just another day at the park

the mercury has finally dropped below 60 degrees - which in southern california is call for boots, hats, scarves and winter sweaters! it rained most of the weekend - but after the storm - sunday brought us a crisp beautiful fall day. after church we scooped up the doggies, grabbed some take out and headed to our favorite neighborhood park. this park is awesome, it's small but open, the dogs love to run, and the playground equipment is just Liam's style!
We can see the park from our house!
We can see our house from the park!
We always have fun when we come here! It's nothing special... just an ordinary park... just an ordinary day. Don't you wish we had more of those?

Liam and Daddy waving from the tall spirally slide!

A boy and his Jinxie dog. They had a blast running and running and running around together!

Even Ace Face was giving out kisses!

This seems to be the most common view I get of Liam these days - of his back - running away. Always curious about the world - on to the next thing. Growing up way too fast.

Really... you CAN see our house! It's just a stones throw away as the crow flys!

harvest fest at cornerstone and gobble gobble cookies

Liam's preschool had a Harvest Festival yesterday. It was super fun. There was live music by Melissa Green, Arts and Crafts and a Bake Sale! The Bake Sale was created to raise money for some extra programs at school - like for SNOW day - when they bring tons and tons (literally) of snow in for the kids to play on! So - Liam got his "BAKE ON"!

we decided to bake traditional sugar cookies shaped like TURKEYS - because they say "gobble gobble" and Liam LOVES saying "gobble - gobble"

and fall leaves
Liam had a lot of fun cutting out the shapes

IN A-C-T-I-O-N!

he liked kissing the turkeys

and of course - eating the dough!

" no mommy, i didn't eat any dough!"
...busted!

here is how our turkeys turned out - gobble gobble!

all packaged up and ready to sell.

ON TO THE PARTY...

oh... this explains why i inherit 2 cups of sand each time i take his shoes off when he comes home! it totally makes sense now. (those are his friends sadie and ted)

all boy - look at that dirty face.

we pulled up a blanket on the lawn for ths show.

this cutie is liam's friend mackenna - they are good pals!

"hat and glasses OFF mommy!"

the kids LOVE Melissa Green!

... Liam's bake sale intake:

1) Brownie

1) Oatmeal Cookie

1) Chocolate chip Sandwich Cookie

mine... well, thats personal.

whoooosh - its windy out there!

we definitely have that "wind blown" look today! the dust that this wind kicks up makes my eyes all watery and itchy, and every time i look in the mirror, i notice some new particle of the outdooors that has landed in my hair... its a great look.

while i was dropping liam off at pre-school, his beloved basketball hoop blew over! the backboard cracked, and the hoop is all bent up :( bummer.

its hard to capture wind on a still shot - but, whoosh! even the needles on the pine tree are getting blown around.

this umbrella ended up in our yard... it's not ours - i don't know who's it is? if you are missing a green market umbrella - we have it, come and claim it!

this is a little more than just SWAYING in the wind - these poor palm trees... i hope they recover!

stay safe out there - don't blow away!

toy story mania

If you know Liam... you know he LOVES Toy Story. He now has seen all three movies, and is even starting to recite some lines... for example, when I wear boots - he almost always says "theres a snake in my boot"! Sometimes cute, sometimes annoying.... always LIAM"!

In any case, we were thrilled to be invited to Dylan's 2nd birthday party that was a Toy Story themed party! BONUS! Dylan is the son of my friend Tiffany - Dylan and Liam went to the same daycare briefly which is where I met Tiffany, she was a very fun / cool mom, and I had invited her to join my mom's group - where we got to know eachother a little better. Since then, she and her husband Mark have been busy, and welcomed baby brother Cole just over 10 months ago - talk about BUSY! a 2 year old, and a 10 month old! (And this girl ALWAYS looks amazing!) I don't know how she does it!

For halloween, she dressed her boys as Goose and Maverick from Top Gun (genius right?)... Liam found one of the boys helmets and wore it for pretty much the first hour of the party! Yep - he IS eating Doritos - which he has never had before - i think its safe to say he loved them... and probably left some of those super cheese-a-rific fingerprints all over that helmet - sorry Tiff!)

How cool is this cake?

How gorgeous is this family?

Seriously... she has 2 under 2 (well, she did until this week anyway) how does she looks so freaking good??

Liam LOVED the cake.

But NOT as much as he loved the surprise guest! This is what his face looked like when Woody joined the party!

Instant pals!

Liam would be happy if we adopted Woody into our family. Because all of our family portraits would look like this!

school photos

when i ask him who is that in the photos i get "giggle giggle - awwweee!!"

i couldn't agree more!

happy weekend and TGIF!

meet the cast...

Halloween...it's over!
it was a whirlwind around ourhouse. PARTY PARTY PARTY! I love it. Isn't this what it should be like? No wonder October is my FAVORITE MONTH!
We partied. We played. We had FUN. FUN. FUN.!
We took 5 billion photos!
Here are a few - no photoshop - SOOC. too many photos to edit. ALL FUN!
Come and meet the characters that made our Halloween this year the BEST EVER!

From left to right: Grammy M, Daddy, Mama, Liam-Lakerbiy, Gramma D.

Liam the Laker-boy and Ms. Amy a.k.a. Madame butterfly (LOVE HER)

The Laker Boy - this was his costume of choice. he wants to wear his "laker shirt" and "laker shorts" EVERY DAY. oh and Laker Shoes TOO!!! have we created a monster?

Ms. Danielle - a.k.a. "Ms. Anielle" - or Ms. Butterfly. Liam adores this girl, she is the SWEETEST! LOVE HER.

BUZZ! He loves Buzz, and we totally thought this would be the costume of choice. He wore this exactly three minutes while he opened and ate Ms. Amy's sweet Halloween treat that was nestled in his "pack pack"

"too cool for school - i don't need no stinking costome" boy. LOVE my "popsickle" which is a dum-dum - his favorite halloween treat.

Daddy, Liam and the Storm Trooper.

Master Carver - Daddy! And "punkin-guts"!

"Grammy-M" the "Cleanest and MOST exact pumpkin carver you ever did meet!

SHAAAARK ATTACK! we bought this costume on clearance at Old Navy... it ALMOST fits this year. Kurt persuaded Liam to wear this for the mock trick-or-treat we did upstairs the night before Halloween. We tried to get him used to the process, and teach him to say thank you, and only knock on doors with the lights ON.

Mama. Reading the Halloween At The Zoo book to her Lima-Shark! Orange Stripeys and all! This book, by the way - is AWESOME..if you don't have it... BUY IT!

THE MUMMY! He wore these awesome Mummy Pj's from TJ Maxx at the Melissa Green concert at Americana at Brand on Halloween with good friends The Levy's!

Oh LOOK! the jack-o-lantern cast!
From left to right:

Traditional Happy Jack-o-Lantern by Grammy M and Daddy
Monkey Skull - by Mommy

Tato - by Liam
Farmer Baby - by Liam
"Liam" - by Gramma D.

"AAAAARGH" Pirate.

Gramma D - and the fist bump... eating a "sketti" lunch.

YAAAAAAAAY HALLOWEEN!