teddy picnic

We cruised over to Newport for their Teddy Bear's Picnic Sunday. They had a clinic so you could get your bear checked which Aiden wasn't too excited about at first. After Marchy Bear got a sticker for being a good patient he was able to head over and get some ice cream from the Ben and Jerry's sponsors. We gobbled up our ice cream and played some catch with the new apple ball they gave Aiden. There was a fun little story time, and then the big bear came out to say hi. Aiden doesn't seem to have any more character fear, and liked grooving with him the rest of the night.

Then the Toe Jam Puppet Band took over the evening. They were crazy! They threw laundry around and kids swarmed their bubble machine...they even had a "car wash" were they sprayed the whole audience from a squirter machine on their backs. Aiden called them the "guys" and thought they were pretty silly because they made a loud silly nose blowing sound. He said the guys and the bears...bears...bears... were his favorite parts.

Teddy Bear Picnic from LB on Vimeo.
Then just as we had our fill of silly songs and dancing, I had packed up the stroller and was waiting on the sidelines...when they asked for an "adult" volunteer and the crowd grew silent and the only adult that moved was my husband pointing straight at me! Turns out that the band has a rule that if you try to volunteer someone that you get picked yourself. Ha! Before I knew it I was wrestling to get my camera out fast enough to catch J (a very good sport laughing at himself) becoming the "Queen Bee" complete with a tiara. I was crying from trying to hold back my laughter. Aiden was excited that he got to stand next to his daddy. It absolutely cracked me up.

spinning

I got a really nice gift card to BH photo for my birthday (thanks K!) and I used part of it to buy a remote trigger for my camera. I had seen that people used them for these fun spinning shots. Aiden loves to spin, so he was super excited that we kept trying and trying. I had my camera strapped to J's chest with a belt and it was hard to line it up correctly. There wasn't quite enough light inside to get a really good shot, but I can't wait to do it outside as soon as this rain stops.
I got out the wide angle and that helped a bunch.

rainy day recipe

Today was the first weekend day in a long time where we weren't up and out the door for something-or-other. Don't get me wrong, it's always something relaxing that we want to do, but this weak little tropical storm that rolled through today made it a wash out sorta day. Of course, there would've been indoor stuff, but it felt good to stay in our jammies until noon.

We took advantage of the rainy-stir-crazy kinda day to use up all of our tomato crop to make homemade tomato sauce. It was wicked good, but lotsa effort. Sorta sweet and rich, nothing you'd be able to buy at the regular grocery. He added Bison meat, which was really tasty. He can't wait until it gets cold because he especially likes cold sauce.
Recipe from Allrecipes.com:

INGREDIENTS

• 10 ripe tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup Burgundy wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.
2. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

(J's addition: cook Bison/Buffalo meat and add while simmering)
Aiden nearly begged to go in "mama's car" to the grocery. He was giddy as we ran in and out of the car through the rain. Once he finds his giggles they stick around for a while, so we had fun at the grocery. I couldn't get over that I got all of these groceries for just a little over $24! I even bought kinda pricey sesame stickers for potty time Aiden. Incredible coupons for Stop and Shop - They just give you dollars in the form of newsprint! It occured to me the other day how much packaging changes (when Ikea announced they were getting rid of their Futura font for the web friendly Verdana), and it might be fun to look back on some of this stuff years from now, so I took a photo.

good list

Aiden doesn't even realize how old this toy is, but still thinks it's cool to bang against his other toys. A little pop of color in amongst my "vintage" camera collection:

Hooded towels help Aiden get just as excited to get out of the bath as he is to get into the bath:
Cute little quilt to go with his Brown Bear book. I just love the idea of having stories on quilts.
"The fun of rummy tiles with the magic of Uno" - My sister found this little gem of a game. Aiden likes to disrupt the normal game play with gorilla arms to mix everything up. He does understand how to sort by color and number with them.

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I sure got a good gut laugh from this sequence of events.
Beware: This is what happens when you don't grease the bundt pan.

It was the best crumby cake I've ever had - Thanks J!

watercolors

Some of my favorite birthday presents were created by my artistic family. My mom and dad have been taking a watercolor class recently. My mom spent tons of time making this aquarium scene for Aiden's room which is just like staring into the tank at the Mystic Aquarium. Aiden's favorite "Big Yellow" even makes a cameo appearance:We also have a new series of prints for our bedroom. These were all created by my mom. I think my favorite is the bird, but the panda is a close second. She used this cool name stamp my aunt picked up for her in China to sign then (in red).
They also gave me a series of prints of other originals they'd created. Here is a favorite one I scanned from PopPop (it barely fit in my scanner):

good food list

Fun M& Ms J's folks sent him for his birthday:

Our garden has one tomato plant that went nutso - These are the tomatoes so far and there are probably about double this in green tomatoes. Aiden finds a hard time resisting the temptation to pull the green ones or throwing the red ones after we let him pick them. We're going to make a big batch of tomato sauce.
We found this deliciousness at the Farmer's Market last week. It is sooo wicked good with a little sweet and a little heat.
Fun wrapped chocolate treats we made with mailing labels for Liz and David's wedding in four flavors. Here is Liz's favorite:

musical card

Aiden would open and shut this fun birthday card (thanks E!) and we would dance and freeze... this game started randomly but we kept it going because Aiden's little giggles and eyes darting around when we were frozen was so darn funny. What a bunch of goofballs that I miss just as much as Aiden does! ;)

finally

Right before my folks arrived last Sunday we finished off the newly named West Room. I had a pretty hard time figuring out what would look nice with brick and how to fill the big loooong wall along one side of the room. We also decided to keep the room as open as possible and create a little nook for Aiden's toys behind the couch.

fun times

We had all sortsa excitement with my folks and sister in town. Thanks for coming all that way (and especially to Lizzie for using what may be her only vacation time for a while to spend with us). We can't wait for the big wedding day in September - three weeks! The best way to explain the fun is with a photo rundown (which doesn't include the time spent antiquing for little surprise treasures that Lizo plans to give away at her wedding...and my dad and J getting to see that Inglourious Basterds movie I would have clearly hated...and other assorted trips to get wedding veil material and wedding baskets):

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Monster Mini Golf from LB on Vimeo.

video from flying

Fly! from LB on Vimeo.

I converted the DVD we bought over but only portions of it worked...but this is the most fun because it shows when the instructor jetted us up and down into the tunnel. You should have seen his superman moves he showed off after we were all finished.

flying!

Our Hello 30 event was indoor skydiving! Yep, floating around in a wind tunnel and learning that "you CAN fly" at 30 is the way to go. It was recommended by a friend and I would totally recommend it too. The indoor SkyVenture experience includes a wind tunnel that goes up to 200 mph and makes you feel like you are truly flying! It was such a rush. I look a bit hysterical in the photos that they take for you in the tunnel because I was so excited. You can check them out later on the August 19th 4:00pm session on the photoreflect gallery posted on the skyventurenh.com or this website.

Earlier today I did get some QT in with Aiden on my day off with my first visit to Gymboree Music Class with him. It was fun to see him get so excited when they brought out the big drum and say "peeeace" when she was describing the reggae music. Then he spent the day with Rebecca and my family while we were flying. There is a viewing area there, but I can imagine that Aiden would run up to the glass repeatedly asking for "Aiden's turn." They do allow three year olds to fly - ha that is hard to believe!

hello 3-0

Well, Hello 3-0. It's truly AS hard to believe that I'm 30 AS it is that Aiden will hold a conversation with me. I keep drifting off thinking about what I expected I'd be doing when I was thirty years old. I think 20 years ago I thought my babysitter's parents were 30 something. I think they probably were. I remember there being some show called Thirty Somethings that came on after I went to bed, that was about oooold people. How could I have ever thought 30 was old?

Then 10 years ago, I had a plan to marry my college best friend if we were 35 and not "married"... why was that a good idea? I think it was something that Lisa Kudrow's character did on Friends and we thought it sounded like a good plan. Did we think that by 35 we should be married with a kid or something? I have no idea what I was thinking because 35 does not seem old AT ALL.

So, now I'm 30 and it doesn't feel that much different. I remember my mom saying that you never really feel older. So, you mean to tell me that for the next 30 years, as I watch my son grow by leaps and bounds, I won't feel any older? That seems nice.

I never would have guessed that my life would've led me to Brown doing something semi-creative (where you don't have to draw like that architect dream of mine). I think everyone would've agreed that I would've had a camera in my hand regardless... and I always will. I always had at least a disposable film camera in my purse throughout high school. I think I have hundreds of photos and digital photography came just in time for me and my picture taking habits. But I digress, the 10s of 1,000 of photos I take each year now is just a part of my life.

Enough of the tangents, I will post some tidbits of my goodbye 20s, hello 30s in a photo review (my new favorite):
Deeeelicious, peanut butter bars with peanut butter cups in them. They were baked perfectly (which is a big plug before you see the unsprayed bundt cake below) by my loving husband (who hates peanut butter so much he held his nose the whole time).
A very sweet surprise song, that Aiden really grooves to, that J worked hard to create for my birthday.
My lovely husband wrote a 30 Somethings for my 30 Something Sweetie, and right on that list was a hand delivered Burger King breakfast. He upped the ante and even added to the egg and cheese croisant with some cinna-minis... what a treat! I was thoroughly amused as I ate them at work this morning (boo, I had a big meeting, so I couldn't take today off) and it said, "Opening this box is the first step to having things your way today...Keep it up." I tried to Keep it up, but somehow I still had to work... but the fun will unravel later this week. Gotta milk this birthday.

My folks and sister are in town at the perfect time to celebrate. J sweetly made me a little pre-birthday spice cake, but he didn't spray the bundt pan. He was having trouble getting it out, and my mom asked him if he sprayed it, and he said, "with what?" uh oh, so this is what my delicious cake looked like as my mom tried to pull it from the pan. It DID taste really good.Ooh, yummy new super uber soft jammies and a new book (for lists as J teases) from my good shopper sister:
Ooh, my folks and sister got some shopping in on my birthday and found some new cookie cutters to add to my collection:
Then we headed to the Hibachi tables for some dinner:
J getting sake sprayed in his mouth - seriously! I doubted and said it must be water, until he sprayed it in my mouth:

Drinking a Blue Beauty:

Aiden's super excited about the fire!

Full happy tummies:
We stopped at the party store and found a lion pinata for Aiden's birthday! Planning ahead...
Then another birthday treat was to take this funny little hippo poem my mom wrote and turn it into a book:
J "thinking" really hard about how to draw some parts of it. My sister and dad had given up on drawing people. (J already tried some "people" for a fun book his dad wrote, but hippos are definitely easier) You can tell that it's not J's favorite thing, but he got all five pictures created ;) Now Lizzie will color them.

The birthday celebrating will continue with some big fun on Wed!