Best cousins, best pals.

Ok, I have to share this picture. I love it. It's Justin and two of his first cousins who were visiting from California.  They were all sitting at the piano, playing to their heart's delight.

Three budding pianists! Having such a good time. And here're a few more during their jam session:

Looking on as big cousin plays.

Jamming.

Just the boys. 

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.

Sweet Shot Tuesday.

Little Pumpkin picking pumpkins.

More pumpkin picking pics posted here.
(now say that five times!)

Linking up to Sweet Shot Tuesday and Wittle People Wednesday.

Yea! Our birthday party is featured online.

I'm excited - the place where we had Justin's birthday party put up a photo of our birthday party on their site!!  It only shows a little bit of the decorations, but I'm happy that they wanted to use our party as one of their example pictures!

Take a look below - or to see it live, visit the Bubbles website.

I have to give another shout out to Bubbles -- having our party there was great! Highly recommend if you live in the Chicago area!

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! 

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.

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!

Happy 99th birthday Bubi.

An overdue post, but I have been sort of delinquent writing. It's been really busy and I've been trying to get to sleep earlier (previously late night was my blogging time).

So let's see - time to catch up. This post is going to be about my grandma's 99th birthday.  We had a party for her. She is incredible and until very recently was 100% taking care of herself. Now she has a lady for a couple of hours a day, which is hard because she's always been so independent.

Anyways, the party was great. Relatives from all over the world sent in some videos wishing her a happy birthday, and my brother and I, on behalf of the grandkids, made a sweatshirt for her.

The theme was The Bubi Bunch (a la The Brady Bunch) and we made a design that featured all of the immediate family surrounding a nice picture of my Grandma with the words "The Bubi Bunch". On the back we wrote "Bella's 99th".  Here's a pic of the shirt:

Front of shirt

Our Model

Wishing my grandma  many more healthy & happy years and many more celebrations! Much love.

P.52 photo challenge: week 22.

Boys and Baseball. They just go together, don't they?

In our house, they sure do. Buddy loves baseball. He's a big White Sox fan (we started him young)!  One of his favorite things to do is to run around the house chanting "hit the ball, catch the ball, throw the ball" and doing just that.  He has a mini glove, two mini-bats and an assortment of baseballs.

So for this week's "Playtime" theme, I captured Buddy doing what he loves - playing ball.

And even though, according to the Brady Bunch, "mom always said, don't play ball in the house", in our house, it's okay. It's welcome.

Let's Play Ball!

Hat, check. Bat, check. Ball, check. 

Warming Up & Stretching Out.

Power Swing.

Retrieving his hit ball.

Sure, I have time for a quick pic mid-game.

Curtain Call. Thank you fans. 

P.52 photo challenge: week 20.

Mothers. That's the theme, appropriately right after Mother's Day.

I first celebrate my mom for being the  most wonderful mother in the world, for being an amazing, caring, loving, happy, inspirational, positive, open minded and strong person.  She is a great friend, mother in law, wife and grandma.  I could not ask for a better momma and I love her so very much.

I also celebrate my little boy and husband, for they made me a mom. And being a mom to Buddy is the most wonderful thing I could ever imagine. I just want to cuddle and kiss this wonderful little boy.

And that is what my photo is of - kissing my spectacular little boy, relishing and loving being Buddy's momma.  Oh how I love this boy!

Happiness. This photo will make you smile.

Here's a picture that I took last weekend.  I was just looking at one of the photo challenges I like from The Paper Mama and saw that the week's theme is  happiness. I knew I had to submit this photo.

Buddy and I visited my grandma last Sunday and, as we always do, had a great time. The two of them were looking at photo albums together and I snapped this shot.

It's such a special photo, and it is bringing tears to my eyes because it's so beautiful.

Happiness

I love how happy they are together. I love how they are touching hands and smiling as they enjoy looking at the pictures, with her calling out people and him pointing to those people.

They are 97 years apart.

They are two of my favorite people in the world.

I am so happy they are able to get to know each other. And I am so happy that Buddy brings so much joy to my grandma.  And vice versa - he adores spending time with her.