Garrett's Birthday Party and the Rest of November

November was a big month for us. Garrett turned three (wow!), we made a trip to Ohio to see some good friends, Ezra took his first step, we survived taking both boys for a well baby/kid check up at the same time, and of course Thanksgiving. we certainly have a lot to be thankful for.

We had a great third birthday party for Garrett with family back in early November. We had a houseful of family, some good chili, and of course cake!

Happy birthday big brother
E in his birthday suit for the occassion, well before the party.

Lion Cake made by Mom and Mama

#3 and leaf cookies, decorated by all!

Garrett's new easel from Mima and Grampa

Garrett's new scooter from Oma and Opa

"happy birthday to Garrett, happy birthday to you!" Happy Birthday Garrett! Posing with his two special cakes (the sports one made by the lovely and talented Gerry)

George, Garrett, and I spent a cold November day at Greenfield Village riding the carousel and Model T cars over and over and over again!

Rub and Dub Dub, three cuties in the tub! In late November we also took a trip to Cinci to see Lindsay, Dana , and Owen (Aunt Heiney, Aunt Deena, and Baby Nowen). We had a great visit with them and got to celebrate Owen's first birthday a week early.

and he's three!!

It's hard to believe it, but Garrett turned three yesterday!! He wasn't too convinced that morning when I told him that it was his birthday and said "where are the candles and all of the people?" We've been talking a lot about his birthday party (this weekend) and when you are three birthdays and birthday parties are the same thing. He is very excited to have his grandparents, great grams, and uncles over to celebrate with him. He's been very concerned about where everyone will be sitting at his party. I learned today that this is a concern he and his great grandfather had in common (one of the two richards that he was middle-named after).

At any rate on his actual birthday we split a delicous piece of tres leches cake, opened a few gifts, took a bath, and went to bed! And to round out the birthday celebration next week he will be bringing a birthday treat to school (homemade zucchini bread muffins, aka "zumi muffins")

baking, ezra updates, and halloween

Garrett has become quiet the helper in the kitchen lately. He's been helping me make bread on the weekends and seems to have the recipe memorized better than I do! On this day in October we made pizza dough, bread, and pumpkin pie for an early Thanksgiving with dear friends. Ezra has been growing like a weed. He loves to eat and "explore his food". He recently got four teeth in the period of about one week. We thought they'd never come and he was quite bothered by their slow arrival. Ever since they've come through he's been sleeping a little better at night. He continues to be increasingly mobile, crawling at warp speed, and walking along furniture. We imagine he'll be walking soon as he's been showing off his ability to stand all by himself a for a few seconds at time. He's started to have a hard time with being dropped off at day care, gets a little weepy when I have to leave him. (I get a little weepy too!). And he is forever watching is big brother and trying to play with everything that he plays with. I imagine this won't fade away anytime in the next hundred years.

Mima came to stay with us for a few nights to visit and help with watching the boys.
building a tower with mima

playing with mima

Halloween this year was a big hit in our house. Garrett decided that he wanted to be a lion again this year (which made things easy for us) and Ezra got to be a cow. Garrett was very excited about Halloween and all of the decorations around the neighborhood. Some of them he told us were "too scary" as we went for walks leading up to the holiday. He is starting to get scared of other things too lately, namely the dark. He got to dress up for a school Halloween party the week before and again this past weekend to go trick-or-treating. Garrett also helped to design the jack-o-lantern that I carved to put out on our porch for Halloween.

hangin' during pumpkin carving

roar & moo

holy cute cow

the finished product

up north, 10/10/10, & school

The first weekend in October we headed up north for Ezra's first trip to Da Cabin. It was long overdue, but because we were so busy this summer, we just didn't have time to fit it in. He had to be dressed in the special cabin outfit that Aunt Joy got for Garrett, of course. He was a little too big for taking a bath in the sink like G did the first time he stayed up there. The fall is always a beautiful time to be up north in general and especially at da cabin. Our friends and their almost two year old son stayed with us for a night and then we headed further north for a Camp Daggett staff reunion. It was a beautiful fall weekend for spending time at camp. It was great to catch up with old friends and have all of the little kids run around together exploring camp.

playing at da cabin

goodbye cabin, see you in the spring

climber ezra at the indoor adventure center at daggett

garrett on walloon

We also took the boys (and our friend's daughter Tessa) to their first concert in October. We got tickets for a family show at the Ark. It was a lot of fun, especially for Tessa and Garrett.

On 10-10-10 Mama and Garrett made mom a very special birthcake from scratch. Garrett chose the decorations and was very proud of his work. Look out cake boss.

ta-da

nakes

Garrett is continuing to love school and do really well there. He goes twice per week for a few hours to a play-based coop preschool in our area. This means we get to work in the classroom about twice per month and join in the fun. We really like the school as does G. He has made some new friends and absolutely adores his teacher Mrs. Springer. He had his first field trip in October to the Plymouth Apple Orchard. Mama and Ezra got to go with him, and join in on the apple picking, pumpkin picking, hay ride, cider, and donuts (well i'm sure ez didn't actually have cider and donuts)

funny cat

buzz buzz

pumpkin picking is hard work

late september

I've managed to go more than one whole month without blogging. Which means I've got a lot of catching up to do and we've been busy busy busy with the boys. Here are some shots from late September.

big smiles

look at me mom!

hiking at maybury state park

taking a break with mama

along for the ride

holding hands



At the end of September the Biddle Bunch had their almost-annual block party. It was a total blast!! It started off with a great bike parade, lunch with neighbors, lots of bike riding in the street, a visit from the FIRE TRUCK, a delicious potluck feast, a fire, and more bike riding in the street until it was much too late!

" hurry hurry to the fire, i'm in a fire truck"

apple picking with friends

apples and friends

We went out to our favorite - Frosty Apple - in Dexter this weekend with some friends. Unfortunately a spring frost did a number most of the Michigan apple crop, but we managed to walk away with a bag of honey crisps that were set aside for us. Score! Garrett had a great time playing with Tessa and Ezra loved hanging with Tessa's moms.

hanging out under the apple tree
mom and e

looking for some golden delicious

cheesing with tessa. for some reason "big smile" to garrett means he has to pull his shoulders up as high as he can and he showed tessa how to do it too.

from picking blueberries to starting school

And to round out the summer and jump into fall we did some blueberry picking with friends at a great place in Dexter. We got a ton of blueberries and ate them all before we could get to freezing them -oh well!

Garrett also started preschool a few weeks back. We found a great co-op nursery school that we fell in love with while we were on the school hunt and he did too. Garrett has really enjoyed going to school twice a week for two hours. We get to work in the classroom and I've already done my first shift, it was so much fun to watch him interact with his peers and be a part of this experience with him. He adores his teacher and recently told me "I'm gonna be a teacher after I get bigger".

blueberry picking
showing of my horse eating skills and my big fat cloth diaper

yup, watch out folks, I've got the hang of standing, before you know it I'll be running along side my brother. at shelly and justin's wedding 9-4-10

fueling up for his first day of preschool 9-13-10 cheesing with his soccer ball before school

first day of school

luckily he didn't make this face at anyone while he was at school.