Jamie's Halloweens

2010: pirate

2011: Jedi

2012: hobbit!

a pumpkin weekend

I love holidays, and they only get more fun as Jamie gets older! We have been reading lots of Halloween books all month, and Jamie has been so excited for all of our Halloween activities. We tried to squeeze a lot in this weekend! On Friday night, we had our first ever family movie night. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Jamie tried his first ever popcorn. He loved it. 

 On Saturday morning, we made pumpkin bagels. Jamie helped me knead the dough...

shape the bagels...

[I took care of the boiling while the boys watched...]

 

 and of course he helped eat them! They turned out really yummy.

Thomas enjoyed them as well.

In the afternoon we made our jack-o-lanterns. Jamie was so "exkited" that he was literally shrieking. It was so cute and so fun to do with him. He had been asking to "open the pumpkins" ever since we got them, and he was a big helper cleaning them out.

 

 

 

The place where we got the pumpkins had sticker sheets with different eyes, noses, and mouths. It was brilliant. Jamie loved getting to decorate his pumpkin, and I have to say I was extremely impressed with his jack-o-lantern. He had no help at all!

 

all lit up

Sunday morning we had pumpkin pancakes (alas I do not have a picture), and they were fantastic. We also roasted our pumpkin seeds. YUM. Jamie absolutely loved them. In the afternoon, Thomas and I went to see a production of Arsenic and Old Lace. We had a great time! The most fun part was probably watching Thomas's reaction. He had never seen it before and had exactly no idea what the plot was. So glad I kept him in the dark.

We had a great weekend and can't wait for Halloween itself! We're taking Jamie trick-or-treating for the first time. Also, I finished making his costume a few days ago, and I literally jumped up and down with excitement when we tried it on him. Stay tuned for pictures in a couple days....

fall break

Truman's and UT's fall breaks coincided this year, which was perfect because Grammy and Papy came to Knoxville for the weekend. We had so much fun seeing them, Jamie especially! He was extra excited this time because he got to "drive" Papy's new car...

He wanted to "go in the driver's seat" every time we went anywhere.

We spent the first afternoon in downtown Knoxville, and we took the opportunity of having visitors to go up in the Sunsphere, the symbol of the World's Fair held in Knoxville. Thomas and I had never gone up before. The only group pictures were on other cameras, so I only have one of me and Thomas. Jamie spent the whole time running in circles, trying to figure out how to get out, so that was pretty funny.

 
 
 Afterwards, Jamie and Grammy and I walked down to the downtown library, which has a fabulous children's room. Jamie had a lot of fun playing, doing puzzles, and reading stories.

Then we met up with the boys for dinner at the Tomato Head on Market Square. So, so yummy! I love eating outside on Market Square too. It has a great atmosphere.

 

  

We finished the night playing possibly my favorite board game ever and eating gelato. It was SUCH a fun day.

The next afternoon we went to the Cruze Farm Corn Maze. I think in terms of the actual corn maze, the Oakes Farm where we've gone the last two years is better, but they had a ton of activities for Jamie here! He had a blast running from one to another the whole time. I think his favorites were churning butter and of course "driving" the big tractor.

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

We ate dinner there too, burgers and cornbread and beans and of course ice cream! Their pumpkin ice cream is to die for.

 I think this was Jamie's first time having his own individual cone. He LOVED it and made the biggest mess.

 
 
If you can't tell, in that last one, he's holding on to the ice cream and trying to lick it as it melts and dribbles down his arm. Silly, silly boy.

As always, we loved having our guests! It was one of our best weekends ever.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

Ever since he started talking, Jamie has used pronouns backwards. You/your/yours indicate him while I/me/my/mine indicate whomever he is talking to. It has sometimes been confusing for other people but we've gotten so used to it that we don't have to think twice about who he means. But in the last couple days he's started to say "my" and "mine" when I know he's telling me something is his. And he's started to say "me" and  "I" appropriately a few times. But only a few times. It has gotten very confusing very quickly. I'm glad he's figuring them out but I no longer have any idea who he's talking about!

camping trip {with way too many pictures!}

This past weekend we went camping in the Smokies, just for one night. It was Thomas and Jamie's first time ever camping! Overall, we had a fabulous time (Thomas claims that it was "life-changing" and he wishes he had done Boy Scouts), but it was colder than we expected it to be and we got drizzled on for most of the trip. We also got stuck in horrible traffic on the way back and had to spend nearly 2 hours in Gatlingburg-Pigeon Forge-Sevierville, these annoying little tourist trap towns right outside the national park. Still, I think we will do it again. Oh, and a shout out to our friends Tony and Linnea for letting us borrow their tent and sleeping bags!

We started our day with a 3 hour hike in the mountains. Jamie walked about half of the time, far more than he ever has before! Seeing his interest in and reactions to all the scenery, plants, rocks, etc really made it so much fun. 

 

 
 

 

Jamie's 2 favorite parts: playing in the water...

...and finding this snail.

 

this picture really doesn't capture how terrifying this bridge was

 

not a ton of fall colors on our hike, but we did get some!

 After we got to our campsite, had lunch, set up the tent, and got Jamie to take a nap, we went on another (much shorter) nature hike. This time Jamie decided he wanted to be held the whole time and we hadn't brought the backpack carrier because it was so short and he'd done so well on the first hike. So that got a little old, but it was still fun and very pretty.

 
 
 

When we got back, it was already getting close to dinner time, so Thomas got to make his first ever campfire. Jamie was keenly interested in helping as well. It was a success, and we had a yummy dinner and then, of course, SMORES!

 
 
 

Jamie's first ever smore.

Thomas and I had planned to stay up and play games or talk after we put Jamie to bed, but it was so cold and rainy that we gave up on that plan and just went to bed with him. I think he loved that we were all in the tent together. Jamie's wiggling made it hard for the two of us to get much sleep, but he slept great and that's what really matters! In the morning Thomas made his second successful campfire, and I made breakfast over the fire before we packed up and headed out. 
 
 

One thing I forgot was Jamie's gloves, so he spent the morning wearing my extra socks on his hands.

Next time we do this I sure hope it's drier, but in spite of the incessant drizzle, we had a lot of fun! Jamie was an amazing camper, and Thomas loved it so much that I'm sure we'll actually being doing it a lot more in the future.