Bierox and Trunk or Treat

Jen's family has an amazing recipe for Bierox.  For those of you who don't know, Bierox is dough stuffed with sauteed beef, onions, cheese and cabbage then baked in the oven.  They sort of look like  a calzone when finished.  Anyway a few weekends ago we decided to make them and Jake wanted to help.  As it tuned out, he was much better at playing with the flour than rolling the dough.  Although, until he discovered it was more fun to throw the flour around he did do a great job of rolling the dough.

This is Jake getting very Emeril Lagasse (BAM) with the flour.

By this time Jake was just playing in the flour.  Just take a look at his shirt, face and arms!

This picture has nothing to do with Bierox, but just look at the joy on his face as he bits into a brownie.  

This past Friday, Jake's day care had their annual Trunk or Treat/Chili cook off event.  Parents had to sign up and decorate the trunk of their cars.  Once it was dark the kids would come by and trick or treat at the cars. It was a ton of fun and the three of us all had a great time.  This is what our trunk looked like.

This is an early preview of what Jake will wear for Halloween.  The only problem with letting him wear his costume early is that we are having a really hard time keeping him out of it until Halloween next week.

As you can see, we all got into the spirit of the evening.  Jake made me dress up as Batman because Batman and Spidey are friends.  We wanted to get a catwoman outfit for Jen but we couldn't find one.  Instead, she settled on being a nice witch.

These are Jake's teachers at his day care.  They have been with him since his first day at the school.

Grandma and Pop Pop's Visit

In September Grandma and Pop Pop came to visit from NY.  We all had a great week, from which Pop Pop is probably still recovering!  Her are some of our favorite pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa took Jake to the local farmstead.  They had a busy day fishing, playing on the playground, eating ice cream and of course pretzels!

 In addition to feeding the goats food, Jake also fed this one his shirt.  I guess they really do eat anything.

Jake isn't setting any records with this catch, but it is a fish none the less.  How do you catch a fish that is smaller than the hook anyway?

Buzz and Spidey.  What a pair.

Jake decided that after seeing Pop Pop shave he wanted to give it a shot too.  Thankfully Grandmother had given Jake a shaving kit a while ago just for this purpose.

While I was at school Jen, Jake, Mom and Dad went to a local orchard for Ciderfest.  Jake climbed up this slide all by himself and then as you can see had a great time coming down.

We all had a great visit and look forward to seeing Grandma and Pop Pop in January.  See you then guys!

Jake Meets Spiderman at the Zoo

We went to the Kansas City Zoo today because Spiderman was there and we knew Jake would love to hang with Spidey.  Thankfully it was a cool day, hitting only a high of about 92 degrees.  As you can see, Jake wasn't wearing his most appropriate shirt to meet Spidey which caused a bit of friction between Jake and Spidey initially.  Check out the video at the end of this post for the whole interaction.  

 Spidey was asking Jake if he likes Batman or Spidey more.  Jake responded by pointing to his Batman shirt.  Needless to say Spidey was floored (literally, he fell on the floor). You can see how Spidey's head is cocked to the side.  The whole line started to laugh. It really was quite funny.

 In order to get back in Spidey's good graces, Jen suggested that Jake sing the Spiderman song.

As you can see, Spidey was very impressed that Jake knew the whole song and even said that Jake had just made his day!

 Spidey even went so far as to cover up the Batman logo on Jake's shirt when we took their picture.  I don't think Jake has stopped smiling yet.

 Alex took Jake on the carousel.  This is them waiting on line.

This was the first time that Jake rode on his own.  Looks like he is holding on pretty hard to that bar.  Thanks to Alex for taking him on the ride.

The Amazing Spider Man - Sung by Jake Parker Widman

He did this last night and we couldn't resist putting it on the blog.  Thanks to Darci for grabbing Jen's phone to record this.

4th of July at the Lake

Jen, Jake and I went up to my parent's place on Lake Champlain in NY for the 4th of July.  Although we had an unplanned night stay in Chicago courtesy of bad weather, once we finally got to the lake we had a great time.  One of the best parts of the trip was escaping the horrible heat wave that was tormenting the Mid-West that week, with average temperatures about 15 degrees cooler in NY than in KS.  Oh yeah, and we also got to spend some time with Grandma, Pop Pop, Aunt Keri and Gianna.  The last time we saw Gianna she was only about 2 weeks old.  We can't wait to get back up there next year.

                                     

When we finally got to the Lake, Grandma, Pop Pop, Aunt Keri and Gianna all threw Jake a birthday party.  Just like his mother, he was ecstatic to extend his birthday another day. 

Jake had a great time playing with Gianna, his 7 month old cousin.  He helped keep her very entertained over the course of the week.

Jake had a blast playing in the kiddy pool.

Jake and Pop Pop played frisbee almost every day.  I think that Pop Pop is still recovering from the week we spent up there.

On the 4th we went to Essex, NY to watch the parade.  As the parade progressed, Jake realized that if he waved to the people in the parade they would throw him candy.  By the end of the day he had more candy than he did at Halloween! 

The picture of contentment.  A seat, shade and strawberry shortcake.  Life truly is good!  Notice the Spiderman umbrella.

Pop Pop and Jake.  These two were inseparable the whole week.

Gianna seems to be more interested in Jake's hat than smiling for the camera.

Jake waving to the people in the parade.  Man did he get a ton of candy that day.

Batman (Jake) is playing in the Bat Cave, a tent that doubled as my room.
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Thanks to "Uncle Ron" Jake had some really cool toys to play with.  In fact, so did Jen and I as well.

Uncle Ron took us out on his boat for Jake's first boat ride.  We started out on the Bay side of the lake and went over to our beach on the main lake.  Jake and Jen had a blast in the back of the boat.

Jake came up to the front for a while to hang with daddy.

Can you find Jake in this picture?  On the way back to the boat launch the wind picked up and it got really wet on the boat.  Somehow Jake fell asleep under the blanket in pretty high seas.  I can't wait to get him out in my sailboat in a few years!

Grandma and Jake eating Jake's favorite lunch.  Chicken fingers, french fries and chocolate milk.

Gianna is hanging with Jake at the kids table.