Halloween Hokey-Pokey

Milo was not impressed.

Joy

Milo and Daddy ride the scooter.
So what if it's 90 degrees; this hat is too cute to wait for the cold!

Just before releasing these balloons,

Madeline danced into the room singing Joy to the World. Indeed.

Baby's First

We were honored to help celebrate the first birthday of the son of my cake decorating buddy, J. Milo loved playing with all their toys, but don't give him too many ideas Miss. M!

Here is a nice picture of J and I. I would like to take credit for these shots, but I lifted them from the talents of her main man and my friend, L. Here is a beautiful picture of mom, dad and birthday boy. Older brother E is not pictured. Thanks for including us you guys! PS. She made the cake; it was great!

Gymboree Halloween Party

Friday night we went to a Halloween party at Gymboree. He was too overwhelmed to enjoy most of it. I think the clown and all the kids in costume really freaked him out. There was a parade, story time, crafts and snack. Nonna got Milo his little susper-cute costume. Sadly, this is one of the only smiles, and I took this picture as we were leaving the party.

More Party Pictures

Story Time

Milo really enjoyed the storytime part of the party.

Zoo Fall Fun

Here are some pictures from the zoo last weekend. It looks very fall-like, but it's because it's 10:30 am. When we left at 11:30, the temp was creeping up towards the 90's again. I hear you Hoosiers are cooling off. I'm jealous.

Growing and Growing!

Here are some shots of Milo at the park. I took over 20 pictures, but these were the only decent ones as he moves quickly these days! His friends Maddie and Sophie move even quicker!

This park has a lot of musical toys. Milo's sense of rhythm gets better all the time. At the Gymboree class we take, they have this activity where they beat on this air log in time with the music. When the music stops, they out their hands on their heads to "freeze." In the silence of the freeze, he, alone, lets out this magical giggle. It's kind of embarrassing to tear up at Gymboree, but my kid is so amazing to me.
Milo can say many more words lately: cheese, shoes, eyes, hi, DaDa and now Mommy! I love it. It's music to my ears. He also likes to hold my hand when walking or going up and down stairs. Before he would dig in and pull away, but now he reaches up his tiny hand to mine. In this last picture, we were headed toward the ducks. I swear he would have jumped in with them. Some friendly people gave us some bread to share with the ducks (K there is a sign posted not to, but everyone does.) he loved throwing the bread and watching them dive. Thankfully he didn't take a dive.

Happy Columbus Day

We celebrated Columbus Day with two of our good friends and many of their Italian friends. Milo looked adorable, as always, for the party, and I made a special "Italian" cake. This was the icing on the cake, if you will, for a great weekend. Friday night was just quiet at home, Saturday morning we went to Gymboree and Saturday evening was the pumpkin patch. Sunday morning, Milo and I went to the zoo since the weather gave us a cooler day and this evening was the party. Lyman also commented that he was having a great weekend, but I think he was talking about his teams winning their games.

Corn!

I knewMilo would want in on this treat.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday evening we all went to the pumpkin patch and had a great time. In LA it's more of a carnival feel with things to ride or climb, bounce houses and farm animals that aren't part of our usual landscape.

A slice of life

Tonight was my last cake class. and look at the final product! Thank you Jen for inviting me to join the class with you; I never even considered this hobby, and I had a lot of fun learning something new. I know Jen is going to take level 2, but I am going to take a little break so I have enough time to read the next book for book club. Right now, it's time to eat.

So Cute It's Scary

Donna got this little outfit for M during her visit and we finally had a cool day for him to wear it.

Look at M holding on to my leg. I love it.

Let them eat cake!

Here is my first real attempt at decorating a cake. My instructor says our oven is not level, and that is why the cake is off center. I forgot my nice cake plate at school when I took last week's leftovers, and my everyday china pattern doesn't go well with this clown motif. I wasn't really thinking about the colors; I was just trying out all tips and experimenting with the food coloring. Basically, I am a little disappointed with the final look (especially since my friend Jennifer's looked better than the one in the book!), but it tasted super good. In fact, tonight, I ruined the chicken I was making for dinner, so I ate cake instead. I'm feeling kind of run down-catching a cold or something. My throat is all tight, I've had a headache and nothing but cake sounds appealing to eat. It's such a rotten feeling to know that a cold is coming and worse, that soon your child will get it and I'll feel helpless to help him understand why he feels badly. Then my husband will get it, and I will feel helpless to give him the amount of sympathy he requires. Also I am overwhelmed by the amount of jobs there are to do- daily, weekly and monthly chores. I mean I live in a shoebox, it's not much surface, but it seems like a lot when I look around. I keep thinking how lucky I am to live in a small space, because I don't know how I would manage a large one. Is that off base? Tell me those of you in big homes (and to be that is a home with 2 or more baths and 3 or more bedrooms) is it easier or harder? Maybe since you have more space you don't touch and dirty every inch every day? Also, everyone who qualifies, chime in and tell me your rock bottom moment when you made the call to hire someone to clean your home. Oh, and save your comments if you're just going to tell me to get some meds for my O.C.D. You can post that on L's blog; I'm a lot cause in that department, but I may turn out to be a good cake decorator.