Halloween 2015: Jurassic World!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!! We had some Halloween fun despite Henry still being under the weather. And our family costume pics turned out so much better than I had imagined! 

Calvin and Henry love dinosaurs, so James and I decided to do a little spin on their dinosaur costumes since the movie Jurassic World came out this past summer. James and I very rarely get to go to the movies, but we did manage to get out and see this one. The boys, of course, don't know anything about Jurassic World - they're too little for that one - so we explained our costumes to them by saying that we were "friends of dinosaurs." ;) James is dressed as Chris Pratt's character, Owen, the "dinosaur whisperer" who trains velociraptors in the movie. I'm supposed to be Bryce Dallas Howard's character, Claire, who is the operations manager of the dinosaur theme park and spends a lot of time on her cell phone, if you ask me. Calvin would tell you that he and Henry are T-rexes, but for the purposes of the Jurassic World theme, they could also be two of Owen's clever and cunning raptors. 

If you haven't seen the film, here are some stills from the movie from jurassicpark.wikia.com.

And here's our version: 

This backdrop at the zoo was perfect for these themed costume pics! And we really just kind of lucked out, we hadn't planned this out ahead of time. We had brought the boys to the zoo just as a Halloween treat, and Calvin was asking to go see the rainforest building. This dinosaur-swampy area is just outside the rainforest building and there happened to be a zoo docent sitting by this dinosaur swamp area taking her break and she was kind enough to snap a few photos for us! I still can't believe how great these turned out. You can tell that Henry was not really a happy camper, but a grumpy toddler makes a decent velociraptor, ha ha. He also would not wear his dinosaur head, even when he wasn't feeling sick, but we decided it was not worth worrying about!

It was a great day to be at the zoo! The big zoo Halloween party was actually the weekend before, so it was pretty quiet on Halloween. Of course we had to let Calvin ride the zoo train in his dinosaur costume and pretend he was riding the Dinosaur Train! 

Later that afternoon, James carved some special dinosaur jack-o-lanterns, as commissioned by Calvin. He did an awesome job! We call them Pumpkinceratops and Pumpkinsaurus Rex.

Poor sick Henry went to bed early with a fever, but Calvin got to go to a Halloween party at our friends' house and do a little trick-or-treating. 

And now it's November!! Can you believe it?? 

How did you spend your Halloween? Any other family theme costumes? 

Summer Photo Shoot 2014

After several very busy weeks with lots of doctor appointments for both boys, this last week has been nice and mellow. We're laying low with Calvin recovering from his clavicle fracture, and we finally have a bit of a lull in appointments. 

Henry's endoscopy procedure is coming up this Friday and I am possibly being incredibly calm about it, or possibly in total denial about it... I think it's actually both. I'm deliberately ignoring the things to worry about and focusing on pragmatics and prayer. Thank you to all those out there who have also been keeping our boys in your thoughts and prayers.

Running has been a really lovely distraction for me. I am really starting to get into it! I pushed myself a little too hard Sunday and Monday (got a 5k PR! 32:22) and am now taking a couple of days off with a sore ankle, but I expect to be back behind that jogging stroller by the end of the week.

And here's another lovely distraction! While visiting Georgia this summer, we snagged the chance to do a photo shoot with a very dear friend of mine who is a professional photographer, Lindsay Christerson. She did a beautiful job and I just can't resist showing off our family photos! I had intended to share these weeks ago, but things got so crazy around here that I didn't get the chance until now. 

Thank you, Lindsay, for these beautiful photos! To see more of her work, check out Lindsay Joy Photography.

I Heart Valentine's Day

I heart Valentine's Day. I pink-puffy-heart Valentine's Day. It's my favorite holiday :)

(Note: Christmas doesn't count as a normal holiday. Christmas is a whole other level of holiday.)

I'm a sucker for all the cheesy romantic cliches and all the pink and red decorations, but mostly I love the idea of a holiday that's all about celebrating love! And not just the romantic kind. Having a life filled with love, being loved, feeling loved and feeling love for others is worth celebrating! I know, I'm a total mush. You can barf if you want.

I guess it was ok for our usual (and totally awesome) babysitter, Hartley, to spend Valentine's day with his girlfriend. This, however, meant that James and I had to spend Valentine's day with our children. Which I guess was also ok.

Actually it was great. I got inspired to set up a special Elegant Valentine's Day Dinner (which is exactly how my very fancy invitations put it) for James and myself and the boys. I figured we could mark my favorite holiday by making family dinner extra-special.

A few days before the 14th, I presented James and the boys with special early Valentine gifts along with fancy invitations to the Elegant Dinner.

The gifts were red clothing items for them to wear to the dinner. (Yes, I micro-managed their wardrobes. I mean, I'm the one who picks out all their clothes anyway! Even James'!)

On Valentine's morning I got up early with Calvin and baked some Sweetheart Cinnamon Rolls (thank you Pillsbury!). Calvin was devastated when I pulled them out of the oven and didn't let him eat them right away.

How can you do this to me, Mama????

I added red sprinkles on top of the icing. You can see my little mini bunting strung between the candlesticks in the background. I made the little flags out of washi tape!

And here he is tearing into that delicious, tiny cinnamon roll that he waited so long for! 

Henry joined us for breakfast even though he is too nittle for cinnamon rolls <3

James went off to work, but the Valentine festivities continued for the Henry and Calvin and me. I made Calvin a hearty lunch...

And then we did some Valentine artwork and made a gift for James from the boys. The writing around the edge says "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."  - which is a quote attributed to Helen Keller. I wanted to make James something he could use to brighten up his cubicle.

When James got home from work we all got dressed up in our fancy reds and took some family photos.

<3   <3   <3   <3

Look at these adorable knuckleheads.

For our Elegant Dinner, I served a salad with heart-shaped beets and a bowtie pasta dish (kind of a copycat of Macaroni Grill's Pasta Milano). And for dessert, mini fruit pizzas!

Sugar cookies as the "crust", then yogurt or chocolate pudding topped with fruit

 

Ok, they didn't really turn out like pizzas because the cookies were so small... but they were adorable and delicious - whatever you want to call them!

I like the idea of doing a fancy family Valentine dinner every year. Valentine's doesn't have to be just for couples! I say spread the mushy gushy sugary sweet Valentine's day love all around! Clearly I can't get enough of it :)

Fall Y'all

We love a family photo shoot! 

For our fall pics this year our friends the Hersh family found a nice little park near Stanford called Sharon Park and we met them there to give each other a hand with picture-taking.

It was hard to get the boys to smile, but they are totally adorable anyway :)

Don't Bite Your Brother's Face