Our First Annual Fall Backyard Movie Night was a great success!
We showed the classic 1966 Peanuts special, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.
Friends.
Fall decorations.
Hot chocolate and apple cider.
A blazing fire.
Lots of kids.
A basket of blankets.
The big screen.
Popcorn.
These faces.
A happy scene in my happy place.
home is…a celebration of fall with friends and neighbors.
We’ll be watching this on the outdoor screen tomorrow night…
home is…fall in the air.
That’s what my youngest cousin had to say about our extended family’s trip to northern Idaho together.
I think Reece would agree.
Thanks to my other cousin, Greg, for inviting us all to celebrate with them!
It was definitely “fun with a capital f”!
Still going through the photos…I have them edited down to 989.
Post will be up next week.
Until then, a little FUN from our week back home…
home is…FUN!
It’s the Monday after returning from a week long vacation that was amazing.
We celebrated my cousin Greg and his beautiful new wife, Natalie.
We reunited with first and second cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, parents, and siblings.
It was magical.
I won’t recap everything in words as I believe that the photos will speak for themselves.
The first night we arrived was the rehearsal dinner in downtown Sandpoint…
Cousins.
Siblings.
The following afternoon was the wedding on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille…
Cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings, grandparents.
More to come…
home is…celebrating family.
When I started this post on Sunday night, I was sitting on a deck, with a glass of wine, watching my dad fish as the sun was setting behind a “mountain”.
Meme and Aunt Betsy were snuggling with the kids while they watch a TinkerBell Movie.
We had been at my aunt and uncle’s lake house from 9 am until 5 pm.
Yesterday was pretty much the same…except we stayed at my aunt and uncle’s house for dinner and a bonfire.
The kids have played non-stop.
Reece is not afraid of being in the water.
He is swimming, jumping off docks and rock cliffs, getting on rafts, instigator of water fights, sharing rafts, riding on paddle boards.
He is a social butterfly who makes fast friends with our extended family.
Lorelai is a little bit more timid.
She stands or sits on the rocky beach collecting rocks with her chosen friends…Natalie, Suzanne, and Alyssa.
She won’t put her swimsuit on until the end of the day, and is refusing to put her life vest on to get in the water, but she LOVES to watch her brother…fishing, swimming, playing.
He taught her how to skip rocks…
I didn’t forget about the giveaway…
Reece picked a number between 1 and 7…
Kell, you win!
Please e-mail me, homeis(at)stephanytaddeo(dot)com, with your shipping address and I will get the mason jar pendant light to you as soon as we return from vacation!
home is…lakeside.
My cousin is getting married today on the shore of a beautiful northern Idaho lake.
It’s going to be an amazing celebration.
Reece and Lorelai are in the wedding…ring bearer and flower girl.
They rehearsed yesterday afternoon…
After the wedding festivities we get to stay here and play for a few more days.
It’s going to be an amazing vacation.
home is…getting away from home.
It’s been a long stretch of traveling for Ryan.
He’s tired.
I’m tired.
This stretch of travel has put him away 11 out of 15 days.
He’ll come home for one day, and then the kids and I leave on a road trip for a family wedding.
Lorelai and Reece are flower girl and ring bearer along with my sisters daughter, Sasha.
My mom is flying out to Portland to help me drive to Northern Idaho.
Ryan is staying in Portland to spend time with some friends who are visiting from the Boise area.
He will meet us in Northern Idaho sometime next week…at least that is the plan.
I’m looking forward to some celebrating, playtime, and fun with my extended family.
And, I’m hoping to come back home re-energized to end the summer…we still have a lot of our summer list left to accomplish!
Who wants a mason jar pendant light?
I’m giving away the one I made for the tutorial.
To enter answer the following question as a comment below:
Deadline is Thursday, August 2nd at 9pm Pacific.
Winner will be announced on Friday, August 3rd!
home is…looking forward to a road trip.
July has been a fun month filled with parties, friends, sunshine, and adventure…
For those who are curious, I create the collage of my Instagram photos using Picasa…very easy to do! I learned using this tutorial.
home is…summertime.
We celebrated Reece’s birthday with friends on Saturday. It was a long awaited, talked about, and planned for party. We had a 1st birthday party for Reece in 2008, but since then we have not had a party for him.
This year, he wanted to have a party…
and, it was super.
As friends entered the house they were greeted by this…
I made the capes, they just added the decorations.
After the kids decorated their capes, the rest of the party was outside.
The tattoos were a hit.
It was so fun to see our yard decorated for the party and full of friends.
After some play and snacking it was time for the superheroes to save the day!
I love the look on Reece’s face as he’s watching the piñata be destroyed!
Everybody is ready to run for the loot…
The piñata was filled with superhero stickers, pencils, erasers, and fruit snacks.
The kids played for a little bit after the piñata.
One of the favorite places was the Batcave.
I threw some glow sticks under there for the kids to find. The girls took it over as their hideout…
Aren’t they all so pretty?
Cake was next on the agenda…
I have to admit, I did not cook a thing for this party. I bought the cake and put some of Reece’s superhero action figures on top.
Snacks were pretzels, popcorn, snack mix, and cheese puffs in buckets with paper bags for the kids to fill.
Drink choices were gatorade or water…and beer for the adults.
Finally, on to the gifts. The party was small enough that we could open the gifts during the party…and it was another “activity” for everybody to participate in.
Ryan was “warned” about the swarming that happens once gift opening begins…this is his reaction and description of actually seeing it happen!
Ryan was in charge of activities so I could take photos. He did an awesome job of keeping things under control.
Again, LOVED seeing friends filling our yard.
It was a super party.
Thank you to all the “Super Friends” who helped to make the day special!
I’ll be posting some of the details about the capes, bunting, invitations, piñata, and other homemade decorations in the coming days.
home is…a super celebration for our five year old!
We’ve been checking items off our summer list.
We had some friends over on the 4th of July. We ate, drank, played, set off fireworks, and walked to the local fireworks show down the street.
And, today…
We didn’t check it off, but we inadvertently started. Lorelai wants to wear undies. So, after she got out of bed this morning we put undies on. Shortly after breakfast, I decided that we needed to get out of the house while Ryan worked from home. My plan was to go to Goodwill and see where else the morning took us.
I asked Reece use the bathroom and gave Lorelai the choice to put on a diaper or try to pee on the potty. She refused the diaper, so I told her she would need to go pee on the potty before she could put her undies back on.
We sat in the bathroom for over 3 hours.
Fruit snacks.
Books.
Drinks.
Ipad.
Lunch.
Iphone.
Popsicle.
Hugs.
Finally, I gave in.
I was tired of sitting in the bathroom and she wanted to get off the potty. It’s been four hours…and, really, 6 hours since she got up and had her diaper changed.
She told me she will let me know when she needs to go.
I even offered her a diaper and she does NOT want to put one on.
We’ve moved outside, and she still hasn’t gone pee…
until just a second ago (at 3:15 pm) when she was standing on the deck and said, “I’m going pee!”
Six hours later.
I’m not sure I’m ready for this.
home is…working on our summer list (some items are easier to cross off than others).
stephany taddeo 