Witches brew party

I'm in need of a girls' night so I'm throwing a party for my girlfriends (and of course if you're one of my girlfriends that lives in town, you're invited) so I'm posting about it here for those who are out of town and looking for a fun way to celebrate Halloween.

Instead of a tea party, I'm throwing a witches brew party. Instead of tea we'll be drinking apple cider. There will be good treats and a make-your-own candy apple bar. I've been gathering toppings to roll your carmel apple in like, pecans, crushed oreos, crushed graham crackers, coconut, chocolate chips, reeses pieces, and sprinkles.. Are there any toppings that I should add?

Each guest is required to come in a decorated witches hat. It doesn't have to be a traditional witches hat, but it does have to look like something that a witch might wear. Here are some examples of amazing witches hats available from Department 56.
The good witch Fall witch

Bad witch

Now I need to come up with prizes for the most creative hat, cutest hat, and best overall hat. Any ideas?

Good Mail

I've been meaning to post a picture of this apron my mom mailed to me as a surprise. I was shopping with her when she bought the fabric to make an apron, but I thought it was for her, not for me. She made a cute Halloween one for Marissa too. I felt bad that she gave both of the aprons away, but she made me feel better when I talked to her and she said, "Well, I don't really wear aprons because you know I don;t really cook!" Good point! I guess I better start cooking so I can wear mine!

The Eating Habits of Creed Atticus

This is Creed when you try to feed him banana baby food.

And this is Creed when you try to feed him Chicken & vegetable baby food.
It cracks me up how he's already refusing food that he doesn't like by tucking his chin into his chest and pursing his lips. As soon as you move the spoon away from him, he'll look up, but as soon as it comes towards him, his head is down again.

And this is Creed after his first teether cracker (and this is ONE cracker that he didn't even finish mind you, the spoon he's chewing on was only there to play with)

Birthday crown

Creed's friend Bella turned one last week and we made her a birthday crown, but I'm just getting around to posting pictures. Creed modeled for me. It was just a really quick project using fleece silver thread and felt scraps (or it would have been a quick project if my sewing machine wasn't skipping stiches)

Candice Stringham Photography

Candice just posted another picture on her blog of Creed's photoshoot while we were in Utah so I'm stealing it to post it here because I HEART this picture! A special thanks to Audrey for sending Creed his cute hat!

Halloween is around the corner!

I've tried to be good and not buy a lot of Halloween decorations this year since we'll be moving next summer. One things I couldn't resist is some Halloween peel and stick wall text from the scrapbooking company Making Memories. I found these in the scrapbooking section at Target. I don't think they are made for outdoors so we'll see how the one above our front door wears.

Sorry for the poor photos, but I couldn't resist sharing!

Look what motherhood is doing to me!

Yesterday as I was running errands around 4:00 with Creed, I was ravenous! I couldn't figure out why I was so hungry, I had the same lunch I've had a few other days (toast, yogurt and an apple because that's a quick lunch) and usually I'm fine.

Fast forward to 9:00 that night. Larry was feeding Creed and I was cleaning up a little. I tell Larry, "Hey, your toast is done."

He says, "What are you talking about? I didn't make toast."

Oh.

Yikes! I can't even remember to eat toast after I've made it and it's not like it takes two hours to cook; I just had to remember for two minutes. And then hours later I didn't even realize that I didn't EAT the toast!

Apple picking

Creed and I went apple picking at the Lynd Fruit Farm on Friday with our friends Meg and Alyssa. It's been crazy hot for October, but we made it early enough to avoid the worst heat of the day. Creed mostly just enjoyed picking weeds to chew on while I picked apples.

The apples didn't interest him much, but he loved the pumpkins

I splurged so besides apples, we came home with baby pumpkins, cider, and pumpkin butter. Who can resist so much fall goodness?

Creed at Six Months

I know, I know, Creed is now six and a half months old and I'm just getting around to posting these pictures! I guess I've just been busy traveling and enjoying how much Creed has grown. He had his six month appointment last week and I said something about what I big guy Creed is and the doctor said, "Yah, I just double checked my chart because I thought there's no way this can be his six month appointment, he seems so much older, but it is." That happen to us all the time, we know a lot of doctors and nurses and even the ones who specialize in pediactrics always guess that Creed is older than he is. So here's our six-month-old boy. Our doctor also said, "He's really . . . um . . . energetic." Uh that's putting it nicely! He's always on the move. This month not only did he start sitting up on his own, but he's really trying to crawl. He struggles and struggles. He gets up on his hands and toes with his bum way up in the air. He kicks his legs, but he hasn't figured out his arms and most of the time he scoots backwards and gets really frustrated as he moves further from the object he's trying to reach. This pictures was taken in California when he backed himself under a chair and got stuck.

The exciting news is that today he MOVED FORWARD!!!!! It was only about a foot and a half, but it was a step in the right direction. He's really going to be on the move in no time.

This week he started on stage two baby food and a sippy cup with water (that he just likes to chew on)

He's started napping during the day, which is a lifesaver, and he has been such a trooper in all of our travels this month. I can't believe he's already half a year old. It's so fun to watch his personality emerging and I love that he reaches for us when he wants to be picked up now. He wakes up slowly from naps and likes to be cuddled for a bit before he's ready to play. He likes playing with his toys, but his greatest loves are any kind of paper and plastic bags. We can't wait to see what he will do next!

CA Day 6

We spent our last day in California packing in all sorts of fun. We started off with breakfast and Mimi's Cafe with the Giglias and somehow forgot to take even one picture! It was so good to see Erin and Bryan and meet PJ and they spoiled us with lots of clothes for Creed. I also had the best pumpkin pancakes. Everytime we eat out, Larry takes a bite of my food and says something like, "Oooooo, Steph, I'm sorry you lost. Your food is ok, but mine is way better!" and I roll my eyes, but this time Larry actually said, "Wow! I think you made a good choice! My food is good, but you won!" Now I NEED a recipe for pumpkin pancakes.

After breakfast we headed to the Orange County Children's Literature festival. This is Creed checking out a baby zebra at the petting zoo. Then Larry decided Creed needed to be introduced to Ikea. I can't believe that I took this picture with my old point-and-shoot camera!

Then it was on to our second book signing of the week to meet Jon Scieszka author of the several fabulous picture books including the oh so wonderful The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, as told by A. Wolf. I'll have to blog more about it on my child lit blog later.

Afte rthe signing went went to and ice cream social for Larry's mom's ward. We left a little early to visit the parents of Larry's best friend from high school so Larry could show off Creed. I love seeing how proud Larry is of Creed.

Did I mention that this was Larry's birthday? Larry's mom told him to pick any restaurant he wanted for his birthday dinner and of course he decided to go back to In N Out. After scarfing it down we made it to see Transformers at the dollar theater, which may seem like a lame way to celebrate, but Larry really wanted to see it so I think he was happy.