Christmas Mouse

So, when I was a kid, we has these AWESOME christmas mice. I remember having two of them, but most specifically, a Mrs. Clause mouse, handmade out of felt and full-on lace bonnet and frilly christmas dress ala 1980′s. She had bendable arms and legs just like those elf-on-a-shelf and I thought she was the coolest ornament on our tree for many years of my childhood. I particularly thought it’s tail was cool because it felt like a real mouse tail. (Our cat, Mittens often left us sad mice offerings on our doorstep…) I’m thinking the original looked more along these lines, but, the legs were long and slender with wire in them. We use to wrap the legs onto the tree branches to help her sit.

Anyway, I’ve emailed my Mom a few times about the famed Christmas mouse, but I haven’t been able to describe the mouse very well, and it’s probably buried in a box of ornaments somewhere random and inaccessible. So, I decided to try to make my own.

Attempt #1

She’s a lot more contemporary than I remember the original, and she’s made out of silk duppioni, not felt. I think her head is larger and her arms are smaller. I may have made her legs a bit long.

Walter really likes her. He said she likes to run.

I put the mouse IN the house, and Walter said, “Nooooo. ON the house.”

Did anybody out there have a christmas mouse as a kid, too?

Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween! We decided Walter would be a waffle this year in tribute to him learning to say his name. He called himself waffle for a few months. He’s worked it out by now and says Walter pretty well by now.

At every door we trick-or-treated at, the homeowner would say, “A waffle!”, and Walter would reply, “No, I’m Walter.” He’s so literal.

This costume was a little trickier than I thought it would be. Who knew a walrus would be easier than a waffle? Thank goodness Jonathan had some good ideas that made it easy for Walter to take on and off.

“Marching” in a “parade”.  Total chaos was more like it.

On actual Halloween Day, we added some syrup at Walter’s request. Yum.

(just a phone pic… sorry!)

Officially Fall

We made a BIG pile of leaves at the bottom of the slide on Walter’s treehouse. He like the sliding part. The leaves, not so much….

He loves jumping on the trampoline, but is a little obsessed with the springs. He talks about them being “coupled-up” all the time. Total Thomas the Train reference.

Oh! And how totally awesome is the treehouse that Jonathan built for Walter? I imagined something up and Jonathan made it exactly as I saw it in my head. Our neighbor Mike helped as well as our friend Matt. I hope Walter enjoys it for many years!

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(I’ve never done a slide show on here before… I wonder if it will show up on the iphone? If not, I guess I’ll upload the pics one by one. Trying something new.)

HeeHaw Farms

Walter had the opportunity to go to HeeHaw farms with some new friends! There were so many things to do, we were both pretty tired by the time we arrived home.

There were 10 or so baby piglets about the size of this pig’s head in another pen that were only a week old. The mother was probably the size of Walter’s toddler bed. It was huge! Wish I had a picture of that big pig!

He LOVED this giant hill slide.

A mid-slide mug. Haha

Walter Cow.

Corn pit. Kind of like a sand box, but corn. I grew up near some pretty big farms and corn fields, but I’d never seen this before.

Walter searching for the perfect pumpkin. He wanted a really small one, and kept passing by tons of pumpkins until he found what he wanted.

The PRIZE pumpkin.

Thanks for inviting us, Brittney!

Fishing and baby birds

Heading on the highway

My kid rides his bike all by himself. Nuts.

Happy Easter 2011

Dinosaur Museum

ROAR!!!

Walter picked out this shirt today when I told him we were going to the Dinosaur Museum. Man, I love this kid!!!

 

 

Sleepy Sheep

So I made these awesome pajamas for Walter that have sheep all over them and the words “Sleepy Sheep”.

He was anything but sleepy.

 

 

At the Square