Happy Halloween from Tool Guy and Frozone. I'm going to do something I rarely do...post more than one photo from today. These two characters are just too cute not to include separate photos of each. Enjoy!
Our favorite superhero: Frozone!
Our favorite handyman: Tool Guy
Aside from a helicopter crane closing off part of Michigan Avenue and putting me and my fellow hotel-mates on lockdown for an hour and a half, it was a pretty smooth travel day back to WI.
It was a lovely trip but I was beyond excited to see these crazy guys when I got home. They're just the best.
I'm living the Chicago dream! A quiet morning filled with reading and eating the delicious breakfast captured above, followed by an afternoon + evening spent snuggling my new best friend (baby Mae).
It was a really good day.
I'm so sorry for missing yesterday's post. I have a good excuse, though! I spent most of the day prepping for today's trip to Chicago and didn't have the energy to pull my phone back out after I fell into bed. Forgive me!
Why am I here, you might ask? No, not for the World Series (the city is crazy because of that, by the way). Mary Catherine is here for a wedding so I popped down to meet her new baby and score some highly-anticipated baby snuggles while Mary Catherine performs her maid of honor duties. Win-win.
Side note: baby snuggles are the best, aren't they?
Chase's school hosted a fall festival today so we got to try out the boys' Halloween costumes. That's right...the big reveal of their costumes comes early.
Chase is Frozone from The Incredibles movie. He wanted to be a superhero and after listing about 20 options, he selected Frozone. I was happy...no kit for this superhero so we pieced the costume together (thanks, Amazon and a local thrift store) and I'm pretty sure we won't see another Frozone quite like him.
Robbe requested a "tool guy" costume so that's what he is. Probably the cutest tool guy you've seen.
I'm sure there will be additional costume photos to come. Don't worry!
You know it was a busy weekend when you're still posting photos of it on Tuesday. I hope you don't mind yet another catch up day. The photo of Chase, Robbe, and their [second?] cousins was just too cute not to share.
Plus, I think this was the boys' first official campfire complete with s'mores. That's definitely blog-worthy.
Chris took Chase to a pretty fantastic superhero party over the weekend. I just received this collage in my inbox from the party's "photo booth".
The local Children's Museum did a fantastic job organizing an impressive series of challenges and tasks geared towards helping the kids hone their super powers. You'll be glad to hear our budding superhero gave it rave reviews.
There's already discussion about whether Robbe will be old enough to attend next year. So far there are two "yes" votes from the younger demographic and two "undecided" votes from the older demographic.
The boys have been itching to help their great uncles harvest their corn (and Grandpa Paul was pretty excited, too). Today was the day!
The rides in the tractor, and then the combine, and then the feed truck were almost too much excitement for their little bodies to take.
Thanks to Eric, Mark, and Justin for taking the time to entertain our little guys!
We spent the beautiful fall morning (I feel like a broken record bragging about this amazing weather), carving this year's pumpkin display. Chase requested a "spooky spider" and Robbe requested a "boo" (a ghost).
I wouldn't say it was our most impressive carving session, but we had fun and the quality family time was appreciated by all.
**Note: I promise to post a pic of the carved pumpkins when we light them up. Stay tuned.
Nothing screams fall like heaping serving of apple crisp. It's probably my favorite dessert. And, thanks to my Aunt Pam, I finally found the perfect recipe. I realized what I need the most out of apple crisp is the crunchy, sweet oats + brown sugar topping. This recipe has plenty of that. Hope you enjoy.
3 cups apples, peeled and sliced (I prefer Cortland, of course)
Cinnamon
2/3 stick butter
1/3 cup flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spread apples in a greased 9x9 pan. You want a decent layer of apples so add extra slices if you think it looks a little sparse. Sprinkle apples with cinnamon.
Melt butter and stir in the brown sugar.
Add flour and oatmeal to the butter + sugar. Mix to a crumbly texture. Sppon over apples.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Serves six
Double recipe for 9x13 pan
**Again, special shout out to my Aunt Pam for coming to the rescue with this recipe years ago (October of 2009, to be exact). I hope she's not offended by the *small* tweaks I made. :)
Our go-to open gym has been upgraded. I will always look back at the Sherwood Rec Center and the Coffield Rec Center with warm nostalgia, but man if this place isn't an amazing upgrade from the open gyms the boys have grown up in.
Bouncy obstacle course? Check. Tons of vehicles + trucks? Check. Various toy stations including trains, legos, + puzzles? Check. The downside, though? It's not free (that's probably how it can be so awesome). $3.50/kid, so I won't complain...too much.
Yeah, I think the Eau Claire Indoor Sports Center will be a fine way to spend an occasional cold-weather morning.
This was the view from the playground we visited yesterday. Not too bad, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing.
Here's how I spent my afternoon. Turns out sweeping + raking leaves is no joke, especially when you, once again, have two *helpers* offering their assistance.
It's about time I started my Halloween crafting for the boys' costumes. Nothing like down to the wire (at least for me).
Luckily, I have two really great assistants to make sure our [secret] projects get done.
This was a big weekend. Not only did we have yesterday's birthday celebration, but we got home to prepare for houseguests. Karen, Chris, and James arrived after nap and we did some serious socializing. The little ones played together like champs and the adults stayed up way too late laughing and chatting.
We woke up bright and early (thanks, kiddos) to eat a yummy breakfast (thanks, Chris!) and went for a walk on this beautiful fall day. We watched the kids frolic on the rocks while we sipped coffee. It was glorious.
Then, we said our goodbyes and some of us took super long naps. To wrap up the weekend of socializing, Brian, Tera and the girls came over to hang out and enjoy a delicious carry out dinner. Mmmm, nothing like fried + unhealthy barfood to round out a perfectly indulgent weekend. We'll all sleep well tonight.
Happy birthday, Isabelle! We love you.
You know who loves books more than my boys? Chris's mom. So imagine everyone's excitement when she was visiting when Chase brought home his very first book order form. That's called good timing. To say the boys were slightly excited doesn't come close to covering it. When the books finally arrived this week, there were too many for their little arms to carry.
And the books couldn't have arrived at a better time. With everyone feeling a bit under the weather we needed a distraction. The books have been enjoyed...repeatedly.
Thanks again, Grandma Bibi!
Want a peek inside the room Chase spends three point five hours in four days a week? Here you go!
Cute, right? He continues to love school...everything about it. It makes us all very happy.
The library is hosting an adorable election for the kids to participate in. They get to vote on real ballots in a real voting booth for their favorite Pete the Cat book. We love Pete the Cat! It's perfect.
For the record, the vote from our house was unanimous for the Pete the Cat and his Magic Blue Sunglasses book. When I am notified of the results, I'll let you know.
It might have been 75+ degrees today but the big news at our house is that our new gas fireplace was installed. I'm not sure "excited" sufficiently describes Chris's state as he counted down to today.
Can you believe we didn't have a gas fireplace in any of the five places we've lived in the last ten years? Now hopefully this little guy can bring us a *bit* of joy during the worst of the winter months.
small city | BIG DAYS
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