Charlie's Superhero Party

Charlie turned three on November 21.
He is unbelievably obsessed with superheros and "bad guys", so it seemed only fitting that he have a superhero themed party for him.

For this party, I decided to make the cake from scratch. Which, as it turns out, is a pretty nerve-racking decision since the only way to know if it's good or not is to serve it to everyone.
At the party.

Thankfully, Al Gore invented the internet.
And the Food Network invented Ina Garten.
And Ina Garten invented a seriously amazing chocolate cake recipe.
And included a handy video to watch while you make her amazing chocolate cake.

Bless you, Barefoot Contessa. You and your fancy scmancy parties, smugly overpriced ingredients, and fantastically intricate recipes are a-okay with me.

And - Charlie.

We rented a giant bounce house for the day which arrived at 9 or so that morning.
Charlie and Avery probably bounced in it for 7 of the 8 hours it was at our house.
The energy they have astounds me.
I bounced in it for 15 minutes and had jello legs the rest of the night.
Which either means that bouncing in a bounce house is hard, or I am seriously out of shape.
I can't be sure which...

Happily, a few months ago, I discovered that my brother Joseph is a close, personal friend of Spiderman.
Charlie insisted that he be invited to his party and talked about how "Piderman" was coming to his "bewrfday pawty" for weeks and weeks.

The next picture is what he did when he saw "Piderman" come around the corner:

 After greeting him, we sprayed him down with Spidey Spray.

 And Charlie opened his present from Spiderman.

Everyone loved Spiderman, but none more than our little friend Spencer.
She asked him to hold her hand and take a picture with him.
Then she sang him the Spiderman theme song.
I think it's safe to say that Spiderman's heart melted just a bit.

 

My Boy is Three. And announced to me the other day that he is no longer my baby, but a Big Boy.

Sorry, Kiddo. You may be a Big Boy, but you'll always be my baby.

 

*** Special thanks to my friend Spiderman for donning what he called a "grownup onesie" in public. I owe you one. Or two...

fall mantle

It's gone now.
Because half of the pumpkins rotted. And because I'm the kind of gal who gets rid of holiday decorations the day after the holiday is over.
But here's how it looked pre-rot.

I'm looking forward to adding a few more gourds next year. Having a mantle to decorate has been so fun!

if i twittered

I just found this post hanging out in the "drafts" section of my blog and thought I'd go ahead and post it... It was written in 2009. Remembering how life was for me just a couple of years ago makes me smile... Because now I can take a 5 minute shower with minimal consequences. Hooray.


I'm sure that most of you know what "Twittering" is, but I've just recently learned about it. If you don't, here's the definition according to Wikipedia:

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS (receive only), or through applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, and Feedalizr. The service is free to use over the web, but using SMS may incur phone services provider fees.

I don't have any interest in doing it, but if I did - here's what you might have read today:

- Jennifer is stirring her coffee with a baby spoon.
- Jennifer is trying to remove a penny from her CD player.
- Jennifer is changing a poopy diaper.
- Jennifer just found a moldy cheerio in the couch cushion.
- Jennifer is wondering if she'll get to take a shower today.

You get the point.

Riveting.
Fascinating.

Who wouldn't want to read that stuff?

halloween

It's Fall, I'm obsessed with Pinterest, and I'm not afraid to copy a good idea from someone smarter than I am.

inspiration source

...So that's what I did.

 A lot.

inspiration source.

A whole lot.

inspiration source

These guys, however, are total originals.

Happy Halloween!