Welcome to the world, baby!

Monday marked the arrival of a little someone special in my life:
my new nephew, Josiah James.

Halloween!

I'm not really a Halloween person anymore... but sometimes I miss the Halloween days of my youth when the holiday was all about make believe and having fun. For college students it is mostly an opportunity to expose a little more cleavage... but sometimes when I find inspiration like this it makes me get a little giddy about the days when I've got a kiddo of my own to take up the creative side of Halloween spirit once again!

These DIY costumes from Martha Stewart rock.

I've also found lots of inspiration for Halloween parties which I just may make use of before there is a kiddo on the horizon. My philosopher's birthday is in October and I've been thinking about throwing a pre-Halloween birthday bash for quite some time now.

Maybe we could have some SPOOKTACULAR invitations like one of these (with a birthday twist, of course)...

Or something like this...


But my favorite invite idea of all is something creepy and surprising like this:


At the party we could serve some ghoulish treats like these...

chocolate (or hot coco or coffee) with marshmallow bones

yummy witchcream sandwitches

spider cake

And/or my favorite spooky sweet - -

cuppie brains!
Actually, my favorite thing about this is the name tag set up.
I especially love the one at the front because a long time ago
I started referring to my philosopher as Sir Thinks-A-Lot.
Coincidence?? I think not.

We could decorate our house sort of like this...

A Halloween birthday bash for my love is meant to be.
I just know it.

sun.day

{photo found here}

Today the philosopher and I are making lunch for a tres spectacular party in honor of Father's day and two special birthdays. I wrapped up the gifts last night and we're headed out for the ingredients in about an hour. Of course, when I say we're making lunch I really mean to say we're buying lunch and heating it up... I had glorious plans for making homemade enchiladas complimented with beans, rice, chips & salsa, and virgin pina coladas. But my laziness got the best of me... and I decided that my Mexi-plans might be a little overboard for lunch. So instead, we're going to buy some of my favorite, locally made butternut squash ravioli to be complimented with broccoli, organic bread from the Essential Baking Co., drinks with umbrella straws, and maybe some chocolates or brownies to finish it all off. Heck, I might even take over some fun napkins if I can find some in my stash - - yes, that is right. I store up on fun napkins. For L and I the party doesn't end after lunch. Since summer quarter starts tomorrow we're going to finish off our week long break with another day of our movie-thon. Only today will be different than the rest because we're going to the theater instead of our sofa.

And Katie makes three

{photo by Anne Geddes, of course!}

My sister had her third baby on Saturday.
Little Katie has been much anticipated.
We're so happy she's here!

Coming into the light with over 9 pounds of health
and a head full of black hair
I've got a feeling this one is trouble.

Happy Birthday, Christy!

{photo by me}

Yesterday we celebrated my will-be-mother-in-law's birthday!
It was fun. An evening full of kabobs and games, laughter and conversation.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRISTY!

Happy Birthday, Kaleb!

The last week or so has been kind of hectic
trying to get scholarship applications completed, articles ready for publication,
yada, yada, yada...
In all the hullapalooza I forgot to make a very important post - -
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KALEB!!

Kaleb is my go-to pirate-cowboy-smartass-superstar!

I can't believe he's FIVE years old!!

P.S. Kids are so funny! I can't figure out if its jealousy I see in their faces or pure rapture at the birthday-wish-making magic.