The Binker Files

Best Halloween Ever

Silas has declared Halloween 2011 the very best ever and Levi definitely agrees.

They both imagined and designed their costumes and trick or treat bags, then visited a thrift store for materials & helped to sew things up.

Levi dressed up as a Dementor, an Azkaban prison guard from the Harry Potter series, and Silas as a ghost.  Halloween night was unusually warm, but with snow still on the ground from a weekend snow storm, perfect for a parade through the West End with friends, a little trick or treating and a visit to a spooky haunted house (Silas went in 3 times).

Silas, Levi & Coco!

 

7 months & 8 years old!

Lots to celebrate around here lately.  Today, our sweet baby Arlo turned 7 months old.

My friend Deb gave me the fantastic stickers to mark each month of Arlo's first year, the 7 month sticker lasted just about one second before he pulled it off and started eating it.

This is pretty much what he is doing these days, looking for something interesting, grabbing it and sticking it in his mouth.

He chewed the sticker for awhile before going for the camera.

Even bigger news is that sweet little Silas is now 8 years old!

His only wish for his big day, besides Harry Potter legos, was to spend the night outdoors, even if it was raining out, and cook sausages over an open fire.  His wish came true!

We drove to Acadia National Park on Thursday in the pouring rain, but just as we made it to Bar Harbor, the skies cleared and we had three days of perfect, if strangely warm, weather (it felt more like early September than late October).  As requested, we woke Silas at 2:36AM on Friday morning to let him know he was officially 8, he said it was probably the best birthday ever.

It really was a great weekend for all of us.

Legos by head lamp light, there was a lot of this going on.

Arlo's toe jam after camping for 3 days - Levi begged me to include this photo.

 

 

Happy Birthday boys, we love you!

5 trips around the sun

Our tiny Levi turned 5 years old yesterday!

His day was filled with his favorite things: legos, swimming, chocolate.

Happy Birthday Levi, we love you!

 

Merry Christmas

The days since Thanksgiving have passed by in a blur.  Silas & Levi, like all kids I guess, are just crazy about holidays.  They were thrilled to discover on Thanksgiving morning that a local radio station had already started its non-stop Christmas music programming and our lives have been all about Christmas since then.

We traveled to New Hampshire for a lovely hike in the woods to harvest our tree from the White Mountain National Forest, a real deal at just $5 for the permit.

There has been a lot of creating in the house - here is our collection of 2010 ornaments.  We made these by needle felting pieces of wool, which is fun and surprisingly easy to do, even for the little ones, as long as they can handle an occasional poke with a very long, sharp needle.

We've seen almost every Christmas performance in town and most of the movies ever made.  When Levi isn't quoting Jacob Marley or reenacting a scene from the Nutcracker with Silas, there has been a couple of non-Christmas activities happening too.  Look who has learned to ice skate:

 

The video is of his very first moments on the ice.  Levi wouldn't even attempt skating last year, but he was up and almost gliding on his first try this year.

And Silas have developed a strong interest in numbers, he is working hard on counting to 1,000.

We're very busy, but happy and looking forward spending the holidays together.  Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas to all our friends & family!

 

 

November already

The days are passing so quickly, it still feels like September to me, yet somehow we're already well into November.  We've been busy lately and some important things have happened, the biggest of which was when our little Silas turned 7!  The party parties lasted for days.

Silas modeling with his new field bag(repurposed from his Opa's old army shirt), stuffed full of gear and ready for an adventure.

Si's birthday, like our lives right now, involved a lot of legos.

Silas has become a very social boy.  He just had to have an afternoon birthday lego playdate with friends, followed by an evening party with more friends and ambience (he specifically requested ambience), followed by a weekend party with his cousins Sam & Ben.  Way too much cake, pie & ice cream were involved.

This wasn't even birthday cake, just a special pre-birthday cake that Levi picked out for me "because I'm pregnant"...and because Silas thought the store price "seems pretty reasonable"

By the time Mark's birthday rolled around a few days later, I was tired, almost this tired:

One tired Jedi (from the dark side, of course).

All those parties were quickly followed by many Halloween festivities - a party, parade and trick or treating.

Silas, dressed as Anakin Skywalker, wrapped up as a double mummy.

We all walked in the West End Halloween parade.  Mark & I carried large crow puppets & had to flap the wings as we walked by repeatedly moving the pole up & down.  It was very cold, the puppets were heavy and the parade was long - there wasn't very much flapping happening by the end!  Poor Levi couldn't decide which of his twenty or so costumes to wear, so he just attended everything as his cute little self.

Another big happening around here is the arrival of our new (to us) woodstove.  We just love it and all agree we only want to heat with wood from now on.  The wood heat just feels so much better than the heat from our natural gas heater, and it is a local & sustainable fuel.  The installation required Mark to spend an afternoon up on the roof of our very high 3-storey building to put a liner in the chimney. 

It was frightening just to watch Mark up there, but luckily he got the liner installed & himself back on the ground safely.

Si ready for our first fire.

Helping move the firewood, great little helpers, as always.

Tiny is 4

Our little boy seems so grown up, how did this happen so quickly?  Happy Birthday Levi, we love you so much!

Happy Valentine's Day Papa!

"Happy Valentine's Day, Mark!  Sweet Valentine's.  I miss you and I love you.  I made these for you and I really wish you had a chocolate."  xoxoxo - Silas

"I need a toothbrush because I already ate all of my Valentine's chocolates.  Have a nice Valentine's, I made these love bugs for you.  I'll save them for you until you come home from Newvada."  Love, Levi

 

More scenes of the season

Eating way too much sugar.           

Watching The Polar Express in 3-D.

Lots and lots of knitting.

Christmas morning excitement.

Cinnamon rolls, baked by Mark - from scratch, for a yummy breakfast while opening our gifts. 

On Christmas day, we volunteered to help serve at a free dinner.  We were assigned to the dessert table, a dream come true for Levi.  Silas was in charge of putting the whipped cream on the pies.  He loved this job and didn't want to stop. 

Levi didn't want to stop eating brownies.

It was a great Christmas for us and hope it was a good one for all our friends and family also.

Getting ready

Life has been busy here this past month!  We're all very excited to be celebrating Christmas in Maine.  That hasn't happened since 2004, back when Silas was only a year old and we had just moved to Portland after selling the Leaning Barn Farm.  So much has changed since that time!  We moved to Colorado when Levi was only 6 months old, so this will be Tiny's first Christmas here.  We are all looking forward to Christmas and spending the winter together at home in Maine.

When Mark was a child, he and his siblings each picked out a special ornament every Christmas.  We've kept that great tradition, but with a twist, the boys make their own ornaments every season.  They had so much fun creating this year that they each made two.  Here are their 2009 ornaments:

Levi's guy, he calls him Geico.

Levi's cat - all hand sewn by him, even the button!  He was so proud and kept saying "I can't believe you're teaching me to knit."

Silas' Christmas tree and boy making a snow angel, both also hand sewn.  

I love this tradition!  Making things together and seeing these ornaments again every year as we hang them on the tree is so much fun and brings back such wonderful memories.  Our lives can be can hectic (maybe you've noticed how often we've moved over the last five years), but these ornaments help us remember - looking at the ornaments instantly takes us back to where we spent past holidays. 

Levi is 3

Our little Levi turned three today!  He claims he is still "just a baby", but he seems pretty grown up to me.

We squeezed in a fun little party with Nana & Opa before packing - we're all leaving town tomorrow.

The only thing Tiny wanted for his birthday was cherries. I did the best I could (it isn't cherry season) and served black cherry soda with frozen sweet cherries, he seemed OK with that. 

We just love this little dude and can't wait to see what 3 will bring.  Happy Birthday Levi!

ETA:  This is the birthday that Levi always refers to fondly as his "chocolate birthday".