Last Half of October 2019

The last half of October was just as hectic as the first half–with Brooklyn’s field trip, the fall carnival at school, Red Ribbon week, and Halloween. Here’s the recap!

Savannah occasionally asks to play with Play-doh, and October 17th was one of those mornings. I don’t love Play-doh because it makes a huge mess with little pieces everywhere, but the kids enjoy it. So it’s an every-once-in-a-while treat!

Something about hiding in all the pillows from Mommy’s bed is so fun!

I love seeing Savannah in the role of big sister while Brooklyn is at school. Abigail loves to do everything that Savannah does…like reading her Bible on this particular morning. So sweet!

I am one of two room moms for Ms. Carter’s class this year. At the beginning of the year, Ms. Carter asked us if we would come in and do a craft with the kids in the fall and in the spring. Our fall craft was on October 17th. We decided to have the kids paint a picture of a fall tree using clothespins and cotton balls as the paintbrushes (an idea from Pinterest, of course!). The kids seemed to really enjoy it, and it was fun to see how different their pictures all turned out. I wish I’d remembered to get some pictures of the kids while they were painting, but I was busy running around helping refill paint and cleaning up afterward. I love getting to know Brooklyn’s classmates and seeing her at school during the day!

The next day was a big day for all the first graders at Mill Creek! They went on a field trip to the Cook Museum of Natural Science in Decatur. As one of the room moms, I got to do something I haven’t done since I was a kid…ride a big yellow school bus :) I think Brooklyn was as excited about riding the bus as she was about the museum. I got to sit with Brooklyn and Avery, and it was fun to see all the kids just having fun and enjoying the ride.

The kids had a great time! The museum had everything really well organized and divided all the classes into smaller touring groups so that we could keep up with the kids easier. There were lots of places for the kids to climb and explore and so many things to read. A lot of the science was over their heads, but there was still enough stuff for younger kids to keep them interested.

I would like to go back as a family sometime because there was so much detail that we missed. It’s pretty chaotic to go through a museum with a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds running around…not much opportunity to stop and soak it all in ;) But maybe next time! All of the exhibits were really neat, so I’d definitely like to take the whole family next time.

Classic 1st grader moment: One kid yelled out, “The lizard is pooping!” and suddenly a swarm of kids ran over to check it out for themselves…hahaha

The aquarium was so pretty, and I think it was definitely Brooklyn’s favorite part. She just stood there for a long time looking at all the fish.

Ms. Carter and her class :)

We headed back to the school after lunch. It was a fun morning, and I was thankful that Travis could stay home with Savannah and Abigail so that I could go!

On October 19th, Travis and I ran the Liz Hurley 5K with a group from church. We were running in support of Gina Adams and so many others who are fighting breast cancer.

I had been running about 3 days/week since July to get ready for the race. It was the first time I’d consistently exercised in several years, and it felt great! I ran the whole race with Emily. We didn’t go fast, but we ran the whole way, and I never even got out of breath. (Sadly, I have since fallen BACK off of the exercise bandwagon, and I need to do better. But it was great while it lasted!)

I think Gina felt loved and encouraged by everyone who came, and I was so glad we were able to participate! It was a fun morning. We had to miss Brooklyn’s soccer game that morning (Paw took her to the game for us), but that was the only game we missed all season. Paw said that Brooklyn’s team only had 3 players show up, so they had to borrow a player from the other team. Brooklyn scored a goal (and an own-goal…ha)!

That afternoon was the 1st annual fall carnival at Brooklyn’s school…

It rained all afternoon, so they had to move the carnival into the gym at the last minute (it was supposed to be outside). It was super crowded and loud with so many people packed in there. I ended up just taking Brooklyn because the other girls had been sick that week. We had prepaid for tickets ahead of time to save money, so we ended up with way more tickets than we needed for just Brooklyn. But she had a blast and used all 38 tickets herself! :)

Teacher jail was a huge hit with all the kids! :)

We brought home a bunch of candy and trinkets that she won at each station :)

Plinko was one of Brooklyn’s favorite games. She played it a bunch of times! She impressed me by telling me that she wanted to play it another time so she could win a hat for Savannah. So sweet!

She also brought Savannah home a lollipop. I love her tender, thoughtful heart!

We bought pizza and a snow cone for dinner, and Brooklyn got a balloon made into the shape of a flower. It was a fun afternoon, but I was exhausted by the time we got home!

This little gal is always testing the limits…

…and throwing fits when she doesn’t get her way. I think we have been in the terrible twos since way before her birthday!!

Savannah loves bringing along a stuffed animal or two when we are running errands :)

October 22nd – A little playtime after school with friends

Brooklyn brought home a chapter book from Ms. Carter’s book collection at school and was so excited to read it. I think this was her first time to read a chapter book. She has really gotten to be a great reader over the last year.

Even though she drives me crazy some days, it’s hard to be mad at this sweet face for long :)

Brooklyn’s class had a Fire Safety Day on October 24th. I remember her school doing this last year, so it must be an annual thing.

Brooklyn said they got to crawl through a “smoky” room, and she came home wanting to know what our fire safety plan was. Sounds like she learned a lot that day! :)

Abigail is so silly and loves to make us laugh with her antics…like using her apple slice for a smile :)

On October 25th, I caught Abigail going up the stairs standing up on her feet (as opposed to crawling up) for the first time. I guess she thinks she’s a big girl now!

That night, Brooklyn finally pulled her loose tooth! Tooth #3! She was so excited. It’s been a long time coming…it was loose for months. She was always wiggling it, and it finally came out. She wrote another note to the tooth fairy and couldn’t wait to go to bed. She was hoping for a toy instead of money because “the tooth fairy brings toys sometimes…I’ve heard about it.”

This time, the note said, “How can you not wake me up? I really hope you can find me. Love, Brooklyn” :) The tooth fairy has to write in cursive handwriting so it won’t be recognized ;)

On October 26th, we finally carved the pumpkin that we got at the Sacred Selections fundraiser several weeks before. I’m pretty sure this was the first pumpkin we’ve ever carved as a family. It’s just never been one of our fall traditions I guess.

Brooklyn and Savannah helped pick out the pattern online, and then we got to work. Travis tried to let Brooklyn help a little with the carving, but we quickly realized that was a bad idea. We didn’t want anyone to lose a finger!

Cleaning out the inside was both fun and gross!

We thought it turned out pretty good for our first time! :)

It was a rainy Saturday, so pumpkin carving and then painting were two fun indoor activities.

I tried to get a picture of our little Bama fan in her t-shirt, but of course she wouldn’t cooperate! This was the best I could do.

Abigail has now figured out how to climb onto the tub in order to reach things on my bathroom counter that she wants. That girl!

We are still really enjoying the afternoon walks to pick up Brooklyn from school. Honestly, it would make a lot more sense to just let her ride the bus home so that Abigail could take a longer nap in the afternoons, but I think we would all miss our walking friends too much to do that. So we make it work!

The kids have started hiding behind this stone wall near the entrance to our neighborhood and popping out to say “Boo!” as we come up the sidewalk :)

Abigail was pretending to be a ghost :)

The last week of October was Red Ribbon Week at school, and there were different dress-up days every day. Wednesday was Twin Day, so Brooklyn wore her soccer jersey to school that day…

…and her twin was Avery, one of her best friends in the class who also plays soccer. It was nice to not have to go out and buy anything special for that day since they both already had the matching jerseys!

Savannah found a huge leaf on our walk to school that afternoon. The picture doesn’t really do it justice…it was about the size of her head!

Thursday was Book Character Day at school. Brooklyn decided that she wanted to be Pete the Cat, so I tried to come up with a costume for as little money as possible. You could buy one on Amazon for like $50, but I ended up making one with supplies from Hobby Lobby for less than $10 :)

I thought it turned out cute! The best part is that the headband made it through the day without getting torn up, so maybe we can reuse it for another Red Ribbon Week in the future ;)

All the kids from Ms. Carter’s class who dressed up that day :)

My “boo-tiful baby” on Halloween…I’m trying to get one more use out of all the sentimental clothes from her big sisters, but some clothes haven’t survived very well. This Halloween onesie is so stretched out that it kept falling off her shoulders!

It was bitterly cold on Halloween this year. I heard it was the coldest Halloween in our area since 1993. We were freezing in the afternoon going to pick up Brooklyn, which didn’t bode well for trick-or-treating that night.

But the girls weren’t going to let a little cold get in the way of more candy! ;)

We all ate an early supper, got the girls into their costumes, and waited for the Loveless family to arrive at our house. We had invited them to go trick-or-treating with us this year. It’s never worked out for us to go together in the past, so we were excited that it did work out this year.

The girls passed the time by watching for trick-or-treaters at the front door. They got so excited when someone walked up to our house :)

They’re here!!

After a few pictures, it was time to bundle up and head out the door!

We started a little after 6:30 PM and stayed out for about 45 minutes or so.

We probably went to about 15 or 20 houses before the kids’ hands were all frozen and they were ready to be done. Brooklyn, Savannah, and Carter kept racing ahead to the next house, so hopefully they were using their manners. We were pushing Abigail in the stroller most of the time, so it was hard to keep up.

Abigail was so cute! She would ride in the stroller until we got to the next house, and then she would get out and walk to the door. After a few houses, she got brave enough to say “trick or treat” and “thank you!” :)

Toward the end of the night, Savannah busted it on someone’s driveway and was pretty much ready to be done after that. I was surprised her costume didn’t rip in half since it’s so thin, but it didn’t! The girls all got plenty of candy, especially considering all the candy they’d already gotten at the lake.

It was a fun evening, but we were glad to thaw out inside the warm house. Hopefully next year it will be a little warmer on Halloween! :)

I’m going to include the Halloween party at the Hesters in this post even though it wasn’t technically in October. The party was on Friday, November 1st. They always require everyone to dress up, even adults…and sometimes it’s a struggle to come up with costumes for us that don’t cost a fortune. Eventually, we decided on Donald Trump and an IRS agent for this year. The only thing we had to buy was a Trump wig and and my IRS shirt ;)

I thought he did a pretty good Trump impression! :)

My shirt said: “We’ve got what it takes to take what you’ve got!” Haha…

I’m pretty sure we saw someone do a double take when we passed them driving to the party. Who knew Donald Trump drove a Sienna minivan???

The girls all wore their same costumes. Abigail’s ladybug costume was really thick and warm, so it worked out nicely with the cold weather we were having.

We had hotdogs and chips for dinner, and even Abigail, our picky eater, ate hers up!

It was cute seeing Abigail and Hannah sitting next to each other at the table :)

It was another chilly night, but we still had a great time! It was fun to see all the creative costumes that others came up with.

Clayton also dressed up as Buzz Lightyear, so I had to get a quick picture of Savannah and him together.

Once again, the girls collected a TON of candy…even though we already had plenty at home. Needless to say, we are still eating Halloween candy almost 4 months later…

Quotes and Notes from Late October:

• 10/18/19 – Brooklyn, praying before breakfast: “Dear God, please help me not to get struck by static electricity. In Jesus name, Amen!”
• 10/21/19 – Abigail may be a tiny thing (weighed 23.7 lbs today WITH clothes on at the doctor’s office for a sick visit), but she is speaking SO SO well. She sings song lyrics. She is stringing together 4-5 words at a time sometimes. She can even say a few 4 syllable words perfectly. Today she said “Pocahontas” and “Cinderella”! 
• 10/22/19 – Brooklyn is reading so well these days that she has started reading road signs and other signs while we are driving. She is always reminding me of the speed limit. “Mommy, what speed are you going? The sign says you can go 40 speed now.” :)
• 10/22/19 – Savannah accidentally shut the door on Abigail’s finger when we were coming inside from the garage today. It was pretty smushed at first, but not bleeding thankfully. I was afraid it might be broken. She was bending it but not wanting to use it normally (at least for the first few hours). I thought about taking her to get it checked out, but decided against it after she started using her finger normally again. (Side note: several months later, the nail on that finger fell off completely! I was glad there was a new nail underneath it!).
• 10/25/19 – Abigail was playing with a toy phone. I asked her who she was calling, and she replied, “Cinderella!” :) She then started giggling and saying “Hi, Cinderella! Hi, Snow White! Bye, Cinderella!”

Thanks for reading!