Halloween Photo Contest Winner! Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray! Justin won a Halloween Photo Contest, run by the creator of Super Why! And, since he was dressed as Super Why, I thought we might have a good shot!

We won! Tied with a little bumblebee. Here's the link to the post.  And the prize is an autographed Super Why Halloween book.  Buddy will love it!

Halloween Contest

And, I now know who creates our favorite show, Super Why - Angela Santomero. Here's a link to her website and to her twitter feed.

Thanks Angela for making such a great show, and for choosing us the winners of your contest!

#almostfamous

No jacket required.

It was no jacket weather just two weeks ago!! And we were having fun at one of our many pumpkin patch excursions!

My little superhero, the cookie lover.

I haven't posted any Halloween pictures of my little Super Why yet, but here's a sneak peek of his costume.

Here's the little Superhero very much enjoying a delicious cookie that he decorated. We were at a fantastic Halloween event, Bubbleween

We had just decorated our cookies, and I turned around for a second, to turn back and see Buddy immediately and quickly devouring his treat.  I quickly followed with the cookie I had just decorated. He is definitely like his momma!

Super Cookie.

More Halloween pics to come soon!  

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday.

Pumpkin picking fun.

We went pumpkin picking for the first time last weekend at a place called Didier Farms.  It was so much fun!  They had large Halloween themed cutouts, kiddie rides, pony rides, a pumpkin patch (obviously!), homemade apple cider doughnuts (yum), a bouncy pumpkin  house and more.

Justin had such a great time.  He was mesmerized by the rows and rows of pumpkins and just loved picking out his own.  He even held it on his little lap all the way home.  It was really sweet.

Of course, I took a ton of pictures, and rather than write all about the trip, I thought I'd let the photos tell the story of our trip to Didier Farms.

Hello! I'm riding the bus!

Ooh, a purple haunted house!

Yes Ma'm, I do know how to drive.

I'm driving a fire truck!

Running through pumpkins.

This might be a good one.

I love my pumpkin.

Daddy and the little pumpkin.

Me and my pumpkin.

Justin's Sesame Street party: part 2 (party pics).

You probably (hopefully!) already read Part 1 of Justin's Sesame Street birthday party, which was all about the planning and the decorations (if not, visit here to read).  Now here are some great pics of the birthday boy enjoying his party "so much" (his words).  And what a sweetheart he is, hugging and kissing all of his little friends! Enjoy!

Birthday boy in action!

Hugs with his "older" friend Lila.

Kisses for his friend Noah.

Tickles from his friend Colin.

Big hugs from cousin Abby.

Little friends hanging out.

Blowing out candles with some help from mom & dad.

Great big friends and great little friends.

Happy Trio.

I adore this little boy.

I can't believe my little boy is already two!  It's incredible to watch him grow and learn. And such a happy happy little boy he is. Justin brightens our lives every day! Happy Birthday little buddy!

And now it's time to start thinking about birthday #3! Will it be Thomas? Super Why? White Sox Baseball?  We shall see....

In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions for themes or great sites for party ideas (or even better, your own), let me know! 

Justin's Sesame Street birthday party: part 1.

Last weekend was Justin's 2nd birthday party.  The party was at Bubbles, a local Chicago children's "play" venue, and the theme was Sesame Street.

When I decided to have a Sesame Street theme, I knew that I did not want it to be too overtly Sesame (think Sesame Street party kits), so I decided to focus on bright primary colors and accent with Sesame Street decor.

It turned out great and I'm excited to share with you all a look at the party.  Keep on reading and have a look!

Summer favorites.

This week's p.52 theme is summer favorites. Here are some highlights of our summer:

Staying cool in the Apple Store fountain.

Trotting along the Evanston lakefront path.

My two favorite people!                      

Climbing.

Daddy and his boy at the zoo.

First time at the ocean.

Sprinkler time.

Enjoying the kiddie merry go round.

Family fun at the pool.

And the summer's not over yet!

Don't he make you smile.

That's kind of a line from the Pearl Jam song, "Smile".  It's really, "Don't it make you smile".

Had to share this joyful picture of the little boy. He sure does make me smile. His smile is infectious.

Happy boy.

Smiling Happy Boy.

My (little) movie star.

Creative licensing for this week's (week 29) p.52 weekly photo challenge theme, which is "movie party". Okay, here we go. Try to follow along.

Movie party = movie = movie stars = going incognito (or going glam) = way oversized shades (& baseball caps if going the incog route) = buddy in this picture.

Plus, he is the subject of 99% of my photos AND we haven't made popcorn in years!

ps - Those are my sunglasses, if that wasn't obvious.

How to entertain a toddler on an airplane.

This post is a combo of both a recommendation and my p.52 photo challenge. 

First, the photo challenge portion....kaboom is the theme (subtitle: fireworks) for this week (week 27).  Yikes I say (I do not have any pictures of fireworks).

Okay - what do I have from the 4th of July? Well, we just returned home from a fantastic trip to San Diego, and we left on the 4th of July. Which also happened to be Buddy's 22nd month birthday.  

So, a photo of Buddy on the 4th of July. En route to San Diego. Enthralled in an episode of Thomas and wearing his own special earphones, which he loved. 














Which leads me to my recommendation of how to entertain a toddler on an airplane.  Forget little toys, forget books -- too many tchatchkes and hard to bring them all along and not drop them.  One item needed. 

Portable Media Device. 

Plus, kid-friendly earphones.  I recommend Kidz Gear Wired Headphones for Kids.  

And your little one's favorite shows burned onto your media player.  Sesame Street. Thomas. Dora. Muppets. Arthur. Calliou. Toy Story. Any or all of the above.

We brought several episodes of Sesame Street and Thomas the Train along on our "portable media device" and it kept the little boy entertained almost the entire flight - there and home!  That's eight hours total.  

So, I want to write more about our trip to San Diego, but I'll keep this post shorter, since it's for the photo challenge too. Sorry my pic doesn't scream Kaboom - but it's as close to the theme as I got! 

And on a related note, the fireworks in San Diego happened to all go Kaboom at once. Twenty minutes worth of fireworks all went off at the same instant.  And it was right outside our hotel window - check it out.

Hope you all had a great 4th! 

P.52 photo challenge: week 26.

School's Out - this week's theme.

So, Buddy is too young for school and subsequently, for school to be out, but school being out sure signifies summer (cue music....school's out, for summer...).  Even though it's been hot, hot, hot (cue music again) in the midwest for quite some time now.  And hot, hot, hot means water, water, water.

The little guy is absolutely in love with water and this last weekend, we enjoyed time in every type of water there --- water tables, sprinklers and even the fountain near the local Apple store.

Here are some pics of the happy little guy enjoying some sprinkler time!  Time to play!

Weekly photo challenge: week 24.

Sunlight.

My photo (not surprisingly) is of little Buddy - my favorite subject! Not only does the photo depict him out in the courtyard on a bright and sunny day (and show his cute little shadow), but this boy, this face, this smile -- he is sunlight to my day - my sunshine, a ray of sun.

And, making it even sweeter is the reason for the giant smile on his face -- his daddy had just walked out of the house and was walking over to Buddy.

P.52 photo challenge: week 23.

This week's theme is water.  I must admit I've been a bit stumped - not because I can't think of anything to shoot - but because I cannot think of  a pic I can take easily and quickly.  And this week closes in one day, so I'll have to dig into my arsenal of pics.  I've not missed a week of this photo challenge, and I'm not about to do so!

A-ha - I've found a pic. And I think it's legit because I actually took it just two days ago with the intention of capturing a cute moment. SO - sounds good, right?

Buddy loves splashing water around. In the sink, in the bath - he's a big fan of the faucet.

He is happy. Pretty much always.

I love him so.

And I love his daddy too (the nice man standing behind him at the faucet. Who I did not mean to behead in the second picture).

Splish Splash little boy.