{the simple things} boo!

Things are busy around here, but not so busy that we didn't take the time to carve our pumpkins on Sunday.

Big brother made a cat pumpkin. What else.

Starting with a blank canvas, uh, pumpkin.

Big brother working on his pumpkin.

Hmmm, now what?

Don't you just love pumpkins?

This year I really love the green and white ones, they make the bright flesh really pop.

Daddy helped with the cutting part, much to big brother's disappointment.

Then he started working on his own pumpkin. Can you tell what it's going to be?

Yep. It had too much beer. Lovely. My mom hates it, but I do think it's funny. I mean come on, it's Halloween.

Here's the gang hanging out on the deck, waiting for the dark.

What do your pumpkins look like this year?

Happy Halloween!

Linking up with the simple things sunday.



Swenja

{the simple things} feeding the deer & fun homework assignments

Today was the first day of school after a two-week fall break.

It felt very early this morning. And it also felt very dark this morning. But once we managed to get out of bed, get dressed, have a quick breakfast and make it to school on time, we got rewarded with an absolutely beautiful day. Blue skies and the air warm enough to leave the jacket at home.

The best part? Today's homework assignment was to collect leaves. So what better day to take the boys for a walk, hunting for leaves, feeding the deer along the way and finally manage to take some fall photos this year?

We found some really pretty leaves...

... and some not so shiny ones (which I still like).

The boys fed two big bags of bread to hungry deer.

Well, some of them weren't all that hungry apparently!

Others couldn't get enough.

This one was funny, looking straight at me and posing until I pressed the shutter.

The little one was so cute!

We also found some mushrooms along the way (not so yummy).

Time to head back home, but not without stopping at big brother's best friend's house for an impromptu playdate. They're in the same class, so he and his mom joined us for homework today.

And we worked on that assignment all afternoon... sort of.

Linking up with Rebecca's simple things today. And, as I just noticed, last year feeding the deer was my very first time linking with the simple things sunday! 

Hope you all have a great and sunny week!

Swenja

Sewing some little gifts

Ok, I give up. It's 9:30pm and I have started this post four times, deleting the first paragraph every single time. What can I say, these days my brain just has a tendency to shut off as soon as I sit down at night and open my laptop. On good days it can handle editing photos. Or reading blogs. But somehow writing doesn't seem to be such a good idea lately.

Luckily, I just wanted to show you some simple gift I've been making. I don't get to my sewing machine as much as I would like,  but when I do it's usually during the two mornings I have off, so my brain is actually working. Somewhat.

Apart from lots of kids' hats and scarves, I've made these:

Simple sets of tissue pouches and keychains, all done with things I've had on hand.

They might be not the most advanced sewing project, but I can get them done in one morning and still have time to straighten up the house a bit, run a load of laundry and maybe even drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold.

Meanwhile, I'm working on two other projects for my friend, who is expecting baby no 3 - a little sister to the two boys she has. Can't wait to show you, but it might be a good idea to get them done first... oh, and wait until her baby shower is over.

Any sewing projects you started lately? What do you do when you have little time for projects, tackle bigger ones little by little or make do with some smaller ones instead?


Happy sewing,

Swenja

{the simple things} orange? green? white? picking pumpkins

Ahhhh. Fall in New England.

Sigh. Long time ago.

I can still picture that little blond toddler running around the pumpkin field on a beautiful fall day, picking a pumpkin. The bright orange against the clear blue skies.

Just to put things into perspective: these days that little toddler is going to university. Not sure if he's still picking pumpkins.

So while that was ages ago, some things remain. Such as getting pumpkins every fall, and carving them for Halloween. Even when it seemed that nobody around here did that.

These days, my boys pick out the pumpkins. Unfortunately, there are no pumpkin patches where we live, just farms that sell pumpkins from their stands. Well, better than no pumpkins at all, if you ask me.

At least it's quite a selection of colors and shapes. We let both boys pick out a pumpkin for themselves to carve (well, the knife part is left to mommy, but they do help draw the face and scooping out the seeds), so we try to steer them away from the bigger ones.

Little brother checking out a green one.

Big brother preferred the traditional version.

It was a difficult decision, after all. So many to choose from! White? Yellow? Green? Orange? And so many shapes!

This year, I was drawn to the green ones. We had white and orange last year. That green one in the center below would make a great Frankenstein - or is that just me?

These are the ones we ended up taking home. A huge orange one for daddy, two green ones for mommy (yes, I do get two), a smaller orange for one for big brother and the white one for little brother.

Can't wait to see what kind of faces are lurking inside those innocent looking veggies... 

Where do you get your pumpkins? Any color preferences? 

Linking up with the simple things sunday.

Happy Sunday!

Swenja

{the simple things} flower boy

Last weekend we went to my brother-in-law's wedding. After the beautiful ceremony, little brother got to be the flower boy.

He walked down the aisle, very slowly. One step after the other. Dropping one rose petal after the other. Slowly. Very slowly. And very, very deliberately.

When two petals stuck together, he would pause, trying to take them apart so that he would only be dropping one petal at a time.

Needless to say, it took a while. But it also made everyone in the church smile - that little boy, so very focussed and immersed in what he set out to do.

I was very proud of my little one.

And we're wishing his uncle all the best in the world for his marriage!

Happy Sunday,
Swenja

{the simple things} porcupine

Yep, it's me. I'm still here. A little exhausted maybe and busier than I would sometimes like, but still here. And yes, I know I was going to post party details. Some other time. Right now, I am lucky if I manage to even read a blog before my brain shuts off for the night. Writing a post? Oh, right, I was going to write...

About this little guy for example. The photos are from Sunday a week ago. The kids were running around the neighborhood and ended up discovering him on the street. We kept him in a box for a little while to make sure he was ok.

He eventually had some water, ate some oats and a couple of grapes.

Then he tried to get out of that box.

The boys had fun watching.

Although he was still fairly small, it's only September and we figured the reason he was on a little walk in broad daylight might have been due to the kids running around an empty lot. We put him back and told them to stay out of there for now.

He's cute though, isn't he?

Cheers,
Swenja

{the simple things / embrace the camera} family fun

How did it get to be September already? The air feels like fall, even though it's been really hot here this weekend. For us, September also means big brother's birthday. He turned 6 last Monday, and as a tradition we always take a family trip on their actual birthday and then do the party some other day.

Well, more on the party later, as I still have sticky floors, a ton of leftover cake, bunting and balloons all over my driveway and backyard to deal with.

So for today's simple things I wanted to share a few photos of our family trip. We went to a nearby park that has all kinds of animals plus a really nice playground, featuring a giant yellow slide as the highlight. First time my husband went down the slide with both boys, big brother commented that while he thought that was nice, he was done with it now. Little brother just smiled and screamed "AGAIN!!!!" at the top of his lungs, before turning around and running to climb up the stairs again. He couldn't get enough, and eventually big brother decided he might give it another try, too.

We've been here a couple of times before, but we haven't seen the latest addition to the playground yet: a wooden pirate ship.

They also have these large inflated pillows to jump on. This time it was little brother's turn to be skeptical.

Big brother loved these though and could have spent the entire day on them.

And then there are lots of animals to see and some they brothers also got to feed. Awwwww, isn't that cute?

This guy was just a tad bigger...

Every other time we've been there, we went in the morning. Since big brother has school now, we went after school and were at the park much later than usual. Maybe that is why we have finally seen the lynx. Big brother was quite excited, we have always looked for them and never before even caught so much as a glimpse. Now here he was, sitting there and eating dinner.

I didn't realize sheep could be this loud. This little guy came running along the fence after us. We named him Karly - after a song on big brother's favorite CD (for German readers: if you don't know the Mukketier-Bande yet, you absolutely have to check it out. It's music for kids that somehow manages to be only very mildly annoying even after listening to it a million times a day).

I'm off cleaning floors and eating some cake, but I promise to be back next week with some details of the party.

Happy Sunday!

Linking up with the simple things and Embrace the Camera.

Swenja