Halloween week

Remember our friends, the fun Marten family who treated us to some ‘glamping’? Well they put on a super fun Halloween party at their home – with a magician, aerialist, and amazing food! And of course their family and friends are always fun as well.  After that, we felt the urge to decorate our own front door and as always – E and Z’s dad got some great annual Halloween costume portraits .. have a great weekend everyone!

zoe hangs with a skeletal pianist

Ms Marten has her own little Dorothy too!

 

I love the juice boxes wrapped as mummies and infusion bags of frozen red punch

yes, they had an aerialist at the party!

mozzarella and olive ‘eyes’

and then days later at our own home before Halloween night…

Austin Powers, yeah baby!

And Dorothy with basket of Toto (Louie was too tired for the role)

Read Full Post »

And more scenes from October

We had some tombstones and skeletons that we bought at the store (as well as last year’s fuzzy spider) and sadly they all got swiped from our front lawn a week ago! Enter: the challenge to make some decorations that would live INSIDE our house and away from the elements (and sticky fingers). Zoe and Ezra made bats out of paper and a ghost to hang from the tree, and I made some big eyes to look down at potential thieves. It was fun getting some time to do things from scratch – like trying our hands at carving pumpkins. E and Z’s dad is the pro at instructing us on this .. Look how proud these little artist are! And roasting the seeds at the end is the best reward.

the objects before they disappeared from our lawn!

our more creative option to keeping the decorations inside

so proud

roasted with salt, brown sugar, and curry powder!

Rocky and Unicorn enjoy the decorations before moving out to get candy – photo by gregkesslerphoto.com

Read Full Post »

This is all new to us –

Last year at this time we crammed all our boxes and furniture into our newly spruced up home – and the kids explored the new alley and celebrated Halloween. This year we are settled and this whole ‘decorating outdoors’ thing is SO new to us! We love it. Heck, handing out candy is pretty new to us as well – so hopefully we’ll have enough to go all night (and all day? How does one handle a Saturday Halloween?!)
Have a great weekend.

Read Full Post »

Spring Beautiful Things

photos from ohhappyday.com

Since we’ve had a couple warm days this week I must admit, I wasn’t perusing blogs like I usually do. But these little gems did catch my eye and I had to share. Have a great weekend!

— Zoe is so into watching flowers bloom this season, I’d love to make her this hat.

— A dad does hair with a vacuum. I could’ve used this for Zoe’s dance recital!

— Performance art meets soliciting on the subway. This is hilarious!

— Pretty little girl’s room.

— A very cool consignment shop in Virginia.

— Have your heard of quilling? Amazing!

— Cutest pinterest page ever of kid’s stuff.

— Time to build this in our garden – our kids would love it.

— Can’t wait to take Ezra to this fuel efficient car show. (Thanks Jill!)

Read Full Post »

More Beautiful Things for a cold Friday

Instagram shot by Ben Blair.

— Oh how I want to be Betty. I need to take the kids to Paris soon.

— YUM hot chocolate made with coconut milk!

— Have you seen these fireflies in Japan?

— E and Z’s dad deserves this great new mag for dads.

— I tried to design something like this in college but it didn’t turn out nearly as great.

— Get ready for valentine’s day – send some love in a box.

— My stylist friend from Martha Stewart taught me that grey and white are great in kids’ rooms (or anywhere else). Here’s a great example.

— Living small is a virtue.

— More beautiful bird nests.

— Something new I learned about this week: vertical gardens.

— Can I live here please? And Ezra will take the car.

Read Full Post »

Sukkot in Rochester

Ezra and Zoe joined their cousins at Sunday school this past weekend and had an opportunity to decorate and eat in the sukkah at Temple Sinai at the end of Sukkot. I have to admit, this is one of my favorite Jewish holidays. Maybe it’s the New England girl in me – I love celebrating the change of seasons. This holiday really highlights the harvest, eating outdoors with friends, and who doesn’t love decorating an outdoor hut? I thought for sure Ezra would love it seeing as he loves making shelters these days.
Zoe and her cousin got to make some paper chains for the sukkah and Ezra and cousin Jake learned the Hebrew word for hand (Yad) among a host of other things like Blessing for the Arba Minim, which I’ve never learned! (thank you Temple Sinai for letting us visit)

mmmm doughnut holes for noshing!

Read Full Post »