Mark & Mandy

I got these little stamps at office max I don’t know why but I find it extremely satisfying to stamp them on my processed paperwork …

Today the Sladden’s are wishing Julie a very very happy 35th birthday! Elsie has a hard time saying Happy Birthday - so she is showing her love with a sign!

Tomorrow we are headed out to NYC to celebrate Julie’s 35th birthday and Scott’s 5th year being cancer free (cured!). The celebration is Saturday night with dinner at Ono and Dancing at Tenjune - look for us in the VIP area with the body guard and our own bathroom - our last club experience in Vegas turned a bit ugly when Julie was forced to reset expectations with a fellow club go’er on how waiting in line works. You can see her here trying to make friends with Julie with her booty dance …

Happy Birthday Jul - we can’t wait to celebrate

all of our pre-halloween activities led up to one night of trick-or-treating. We only made it 5 houses in an hour and a half - the baby chick had a great time and the feathers were quite warm.

Here she is with Jenna (the ipod)

She tricked Papa Charlie into giving her more loot

Meredith as a Geee-raffe

The ladies! Isabelle and Ally stopped by to do a trick or treat with Elsie

Heidi dressed as a witch! Elsie wasn’t so sure!

Amy, Josh and Saffie

At the last minute Mark added some webs to our porch … pretty good web design if I don’t say so myself. Notice the scary mummy and spiders in the window scaaary!

Last night we received Greg’s absentee ballot from Australia … so Elsie and I dressed in red, white and blue to hand deliver it to the county clerk. Here’s hoping a little Elsie luck will send Colorado blue!

this election is a lot of firsts for the Sladden household:

1. First time for Mark to vote!!
2. First presidential election for Elsie
3. First time we donated to a campaign
4. First time we volunteered for a campaign … I helped out at the DNC and this past Sunday Jessica and I campaigned for Obama to get out the vote!

the day is finally here! Vote, Vote, Vote!!

We were swamped with pre-halloween activities … also a chance to really get some use out of our chicky costume!

[beware this is a photo heavy post]

Our first activity was a pumpkin carving gathering at Carrie and Marks, the chick wasn’t that interested in carving, so we played outside while Dad carved…

The glass of wine was very helpful …

The next Saturday was our day of celebration … we had 4 events to make it through so we were really counting on the sugar high from suckers!

First stop was the Pumpkin Patch (note the rooster on Mark’s shirt … this was our lame attempt at a family outfit)

Mark showing Elsie how to milk a wooden cow

Mark is pretty impressed with Elsie’s milking skilz

We fed some goats

Elsie felt like chicks should be in with the goats and attempted to climb in …

elsie and I took a barrel ride … looking very cool in our shades

We forced the chick to pose in a pile of pumpkins … she was not so pleased

In the end she dropped her feathers and decided that pulling the wagon was much more fun … check out those yellow legs!

Next stop was Kyla’s house (Dan and Tara were part of our birthing class) - we got a great photo of 4 of the babies (Hazel, Kyla, Sydney and Elsie)

Elsie had lots of fun with Hazel - and lots of sweets!

After Kyla’s house we headed up to Rob and Kieuly’s halloween bash. Our little chick started her treats with a jar of jello with a gummy worm (yes, chicks eating worms … she was staying in costume)

More photos with pumpkins

Kieuly had lots of games .. the best was the donut game. You were suopposed to eat the donut withough using your hands. Elsie gave it a go …

Next it was uncle josh and Dad’s turn …

Elsie couldn’t resist popping in, grabbing the donut and taking a bit (helping out uncle josh of course)

There were disqualified for elsie’s use of her hands … but the donut was prize enough

Then off to the  Little Gym halloween party where Elsie and fellow gym’er Abby played with bean bags and Elsie got more sugar (Suck-a, Sucka)

Our final pre-halloween event was a Dinner with Sophie and Emma spruill at the halloween Boo-ffet at the lake valley country club. By this event Elsie had had it with feathers … we promised she only had one more day left and we were done … she nodded and asked for another Sucka.

I can’t wait for the arts and crafts phase!

Michael was in town for a visit a couple weeks ago and he was a big hit! Elsie instantly loved his glasses and enjoyed constantly playing with the case. Elsie wanted to show her papa all her cool stuff so she first took him to the Denver Zoo!

Elsie enjoyed a great view on Papa’s shoulders

then they had some fun on the train

And finally they HAD to ride he carousel because its her fav!

The next morning we headed out to Gymnastics. Elsie helped Papa get warmed up, making sure he knew how to wiggle his toes

and then she showed her stuff on the bars

After the gym, we headed to the Children’s Museum for Playgroup (our week to host). Papa read her some books

and shared some fun with Saffie

The next morning Papa took us out to breakfast in Boulder and we decided that a little walk in the hills would help work off our big meal and give us a chance to look at the changing leaves. Elsie happened upon a shelter that she and papa explored.

It was fun, but nothing was as fun as collecting rocks! (there are just sooo many rocks to find)

It was an action packed weekend - we had so much fun showing Papa Michael all of our hangouts! We can’t wait for the next visit.

Elsie went in for her 18 month check up and all is well. She is still in the 25th percentile for height and the 5-10 percentile for weight - she’s just a little one! We had another round of shots (but this was the final round until age 5!) - there were some tears, but all tears were gone with the simple taste of a sucker!

This year for halloween Elsie is going to be a baby chick, in case you wondered baby chicks say “Bock, Bock”.

I decided to test out my limited sewing skilz on white hat with a comb (that red thing on the top of the rooster) and an egg treat bag. I started with the egg bag and opted to first create a paper prototype with some limited user testing (opinions from oh so bossy mark)  …

here is the final bag, notice how I lined it with multiple colors of goldenrod … don’t notice how horrible my stitching is (although I justified this by saying it made the egg look more “cracked”)

After remembering how to use the sewing machine and completing the bag, I moved onto the hat with the red comby thing. Here I am with pieces of the fleece everywhere in my hair …

and modeling

The final steps were to dye a pair of white cotten tights with fabric dye, and safety pin on white feather boas to a white onsie and Voilla … we have a baby chick!

I can feel the candy rolling in already!

we headed up to Rob and Kieuly’s new house in the Boulder Foothills for Brunch a few Sunday’s ago - the house was amazing.

here are a few pics

my favorite part of the house was the master bathroom

hello infinity bath tub

But we had to admit the cutest part of the house … Elsie and Kai in the modern lounger!