B's Into the Woods birthday

We hosted B's 3rd birthday party last weekend, and because he's our little fox, we (read: I) chose an "Into the Woods" theme. You can check out my Pinterest board for the party over here if you're looking for more ideas, but here's how it all shook out:

For the menu, we made pumpkin cupcakes with salted caramel frosting, "acorns" made from Hersey's kisses and Nutter Butters, pretzel "twigs," s'mores pudding cups (chocolate pudding topped with marshmallow fluff and graham cracker bits), "forest rabbits" (aka, graham bunnies), mini campfire hot dogs, and apple cider.

I realized after taking some shots of the decorations and food that I kind of forgot about my camera until it was time to sing "Happy Birthday!" and blow out the candles. Mom fail. Rest assured there was plenty of fun, children wearing masks and eating too many sweets, and general merriment. Then, came the cake.

That birthday-boy smile makes my day. Party success!

 

Apples, pumpkins, and the fam

Well, we've got another grandparent visit coming up this weekend, so I figured it was about time I got this post about the last grandparent visit up here. A few weeks ago, Matt's parents joined us for a long weekend, arriving just in time to see the leaves start to change and at the prime time for apple and pumpkin picking. So that's just what we did.

After doing a little searching, I discovered a new (to us) local orchard that got great reviews for the people and the product. The place we've gone to the last few years is always really crowded and feels super commercial, so we were looking for something smaller and more authentic feeling, and we found it.

B's usually good for a few minutes of picking, and then he starts chowing down on his chosen apple while the rest of us finish the work. We tried not to go overboard this time, but I think we still came out with about 20 pounds of apples from several varieties. We also picked up a gallon of their apple cider and a container of apple-cider donuts, which had gotten rave reviews. They did not disappoint.

Once our bags were full, we wandered over to the pumpkin patch to pick out a few small ones for our front porch. B loved all the bumpy, funny-looking ones (a boy after my own heart). With some help from Grandpa, we eventually settled on four to take home.

The rest of their visit was pretty quiet. We went to the zoo and the park, of course (standard required grandparent activities), and B rode the carousel at the zoo. He's ridden other carousels before, but I think this might have been the first time he actually enjoyed it. We went out to lunch on Saturday, and while we were eating, the fire alarm went off in the restaurant. It turned out to be a false alarm, but the fire truck came anyway. Grammie took B outside to see, and the firefighters were super nice, chatting with him and letting him see inside the truck.

 

 

Another wonderful visit in the books!