Testing, Testing

I have to admit, the thought of the holidays rapidly approaching is giving more than just a bit of anxiety.

Thankfully, I bought Isaac a great Christmas sweater months ago. I bundled him up and we took full advantage this afternoon of the first bit of sunshine we've seen in weeks!!

Now that I have a plethora of photos to choose from, now I'm off in search of the perfect photo card to send out. Wish me luck. . .

Halloween Delight

I realize this is a tad bit late, but I'm going to just run with it.

This year for Halloween, Isaac and I were invited to a party just for babies. It was loads of fun! It was comical to try and line them all up for a group shot, but I pushed to get it done. These are the kids who we hang out with the most, and I have a feeling, we will for many years to come. I thought it would be a sweet idea to get a group shot of them every year. (notice how not a single parent is looking at the camera) Isaac was a tiger (thanks to EBay). He's really perfected his tiger growl, so I thought it was fitting.

We also went to a party at one of the local libraries, which was also a blast. There was a mini haunted house, tons of sweet treats, Isaac stuck to pretzels, coloring, and even a hay ride.

I didn't take him out that night, since he doesn't eat sweets, unfortunately I discovered he too is allergic to chocolate. A cupcake at the party, had bad results. We have many, many years to take advantage of the nighttime fun of Halloween. We tried to do it in reverse, bring all the sweets we had at our house to my brothers', but Isaac fell asleep before we even left the driveway!

The Pumpkin Festival

This afternoon, our favorite local farm, Morning Glory Farm, hosted a pumpkin festival! I'm not quite sure how I had never been before, or how I'd never even heard of it before, but I'm so happy that we went!

There were many pumpkin themed activities, pumpkin carving, painting, bowling, ect. Lots of pumpkin treats, pies, cakes, donuts, soups. And lots of other yummy smelling food, which is all grown or raised (beef/chicken) on the farm.

My mom, Isaac and I bundled up, it was so chilly today, and headed down the street. I could not believe how many people were there! The cars were backed up for more than a mile on each side of the road, before and after the farm itself.

Once we were there, we saw two young Alpacas, the same baby cows we had seen a few weeks before, they're still just as tiny. They must have remembered Isaac, because they welcomed him back with wet, warm kisses.

We went on a hay ride, saw a few gorgeous ponies, and admired all the glorious pumpkins! I'm not quite sure how it happened, but we managed to leave without eating anything with pumpkin, and we left without one! Ha, good thing we're close by!

Fall Fun in New Hampshire

Over this past weekend, my parents, Isaac and I hit the road and headed north. My oldest sister Andi, bought a house there in the early part of the summer, but with the hectic schedule that we all had, non of us had been able to get up there.

Isaac was a real trooper in the car, I think it was partly because I was in the backseat with him, which I enjoyed just as much, if not more than he did!

We saw so many gorgeous fall colors, which haven't reached us here at the Vineyard quite yet. Got to meet Andi's two wonderful dogs, who Isaac fell in love with in only a matter of moments. By the end of the weekend, I think the love was mutual.

It was such a fabulous time, we went for a great early morning stroll with Andi and the dogs, or the "woofs" as Isaac calls them. We had a few scenic drives, she's in a fantastic little town called Barrington, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Lots of farms, and streams, and ponds. Tractors, and old split rail fences. My kind of town. There was a terrific apple picking orchard not too far away, with a petting zoo, although we weren't allowed to pet the animals, hay rides, tons and tons of apples, apple cider, fritters, ice cream, you name it! Isaac got to pick his very first apple, it was from the ground, but still, he picked it! I was so proud!

Harvest Festival

This morning, Isaac and I met up with some friends at the Living Local Harvest Festival in West Tisbury. I had never been before, and quite frankly didn't even know such a thing existed. I'm really happy I heard about it. The weather was simply amazing, very unlike fall weather, but I don't mind a little extra sunshine!

We got to see w hole bunch of local organizations showing off their goods. The very first table to grab Isaac's attention had an open sided bee hive. VERY exciting! He just stood there, gazing up at it going bzzzzzz bzzzzz bzzzzz, very adorable.

There were many local farms who came, and blessed us all with delicious food! Isaac had some zucchini bread, and many slices of apples. I had an amazing, and huge veggie burrito. All made with local organic ingredients.

We saw a local pig being roasted, which although it smelled good, always makes me gag to look at. There were two 4 week old baby cows, who Isaac took to right away. They were very friendly and loved to be pet. I had no idea that a cow had a purple tongue. One of the cows was VERY kissy, which is how I found this out.

We hopped aboard a house and carriage ride around the place, which was allot of fun. There was pumpkin carving, and pumpkin chucking, from this enormous catapult contraption, face painting, pony rides, alpacas to pet, I had no clue they were so soft! We saw gorgeous local flowers and vegetables galore.

I'm already looking forward to the next fall festival in just a few weeks! It's days like this that I can't imagine ever living anywhere else.

Baby Shower Fun

The first one of the moms from our close-knit mothers group, Carrie, is due any day now with her second baby. She and her husband Matt, are expected a little boy, who shall be named Weston. They have already been blessed with a beautiful baby girl, named Story, who funny enough, was the first baby besides his reflection, that Isaac ever saw. I don't want to read too much into it, but I'm almost positive that it was love at first glance.

We only had a few very short weeks to pull off a baby shower, and keep it a secret! Each of us were very concerned with our secret keeping skills, but in the end, we pulled it off wonderfully! Carrie was completely surprised, and very thrilled, which is what it was all about.

I had seen, but never attempted to make, a diaper cake. It turned out to be a huge hit. I created a name banner for the baby-to-be, using the same technique that I used for Isaac's birthday flag. I spent so long on that birthday flag, I had the process down pat. I also created a few keepsake onesies. Nothing too fancy, just a few that I thought she'd get a kick out of. I only wish I took a picture of all of them, as a finished project.

I can't wait to meet Mr. Weston! Good luck Carrie!

Two pumpkins amongst the pumpkins

This afternoon a friend and I strolled our little guys down the road a bit, to one of my favorite local farms. Morning Glory Farm! I noticed on Friday that they've already started putting pumpkins out and have been anxious to get over there and take some pictures! I just love all the fall colors. I just wish the weather would cool off a little bit, it's still far too humid for my liking.

They're having a pumpkin festival in a few weeks, so you better believe we'll be there, camera fully charged!

365 days old

Yesterday we had a wonderful time with a few of Isaac's good friends. I made him apple, carrot cake cupcakes, a recipe that I found through Happy Baby. I also made him a birthday banner flag, which took me much longer than I thought it would!

I was so wrapped up in the moment, I didn't take any pictures! Lucky for us, our amazing friend Ariel brought her camera with her, and snapped a few great shots!

We have another party, with just family tomorrow night, hopefully I'll snap a few myself!

Just out for a stroll

For a few weeks now, Isaac has been taking a few steps here and there. Today at the beach, just after my sister made the comment, "he's taking one, two steps, then plop!" As if that was almost a challenge, he stood up, and strolled down the beach! Almost leaving the rest of us in the dust.

Almost One. . .

Last night, a great friend, who happens to be an amazing photographer, snapped some gorgeous shots of Isaac. She did his six month portraits, and it's mind blowing how much he's changed since then.

I'm simply flabbergasted that he's almost one year old! I have to admit, it makes me a little bit sad. The time seemed to literally whip past me and lightning fast speed.

http://www.arielthomasphotography.com/

A break in the rain, finally!

For the past three days it's been nothing but rain, rain, rain, wind and more rain. I think we were all going a little bit stir crazy, being cooped up in the house.

I felt bad for Michael's sister, she arrived on Monday night, luckily, on one of the last boats to run. But since she's arrived, it hasn't stopped raining. Until this afternoon that is!

As soon as the rain stopped, we packed up the car and headed up island! Menemsha it is! I hadn't been there once this summer, and thought today would be as good as any. There were no crowds, just a few brave souls on the beach.

I still want to try and make it up there for a sunset one of these nights!

It was a bit chilly yesterday morning

Thank goodness for Isaac's furry boots! (Another great EBay find)

My little music man

For those of you who know Isaac, you know how musical he is. He's never been too shy about his love of percussion instruments, and the xylophone, but now he can add the kazoo to his instrumental talent list. I'm pretty sure that any day now, I'll have a little one man band in our living room!

(In this video, Fluffen ran by, that's when you hear him say "cat". Then he dropped his book, and his kazoo on her, followed by the appropriate, "uh oh")

A very sad dragon

Yes, I realize that Halloween is still 70 days and 8 hours away, but still. I like to be prepared. Yesterday was jam-packed with cleaning and loads of laundry. Neither of which was very fun for Isaac.

While I was in the basement, on laundry load two or three, I came across his Halloween costume. I thought it'd be fun to dress him up in it, and let him stomp around for a while. Boy was I wrong. Instead of having a scary, growling dragon, I had a very, very sad dragon instead.

I think I need to rethink his costume idea for this year. . .

Isaac and Evy take on the Fair!

This morning a friend and I brought our babies to this years agricultural fair. And in all aspects, I think it was a huge success! They're still a bit too young for the rides or any of the food, which was just fine by me! I'm not a fan of either anyway.

We got to see a whole bunch of sheep, big and small. Little goats, even smaller ponies. One was only a few weeks old, and VERY adorable! We saw come beautiful cows, and the largest horses I've ever seen! Their backs were taller than my shoulders!

Both of us kept the strollers at a safe distance, there was a donkey who looked like he wanted to eat something more than hay.