Kitchen helper

I got Jakey some of his own kitchen utensils and he is proving to be very good at making --and tasting brownies. At first he mixed pretty well, only tasting a little bit.

Then it turned into a crazy batter eating free for all.

Superhero capes

A couple of capes made for a birthday party this weekend. There is only 1 birthday boy, but I thought, what fun is a cape without someone to be your sidekick, so I made one for his sister. They are personalized with their initials.

Velcro closure for easy-on and off. Made from half vintage and half M & L fabric.

Halloween magic

This year Jacob was old enough to enjoy all of the Halloween festivities. He decided to be Spiderman for Halloween more than a month ago, so I was able to get most of his costume secondhand. The only thing we had to buy in the store was the mask. Here he is preparing to dive into Candyland.

He also directed the pumpkin carving this year. He wanted a mad pumpkin and a happy one. This was the mad pumpkin, and it won for scariest pumpkin at our annual Halloween pumpkin carving party.

Cool finds

I haven't been posting many of my finds on my blog, but I have been finding a few really cool items. We have a great little used bookstore near our house and I go there often. I try not to go too much because I find too many great books. However, I was glad I stopped in a few weeks ago because I found these beauties. I have them listed in my shop right now.

This one actually sold a few minutes after I listed it. It is a beautiful fairy tale book with very unique illustrations. I almost couldn't part with it, because I love the style of the illustrations. However, I have a ton of fairy tale books that I don't read, so I thought I would just list it. I hope I don't regret selling this one.

Remember this old toy? I loved my Spirograph. I filled paper after paper with these crazy drawings. They never looked as good as the ones on the demo though. I found a bunch of these at a church rummage sale, but I held back and only bought 1.

Spiderman!

Jakey knew that he wanted to be Spiderman for Halloween months ago. This gave me time to scout out the best costume--which I actually found at his daycare yard sale. When I first got it, he couldn't be parted from it, not even for a quick wash. It was pretty cute. Then, he got out his Spiderman coloring book and wanted to try out all of the poses. He also realized from looking at the Spiderman pictures that he was missing the all important mask, gloves and boots that would make his costume complete. Today, Nate found a mask to go with his costume at a Halloween store, so his costume is complete.

Jakey --3 years old

Jacob is 3 now. He is our little buddy. He loves to play with Playdoh, watch movies and play with his cars. He sometimes sleeps with his George Monkey or his superhero cape. He really likes his cape because he can fly in it. He was inspired to ask for a cape because his friend Jasper sported one at Jakey's birthday party.

He loves to ride on trains, go on walks with mom and dad, ride in the bike trailer, dogs and cats, go to parties, eat lollipops, sing Deep and Wide, read Berenstein Bears books, watch Bug's Life and Cars, listen to Sesame Street songs in the car and go swimming in the wading pool with dad.

He has recently started to wear underwear. We've had a few accidents, but none while we were out. He has managed to go to the bathroom pretty well in public restrooms, but he seems to forget about it while we are at home.

He really wants 3 baby brothers like his friend Z., and he wants a dog.

Friends

Here we are visiting some old friends. Jakey got to play in their amazing treehouse, and he got to watch Curious George all in the same day.

These are some of his last moments with the Sponge Bob wall. He had a great time throwing beanbags at it for days after his party. He also got to have a little puppet show, but it finally had to go back to our neighbors.

Fun in SF

I think the highlight of our trip to N.CA was Jakey's first ride on a cable car. He was beyond excited. We had to wait for about an hour to get on and rode it to Fisherman's Wharf. I think it might have been my first time on one too.

We also visited the children's playground at Golden Gate park. It was a lot nicer than I remembered it.

10 Years

It's funny, but this was how I was dressed on our honeymoon 10 years ago. I guess we both just like going to cold, foggy beaches instead of sunny, tropical ones. Mendocino was beautiful and it was fun revisiting parts of the Northern California coast that I hadn't seen in years.

Of course we had to visit a lighthouse. We surprised a few deer as we were walking back to the main trail.

This is the view from our B & B.

More party fun

Superhero strikes again. Here is my bargain basement pinata. It actually doesn't look too bad in the pictures. It also holds a LOT of candy which might not be a good thing.

After a summer of birthday parties, Jakey's pinata swing is improving. He's really learning to get his weight behind his swing.

Good old Guinness Chocolate cake. Death by chocolate, but such a pleasant way to go.

Here is Mr. Cake face admiring his presents. We had a hard time getting him to move from present to present. He always wanted to just open up the present he just got and play with that one for a while.

Jakey's party

Fun food made its appearance at the party. We tried to have all of Jakey's favorites. In the jars, we had kettle corn, oatmeal cookies, chex mix and animal crackers. Of course we also had dinosaur cake and his favorite sandwiches.

Jakey spent a lot of time in the pool. He had a great time with his friends. He probably would have stayed there the whole time if we didn't force him to get out and eat something.

I found these awesome foam animal visors at Michael's. All the kids got one and got to wear them at the party. Jakey had a few that he was interchanging depending on his mood.

Here is our visiting superhero trying his hand at the beanbag toss. Love the cape!

New paint job!!!

Our house just got freshly painted. The base color is pretty similar, but it's all patched and painted evenly now. The big difference is the trip color. We have 2 colors now instead of just one, and we chose sage green and dark red for the contrasting trim colors. We are SO happy with how it all turned out. Our painters did a great job.

They sanded the door and refinished it, so now the oak veneer comes out instead of being painted over.

They also suggested painting the garage door to match the house. It also makes a big difference.