This last week started out fun with Halloween. The kids got to dress up for school (I didn’t think to take a picture, but Joseph dressed up as a Gryffindor student and Abigail was Sonic), paint pumpkins after school, and go trick-or-treating. Abigail had been battling a little bit of a cold with a lingering cough, but she was quite a bit better by Halloween. She continued to improve but still was battling a cough and some congestion. Then on Friday night, she threw up twice and popped a slightly higher fever. She said that her ears hurt in the middle of the night on Friday, but on Saturday morning she said they were fine. She still had a fever and then this morning the fever popped up over 101 and she complained again about her ears. I carted her off to urgent care and they confirmed my suspicion that she had an ear infection (and a double one at that). Hopefully the antibiotics will start kicking in soon. If she’s still feeling poorly tomorrow, I already have a note from the doctor for her to take the day off…and then the kids have Tuesday off (with it being election day and with the school being a polling place, I think they thought it best to just not have school)…so we have options for her to rest. Everyone else is struggling a bit, too. Joseph is dealing with crazy allergies, Paul’s got some sinus issues, and my back has been acting up (I think it’s from spending the night on the couch so I could be closer to Abigail should she need me). Hopefully things are going to improve soon.
Even the sunrise was a bit spooky on Halloween.I decided to go a little dramatic for Halloween…complete with bat earrings.Painting pumpkins.Joseph did little Minecraft characters all around his pumpkin.I think this is called a creeper.Another Minecraft character.Paul’s (the green jack-o’-lantern), Abigail’s pumpkin, and Joseph’s pumpkin.My pumpkin.Getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Paul stayed back to hand out candy.It was fun to see these two walking around our neighborhood.This is one of our favorite houses.It’s kind of our tradition to take a picture in front of it. I’m friends with the people who live here and they are super-nice.A spooky moon ended the night perfectly.I traded out the jack-o’-lantern for one of the signs I got from our neighborhood event last month. I think it looks great with the checkered stuff I already have up there.Joseph got Pokemon cards in his pumpkin bucket and he was beyond excited.Wearing kitty ears that she got from the prize cart at school.She asked if she could play dress-up for a bit. Joseph painted this in art class. It’s a lighthouse (with a beam of light) on a cliff with the ocean and some rocks. He was so happy to show it to me (he knows I really like lighthouses). He also painted the moon and night sky.The art teacher cut out a cat for Abigail. She glued it to a paper and then cut out some fall leaves to also glue onto the paper. She says she drew eyes on the cat but it was hard to see because she used a black pen. You can see it if you look close enough, though.She got another pair of kitty ears from the prize cart and said she wanted me to wear them so we could match. 5/6 is a fun age.Last Christmas we went back to California to visit my mom and we were going through some things and found my most favorite teddy bear in the world. I didn’t even realize it was still around. I almost cried when I saw it. When I give it a hug, all of a sudden I’m five years old, sitting at our brown (was it Formica?) kitchen table, eating Cream of Wheat for breakfast with my daddy sitting next to me. I had to bring it home to be with Eeyore (who was a present from my daddy when I was a teenager). I was telling Abigail about my memories and she asked me (with the lack of inhibition that only a 5YO possesses) if I was sad that he died. I told her that I was, but that I was so, so happy that I would get to see him again. She then said, “Yeah! That’s so good!” Oh baby-girl. It IS so good. ♥️This was last night. She hadn’t thrown up at all that day, but we kept the bowl there just in case. I’m hoping the antibiotics kick in quickly.
We started off the week fun with the school trunk-or-treat. The kids both had a blast and Joseph enjoyed having the second-largest costume there (he had the largest until a kid showed up in an inflatable Koolaid Man costume, haha). The “big oops” part is because Abigail decided to cut her hair while at school. 🙁 Luckily she cut some of the longer bits of her hair, so it wasn’t hard for a stylist to fix (and luckily they had an opening). That kid! The fun family day was spent out in Hondo at the South Texas Maize (a place where they have a big corn maze and a ton of other fun stuff to do. We met up with friends and had a grand time. Then we took the kids to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch. 🙂 It was a fun day!
I found a fun Haunted Mansion floor mat. 🙂I went to a baby shower not too long ago and won a game (it was a “guess how many game” and my completely random guess that I just scribbled down was only one off). The prize was an Amazon gift card, so I used it to buy this cute Harry Potter purse.I dressed up as a vampire for the trunk-or-treat.A close-up of my make-up.The kids were excited to get going. Abigail was so happy to get to wear her Sonic jammies as a costume.I love the relationship these two have.Fun run fun. I went to help and both kids were happy to see me. Abigail ran 36 laps (so just over two miles).Joseph ran 31 laps (just one lap shy of two miles).I have new pumpkins growing!Last time the bugs and birds got them…I’m hoping these ones make it!Just-because flowers. <3I love their vibrant colors!She.dressed.herself. 🙂I got a message from her teacher about ten minutes before school was out letting me know she cut her hair. She sent it home in a bag so I could see how much. :/She had been asking for a shorter cut and I told her we needed to wait and make an appointment at the kid salon…I guess she decided she wanted to have it right away. :/ Luckily the salon had a cancellation, so we were able to zip in and get her hair fixed. She was really happy with the outcome (she just doesn’t look it in this picture).She always asks for a hairstyle and then always takes it out immediately after we get home.Little cutie.I made pumpkin deviled eggs. I used food coloring to make the yolk mixture orange, piped it back into the whites, and then used a bit of chive for a stem.We had friends over for a movie night (we watched my nephews’ new movie, The Curse of Crom…which is a great Halloween movie), so I had a ton of spooky snacks for them to eat.On top of the hay pyramid.What a bunch of animals. 😉Joseph was off with his friend, but we managed to get a picture with Abigail.She LOVED this sand pit.Joseph enjoyed this giant slide.Abigail loved all the cutouts.Heading into the corn maze.It was neat that it was a legit maze.Joseph and his buddy, Alex.Deciding which way to go next.This was a huuuuuge field of flowers. They let people go and pick flowers (for an additional fee). We opted for just a picture. 🙂This giant chair was fun.I sure love these two!Abigail going down a slide that was more her size.They had these fun swings.Abigail swinging herself, haha.They had a small zipline there. The older boys enjoyed it quite a bit.Abigail was excited to find cornhole.She found another cutout!She also found this tractor. 🙂Aaaand a cow chair.Joseph on the cow chair.The last thing we did before going was to go on a hayride.I sure love this man!!
Bonus video: I found an old video of Abigail that I don’t think I’ve ever shared, so here ya’ go!
This past week started out rainy and cold (which we all enjoyed after so much hot weather with no rain). The kids were able to do some fun stuff at school (it’s always fun when the holidays are approaching) and Joseph was able to go on a mini field trip to see an orchestra perform. I hosted book club and had fun making some spooky treats. We were gearing up for a fun weekend with the church trunk-or-treat, but then Abigail came down with a gnarly stomach bug. She was sooo sad to have to miss out, but we reminded her that if she rested, she would be more than ready for the school trunk-or-treat…plus there’s still actual Halloween a week from tomorrow. It’s really hard to have to disappoint the kids when stuff like this happens, but it really is best to keep them home when they’re sick…that’s not the kind of sharing we want to encourage, haha. She’s doing much better today and hopefully she’ll be well enough to go to school tomorrow.
She was really excited that she was going to be able to wear her boots and her rain coat (along with her new favorite kitty leggings and her second-favorite shirt). I’ve given up trying to change her mind about picking clothes that match…I have more important battles to fight (like teeth brushing, haha).Sooooo…I decided to walk the kids to school while it was just sprinkling…then I told myself it wasn’t THAT bad and I could go ahead and go for my three mile walk. Well, the rain wasn’t falling hard, but it was a…coating rain (and I got splashed once by a car driving by *insert eye roll here*). I survived, though!After I got home and got dried off (and took a warm shower), I prepared better for my trip to the grocery store. put on my rain boots and……my big, poofy winter coat. Was I over-dressed? Oh, completely. Did I care? Not an ounce. 🙂Abigail came home with some Harry Potter stickers!She then turned her puppy into Harry Potter. 🙂Texas sunrises are spectacular.This is just a snapshot into our lives at the moment…yes, Abigail is eating breakfast right as we’re getting ready to walk to school (wearing Halloween leggings and her tie-dyed Bucc-ee’s shirt under her hot-pink Bucc-ee’s hoodie).The first treat for book club was pumpkin spice doughnuts. The batter was really thick and didn’t even out like I’m used to with the other types of doughnuts I’ve made (I pipe them into my doughnut pan and usually the ribbons of batter will combine together, but this time they stayed very defined), so I decided at the last moment to make a thin glaze and dunk them in it. That seemed to soften the harsh lines a bit and added a little extra sweetness. They still tasted pretty good, so there is that!I found a cute partitioned tray shaped like a bat that was perfect for chips. I had potato ships with spinach artichoke dip (from the deli department), cheese puffs, and blue corn tortilla chips with guacamole.I got this idea from a friend. After I made the guacamole, I put some sour cream into a piping bag and used it to make a spiderweb. Then I cut up olives to make a spider. Isn’t it fun? Funny story: I had leftover olives in a bowl in the fridge. At one point during the evening (before anyone had come over), I was sitting on the couch reading when I heard the fridge open…and stay open. I turned around and Abigail was perched inside the fridge (she stepped up into it to get herself a bit higher), popping olives into her mouth, one-by-one. I let her have one more and then made her get out, haha. I think she’d only been able to get four or five at that point, so it wasn’t much harm done. I did tell her that next time she needed to ask and I would get her some. 😉The night after book club, I went to a game night put on by Relief Society (the women’s organization for my church). I wanted to make another spooky treat to bring along, but didn’t have as much time…so I went for my go-to, super-easy treat: rice crispy treats. I used green food coloring to make them a creepy color and then added candy eyeballs. They were a big hit!This was right before she came down with her fever (in fact, now that I’m looking at this picture, I’m not sure how I missed that she wasn’t feeling well…I can kind of see it in her eyes). McDonald’s brought back an updated version of the Halloween buckets that they originally released when I was a kid. They’ve been a bit hard to find (I suppose there are a lot of people like us who want our kids to be able to have something we enjoyed as kids…playing off of nostalgia is a great marketing tactic, haha). She was excited she got a witch one.It’s a pretty cute bucket!We also popped on It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for even more nostalgia.
