After a fun
(the kids finally got their phones back to play Pokémon for the morning)
and then challenging day with the kids
(it was basement cleaning day 😣 plus Katie’s reading drama),
this is what I needed
(a fire and a drink with hubby).
💕
Yes, the kids were out with us for awhile, too.
Katie’s homework involves 15 minutes of reading a day plus maybe 5 minutes or so of math if they didn’t finish in class. You’d think she was being asked to do something horrible. Some days it goes well, but most days we end up with attitude. It’s exhausting.
I happened to end up at Payless today and the whole store was 40% off….so of course I couldn’t pass up super cute and cheap shoes for Katie. (I might have gotten like 8 pair. How can I resist when they were like $5-8 each?) Owen is in men’s sizes now (!!) so his options weren’t nearly as plentiful, but he did get new winter boots since he’s about 1.5 sizes bigger than last winter!
Anyway, there were some small heels for Katie, so of course she wanted to wear them immediately. They are only for house wear right now as they’re still a little too big…plus they’re summer shoes. But she loves them!
This is what I got today, minus the pair in the above photo plus two pair of dress shoes. And I might go back after I see what shoes she has for this winter. (I do keep a collage of all her shoes on my phone, but I do buy an odd pair here and there that I don’t track.) We’ll see.
I also had Owen gather all his shoes so I could see if he needed any more—he’s basically a tennis shoe kid so not nearly as fun to buy for. So he may get more than just boots!
The kids got a surprise second night of trick or treating, thanks to a neighbor who took them to Lake Bluff with their boys. They were thrilled with the free hot dogs and chips at the fire station plus the great candy at the big expensive houses. Owen’s first words were “I want to trick and treat there again!” Sitha, your husband rocks!
Look who was walking with the teacher! And her teacher was a ladybug!!
Katie has been begging to take gymnastics again and Owen was interested in boys rec… They were both offered at the same place at the same time so I figured it was meant to be!
Owen’s music class is learning barn dancing and parents were allowed to come watch! So of course I took advantage!
The whole thing was a hot mess from start to finish—you can imagine how much fourth graders really want to be dancing, right? That said, Owen did well and didn’t screw around too much (especially compared to other boys, some of which I wanted to throttle).
All I know is those teachers DO NOT get paid enough.
I may have tried a SeneGence cat face… and pretty much failed. I am definitely NOT an artist (this took WAY longer than it should have)…but at least I know it’s not going anywhere. 😂 Also, I’m lame. I don’t even have cat ears.
Katie has known she wanted to be Harley Quinn forever. Owen had no real direction and this is a costume I picked up at the resale shop earlier this week on a whim (I knew he’d love it but didn’t think he’d wear it for Halloween).
The girls wanted to be twins. 💕 I think Katie pulled it off slightly better since she had blonde hair and the hair colors showed up better.
The weather was actually decent and the trees were gorgeous! I had to take a pic of me with one since we don’t have any nice ones in our yard.
Tom ended up carrying the girls’ weapons pretty much from the start.
Friends had come with us, and this is the boys heading home after a successful trip.
The haul!
And sorted…because I like to see what we got the most of… AND because you have to keep the chocolate separate from the candy otherwise it gets nasty.
I have to say at first I thought it was way weird having trick-or-treating on a Saturday afternoon instead of on Halloween night… But I like that it’s in daylight and when it’s over we still have time left to chill and eat candy without having to go straight to bed.
The good thing about this year? Since the weather was nicer, we went farther into the neighborhood and they got more candy! Last year we only hit a few houses and then came home…and then felt guilty so we took them out another night in another city. This year it is one and done!
Surprise! Daddy started a fire after trick or treating! Unfortunately it started sprinkling so the kids didn’t last long… But I did get a cute pic of Katie.
Owen finally picked what he wanted from Amazon from Grauntie Rose and Gruntie Jim—a gem digging kit! (Huh? What? Okay, whatever!) He had a blast digging out all the rocks and reading about them.
The last farmer’s market of the season had fun kids projects… I was surprised they both wanted to try!
Katie is also really good at hula hooping.
I’ve really been slacking on these. So the first one is really old and the second one is new.
Me: Katie, you need to pick up your room a bit.
Katie: Mom, the reason I’m not going in my room right now is because my stomach hurts.
Me: Then I guess we’re not going to the pool today.
Katie: A LITTLE. It just hurts a little.
Me: Good. So go pick up your room.
Scene: Katie looking for a library book that she has lost.
Me: You need to look for the book.
Katie: But I don’t know where it is.
Me: I know. That’s why you need to look.
She looks half-heartedly in 2.5 places.
Katie: I can’t find it.
Me: Well you need to keep looking.
Katie, whining: BUT I DON’T KNOW WHERE IT IS.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Every three years I get extreme mom guilt ripping my kids away from their good friends and wondering if and when they will meet new friends.
From Kayln Silva on Facebook:
I was talking to a civilian friend this morning and we were agreeing how hard it is to say goodbye to military families, and she jokingly says, yeah I always tell my kids don’t get too close because you know what will happen!! They just move away!!!
And with that my heart just sank, I know she was kidding and I know what she means, because she doesn’t understand, but I beg you please please don’t ever view military kids like this.
Please don’t distance yourself from them because it’s just a matter of time before they’re gone….again.
If we walk around this life viewing every relationship like that how would we get close to anyone? I understand this life is unique, and most military families jump into each new adventure with both feet, but for the rest of the world watching us, know that it’s hard.
Really hard. It breaks my heart every time we have to say good bye to yet another friend, someone they’ve connected with and someone they‘ve cared about.
If you have the opportunity to know a military child, please take a moment to realize that the constant state of transitions and unknowns is tough. We smile and laugh and make the most of every day we are together because the reality is, it very well could be. You never know when orders drop, or news comes that someone is moving away.
If you know a military child, take the time to hug them, understand them, invest in them.
Whether they are here for a few months or 4 years, to know that someone genuinely cares about them means so much to their little hearts 💕
School pics were waiting for us when we got home! YAY!
I hate to say it, but I don’t love Katie’s. She looks just fine, of course, but it doesn’t have THE sparkle she normally has in pics. And I always put Owen in blue but this year it just fades into the background too much. They’re both perfectly fine, just nothing special. (I think this is what happens when you take 10,000 pics of your kids a year—school pics have a lot to live up to!) There’s always spring photos…
This is how Katie came home from playing next door.
Of course, yesterday was the most gorgeous fall day and today was rainy and chilly.
They had a bunch of activities in the gym. Katie is a hula hoop rock star.
And they both had fun on these. Katie called them feet puppets. 🙂 Tom and I got a good laugh out of that one.
Owen actually looked like a serious runner.
Katie did well this year, too—she knew she couldn’t sit on Tom’s shoulders at all. And she wanted to beat Sophia (since Sophia can’t in right before her last year)… And she did!
Tom and Katie actually both qualified for a medal, but we didn’t want to wait around 1.5 hours until the end so they’ll just get them at school eventually. They all did awesome!!
Owens school had a beach party and Tom was working late so Katie had to come with us.
This is Wiley, the district mascot.
Beach volleyball. We were the first ones there so it was just Owen, Katie, and a teacher. They had a blast!
Katie did the limbo about 10 times but she’s never ask for it to be lowered.
We also spent time at the floor hockey station (pool bottles as sticks and blow up balls as pucks), the dance party, and origami (which kicked my butt). Friends of ours were also there so Owen was running around with them. After, we took the kids to Culver’s. 🙂
Today Katie’s class celebrated Johnny Appleseed so she came home with this “pot hat.” 🙂
She chose the whole outfit herself!
I can’t remember all of what and who she drew, but I do know there is:
I’ll have to ask her what they all are again.
We were going out to a nice dinner with friends in another city so I decided to do a full face! This is how many pics I took trying to get some good new ones. Of course they aren’t all winners…but I did get some great shots.
I spent a lot of years hating how I looked and having to take 50 pics in the hopes of getting a single decent one. So it still blows my mind when I take pics and can’t pick a best one…because there are SO many good ones. Of course it helps that I have awesome anti-aging skincare and makeup products to compete the look!! 💄
I don’t often get this dressed up–and I use fake lashes even less–but it’s fun to do now and again. I considered this a dry run for formal night on our upcoming cruise… 🚢
I couldn’t decide on the best pic from the night, so here’s 16 because why not. 😍
And then to these. 🙂
Of course I had some photobombers.
But that was okay because I needed Owen to take our picture. 🙂
And the impressive before and after…showing that even plain janes can look gorgeous with a little bit of work!
Someone on NextDoor was giving away free wood—plus they actually delivered it—so we were excited because we can always use firewood. However, the pieces were soooo big that there was no way Tom could chop them with his axe (he tried, and after 30 minutes he just had a few shards off one piece). So we had to rent a log splitter. Four hours and $75 later we have a huge pile of wood! 🙂
Owen helped but he wasn’t thrilled about it.
I got $359 worth of kids summer clothes and shoes for $232 after the clearance prices, coupons, and REDcard savings.
I had Owen write down the numbers and do the math, so this might be a hair off but you get the gist. 🙂
RETAIL PRICE: $359
CLEARANCE PRICE: $232
I’ll take a 35% savings! 🙂
Katie has been bugging me for a doll stroller for awhile now. I wasn’t going to get her one because she doesn’t need anything else…but then I remembered she had Christmas money from Grauntie Rose and Gruntie Jim. So she and I looked at them on Amazon and two days later, we had a happy little girl.
She walks it all over. Takes it down to Sofia’s. Takes it down to the park (almost a half mile walk!)…
Sometimes when we go to bed I look in on Katie and this is about what she always looks like…
Owen is now obsessed with the fire, so we thought we’d let the kids cook hot dogs tonight. Owen was ALL about it but Katie wanted no part of it (you can see her pouting).
Owen did it but complained that it was too hot.
Happy boys having fun!
When your 9yo asks you how the universe was created, you go to Google. Here’s your lesson for the day—it’s actually very interesting and at a level we cloths BOTH understand. 🙂 It’s only like four minutes, too!
Big Bang: How the Universe was created
What created all the planets, stars and galaxies? BBC Future presents a four-minute animated guide to one of the greatest questions we’ve tried to solve.
It was a gorgeous day so I took the kids to the PTA after school playdate at Owen’s school playground. It’s always disappointing to see how few people show up for these things—I think there were like 10 kids there when we got there (for a district-wide event that’s nothing). That said, it was terribly mosquito-y so we didn’t stay long, but the kids had fun with a parachute!
Under direct parental supervision of course. We are trying to get them to not be crazy scared around it…but still have a healthy fear. And having some fun!
