Wooden animals

On Saturday, the little and I ventured out to a local craft / antique fair.  It was a miserably cold, drizzly day, but we had several inherited umbrellas to play with and twirl.  Our cousins have a booth there, and we wanted to check out and admire their craftiness.  We were supposed to be on a hunt for Christmas gifts, but instead found several little trinkets for ourselves (including a stool from the cousins).

The major win came from a wood carvers booth.  They had a box of simply cut wooden animals, 3 pieces for $1.   I let the boys have a romp through them to each pick out their three favorites.
Tamlin settled for a butterfly, a bird and a "dove" (though I thought it looked more like a duck).
also found a bird, a fish, and a horse.

After becoming slightly damp, we went home with our purchases... and got out the paints.
I let the boys have at painting their new toys. 

And now we have a menagerie of interestingly painted animals.

Pinerest WIN

We had several birthdays to celebrate at the start of the month and Jude wanted cookies with eyes.
Sparked by photos floating around on the internet of these spider cookies...I thought I could whip up a batch of these to please everyone.

 Yummy peanut-butter cookies with butterfinger spiders with frosting legs.
Jude loved them.
My collegues loved to eat them.
And they are pretty cute.
Win!

Halloween Decorations are up!

 Since the next couple of weekends are a bit busy for us, I decided to get out the Halloween decorations a smidge early.  As usual, the boys had a blast digging through the buckets of creepy paraphernalia.
I think decorating for Halloween is my second favorite holiday time (Christmas being the first :-)

At least this year, both boys weren't scared of any of the creepiness...including the haunted talking skull or the jumping snake.

And for dressing up?
Tamlin wants to be a ninja this year...a black ninja... with red trim.
Jude wants to be a spider...an orange and black spider.
Hmmm...pretty doable, if I can find black shirts/pants for the boys as the base. (and some googly eyes for the spider).

Vampire teeth almost fit.

Spoooooooky!

Farewell to Jim Thomas

It has been a couple of weeks, but I think I can write a note to say goodbye without too many tears.
Goodbye, Jim.
You were a good man with a very kind heart and you will be missed by all of us.
I am happy to have known you, and I can see many of your traits in Brian.
You were always welcoming and always will to help others.
I'm so glad you were able to come out our way in May and visit and talk to Brian and hold your grandsons.
We had no idea that there was cancer eating away at you from the inside; we only saw that you were hurting but wouldn't except our help.  You lived how you wished.
I am so sorry that you were called away so quickly...too quickly.
Too quickly.
We all loved you and will remember you and speak well of you to our little ones.

We are in the process of dealing with the aftermath of our loss...

We are remembereing.
We are shutting down finances his old life, bills, utilities, etc.
And this has moved Brian and I to make sure our affairs are in order just in case anything should happen to us.
 There is and will be much cleaning of the house and unearthing of some forgotten treasures.
We have brought things home to Tam and Jude, letting them play with things that were important to Brian as a child, or were his Aunt Carol's.  The ton of marbles have been a blast.  The boys have found many ways to incorporate them into their play.  The games have been fun too...stadium checkers, junior monopoly, Chinese checkers, and dominoes have all been played.

And the art supplies.  Jim, you were an artist.  Your markers and pens are being put to good use by our own little artists, especially Jude.

Last Third Thursday 2015

A small note that our summer is officially coming to an end.   We went into town for our last third Thursday celebration of 2015.  It was a cooler evening, as the sun is setting earlier now.  But, we could still hang out without jackets and wear Hawaiian shirts. 

The boys insisted on having their faces painted again.  Tamlin loves having a "fire" crown and Jude opted for a pink/green butterfly face.  Man, getting those face paints was brilliant.  Brian thinks I should contact town and see about doing face paint art for tips during third thursdays next year.  Hmm...

We had fun wandering around, listening to music, dancing, and eating ice cream

Love spending time enjoying the outside and being with my family.

Tamlin's riding a bike!

Most of this summer, Tamlin has opted to ride his scooter or his bigwheel...both are favorite modes of transportation around the house and beach.  Jude also loves riding around on his scooter or his little blue racecar.  Even Liam, the boy across the street, got a scooter so that all three of the boys could cruise around together (like a pack!). 

Then Liam got a big boy bike (He's in third grade and 1.5 years older than Tam). 
So, Tamlin had to get out his little blue bike with the training wheels.  He was too big for it, with his knees nearly hitting him in the nose.  But, the next bike up that we had didn't have the training wheels.
He was in a spot...ride the too little bike or learn how to balance on the bigger bike.

I swear it only took 2 days of practice after school and WHAM...he got it.
One miniute Brian and I were holding onto the seat and running beside him and the next minute... we are letting go and he is riding...RIDING...by himself.
Tears.
There might have been tears, since my fist born is growing up so fast.
And videos of the feat to show everyone!
He was zooming around the car parked in the driveway and up and down the sidewalk. 
Now breaking he hasn't quite mastered.   The handlebar breaks are a bit too widespread for his hands and he forgets about the pedal breaks.  Instead, he does what most of us did and just runs into things to stop or leaps off his bike and lets it crash to the ground.



We still won't let him into our street to ride without one of us right with him (too many cars) and the whole lacking of breaking thing.  Instead, we head out to our local parks and safety town to cruise around among the trees.

 And Jude wants to be just like his big brother, so he is now riding the little blue bike with the training wheels.

Zoom....Zoom....

Off they go!
 Now Brian and I need bikes so we can all head out and ride together.