What a Stinker!

Guess what Luke was for Halloween....

Well, a skunk of course!

We had been very benevolently loaned a fabulous Elmo costume that was in the running for a while, but Luke's Elmo love has since waned, and (brace yourself--your not going to believe it...) it was too big. So we went with the most appropriate costume that we could think of. Together with my mom's help, I collected 3 black articles of clothing-- pants, a turtleneck, and a hat. Then I went to Joann's and bought the longest, most skunk-like fur I could find. I cut it into strips, thereby scattering fur all over the table and floor and releasing it into the air to haunt my house for years to come. I sewed it on using big fat stitches that I could easily remove later, and ta-da! A skunk was born. When test driving the costume a week before, the Stinker would absolutely NOT wear the hat for more than .004 seconds. I figured it was pretty much a loss, but crossed my fingers that on the big day, he'd somehow sense that the hat did indeed make the costume and surrender to wearing it for at least a few minutes. Little did I know, he'd wear it the WHOLE time! All it took was a little bribing. He'll do just about anything to be allowed outside, and if you throw in a ride in the wagon, you've got yourself a deal. Thus, he succumbed to the ridiculous hat and made his mommy sooooo happy! We took him out trick or treating but didn't think he'd last very long. Well, once he realized that we were actually going to let him ring any doorbell he wanted, he was in it for the long haul. We'd pull the wagon into the driveway of a house, he'd hop out and RUN to the door (usually the garage door for some reason, only to be redirected by one of us to the actual front door), yelling "Do-beh! Do-beh!" all the way. Several doorbells were actually low enough for him to push on his own (apparently gnomes live in those houses), so he'd go to town pushing it as many times as he could before a parent snatched him up, apologizing for their overly zealous Stinker. When asked to say, "trick or treat", he'd say "treat". He totally knew what was up. To heck with the "trick" stuff, give me the treat. If offered the bowl of treats to choose from, he'd touch just about every piece before picking one, only to then put it back and take another. Thank goodness we only went to a handful of houses on our street. Mommy and Luke could have kept going for a while, but Daddy fizzled out and was ready to go home and have dinner. All in all it was a great night, and I couldn't be prouder of my big boy. I think he had a lot of fun, too, especially once Mommy let him taste what the night was all about!

Getting ready and looking a little more like Dopey than a skunk.

All dressed and ready to go.


"Are you sure I have to wear this hat?"


The Stinker rockin' his State Farm Insurance ride.


Ringing Mr. Ben's doorbell. It was the perfect height for Luke!


Yay! Every successful ring was cause for celebration.


Headed back to the wagon, but not before doing a little dance in the gutter.


Loving the lone bowl on the porch. In true Stinker form, he poured the whole thing out while we were talking to our new neighbors in the yard.


When we got to this neighbor's house, there was a surprise on the other side of the door...


Dorothy!!


Isn't she ADORABLE??!!! Her real name is Tessa, and she is just a few weeks younger than Luke.


Putting his candy from Tessa in his bag.


And then it was time to mow! He spotted Tessa's mower just inside the door and therE was no stopping him.


Thankfully Tessa's grandparents needed their house mowed, so they didn't mind the Stinker taking over.


Onto the next house. Luke was a pro by this point.


All done and headed home.


One happy Stinker enjoying some of the night's plunder.

Daddy Creates a Monster...

Several weeks ago now, Phil let Luke sit in his lap while he pulled the car into the garage. Although the trip only lasted about .06 seconds and 10 feet, it was the ride of a lifetime for Luke. It has changed him forever and has made him madly passionate about cars, and more specifically, DRIVING. In fact, Luke's obsession was so immediately obvious that Phil actually called me on his cell phone from the car and told me to get the camera and come out to the garage. Ever since, Luke has asked to drive almost every time he has ridden in a car.

"Seriously, Mom. I'm busy here."


Checking his mirror before he kicks it in reverse and peels out of the garage.


Discovering the wonders of garage door openers.


I love this picture because I totally caught Phil's surprise after Luke figured out the horn all by himself.


...And once he found it, he couldn't stop.

He was not happy when we forced him out of the car and into the house. Lucky for him, our awesome neighbors came to the rescue once again. Being that Reid is so big these days, he's kind of over his Little Tykes cars. When Reid's mom, Regina, learned of Luke's new obsession, she gladly offered him Ree-Ree's Little Tykes police car. Luke was beyond excited about it.


Love at first drive.


He loves to turn the steering wheel side to side, like he's really driving...


...but he spends most of his time getting in and out.


Sometimes getting out isn't so easy.


And getting up is no cake walk, either.


It's really tough, though, when the car falls over...


...and you can't lift it back up on your own.


But the absolute worst is when Mommy tells you it's time to get out and go inside.

Swimming?...NO THANKS!!

Tuesday our neighbor, Reid, rang the doorbell and asked if Luke could come over and swim in his backyard. Sweet Reid has come over several times wanting Luke to swim with him, and Luke has always been otherwise engaged. This time Luke was free, so I slathered him up with sunscreen, threw on a bathing suit, and grabbed my camera since this would be Luke's FIRST ever swimming experience! Oh, I was so excited....and Luke had no idea what was coming. Reid had a nice new blow-up pool that he was so excited to share with Luke, but he and his mom, Regina, had just put water in it, and it was COLD. Knowing how cold it was, I slowly set Luke's little feet down into the water. This is what he thought of that experience...


"GET ME OUT OF HERE, MOM!"

Luckily, Reid's older pool had been sitting out with water in it all day, so that water was warmer. Regina scooped Luke up out of the new pool when he started crying and took him over to the warmer pool. Sadly, he wasn't a fan of that one, either...


This is Luke begging Regina to take him out.

Reid ran over with some pool toys to try to remedy the situation....


For about 20 seconds Luke was content to play with the boat.

But then he lost his balance and fell down into the water...


He was NOT happy.

After taking him out of the water for a little recovery time, he would not go back in. Poor Reid kept trying to convince him that it was fun to swim, but he wasn't having it....

BUT THEN he found Reid's police car, and he was in heaven!



Reid explained to him that there were lights on the roof...


...and Luke made sure that the horn was in good order.


"Oh geez, look at that traffic up ahead..."


Poor Reid kept trying to get Luke to try swimming again.


I love this picture because you can (kind of) see that Luke is smiling at Reid. He thinks Reid is the coolest big guy.


Silly Stinker was so serious about pushing that horn.


See. He's still honking.
(Look at that deltoid. He's built like his daddy. All muscle!)

Later at dinner time, Luke was playing his new peek-a-boo game. He's played peek-a-boo with a blanket or something for a long time now, but recently he's started playing with just his hands over his face. It's hilarious.


Where's Luke? I can't see him.


Seriously. Where is he?


This one's my favorite.


"Mom, are you even paying attention to me??"
(trying to look at me behind the camera)


"By the way, here's my nose!"


Sweet, silly man.

A Big Man Birthday Bash...kind of.

Well,
.....{sigh}....
We had Luke's birthday party last Saturday. It started at 5 pm, and the plan was to have a big cookout in the backyard. We invited a bunch of families and planned on having tons of fun playing, cooking, and eating outside. I (with help from my sister, Anne, and friend, Carli) put lots of time and effort into making decorations, buying/borrowing toys and things to play with outside, and making the desserts and sides. We were so excited for this party.....
And then we woke up on Saturday to the crummiest weather ever! The temperature had dropped about 20 degrees (I'm not exaggerating. It was in the low 50's!), the wind gusts were ridiculous, and it was sprinkling on and off all day long. BOO HISS!!! We were so bummed. We had no choice but to move the party indoors, and since we don't have a giant downstairs, we had to set up the tables in the dingy garage. Not what I had envisioned for Luke's first birthday party. It all ended up working out, but I can't lie---it was somewhat of a let-down. Lots of people couldn't make it at the last minute, but that ended up being okay, since we were now all stuck in the garage. Those that did show up were very kind and flexible and didn't seem to mind eating in the same place we park our cars. We managed to have fun, but most importantly Luke had a lot of fun. He played and played with all the "big kids" and seemed to have a blast....until cupcake time, that is! Thanks to all of our friends who showed up and celebrated our Big Man's first year with us. It was a special time, despite the kinks in our plans, and we are so grateful to you all for being a part of the party and a part of our lives!!

Here are some pictures and details from the party. Since we have always called Luke "Big Man", we wanted to have a "Big Man" birthday party. I used neckties and mustaches to carry out our theme. It was such a fun theme and so cute (well, as cute as possible in a garage)!

I don't have any pictures of the invitations, but they were striped in the colors I used for his party (teal, turquoise, and lime green), and I glued onto each one a necktie that I cut out of turquoise cardstock. On the inside I wrote the details of the where/when/what on one side and this poem on the other:

We can't believe it,
But Luke is turning 1!
He's a BIG MAN now,
and the fun's just begun....
So throw on a necktie
And run a comb through your 'stache.
Then come and join us
for a BIG MAN birthday
BASH!!

This make-shift wreath greeted our guests and gave them a laugh.

It's made out of a paper plate, ribbon, crepe streamers, felt and cardstock.


The dessert table.


The cupcake stand.
(My awesome sister baked every single one of these cupcakes, with a little help from our neighbor Katie. THANK YOU, ANNE!)


Necktie sugar cookies.
They were super yummy, if I do say so myself.
(Thank you Anne and Carli for helping me make/decorate all the cookies!!)


Mustache sugar cookies with chocolate icing....and you can also see the chocolate mustache lollipops that were scattered around the table.


And speaking of chocolate lollipops, here is a picture of Luke during the lollipop making process...


...And Daddy, too!


The necktie banner made from Goodwill ties and cast offs from my dad and Carli's husband, Joel.
(This would have been SO much cuter hung up outside under our harbor, with the beautiful wisteria as a backdrop. Boo-hoo.)


Anne and I painted this "frame" which held tons of pictures of the Big Man from the past year.
(Our garage walls = G.R.O.S.S.)


A happy birthday banner made of paper plates and crepe streamers. (It also would have been much cuter hung up outside in our backyard.)


A view of the necktie banner and tables with buckets full of felt mustaches on sticks.


Another view of the tables and picture frame.


My handsome, goofy husband with a necktie napkin.


Jake modeling his necktie napkin.


Luke's buddy Anthony hard at play.


My living room full of our awesome neighbors. I love it!


The Big Man wore his own necktie that my mom and I made for him using a real tie and this tutorial.


Such a stud muffin.


Busy man taking apart a refrigerator magnet during his party.

My sis and I also made a million different mustaches on sticks. I found some great templates that I used and ended up with 13 different styles.


Jake and his Super Mario mustache.


Dominic with a Luigi mustache.


Silly Katie with yet another 'stache.
(Can you tell that they were a big hit?)


Even some of the big kids enjoyed the mustaches.


Jackson could have cared less about the mustaches. He was busy playing with the wagon full of balls and the big plastic bowl that he kept wearing like a hat.


Poor guy had a broken leg, but walked and played like a champ!


Luke and Marcus hard at work. The punching balloons were a super-smart purchase from the Dollar Tree. Little boys love punching balloons!


Luke enjoyed chewing on the bubbles while the big kids blew them.


Our neighbor Meghan helped me out a ton by feeding Luke his dinner.


After dinner we stripped Luke down in preparation for his blue cupcake. We all sang him "Happy Birthday", and he totally freaked out by the end of the song. I guess it scared him that we were all suddenly making a ton of noise while staring right at him.


This was during the song. Not a happy birthday boy. Notice the tears on his face.


Marcus helped us blow out Luke's candle. Luke was in total freak-out mode at this point.


Sweet Marcus was trying to explain to Luke that it was just a cupcake and that it was yummy.


Luke wasn't buying it.


He DID NOT like the 2 bites of cupcake that I forced him to have.


Look at that face. NOT HAPPY.


He decided to taste the candle to see if that was better...


Bad idea!


Gerber Lil' Crunchies to the rescue!!!
Luke couldn't be more addicted to these things if they were crack cocaine.


Clapping because he has his crunchies.


Daddy provided some comic relief by holding up different mustaches and speaking in (what he thought was) the appropriate accent.


A little Fu Manchu action for the Big Man.


This cracks me up.


Now it's Daddy's turn.


After the cupcake fiasco, Luke wanted to hang with Mommy for a little while and entertained himself by pulling all of the shredded paper filling out of the centerpieces.


By the time the last guests were saying goodbye, it was an hour past bed time and it certainly showed!

In other news, my sister was here for Luke's party and helped me out SO MUCH. I could not have pulled it off without her! Unfortunately, I was a loser and got practically no pictures of her with Luke. Seriously, I got 3. Two of which are below and the 3rd will never be posted on this blog for fear of her disowning me if I did!


Wearing pj's and flying on Annie's legs...


Oh what fun!!!

Thanks so much to Anne, Carli, the Barnes family, the Schrock family, my mom, and my mother-in-law for all of the help and/or contributions to Luke's party. I am so grateful!