up, cooking riceballs, handing out candy, carving pumpkins, & roasting pumpkin seeds.

We borrowed a pumpkin carving set from some friends so we were able to carve some tricked out pumpkins this year instead of our usual ones, carved with a kitchen knife.

I think my inspiration was obvious.

And our pumpkins together .

We got candy ready for the 3 trick-or-treaters that we had.

Now we're stuck with finding something to do with all this candy.

I roasted the pumpkin seeds from our pumpkins ...

... while Charlie started making rice balls aka fried goodness.

getting them ready ...

... now for the healthy part.

and this is what they look like when cut in half. Charlie loves these so much he's eating two for breakfast right now.

Hope everyone had a good Halloween! Happy Daylight Savings Time!