Our week got off to a bit of a rocky start. Abigail was complaining of a “sore stomach”on Sunday morning, but I wasn’t sure what was going on quite yet. Right before church, I felt her forehead and she was really hot. 🙁 She stayed home with Paul while I took Joseph to church. In the evening, she threw up a couple of times. Luckily, once that was done, she managed not to throw up anymore. Her fever stayed around until Monday night, so I kept her home both Monday and Tuesday. She was back to normal on Wednesday, so life was good. In other news, Joseph lost his first molar and I hosted book club (and made tasty food for it, as you’ll see). Today was a fun day, too. Paul had a day-trip up to Dallas for a meeting (he flew up this morning and is currently flying back as I type this), so I decided to fill up our day with something unexpected. We decided that it would be fun to go to IKEA and walk around. I grabbed a couple small things I needed and the kids each came home with a new stuffed animal, haha. Once we got home it was business as usual (laundry, laundry, laundry…it always seems to catch up to me on Saturdays), but I did break in my mini-loaves pan and made some mini-loaves of pumpkin bread, which was fun.
She spent a lot of Sunday on the couch with a bowl close by.Much of Monday was spent the same way. Luckily she started to feel a bit better by Monday night. I kept her home on Tuesday only because she hadn’t been fever-free for a full 24 hours yet.Wiggling his loose tooth. I think it fell out the next day at school. He brought it home in a plastic bag.I made fresh rolls for book club.I also made apple cider doughnuts……and used my blender to make……pumpkin pie hummus!The spread for book club: doughnuts, M&Ms (the book was set during WWII, so I wanted to have a candy that was specific to the time period), rolls with butter and homemade strawberry jam, and the pumpkin pie hummus (with ‘Nilla wafers and gingersnaps…I bought both of those, haha). Oh, and look at my pretty butter dish!I decided at the last minute that I wanted one and luckily Walmart was able to provide me with one that was very reasonably priced!I love the sky in the mornings when we go for our walks!Stopping for a water break at the halfway point of our walk.She wanted to take “silly selfies”.This is one of my favorites. She can be so fun!My geraniums have just exploded the last little bit!This was on the grass in front of the kids’ school…it made me tear up a bit. I love how much San Antonio loves our military!It was rather chilly on Friday morning. There was even frost on the tips of the grass.I used a pancake mold to make fun-shaped eggs for the kids one night.My mini-loaves pan. I love that it bakes eight loaves at once.Look at those cute little loaves! I want to say that they’re about three inches long each.
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!
