happy halloween!

Here are some photos from last Friday's Halloween party downtown and a few of us carving pumpkins Monday night. This afternoon we'll be walking in the neighborhood Halloween parade, going trick-or-treating and then enjoying special spooky pizzas for dinner!

downtown madison halloween party

pumpkin farm

Last weekend we went out to Eugster's Farm for their Fall Festival. They have baby goats you can bottle feed and a kitten house! Argh! So much cuteness I can't stand it!

buttercup squash soup

Last week's CSA box came with some nice winter squashes so Matteo and I made buttercup squash soup for dinner. This is a Food Network recipe that was provided with my weekly CSA newsletter. It was easy to throw together and came out great.



Buttercup Soup

3 Tablespoons of butter
3/4 C coarsely chopped onion
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 potato, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded coarsely chopped
1 buttercup squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
4 C chicken stock or water
1/2 C cream
Salt and pepper
Sliced scallion and diced red pepper, for garnish

In a large pot, melt butter and cook onions until tender. Stir in carrots, potato and jalapeño and toss to coat. Stir in chopped squash. Pour in chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes until vegetables are tender. Puree soup in blender in batches. Return to pot and stir in cream. Season to taste and garnish with sliced scallion.



I also made cooked up the Brussels sprouts that came in the box last week. They were tasty but stunk up the whole house! Is there a way to cook them without leaving such a strong, lingering smell?

new school

When Matteo turns two and a half (in less than three weeks!) he is going to move to a different school. He'll be switching from his daycare to a Montessori school where he will most likely stay until kindergarten.



He went to visit his new class for the first time on Tuesday morning and absolutely loved it. He even cried when it was time to leave. He's been at the same school since he was four months old and I wasn't sure what he was going to think of such a big change. But he dove right in, greeting the other kids, playing nicely with them, and helping himself to snack all by himself. I was so relieved!







We planned our visit so he could be in the class picture for the year, and when it was time to line up to go get the picture taken he got to be first in line. He was thrilled!



The new classroom is a little smaller than his current classroom, and there are more than twice as many kids (and almost all of them are boys, what a crazy bunch that must be!), but the Montessori method is based on purposeful independence and order and I think it's a good fit for Matteo. I attended a Montessori school from two and a half through the first part of kindergarten and still credit that experience to instilling in me a lifelong love of learning.





We're all going to miss our friends at the old school, both the kids and the teachers who have been wonderfully supportive and nurturing these last two years. But it's exciting to see Matteo move on to a new environment with new challenges where I know he'll thrive.

uncle duddy

Both Matt and I have brothers named Kevin, and I have always wondered how our kids will refer to them to tell them apart when talking about their uncles. (Big Kevin and Small Kevin? That doesn't sound very nice. Wisconsin Kevin and Maryland Kevin? That's a mouthful!) Matteo made it all easy for us when he started calling my brother his, "Duddy."

Duddy is coming to visit for a couple of weeks and we sent him a little video to ask him which day he'll be arriving. Matteo is usually a little more verbose than he is here, but he's still awfully cute.

Oh, and about that Confederate flag on his shirt? It's a vintage Dukes of Hazzard shirt Duddy sent him for his birthday. He loves it, but we're aware it's not something he should be showing up to school in so it's his favorite pajama top.

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and then there were 4 of us

So...a big reason I've been so absent from this blog is I'm 16 weeks pregnant! The first trimester was rough, rough, ROUGH! The queasiness came on earlier, was much stronger, and lasted way longer than it did when I was pregnant with Matteo. And when people say that being pregnant with a toddler already running around is completely exhausting, they're not kidding! I am wiped!

Slowly but surely I'm beginning to feel somewhat like my old self. (Although we're in the process of planning a renovation to convert our back sun porch into a bedroom, so life is still feeling rather hectic.) I have every intention of keeping up this blog more regularly now that my brain and my body are functioning normally again so photos and posts should resume soon. Stay tuned! There is much more to come!

our saturday adventure

Matt went to Green Lake for the night last Saturday so I promised Matteo we would go an adventure.

He loves all kinds of vehicles so I took him on his first ride of the "city bus"!



HAs soon as we got on he climbed right up on an empty seat and looked around, wide-eyed. The first time the bus stopped he hopped down to get off and was happy to learn we were going to stay on for a few more stops.



Our destination? Downtown...



to the "hot dog shop"!





After dinner we walked up and down State Street, stopping for frozen yogurt along the way.



Then we went up to the Capitol Square to wait for the bus to take us home. Matteo was so thrilled with our trip he did a little dance.

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(At the end of the video he yells "MAMA'S BAG!" because he spotted a woman with the same purse as me.)

We were having so much fun we missed our bus and had to start walking home until we caught the next one. But it was a beautiful day and we ran into friends along the way and it all made for a fun adventure!

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What an amazing story! I was actually in tears watching the little train float away but don't worry, it all ends well and the look on the little boy's face at the end will just make you melt.