A lovely weekend...

We had a pretty great weekend in the Wolfe house - a mix of productivity, family time, a little relaxing and a great date night! Saturday morning we spent with Nathan's family at the Clinton Fall Festival. It is a lovely annual fall weekend the next town over from where I grew up. They have craft booths, fair food, things for the littles to do and a great parade to top off the weekend.

We went to the parade with my mom. It was a great hour and Logan went from being in a trance watching and then bam, "MOTORCYCLE!" bam.... "PLANE PLANE!" bam.... "TRACTOR!!" It was so cute!

Cooking with Logan

Today's post is brought to by the Toddler Food Network and its new show... Cooking Wolfe. Here is the star of the show - Logan the mini Wolfe.

Here Logan is demonstrating the careful frying of turkey kielbasa. It is important to keep said toddler at a safe distance while still being involved in the cooking process. (side note: with Nathan working a little later at his new job I am doing more of the cooking and it is a challenge finding ways Logan can help me as he insists on doing. I am find with him "cooking" as long as we are safe about it.)

The second episode of Cooking Wolfe Logan tackled the art of pancake making with his assistant Big Daddy Wolfe. Logan's first lesson of the evening: FIND THE JOY IN COOKING... Julia Child eat your heart out - my boy has the joy... see for yourself.

(Daddy let Logan even pour the pancake batter... a bit scary. But this is how it turned out! he even did the flipping of the pancakes. It is pretty amazing how much he has picked up on watching us do this for months past.) The lesson for this portion of Cooking Wolfe is it doesn't matter what they look like - they just have to taste good.

Stacking the pancakes really is an art form that requires much patience. Logan was quick to say, "awww man! I dropped it" when he dropped the first one on the floor. But when it comes to cooking it is always important get back on the horse (or griddle as the case may be) and throw some more on the plate!

The most important lesson to be learned from Cooking Wolfe with Logan is to enjoy the fruits (pancakes) of your labor! YUMMY!!

Tune in next week when Logan tackles the difficult task of baking an apple pie while poaching the most perfect egg. (joking - mostly...)

Ahhhhhhhh......

That is exactly how I feel after a glorious weekend in Northern Michigan with good friends and my little family. Assuming - as most Michigan natives do - that the back of your left hand was the state of MI we were staying somewhere around the middle knuckle on your index finger. Clear as mud, right? Good.

We are so blessed that our new good good friends Laura and Andy invited us up to this b-e-a-utiful cabin Laura's parents own for a nice long relaxing weekend. We left late morning on Friday and came home late Sunday - just before Logan's bedtime. The whole weekend was a little piece of perfection. (side note: Nathan and I have not been on any sort of vacation since June of 2007 when we spent a long weekend in Toronto. Our plan of always going somewhere Memorial Day weekend (the weekend before our anniversary) has been filled with family commitments and business so we have never made it a point to get away for a while. After realizing how GREAT we feel and how much more lovey we are after a nice relaxing weekend - this will be a MUST in our calendar - GET OUT OF TOWN TIME!)

Logan LOVED all the freedom he had - mommy did not love when he went running down the dock on the lake and daddy had to catch him as he tried to climb down the ladder at the end. *ugh ugh ugh!!!!* But beyond that - we had a great time with Laura, Andy their lovely dog Zoe - or Zoey (however you spell it) and some of Laura's family. We were even able to spend some time with my great aunt and uncle who live just two miles up the road! What a great time!

Here are some pictures from our fun filled long weekend:

Logan loved the binoculars!

Daddy and Logan cuddle time on the couch. Love that belly button!

Andy... yeah - he can work it all right!

Cheeeeeeeese!

Logan trying to work it Andy style...

Rock throwing - the favorite pastime of all 2 year old boys. He was a throwing master! Won't be long before we can teach him on to skip rocks!

Mommy and Logan getting ready for the chilly boat ride. I really like this picture of us - even with my double chin.

Can't you tell he was SUPER excited for the boat ride!

The 3 L's - Logan, Lindsey and Laura!

This is where we stayed. They started building it last fall and it is so pretty now - it is going to be amazing when it is 100% done!

Checking out the water with Daddy.

This was the look on his face the entire boat ride. Sadly it started raining so we headed back, but I can't wait to take him out again next year!

The group!

Labor Day Picnic

As I said yesterday we went to the park near our house. It was a great time! We had a great time playing on the play structures and then having a fun little picnic! Logan - our fearless little guy - was all for trying new toys and climbing with only a little assistance when HE said it was okay. If we offer - he is like, "stop - no help!" So okay buddy - we'll be there to catch you if you call, but we let him try things out himself!

PEEK A BOO!

I really love the colors in this picture.

Climbing that big wall! He is a master of that now.

Time for our yummy picnic! Sandwiches, Doritos, hummus, crackers, grapes and juice! Lots of yumminess! Logan was super happy about it all as you can see.

A few family photos. I REALLY love how they turned out. I'm the master of timed pictures and then running into position! :)

Logan was pretty slap happy by the end of it for sure. He was really feeling silly so he opted for hanging down daddy's back on the way to the wagon for the walk home. He was cracking up the whole time and it was hilarious! He was ready for nap time when we got home.

I can't wait to see how different Logan is even next year at this time when we head over the park for some more fun on Labor Day!

Feet through the years...

When Logan was a few weeks old in 2008 we took him to the park a few blocks from our house on Labor day. We went again in 2009 and again today! It is always a wonderful picnic and play time. More so now than when he was 3-ish weeks old. :) One of our traditions is the FEET picture! Here is the three years in review...


More photos from our Labor Day picnic fun coming tomorrow... or thereabouts.

If at first you don't succeed...

Try... try... try... try... try... try... again

Cookie Baking!! YAY

Oh what a glorious day! Seriously wonderful day. It was a completely perfect fall weather day. Mid 60's with gusty winds and sunshine. PERFECT! (I love me some fall!) I decided yesterday during the day that Logan and I would bake cookies together. A friend of mine has a crafting blog and posted this cute apron idea. I went and bought the stuff for it (only cost like $8 for the supplies and I have WAY more so I can just buy another apron and make one for a friend or something.) I made it last night - took about a hour total. The hardest part was cutting the little alien guys from the fabric I bought.


We all went to the grocery store and to the baking aisle. I asked Logan if he wanted chocolate chunks or chips. He said, "chunk," so we bought some of those and then I asked him if he wanted no nuts or nuts and he chose "no nuts" - and off we went to check out!

Logan had a ton of fun dumping all the pre-set items into the big bowl! I think it helps to measure everything out before hand so Logan wasn't waiting for me to get things together for him to help.

He even did a TON of mixing - he was LOVING the hand mixer. I did have to clean up the walls and counter A LOT after all the damage he did with it, but it was worth it!

Logan was all about licking the beaters... it was too funny!

Such a happy boy...

Having him help me put them on the cookie sheet was by far the messiest part of the process.

Mommy got to do the baking part, but Daddy enjoyed the eating!! (I don't like chocolate chip cookies) Both the boys were very happy with how they came out!

LOVE this picture below:

I hope you all have a great long weekend! We are having a very low key weekend. Nathan wants to just chill out before he starts his new job on Tuesday so that is what we are going to give him for sure!

CAMPING FUN!

Where in the heck have I been?

I swear I updated more recently than like 10 days ago. That is strange... oh well. Here we are going into another three day weekend! YAY! CAN'T WAIT! Last weekend was a self imposed three day weekend and NEXT weekend will be as well... throw in a little three day work week between the next two and you have got some happy campers on your hands.

Speaking of happy campers... that is exactly what we were last weekend when we went camping with a big group from church! (WOW - that was an EXCELLENT transition if I do say so myself!)

We ventured up to Somerset Beach Camp Friday afternoon and enjoyed a great weekend of fellowship, meeting new friends, worship and family time. It was GREAT! Both Nathan and I did a lot of church camping as children so to be able to bring Logan up the same way is very exciting for us.

It was difficult for us to explain to Logan that he wasn't allowed to drive the RV. But it did keep him entertained while we loaded... and while we were there... and while we packed up to leave. The kid loves to be a "driver" as he says. He'll yell back, "I drivin I drivin!" Here he is after swiping Daddy's glasses off the dashboard. (And ultimately later in the weekend he broke Daddy's glasses... oops! note to daddy.... find a better place to put them!)

He was a great help loading up the RV too. He made sure he grabbed his "babies" (two blue bears) and his "blankies" (three different blankets) and carried/dragged them through the garage and driveway to get them on the RV. Oh and let's not forget the size 12 month hat he insisted on wearing.

All ready to go... strapped in, shades, ill-fitting hat, vanilla wafers and snow boots (on the wrong feet)... can't forget the snowboots for AUGUST camping!

It didn't take long before he was OUT for the count! He looked so uncomfortable I crawled back there and rigged his babies under his head for support.

Friday night was a pretty low key evening and we had campfire pizza made in cast iron cookers you stick right in the coals. SOOO yummy. I didn't think Logan would enjoy them, but he kept saying, "YUMMY pizza!" so I guess he liked it.

After dinner we ventured down near the beach where we had some ice cream! YUM! We had tried going swimming earlier, but Logan took one step in and said, "ewwwww... stinky!" and walked out. So that was that. He has only ever swam in pools so I think that may have something to do with it.

Nathan was apparently disappointed that we didn't have smores after Logan went to bed. So he took it upon himself to bring all the makings with him... into BED. Yeah... no melted marshmellows though - he ate them "raw" and made a HUGE mess of crumbs in the bed. He ultimately admitted it was not one of his better thought out plans.

Saturday we had a WONDERFUL breakfast with the whole group and then took to family nap time since we were all quite tired after Logan's 5:55 am wake up call! GOOD GOSH! Then we had a big potluck dinner and headed over to the campfire for some singing. Logan is starting to try and sing now and it is the cutest dang thing you'll ever hear so he was LOVING music time. he was in a trance, but I managed to convince him to smile for a picture. Talk about enthusiastic!

One of the campers brought their Harley and Logan was all about the "cycle" so Mr. Ford was nice enough to let him try on the helmet!

Again - we had to convince Logan he couldn't drive the RV home... this time in his own sunglasses.

It was a great time had by all. Logan was a hit with people and seemed to love all the attention. We can't wait to go back again next year!