Happy Halloween 09: Bugdozer Man!

Here's the big costume reveal. This was a group effort: I knit the sweater, Drew made the bulldozer, Patrick made the "Bugdozer Construction" logo, and Silas supplied a heaping dose of cuteness. "Bugdozer, by the way, is a character from the Richard Scarry books.

I'll be back in a day or two with more pictures and details from our day.

Just for the sake of posting

It seems that I haven't been motivated to post to the blog lately. Too much going on right now, I guess. I did want to write a quick post to say that my parents (Silas' Grandma and Papa) are visiting and will be celebrating Halloween with us tomorrow. That's exciting!

Rest assured, there will be a lot of pictures of Silas in costume tomorrow, or in the days following. Till then, I hope everyone who reads this is doing well.

Happy Halloween!

At the Fire Station

Last weekend, we went to the local fire station's pancake breakfast. Silas was very very excited, especially when they gave him is very own firefighter badge and helmet.
But the best part was definitely getting to ride on top of the fire truck. You can't tell from the picture below(it was pretty cramped up there and I wanted to enjoy the ride, so I quick snapped a picture, such as it is), but Silas is standing at the very top back of the truck, and he is having the time of his life. The truck took us around the neighborhood for about five minutes, with two firefighters hanging off of the back, totally old-school.
On our way home, we happened to be behind a firetruck carrying some families. One of the moms had asked the fireman to take a picture and he was balancing on the back with just the strap keeping him from falling off in order to take their picture (why didn't I think of that). For the rest of the afternoon, Silas kept climbing onto the back of one of our big chairs, pretending to take pictures, exclaiming "I'm a fireman!" It cracks us up that that's what he took away from his time at the fire station: Fireman = Photographer.

Farmers Market, Digger, Digger

The last of the digger sweater photo shoots...

Silas is fixated on the live music, that is being played just out view. The music is definitely Silas' main reason for wanting to go to the market on Saturdays. We'll miss it this winter!
I love that our market basket matches his sweater.

There's an old front-end loader in a parking lot that Silas has been given permission to ride on whenever he wants. He's one very happy kid when he's riding that thing, let me tell you.

A few more pictures are posted here.

Boats and Water photoshoot

As promised, here are a few pics from our weekend photo shoot. Silas always asks to go see the boats when we're downtown, so taking a walk to the marina, and the Waterfront Park, is pretty commonplace. Up above: Silas and I are at the end of one of the piers, next to a boat that's named, no joke, "The Knotty Nurse."

Here we are at the Waterfront Park adjacent to the marina.
You probably can't tell from these shots, but this is the hull of a boat that's been planted in the ground and is used as a stage for events in the park.
Silas loves to run around on it. Clearly it's also a favorite of local graffiti artists.We determined that the paint chipping looked like a bat. Silas now requests to see the "bat pictures."
The kid is looking none too pleased in this next image. But it's a decent picture of me, so whatever. I'm posting it.
And a couple more of the waterfront: People dock rowboats next to shore and then take them out to their houseboats, yachts, or even their houses across the harbor.
Out-of-service ferries in the distance (in service ferry is a bit beyond them, but not in view).
I will post a few more from the farmers market and whatnot some other time.

October 09 Book of the Month

Introducing Planet Silas’ October 09 book of the month:

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell ; pictures by Lizzy Rockwell.

A little girl travels with her parents to a farm to pick a bushel of apples and to select the perfect pumpkin.

Silas has been requesting this book pretty steadily for just about as long as I can remember. While it is a delightful book to read any time of the year, it is undoubtedly the perfect pick for the October/Autumn/Halloween season. Young children (Silas included) relate to the little girl as she blissfully narrates her time on the farm with her parents, being followed by chickens and geese out to the orchard, picking just the right pumpkin and watching her dad cut it from the vine, etc. When they get home, the pumpkin is transformed into a jack-o-lantern and the (obviously health-conscious) parents pass the apples out for trick-or-treat.

This is a wonderful slice of life book that captures, both in words and pictures, the joys and traditions of this time of year. I trust that we will continue to read and enjoy this story for years to come.

Just the beginning

We did several photo shoots this weekend featuring Silas and the digger sweater I recently finished for him (It will be part of his Halloween costume). I have a lot of pictures to sort through and will post more here and on my knitting blog soon. For now: The top pic is one of my favorites. How did I get such a golden, sunshine child? The bottom pic shows us killing time waiting for D...

So much more to post, so little time. If you are following this blog, beware: you will be seeing a lot of that digger sweater, which he is very pleased with and eager to wear.

And on a side note, we had a lengthy power outage this evening, which is a sign that autumn is truly here. We ate by candle light (luckily our stove is gas), and then took a walk through the forest amidst growing shadows. When we got back to the yard, we watched the full moon rise over the tree tops. The power came on just as Silas was getting ready for bed. All in all, a very enjoyable power-outage (any that last less than a day usually are :)