didionville

despite the plummeting temps (especially at night), the black irises and rose bushes on the side of our house continue to bloom.

um, hello! it’s october and november!

i know that some irises are “twice bloom,” but i don’t recall seeing that on the package … whatever. the roses are a real shock. perhaps all the heat escaping from our uninsulated house is mimicking a greenhouse. awesome. we’ll go broke paying for oil, but we will have roses in january!

so we got through halloween unscathed and looking quite good in our rabbit gear, and on the thursday before d-man’s birthday, didion took cupcakes to preschool to celebrate his entry into the pantheon of three-year-olds.

cupcakes?!

i gotta admit, my instincts were pleading with me to order cupcakes from pastry garden … a couple dozen, one for the kiddies at school and one for the home front. i don’t bake … even stuff out of the box … i don’t like doing it.

but then it occurred to me that maybe getting cupcakes together for my son’s classmates might be about more than, um, me … that just perhaps my son might like to help me make and decorate them … that the whole process is about bonding and sharing and not about the stupid little cakes themselves.

epiphany!

mommy did a few samples

but d-man is a quick learner and had the process well in hand

he was quite adept at qc-ing the jimmies

the cupcakes were quite tasty. in keeping with the fall mood and impending halloween holiday, we did devil’s food cake with yellow sugar, chocolate sprinkles, and reese’s pieces (brown, yellow, orange).

and i really had an awesome time with my son.

back in the middle of october, steven and d-man went for a bike ride around the neighborhood and stumbled on a little fair called “autumn in the park” at bartlett park. there were pony rides and games and food, and it was a cool little event, city sponsored (which shocked steven and me) and awesome for building neighborhood and civic pride.

there was also face painting …

of course, all good face painting must come to an end … in the bathtub …

squeaky clean!

here, a study in contrast … d-man’s devil and angel … see if you can figure out which is which …

didion got a cold last week … 103-degree fever for a couple of days … poor little guy. steven picks up the cold over the weekend, but keeps it together. both are still blowing their noses, but so what? they are well on the road to recovery.

when *i* get the cold (starting sunday), it turns into a massive sinus infection. everyone else’s nose runs all the crap out in relatively timely fashions. my sinuses hold onto mucus like gollum clutching the ring.

precious, indeed.

this is my first day of functionality this week. and it’s thursday.

grrrrr.

and, of course, their existence must be documented and broadcast by mommy!

bonus: didion decided he wanted to assemble his thomas puzzle and take a picture of it.