This past Sunday was Halloween. At first, I was on the fence about still doing all the fun Halloween stuff because we normally try to make Sundays a little different than the other days of the week, but after discussing it with Paul, we decided that all the fun stuff is really family-oriented, so it would be fine to still do it all. The kids had a blast and it was a fun night. The rest of the week was kind of a regular week without too much out of the ordinary happening. We’ve had a couple really cold days which were a nice change from the warmer weather. Today, I decided we needed to get out of the house, so I took the kids out to Buc-ee’s (Paul is in Houston for the weekend, at a Libertarian convention, so filling up our day with fun stuff was a must).
She begged to play games with him, and he conceded.He really is a patient big brother……especially when she ends up practically in his lap. 😀Pumpkin painting! Abigail did rainbow colors (we went back in later and I added faces to each block of color).Joseph did a bee from one of his favorite games: Bee Swarm Simulator.The finished products!All ready to go trick-or-treating! Abigail is Anna from Frozen 2 and Joseph is a master-chief from the video game, Halo (he doesn’t have the game, since it’s really intended for kids a bit older than he is, but he really liked the costume). We handed out full-sized candy bars and chips this year. We wanted to make sure the kids that came around had a good haul in case not too many people were giving out treats because of the ongoing pandemic.They’re off! I had a hard time keeping up with Abigail, but she was really good about stopping and waiting before she got too far ahead.The kids love seeing the “Charlie Brown” house every year. I’m friends with the owner (you can see him in the background, actually) and we’ve loved watching each other’s kids grow up. <3One house had these cut-outs that Abigail just had to try.Augh! It’s vampire Abigail! 😉Paul was able to project It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown onto a screen out front to play while trick-or-treaters came around. I love it!Hamburger soup! The only ingredients not here are the ground beef (it was already cooking in the pot) and the beef broth that made it soup. 😀I love looking out of my kitchen and seeing the early evening light coming in and casting fun shadows into the room!Paul found Joseph’s old Link costume. Abigail couldn’t wait to put it on when she discovered it in the dress-up stuff.I went on an afternoon walk and the weather was just gorgeous!Abigail begged to walk Joseph to school one morning. It was still dark when we left, so we brought the flashlight along. I worried about Abigail getting too far ahead while it was dark, so I actually used the flashlight as a large laser pointer and had her chase the spot, just like a cat, haha.A cold front came in, which meant I needed to dig out my cozy slippers…I couldn’t complain about my view though (or the weather, really…I love cooler weather).I had to snap another selfie to document the difference between this day and the other day…it was about a twenty-five degree difference!I wanted a new blanket basket (my old one had gotten a bit beaten up by a little girl who liked to pretend to be a turtle *sigh*). I couldn’t find another large one that I liked enough for the prices they were wanting for them, but I found these two smaller ones on sale, so I just bought them both and split up my blankets.I love the black and white gingham combined with the burlap! I’ve decided I’m going to leave out the gingham garland that is above the fireplace and on the table (I had originally meant for them to be part of the fall decorations, but I think they are pretty neutral), so these will be good year-round baskets. 🙂 This might be my new favorite picture of these two.I love finding them like this!
This past week held some fun stuff. I got some new, fun jewelry which I tried out with pieces I already had (hence all the selfies, because it was fun to try it all out) and got to hang out with my girlfriends one evening (which was MUCH needed). The kids were excited about the school trunk-or-treat and today we went to the zoo and to check out the dragons one last time (it closes tomorrow). Paul even got to do something fun, too: he’s at the movies with a friend seeing a movie which he knew I would probably have minimal interest in. 😉 Oh, and both kids got haircuts this week, which they were both super-excited about.
My new pretties. I would say it’s mid-grade jewelry (which makes it affordable enough for me to be able to get a few different pieces at once). It definitely isn’t costume jewelry, but it isn’t quite fine jewelry, either. They do use gold and silver, but it’s electroplated. Having said that, it is all nickle-free, so I can still wear it without it bugging my skin.This is the only set I got. I love the simplicity of it!These are just plain fun! I love that they match the really pretty turtle necklace that Paul got me when he was on his work trip to California.These are just plain fun. I like the earthy look they have, so I tried pairing them with a wood necklace I’ve had since Joseph was a baby (in fact, I’m pretty sure I had a hard time keeping him from teething on it, if we’re going to be honest). 🙂School trunk-or-treat! Abigail was Anna (specifically from Frozen 2) and Joseph was the Miles Morales Spider-Man (I’ve lost track of how many different Spider-Mans there are, haha). She wanted to take a picture of us. She also had a reeeaallly hard time trying to resist touching my earrings. I was a little afraid she’d accidentally be too heavy-handed and my ears would get tugged too hard…but once I told her she could touch them with one finger, she did really well.I kind of felt like I was channeling the 1960s or 1970s with the combo of the fringe earrings and my ginormous sunglasses, ha.At the book fair a month or so ago, Joseph opted to pre-order a new book that wasn’t available to buy yet. It was finally delivered to the school this past week, so he dived right in as soon as he got home with it. I love that he still loves reading!!!!I got some new workout headbands, so I gave my old one to wear. I think she was just a little excited.It was actually chilly enough that we put our headbands over our ears to keep them warm. Fall is slowly but surely coming!This is where I spend a lot of my time, it seems. Between dropping Joseph off at school in the morning, going home, taking Abigail to school in the early afternoon, coming back to get them at the end of the school day…there’s a lot of car time.We had friends over for game night, so I decided to give my rice crispy treats a Halloween twist: enter green food coloring!Abigail got a bang trim and……the stylist put in a quick braid and a sparkly clip. After a bit, Abigail wanted the clip out (it was right where she would rest her head against her car seat, so I can understand why), but she left the braid in all day. I was even able to replicate it when it got too messy and she wanted it fixed.Abigail’s Halloween spider. 🙂An apple craft and another spider craft. I love the cute things they do in the early grades!Pile o’ otters!The zoo finally got the funding to finish the jaguar sky walk. It connects the old jaguar enclosure to another enclosure that used to be for something else (I can’t remember what used to be there). This makes their enclosure waaay bigger, which is good for animals that prefer to be solitary most of the time.A fun part of living in San Antonio: a ton of Dia De Los Muertos stuff pops up in October. I love all the vibrant colors and I really love all the symbolism and importance placed on family bonds.When we were driving to the zoo, Abigail told me that this is where she wanted to go. It’s a boat that has steering wheels in it that the kids can climb around on and play in. It’s in a place called the Tiny Tot Nature Spot and she loves it. I couldn’t get over just how pretty it was today, too!I love this kid!!I chilled in the quiet while the kids played. It was awesome!Spot the turtles!The zoo’s hay maze. I think the last couple of storms did a number on the bales, though. The dragons were a little loud for her (some of the dragons had speakers next to them playing dragon noises). 😀She got to pet a “unicorn” (do you see the horn on the sweet pony?). It was the chillest pony I’ve seen.Joseph and an “arctic” dragon.I barely missed it, but right before I took this picture, she was holding her hands up to the “fire” to warm them up. I love her imagination!He’s so much happier with shorter hair!This is the Mexican heather plant that almost died in the big freeze this past February. In fact, I pretty much cut it completely back. This is how much it’s grown back. It’s a bit lopsided, because that’s where the new part decided to grow. I’m hoping it will put some shoots out in the bare spots this next spring. If it can do that, it might look more like my other one……which is this one. We got this one in the spring. I have this one and the other one flanking the tomato plant in our back yard. I love the vibrant purple and green!
Now that we’ve securely settled into our routine with school, the weeks just seem to fly by. This past week was one of those. We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary and basically just plugged through the week. It’s totally fine that it was that way, though. I know that once Halloween hits, the holidays will take over and we’ll be crazy busy (a fun busy, though). The upcoming months have always been my favorite time of year and this year is no different! Bring on all the holiday cheer!
Abigail’s friend convinced her mom to buy her a dress exactly like Abigail’s (in fact, the fact that Abigail had the dress was her exact reasoning for needing it). Her mom and I coordinated it so that they would wear their dresses to church on the same day. Girls can be fun!This girl always needs to find at least one stick and one leaf on every walk we go on.The breeze made it chilly enough for me to want to wear my light jacket on one of our morning walks.I still love that I can just throw ingredients into this thing and it’ll make soup.Look at that steam coming out!Baking the grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the soup is much faster than doing them one at a time on the stove top!Yummy dinner!Trying to fasten the belt on her swing…she did finally get it on her own (she kept saying, “No Mom, it’s okay…I got this!”).Aaaaaand more sticks. 😀Texas skies…all the heart eyes for Texas skies.She loves to go out and play ball.She has finally learned how to go down slowly enough so that she doesn’t go shooting off at the very end.She said she had to show me again and that I needed to take a picture so that she could see.The swings are always more fun when Joseph joins in.I’ve decided that oversized earrings are really fun. I used to think I couldn’t pull them off, but I think I can! Exhibit one in my realization that I may have a slight obsession with gingham.Exhibit two also supports the idea that I may also have to include pumpkins in that slight obsession.Exhibit three seals the deal. 😀An important part of our morning walks: a water break!My geraniums love October weather just as much as me!“Ta-dah!” She asked me to take her picture and then this is what she did. Silly, cute girl!School pictures! I don’t have the printed copies yet, but I got the digital copies!I can hardly believe how big they both look!This morning’s delicious experiment. The banana bread itself wasn’t the experiment…but adding chopped pecans, butterscotch chips, and mini chocolate chips was. I remembered (at the last minute) to toss them in flour before folding them into the batter…that made it so that they didn’t all sink to the bottom as the bread baked. It turned out so good!Chicken and cheese tortellini soup with a fresh homemade roll on the side. It was all the comfort foods for dinner tonight.
