This past week started out pretty typically. We ended on a fun note, though. Paul was able to get off a bit early on Friday, so we scooted over to the zoo to see the animals for a bit before it closed for the day. They also had people handing out candy in a few different places, so the kids even got a bit of candy, which was awesome. Today, we went to the park for a neighborhood social event. The middle school band was there (they sound amazing!) and there were also a couple of face painters and a balloon artist. Joseph was kind of bored after a bit (none of his friends ended up showing up), but Abigail had enough fun for the both of them. Finally, I found a few videos that I can’t remember if I posted on here or not (I didn’t see them on my YouTube profile, so I wasn’t sure if I ever uploaded them), so you luck out and get to see some fun videos of the kids when they were younger! 🙂
Monday vibes…She was NOT going to get up and dressed for school, thank-you-very-much.The sunrise on Monday morning caught my breath a bit.I finally found a Jack to go with Zero. 🙂He was playing an educational game that helps with multiplication facts. When did he get so grown?!She wanted Paul to take her picture with her koala so that Grandma could see it (she knows my mom checks out the blog)…here you go, Mom! 😉We liked the big zoo jack-o’-lantern…and Abigail liked all the hay, haha.“Hello, bear!!!”She was excited to see this photo spot.Checking out a toucan.It isn’t often the hippos are cool enough to climb on (they get hot from the sunshine rather quickly, but it was overcast and cooler for most of yesterday, so they were perfect).I wish I could have gotten a far off shot of this statue, too. It’s three rhinos stacked on top of each other. It’s really cool.This elephant statue is a favorite with our family. We have a ton of pictures with this thing.A hornbill…Abigail was excited because it looked like Zazu on Lion King.The Nile crocodile in all his glory.She was canoeing. 🙂She got the foam headband from the prize cart at school…so she was pretending to be a canoeing ninja. 🙂Getting her face painted at the neighborhood social event.This woman was so, so good. She did it so fast!“ROAR!!”My sweet boy!Abigail and her friend with their magic wands. About two minuted after this picture was taken, Abigail’s wand popped. The balloon on the top survived, though, so we took it home and I attached it to one of the long crazy balloons we have…and all was right in the world again.We grabbed Happy Meals after the event and Abigail was insistent on sitting in her camp chair. Even though it was lower than she expected, she stuck to her guns and ate the majority of her meal there. 🙂There were a couple local vendors at the event…I picked up this sign for everyday……and this for the holidays……and these cute Christmas ornaments.
We got these cool light bulbs to put in the front porch lights. They look like flickering lights now!
Throw-back video #1: Joseph was itty-bitty and really into growling at us.
Throw-back video #2: Abigail was itty-bitty and really into chasing.
Throw-back video #3: Spinning in swings!
Throw-back video #4: Abigail loves the wind just as much as I remember loving it when I was little.
This past week was relatively normal. Abigail asked if we could put up Halloween decorations and it really didn’t take much convincing. I love Halloween! I feel like it’s the kick-off of the holiday season which is full of so much joy, excitement, and family time. With the holidays comes (somewhat) cooler weather, which is always appreciated. I’ve noticed a bit of a crispness in the air as we walk to school in the mornings which feels so nice! Oh, one funny story about Abigail: she had a bit of a rough night a couple nights ago because of having a few bad dreams. As I was getting her settled the last time, she looked at me with her face full of seriousness and said, “Hey Mom, did you know that it’s never safe to swim with sharks…even if you’re invisible…because if you’re invisible, as soon as you kick your legs, there will be bubbles that the shark can see…and he’ll get you.” I assured her that I had no plans of ever swimming with sharks or even of trying to become invisible. That girl! I never know what will come out of her mouth…even at 4:11 in the morning.
My piano decorations. I simply flip the center pumpkins around (to hide the words on the white ones and to reveal the witch on the orange one), add my “BOO” blocks, and put up a few spiders here and there.The sign for our entry-way.Our count-down. I love the little saying on it!My Halloween pillow, Abigail’s spider that she made in pre-k (the eyes are my favorite), and my giant Zero plush. This is a fun corner!Our Happy Halloween sign!The centerpiece for the dining room table. 🙂Abigail loves the ghost lights.I love the pumpkin lights…especially when all the other lights are out. They end up casting a kind of cozy glow then (not so much in this picture, since I took it during the day).Abigail’s skeleton dog and the spiderweb decoration that I’m pretty sure we’ve had our entire marriage rounded out this part of the house.Fake spiderwebs, a jack-o’-lantern, and some Nightmare Before Christmas decor add some spooky to this corner.It’s always fun to spiderweb up the bookshelves. 🙂I added the kids’ jack-o’-lanterns, a spider, and my witch books to the area under the TV.My witch-broom!I originally bought this as an outdoor decoration a few years ago, but decided it was too lightweight to be outside. I like it better in this spot.One of my favorite lyrics from Nightmare Before Christmas. I put it up every year.I found these mini pumpkins at Hobby Lobby. I think they look rather realistic, don’t you? I like that they are like Cinderella pumpkins (a bit misshapen and flatter), which are my favorite pumpkins. When Halloween is over, I’ll put away the kids’ jack-o’-lanterns and spread the pumpkins out along the top of the shelf.Our inflatable vampire Snoopy.It’s got a light inside so that it’s easier to see at night.He and Abigail are best buddies. 🙂I went to a Hocus Pocus 2 movie watching party at a friend’s house last night and brought some spooky treats. These witch hats were so easy to make. I just put some icing on top of an Oreo and then stuck a Hershey’s kiss on it. Ta-dah!These were also easy to make. I made some mini brownies (I have a pan that makes individual mini brownies) and then used more icing to stick on sugar eyeballs. It rose the spooky factor ten-fold. 🙂
This past week was really laid back. We pretty much just puttered along. The kids went to school, Paul went to work, and I kept the house running while doing some volunteer work at the school (for picture day: I helped keep the classes that were coming in and made sure everyone looked their best for their pictures). Joseph had his annual physical at the doctor and Abigail kept me on my toes (that’s nothing new, though).
This picture cracks me up. Abigail had called Joseph over to help her with something on the game she was playing (she loves the educational games on PBS Kids, but sometimes gets hitched up because she isn’t reading yet). I was making dinner, so I was only partially aware of what was going on. Pretty soon I heard Joseph mildly protest, ask Abigail what she was doing, and then start laughing. I turned around and saw this going on. Right as I went to take the picture, she leaned over to try to grab at the mouse to continue the game since Joseph had finished the tricky bit. At that point, I called for Paul to come rescue Joseph. Such a patient big brother!Paul’s brother (Jason) got us this portable cornhole set. It’s really easy to set up and breaks down rather compactly. Abigail was really excited to get it outside and play with it. She’s pretty good at it…especially when she gets really close. 😉One of the perks of walking the kids to school in the mornings is that we get to see some pretty stellar sunrises. I love it when there are a lot of big poofy clouds involved.I got Paul a cast iron dutch oven for his birthday. One day this past week, he decided to make stew in the smoker, which turned out super delicious!Abigail’s teacher has one of the newer Polaroid cameras. She was letting Abigail play with her Woodstock right before they needed to go get pictures taken. Abigail was convinced that Woodstock needed to get his picture taken, too (oh, boy). Abigail’s teacher took this picture in the gym, so that Woodstock wouldn’t need to be with her when she had HER picture taken (thank you, Mrs. Moreno). A friend of mine was helping Abigail’s class go through (this was right before I got there) and Abigail was more than willing to let my friend hold Woodstock while she had her picture taken. Thank goodness, haha.Mrs. Moreno also let Abigail take Woodstock home so that he could meet her Woodstock. Abigail really lucked out in the teacher category this year!When Paul left to take Joseph to Primary activities, Abigail wanted to go do something fun, too. I told her we could go to Target and look at the Halloween decorations. We ended up picking up one of these pajama sets. She was ridiculously excited to get to pick out this Sonic the Hedgehog set. It’s rather lightweight as far as this type of thing goes, so she might even be able to get away with wearing it as a Halloween costume if it doesn’t end up completely trashed before then, haha.We got the pajama set on Thursday night and this is Friday morning. As soon as she got up, she wanted it on. I didn’t let her sleep in it because I needed to wash it…plus I didn’t want her to get too hot (we’re still having some pretty warm weather) AND I didn’t want her having to deal with a big long zipper (even though it’s in the front) if she woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the restroom. When it was time to get dressed for school, she protested until I said to myself (but loud enough for her to hear, obviously) that I thought I would be able to win a race up the stairs against Sonic. It was on, then. She got upstairs and I was able to get her dressed in less than five minutes, haha. I did also promise to let her put it back on as soon as she got home from school (which she did). In fact, she wore it for the majority of today, as well. 🙂We took the kids to a BBQ place that had a playground out back. We ate and then let them play for a bit.Abigail really liked the slide.Joseph felt a little big for the play structure itself (it did look like it was designed with younger kids in mind), but he did really enjoy the tire swing.He could get it going pretty good.
