Shabby Apple Design Contest Results

You are NOT going to believe this. I am a finalist in the Shabby Apple Dare to Design Contest!  I can hardly type I'm so excited!  They chose their favorite 15 dresses and they happen to think mine should be in the running!  

You can check out all the dresses that made the final cut here.  Everyone can vote and if by chance you like mine best please vote for #11.

Apple picking

 A few weeks ago Calder and I went apple picking.  We both loved it and would be happy to do it again. Most of Calder's time was spent playing the drums using sticks, running up and down the long rows of apples and riding his makeshift garbage truck.

 We picked Fuji and Pink Lady apples. We are still eating them and they are still as tasty as the day we picked them. I love it!

 Calder pretended he was a garbage man riding on a garbage truck. While I pushed the wheelbarrow he would hop on and off just like a real garbage man. He also spent a good deal of time riding in the wheelbarrow.

 We've never done one of these cardboard head things. Calder couldn't figure it out. I love the pictures anyway.

We picked a pumpkin at the patch they had but my camera batteries died so I didn't get any pictures.  I keep asking Calder if he wants to paint something on his pumpkin or if he wants to carve a face out of it. Every time he tells me he wants to cook it and eat it and thinks it would be weird to do anything else.  It looks like we'll be eating pumpkin. I'm not a fan of pumpkin that doesn't come from a can because of the consistency.  If anyone has a good recipe that uses fresh pumpkin my little boy would be thrilled.

Calder is 2

 Calder is two.  I don't know how this happened. He is changing from a baby to a little man. In honor of such we had a "Little Man" themed birthday party.  I think we all had a lot of fun and I love how everything turned out. I made mustaches and bow ties for everyone. Calder chose to wear his favorite hat. For the mustaches I traced mustache shapes onto felt, cut two per mustache, hand sewed around them and attached elastic to keep them on. They were so fun! I made up the pattern for the bow ties but am willing to share if anyone is interested.

 We used the club room in our building, which is a great spot for a party. There was a lot of eating and socializing. I didn't really plan games but we did have a few toys for the kids to play with.  The ages were such that this was all we needed.

 I painted a shirt for Calder to wear.  He loves his #2 shirt and requests to wear it a lot. He gets excited about anything I make for him. I wish this could last forever.

We had lots of adorable guests. Some happy, some not. 

 

 Calder successfully blew out his candle. I didn't practice this with him so I'm glad it worked. As I type this and look at the pictures I realize I only put one candle in the cupcake. All well.

 My friend Liz took the most amazing pictures.  I couldn't even begin to choose a favorite. Thanks a bunch Liz, you really are amazing!

 I love these pictures.  These kids are adorable and I'm so glad they took time out of their busy schedules to come.

 It was awesome that Jason could be there for the party.  We'll take all the Jason time we can get around here.

I'm so happy to have such an awesome little man.  He makes my days so much more fun and I can't imagine life without him. 

Family Birthday Party

 We had our family party before Jason left for work on Calder's birthday. It was really perfect because then Calder could play with his new toys all day. He LOVES all of his presents and often talks about who gave them to him.

 It has been so fun to see him get a lot of presents at once. He plays somewhat frantically and then living room gets trashed in a few minutes. He basically wants to play with everything at once. Thus the garbage man and the fireman fly the airplane and ride his skateboard with him.

Shabby Apple Design Contest

I entered a design competition for Shabby Apple. You can read my submission here.

Update: Shabby Apple will announce the top 15 dresses by October 22.  They will then leave the voting open until November 15.  I'll be sure to let you know whether I make the top 15. 
*fingers crossed*

A day in the life of Calder

Although we do something different every day there are a few things we do frequently enough to say they are regular activities. The metro is a big part of our every day. We often ride to DC to go to museums or play dates. This is what we see as we walk along the overpass to our favorite park. Calder loves to see whether there is a train coming or going.

Calder is curious, patient, sweet and loving. If he bumps me or bonks my head he immediately says "I'm sorry Mommy". It it so sweet. He also says "excuse me" and "please" when appropriate. He always asks me if "everybody okay?" when he wants to know how I'm doing. It is adorable. At the Library of Congress he spent so much time listening and watching the historical movies. He has a great attention span.

Calder took this picture of Jason. I think it's sweet. He gets so excited when Jason comes home. Most nights Calder is in bed before Jason comes home but occasionally the two get a few minutes in the evening and it is so great.

This is a regular activity at our house. Calder is still loving garbage truck videos on YouTube. When he poops in the toilet he gets to watch one. He also likes to watch Caillou as a special treat.

Calder took this picture too. When Katie was here she helped him while we were driving somewhere. I love that he wanted to take a picture of his favorite thing.

Grandpa John

Jason's dad came to visit for a week and we did all sorts of fun things! Calder called John Grandpa John Wilcox a few times. It was adorable. Here's what we did in pictures.

We visited Jason at work.

We went to "Abe Lincoln's house" as Calder calls the Lincoln Memorial.

While John was here our good friends Spencer, Anna and Grace came to visit. We had a blast with them! I'm so thankful they came and Calder keeps asking where they went. Grace is a pretty equal match for his personality and they seem to have a lot of fun together.

We all went to the Air and Space Museum. Spencer and Anna made out in the Cessna 150. Just kidding. Maybe.

Calder slept there, just like this. That is Jason's original Pound Puppy that we got this summer while we were in Oregon. That puppy sleeps with Calder every night and needed to come with us so Calder could nap at the museum.

John driving the Cessna 150.

Then we went to the Library of Congress. I want to spend a lot more time here. If not only to stare at the beautiful tiles on the floor.

Lunch outside the Library of Congress.

Thanks for coming John. We had a fabulous week! You can come back any time. The same goes to you Spencer, Anna and Grace.

National Zoo

We went to the zoo last Friday and had a great time. I love that the zoo is free. It is so easy to pop in and out without worrying about how much you paid. We met up with our friends Alissa, Emmeline and Hazel. This is one of the few pictures I got. I didn't take a picture of a single animal. Maybe next time.

I've talked about Emmeline before and Calder really does think she is the bees knees. He asks about her all the time and gets so excited to see her. They play in nursery together every week and we have been getting together once a week for the last few weeks. I am so bummed they are moving to Utah next month.

Jazz

photo borrowed from downtown Silver Spring website because I forgot my camera today.

We went to an all day jazz festival in downtown Silver Spring today. We ended up staying for 3 hours because Calder loved it so much. I didn't expect him to last very long but he was riveted. He danced, twirled, sang, tapped his toes and lead the music. He asked if he could have a turn to go up and play music. I told him he would have to wait until he was a little older. He said he wanted to play the piano when he is three. We'll see how interested he is at 3.

One of my favorite parts was stage 2. It was the stage where the highschool jazz competition was going on. It brought back so many memories and I could see how nervous those kids were. I remember feeling that way before competitions but loving it just the same. Someday I would love to take Calder to a marching band competition. I think he might really get into it.

Wellness Challenge Week 3

This was a good week. I did great on journaling and feel pretty good about it overall. Thus far I am down 5lbs which is exactly what I wanted to lose, so yahoo for me. I don't feel like I've had to go hungry often during the day but I seem to go to bed hungry most nights. I don't mind it that much though. I have really been thinking about my eating habits and I want to keep some of the new habits I'm forming. I don't normally eat very many vegetables. I didn't realize this until I had to actually count them. Salads at lunch have been great and I'll probably continue to do that. I love sweets and baking but I've become increasingly picky about sweets. If I don't love it, it's not worth using my sweet day for it. Speaking of sweet day, today was the day. I made a very pretty red velvet cake with buttercream frosting. I thought the cake was slightly dry but otherwise it was worth my sweet of the week.

I know I start my weeks on Monday but since I knew I was making a cake to take to a friend's party today I didn't have a sweet day last week so I could have a sweet today and another day this week. It seems like cheating but I'm going to let it slide.

I have one more week of this! I'm excited to let a few things slide (cough*journaling*cough) to a couple days a week instead of everyday.

So, for those of you giving this a shot, how was your wellness challenge this week?

New Friends

We had the most enjoyable playdate today. There is a little girl in Calder's nursery, named Emmeline, who is very much his equal. They always want the same toys and they tend to fight a bit but they give lots of hugs. They spent 3 hours giggling and running, playing and jumping this morning. It was so fantastic. They ate lunch together and jumped on his bed. She also seemed to convince Calder that pooping in the toilet is the cool thing to do. Thank you Emmeline.

Calder has been begging for all his old friends, cousins and mere acquaintances to come over and play at his house. He was one happy kid today and we have plans to play again soon. I'll make sure to take pictures then.