Wild Weekend cont...

Ya, so then Brittany, Evan and I drove from NYC to South Jersey to go to Sarah and Chris's birthday and to hang out with the family. Mike meanwhile was taking a flight out to New Orleans the next day. When we pulled up to my ma's there was this ghost balloon under the house light. It was so spooky in the dark and the rain. hehehe. See the balloon below when we brought it inside the next day.

Happy Birthday toooo yoooou!


I made this wonderful cake for them. Just kidding. I ate it, but I didn't make it. The next day I walked over for more.


Here's at the birthday on Friday night... Evan and my cousin Jeff.


Evan loves pointing to eyes. Good thing Aunt Donna has her safety glasses on.


There's always a Halloween theme for Chris and Sarah's bdays, so Aunt Wanda broke out the glow sticks. The flash totally washes out the glow, but we had the lights off here.


Brittany's doing her glow stick dance.


Here's Evan eating his dinner. We keep him on a very strict glowstick diet.


Jessica's putting a glow stick in Olivia's chicken mouth. Take note of this chicken hood. It will appear again on Halloween, but I have to get the pics from my momma.


Olivia also tried on Evan's chicken costume.


Evan and Sarah are opening gifts.


Here's the next day. Evan's wearing his skeleton sweatshirt from Aunt Kelly, Uncle Mike & Jack. He's eating our subway card from New York. I gave the card to my mom for the next time she visits Brittany. Too bad it has some toothie marks now.


And the ghostie balloon! Ooooo... spooky!


I'll leave you with this disturbing photo.


So now we're going to leave for Key West. Stay tuned for those pics and our Halloween photos (they're on my mom's camera. I thought I lost ours, but it was in the diaper bag the whole time).

Wild Weekend Part III

Oops.... not at Key West yet. Evan and I stopped at Colin, Avery, Danielle and Mark's Halloween party on the way back to Philadelphia. We got lost on the way because our mapquest directions sucked, but it was totally worth it. Of course, the batteries in my camera died, but the Daly's house was awesome! It was decorated in ghosts and monsters with spooky music and even an inflatable haunted house in the back yard. We arrived just in time for the pumpkin pinata which got beaten by a bunch of little guys in costume. Here's a pic of Evan, Avery & Colin (Danielle sent over this one). And I have a pic of an inflatable gargoyle in the front yard - the only photo I was able to take!

Oh no they didn't

Oh yes we did! This was one of Sarah's surprises for Evan... She used her school's library and printed out a larger-than-life Evan face in a dot pattern- one page at a time. I surprised Mike by hanging it above our bed. This is how much we are obsessed with our son. hehehe

Fall Weekend at Mima & PopPop's

We visited Mima and PopPop this weekend and attended their end of summer/beginning of fall dinner. We hung out with Jack, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Mike, Aunt Sue, Uncle Paul, Granny & Grandpa Gifford. We had so much fun - especially Evan! I think he thought Mima and PopPop's house was the most awesome house ever and had a great time playing with all of the cool toys. He even cruised around in a walker for a bit. We had a yummy dinner and Evan got some great gifts from Paul and Sue (a set of blocks in different shapes that fit through holes in a toolbox), a little ghostie from Granny & Grandpa Gifford and a Jack-o-lantern candy holder that had a glow-in-the-dark skeleton sweatshirt (which you will see him in later this week) from Kelly, Mike and Jack (there was even candy in it for me and Mike!) Evan got a lottery ticket and little baby pumpkin from PopPop and Mima. The kid pretty much made out like a bandit. Evan had a great time playing with Aunt Sue, cracking up with Mima and eating toast with PopPop. Here are some highlights (I forgot to take pictures at the dinner, but we'll just have to snag some from Kelly).

Here's everyone when we arrived Friday night. Evan's wearing the pjs Jack picked out for him.



This morning Evan got up at 6am (yay) and we went outside to check out the sandbox on the deck. It was cold, so we were only outside for a few minutes. Evan started yelling when I tried to take him away from the sandbox. I promised that we'd come out again when it warmed up, so after breakfast we went out and played with Daddy and Mima.


Here's Mima blowing bubbles... Notice the big kid in the sandbox too. We had to shake sand out of Evan's sockies and shoes (and daddy's sweet sweatpants) after playtime.

Halloween Fun at Burke Nursery

During our stay in VA, we went to Burke Nursery, which is only a few minutes from Mima and PopPop's home. We took a tractor ride through a haunted forest...



Oooooh- spoooookie! I had to hold Mike's hand. He was so scared. This is the scene right after the UFO/alien scene.


We met some monsters...




...And an adorable little vampire (cat?). We took him home with us.


Rode a pony... $4- what a rip-off - they only took Evan around twice!


...And rode a fake pony. It moved much faster than the real one and this one was FREE to ride.


There was this huge dirt pile called "Money Mountain" where kids could dig for prizes such as jelly toys, those little tiny farm animals, plastic spiders, etc... all great stuff that a baby could choke on. We dug out prizes for Evan and hid them in our pockets. When we left the Cronins, Mike had decorated the inside of my car with prizes. There was a candy corn man sitting on the speedometer.


We also rode the train.



We rode the Foot Truck too. It was really stinky. Oops... The "Big" in the word Big Foot was cut out of this shot. hehehe


We went down these big slides too... "Miner's Mountain" and another one that I can't remember the name. It was so cute watching Evan's hair blowing in the breeze as he went down!


You can see one of the slides here in the background. I wonder if Daddy and Evan know they are about to be swallowed whole by an enormous spooky ghost?!


Evan hung out in a "ghost" town...


And was thrown in jail for hijacking the Foot Truck.


We bailed him out and hung out in a REAL pumpkin patch. No, this isn't in the Acme parking lot this time!



We left and arrived at the grandparents' for a delicious taco fiesta with all the family. Here is the ONLY picture that we took during the whole thing. Aunt Kelly was wearing some very nice boots that you can't see in this photo. Woo! I'm outta breath from typing so much.

Big Man on Campus

Evan and I visited Sarah at Cabrini yesterday and he was thrilled that the college has so many girls. He wants to know if he can visit Sarah more often. And you know how strict I am giving him certain foods? Well, no organic mush for him that day! He dined on pretzal nuggets and goldfish crackers. Later that night his usual favorite green beans weren't going over too well. We did have a great time and left Sarah to study and eat the homemade chocolate chip cookies my mom gave her. Oh ya! And Sarah gave us some presents too! One is a Cabrini onesie, which you will see him in later and another was something else... I can't say, because we're going to surprise Mike with it.

Happy 9 Months Old!

We just got back from his 9 mo well visit and our boy is actually very long and lean. The doctor said probably due to the fact that he's so active... and that he looks great! Yay!

Height: 29.5" (87th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs. 8 oz. (51st percentile)
Head: 18" (63rd percentile)

NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!

A BIG milestone for us today.....Steph asked me to lower Evan's crib the other day? "Why now?!" I asked innocently. Here is your answer....

Jin, Justin & Jacey's BBQ

Didn't I tell you the weekend wasn't over yet? Today Evan and I dropped off Mike at 30th St. because he had to take a business trip to Albany. We then headed over to the Captis' for their fall party. I AM SO PISSED AT THE CAMERA!!! The damn thing keeps corrupting the photos. I took a bunch of pictures today, including a 9 month bday shot of Evan and only one picture came out uncorrupted. I even tried another memory card. damn, damn dammit! At least the one shot that came out was so super cute - Miss Jacey Cakes!



Justin had just completed the back yard - it's so artistic - just like Jin and Justin. They had put cement in, but had these smooth rocks embedded throughout. They also had put up a wooden fence and the gate had slats that had been carved into leaves. It really was beautiful. They did it all themselves. Everyone in that family is so artistic - Jin, Justin and Jin's dad (who's an incredible artist - I think he created the gate)

There were 3 kiddies at the party - Jacey, Evan and a little 15-month old Zoe. And guess what - all 3 were wearing Puma track suits! Jacey's was pink and black, Zoe's was brown with pink and Evan just had on the top part and was red & white (Aunt Kelly gave him his). Evan and I were the first to arrive and the very last to leave. The kids seriously had so much fun. I have never, NEVER seen evan so social in my whole life. Lately, he's had a little bit of separation anxiety, making Mike refer to him as "mommy's boy". But not today! It was like I didn't exist! First of all, Jacey's toys are awesome. Evan thought he was in a Toy Kingdom and went from object to object to explore. And this is nuts... I picked up something and said "What's this?" and Evan said "Thissssss". I freaked out! And kept trying to get him to do it again. Jin's friend from highschool was there and was like "whoaaaa!". So we kept saying it again and again, trying to get him to repeat it. Then he just started hissing. Ssssss. Then that turned to raspberries - but hey!

We also jumped on Jin & Justin's bed. Jacey kept asking me to sing the "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" song and Evan tried to grab her as she jumped. He was laughing hysterically, trying to hug her legs! Incredible! She gave him kisses. awww! I'm telling you, they were so funny together. It's really the first time that Evan really played with a non-adult and could care less if an adult was there or not. Jacey's so incredibly smart too... She can count to 20, she knows her ABC's and has the vocabulary of an adult - and she's only 1 1/2! And it's cool because evan tried to mimic everything she did.

I just got off the phone with Mike, giving him the whole update of the day and I had tears in my eyes. I wish he could've seen our Ziggy in action tonight. I can't wait to pick him up from the train tomorrow night...

Harvest Fest

Saturday we went to see Michael & Gisella's new baby boy - Mikey! Stupid us forgot to take any pictures. We were too busy chasing Evan around and checking out the new little Bugler... who is BEAUTIFUL btw! He was very alert and taking us all in. I feel like a total dummy for not getting a photo. After we got back, my ma came over and we headed out to a Harvest Moon party (my mom went shopping while we were gone). It was awesome! There must've been 200 people in Mike's friend Christina's yard! There was a bonfire, a dj, scarecrow displays, jack-o-laterns, kids, food, Food and FOOD! Evan was a complete hit and LOVED staying up to 10:30. He even had a soft pretzel. Before we left, I went in the house to change his diaper and put on his jammies and he took off! Changing Evan these days is like wrestling a wild hyena. I could only laugh as I watched his little naked heinie scooting away from me. When we got back, we put Evan to bed and my mom stayed home while Mike and I went out on a date. We went to Murphy's down the street and played photo hunt (bar computer game). Yes, it was another busy weekend, but it's not over yet! More to come...


Notice Evan's little sweater. It's from Peru and has little alpacas all over it. Mike brought it home from his trip. Also, notice my dark hair (if you haven't from previous blog entries). I dyed it dark!

A day at daddy's new office

Evan woke up from his nap immediately after my Godparents left. Aunt Chicky said that would happen! When he woke up, we drove to the College Board so that Evan could hang out in his dad's new office. Here are some shots in Mike's temporary office (they're in the middle of remodeling). Evan took over Mike's job and did it BETTER! hehehe. Then we went with his coworkers to happy hour!




Evan's like 'who me?'