Halloween 2016

Halloween was pretty fun this year. The kids had plenty of opportunities to dress up in their costumes and many parties were had. Claire chose to be a black cat, Grace was Harry Potter, and Neil was Iron Man.
The fun started on the Friday night before Halloween when the elementary school held a carnival. The kids all dressed up and we had fun visiting all of the booths and games. There was even a haunted house that I have to admit was pretty scary.

Saturday was of course Grace's Halloween Birthday Party. So they had fun dressing up yet again. Then Monday was the big day. They were able to dress up for school and had a giant parade for all of the parents to see. Afterwards they had fun Halloween parties in their classes.

Everyone was really excited to go out trick or treating. We ate dinner and then headed out. We walked around our culdesac and then headed over to an adjoining neighborhood with our neighbor friends. 

The pumpkins all ready to go. The "C" is for Cubs

This street that we visited goes all out for Halloween each year! Every house had really great decorations. This first one had moving dragons! We were all really impressed. 

It was such a fun evening to stroll down the block. There were tons of other people, but it was like a big block party. This house had a live band playing in the garage and there was a food truck parked across the street. Everything was blocked off to cars and people were dancing and having fun. It was pretty cool.

Impressive spider house. So many spiders! Everywhere!

Counting the loot at the end of the night. Another successful haul. I was almost inspired to up my Halloween decor game....but just almost. :)

Happy 9th Birthday

On October 29th, Grace turned 9. It's so crazy that she is already so old. No more little kid Gracie pants. Since her birthday fell on a Saturday, we planned a big Halloween themed party for her that night.
We started off the day by watching Claire play softball and then after lunch we face-timed grandparents while opening presents.

Good game Black Widows! An appropriate name for a pre-Halloween game.

Giraffes are sort of her thing.

These are giraffe earrings.

She really did make out like a bandit! SO many great gifts! Thank you everyone for helping make her birthday special. 

Part of her gift from me was finishing up her room project. I had already painted the other kid's rooms so I was a bit burnt out, but I did it. She chose pink which made it extra difficult. I was trying to cover some pretty dark walls. Thankfully it turned out pretty good in the end. I also bought her all new pillows and duvet cover to complete the look. I'm still working on ideas for the walls, but for now I'm done.

We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for the party. She had about five friends come over in costume. We played Halloween games, decorated cupcakes, danced, and had pizza, cake, and ice cream. It was a fun and crazy night. I'm so glad that birthdays only come around once a year!

I think everyone had a good time, and I know that Grace had a blast! Another successful party! Phew...

Here is Grace when I took her out to Target to spend her birthday giftcard. She's sporting her new giraffe shirt, giraffe earrings, and the emoji purse that I got her. Very stylish indeed. 

I love you Grace! Please don't grow up too fast.

Getting behind

These last couple of weeks have just flown by! I'm really not ready for it to be mid October. Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to:

At the end of September Grace was honored in the assembly as student of the month. The character trait was Respect. She has done a great job of helping new students feel welcome at her school. I'm so proud of her! She also joined running club and was elected to student council. She's been very busy.

Also at the end of September, Claire had an amazing hit in her softball game. We know she is capable of it because we see it all the time in practice, but it was so great to see it happen for her in the game. She was ecstatic! I'm so proud of her too. We have it on video, but it seems too large to put it on here.

Since the gyms around here seriously cost an arm and a leg we decided that we needed to bring the gym to us. Chris had been doing a weight program at work with people there, but I wanted in too. So, we decided to go for it and buy a squat rack with bench and lots of weights. We even got a lighter 15lb bar for me to start with. I know, I'm kinda weak. Hopefully that wont' be the case in the near future. Even the kids want to try it out.

Last week I was able to go along with Grace and her class on a field trip to Ravenswood Historical Site. It's this neat plantation from the 1890's that is very Victorian. The kids learned to press apples for cider, use farm tools, how to dress properly back then, do old school laundry, and ride a fun bike with no brakes. It was a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun!

This last week was spent devoting all of my spare time to painting kids's rooms. I had promised them that they could choose their own colors when we moved in last year. I kept putting it off just because. Painting is the worst! I really hate doing it. So much prep work involved. My body is aching all over and I only managed to get Neil and Claire's rooms done. His room still needs some decor and curtains, but he's happy with the green. Claire is super happy with how hers turned out. I think I will be getting her a bigger bed soon and new bedding, but for now I'm calling it good. 

Neil's before (yellow)

After. He loves his green!

Claire's was blue before

After. Lighting is not great in the pic, but it is a pretty teal.

I guess this next week will have to be dedicated to working on Grace's room. She has chosen to do hers in pink. We'll see how that turns out. I'm going to have to seriously work myself up for more. At this rate I don't think I will ever get my own room done. 

I forgot to mention part of the reason it has been so terrible is that we are also replacing ALL of the outlets and light switches in the entire house. They were all an ugly yellow/cream color. We are putting in all new white ones. It's the little things.

 goodbye old nasty yellow outlets