I already wrote about our big Disney trip, which took up the first 9 days of the month. This post will cover the rest of our October–soccer games, school activities, and Halloween festivities among other things. Here’s the recap:
Abigail keeps us entertained in the car with her non-stop chattering ;)
Savannah made a sweet note for Mrs. Pride to give her on the first day of school after fall break. “You might be the best first grade teacher EVER!” :)
We completely forgot to buy postcards when we were in the gift shops at Disney. The girls were planning to give one to their teachers, but a note on regular paper had to do instead.
Brooklyn did a couple of months of physical therapy to help strengthen her neck muscles after some repeated episodes of torticollis. Ms. Maci was great and made all of the activities fun! Brooklyn looked forward to going each time.
Abigail takes after her big sisters and loves to doodle and draw.
Savannah had a makeup soccer game at 5:15 pm on Wednesday, October 13th. It was to take the place of the game on the 2nd Saturday of fall break that was cancelled. It was on field 7 at Dublin, a smaller field than the girls are used to playing on. It was tough to get everyone fed and ready for a game on a Wednesday night and then get everyone to bible class afterward, but we did it!
Savannah tripped over a girl’s foot during the 1st quarter of the game and hit her forehead pretty hard on the ground. She is pretty tough on the soccer field, so I could tell it hurt when she started crying pretty hard. She ended up sitting out until the 4th quarter with an ice pack. I was a little worried she might have a concussion, but her head was feeling better after a few minutes, and she decided she wanted to play the last few minutes of the game. She went back in and scored a goal! She makes me proud. Her forehead never bruised, and she felt fine the rest of the night/the next day, so I was glad about that.
We got back from Disney, and the first day of school back after fall break, Savannah tied her shoes all by herself for the first time! She’s been wearing shoes with laces for a few weeks, but hadn’t gotten the hang of tying them herself until now. She’s been tying them like a champ all week!
On October 15th, Abigail and I went on a scooter ride/walk around the neighborhood…
We enjoyed looking at Halloween decorations in our neighbors’ yards, like these dragon blow-ups.
Abigail was excited to see this huge Mickey pumpkin!
Even the neighborhood lending library was decorated for Halloween :)
Mrs. Prevatt introduced her class to Tsum Tsums in October. The kids could pick out their “desk pets” after earning a certain number of points for good behavior.
Brooklyn was excited about hers! It’s so small you can barely see it, but she picked out a Mickey Mouse one.
On October 16th, Savannah had games at 8:15 and 9 AM, and Brooklyn had a game at 9 AM at Dublin. We split up, and I took Savannah to her games, and Travis took Brooklyn and Abigail to her game.
Savannah’s team seemed a bit tired out there today and lost both games. Savannah tried her best, and her coach sent me a text after the game saying she appreciated how Savannah always hustles and follows directions and that she’s a joy to coach. Love to hear things like that!
The girls enjoyed a snack break in between their games :)
Savannah has gotten to be fairly competitive, and she cried pretty hard on the walk back to the car because they lost both games. “I don’t like to lose!”
Brooklyn’s team lost 4-0 today. Travis said she hustled well and got to play several different positions (basically everything but goalie). Travis said she played the whole game. Proud of her effort!
Brooklyn’s team had pictures after their game, and Travis redid Brooklyn’s ponytail before the pictures started. Pro girl dad!
Savannah and I hurried to Chloe’s birthday party after her games, and we made it for the last 30 minutes or so. It was a cute barnyard animal adoption party. Savannah picked out a bunny and named her Hoppy Clover. She enjoyed decorating Hoppy Clover’s house after we got home :) Savannah was really happy to see Lucy, who we don’t see much anymore now that she’s in middle school.
We gave Chloe this animal book, which is one of our favorites. It has beautiful pictures and lots of animal facts from a biblical perspective.
On October 18th, we had Emily and her kids, Harpers and Collins, over for a morning playdate.
The kids mainly played outside, and they had a lot of fun together!
We are thankful for sweet friends :)
I got home on October 19th from picking up Brooklyn and Savannah from school to find Abigail helping her daddy telework ;)
Abigail loves to scooter!
I turned 35 on October 20th, and Brooklyn made me a purse out of a white envelope and a piece of yarn for my birthday :)
I liked the pumpkin on the back ;)
The girls also made me a dessert creation for my birthday, full of teddy grahams, blackberries, gummy lifesavers, and lots of sprinkles :)
Emily caught Harper and Abigail holding hands on the way to bible class that night :)
October 21st was Rock Your School day at Mill Creek. This year’s theme was “Monsters University”. RYS day is a day where the teachers plan their lessons around the theme in fun and unique ways. The kids look forward to it every year!
I apologize for the picture overload, but Mrs. Pride shared a lot of pictures of all the fun…
The PTA always goes all out decorating the school, and everything looked great!
Love this sweet girl!
Brooklyn brought home this monster mask and said she had a fun day too. The kids were encouraged to wear blue, green and/or purple (Monster’s Inc colors), and Brooklyn’s tie dye shirt was perfect!
We enjoy walking to school with friends in the mornings :)
On October 22nd, Abigail and I went over to Alisha’s house for lunch with Baugay, Aubrey, and the kids. It was really great to get together and see Aubrey and Miller for the first time in a while.
On October 23rd, Brooklyn and Savannah both had games at 9 AM in different places, so we had to split up. Brooklyn’s game was in Harvest, and Savannah played at Palmer Park in Madison. Travis took Savannah and Abigail to Savannah’s game, and I took Brooklyn to her game.
Travis said both teams were pretty evenly matched and that Savannah played good defense and kicked the ball away from the other team. He said she had a good pass to her teammate, Emma, who ended up scoring. She played the whole first half and sat out some in the 2nd half. He said she paid close attention while she was sitting out and was really into it. Travis said she was frustrated that she had to sub out though. She loves to be out there on the field!
Savannah’s classmate, Caroline, was on the team they played today! One of the moms got a quick picture after the game of Savannah, Gabriella, Caroline, and Felicity, who all know each other from school :)
Brooklyn’s team only had 5 players there when it was time to start her game, but thankfully 2 other girls showed up only a couple of minutes late. It didn’t matter too much because the Galactic Sirens scored almost immediately, and then they kept scoring like wildfire. The other team wasn’t much competition, which was honestly a refreshing change for the girls. They had lost all of their games up until this point except two.
Brooklyn’s team ended up winning 10-1, and Brooklyn scored FIVE goals!! I told her I had a feeling she would score today, but I never would’ve predicted 5 goals!! She even scored one with her left foot. She really hustled out there today. So proud of her effort! All the girls played the entire game since they didn’t have any subs, so Brooklyn was pretty tired by the time it was over.
I love her excited reactions when she scores a goal. It’s not a great picture, but you can see her arms up in the air immediately when the ball goes in the net. She is so fun to watch!
That afternoon, one of Savannah’s classmates named Lilliana had a drive-by birthday party at her house. It was Halloween-themed and the kids were supposed to wear their costumes and pick up a treat as they dropped off their gift. The girls made a birthday sign and were excited to dress up, even though we never got out of the car ;)
They were sweet to give a treat bag to Brooklyn and Abigail as well…
Savannah and Lilliana have been in the same class for kindergarten and 1st grade, so they were both excited to see each other outside of school :)
Savannah made me a “Mommy book” for my birthday. (I think she technically finished it a couple of days after my birthday). It was really sweet!
On October 24th, Cici had a Halloween party at her house for all of the grandkids…and their parents ;) The kids enjoyed decorating sugar cookies to kick things off!
Next, the kids “bobbed” for powdered donuts. It was very entertaining! The younger ones went first…
Then the big kids had a turn!
…and finally the biggest kids went! ;) We really needed some bigger donuts for the guys though because they could pretty much eat those powdered donuts in one bite. Next time they’ll have to bob for Krispy Kremes or something :)
Cici had several fun games for the kids to take turns playing. They all had a great time!
Pin the nose on the pumpkin was very entertaining!
We finished off the evening with caramel apples…a special treat!
Every once in a while, I am able to convince Abigail to wear a hair bow ;) Cici made this cute candy corn bow, but there aren’t too many opportunities to wear it each year.
On October 25th, Paw and Rae Rae came up after school to celebrate my birthday with us. It was a nice day for playing outside!
I didn’t take many pictures, but I was really excited to receive this fall door hanger for my birthday. I had picked it out on Etsy but forgotten about it by the time my birthday rolled around. I love it!!
On October 26th, I was able to go on a field trip with Savannah’s class to the botanical gardens in Huntsville. I was so thankful that her school was actually allowing field trips this year (she didn’t have any field trips in kindergarten because of covid), and I was even more thankful to be allowed to go on the field trip since they only took one parent per class. Perks of being the room mom ;)
This was Savannah’s first ever field trip and first time to ride on a school bus! We sat together on the bus, and she was pretty quiet just taking it all in and looking out the window.
I enjoyed getting to know Savannah’s classmates and put some faces to the names that I’d heard about. The first activity of the day was playing in the Children’s Garden/play area. The only time we’d ever been to the Botanical Gardens was either for weddings or for the Galaxy of Lights, so we’d never actually been to the children’s garden before.
Savannah enjoyed running around and playing with her friends. I wasn’t sure if she would want to stick by me the whole time, but she really didn’t! She was off playing pretty much the whole time. It was a pretty chilly morning with the wind blowing, but thankfully it warmed up as the morning went on. I enjoyed seeing Savannah having fun out there. She has come so far since kindergarten in her confidence level!
Next, we ate lunch at some nearby picnic tables. I sat at the girls’ table and enjoyed talking to them while we ate.
After lunch, we looked at the various scarecrows on the scarecrow trail…
Here were some of the kids’ favorites! These scarecrows were made by people in the community, and some of them were really creative!
We also went over to the big cuckoo clock for the kids to check that out. Mrs. Pride was so patient and calm with the kids today. It was neat to see her with the kids since I haven’t been able to witness that all school year so far. She seems great with that age!
All the girls!
Mrs. Pride made sure to get lots of group photos while we were there…
We saw some really neat scarecrows and before we knew it, it was time to get back on the bus. We had a fun day! Paw and Rae Rae spent the night and stayed at home with Abigail today because Travis had an in-person meeting for work. Abigail enjoyed having Paw and Rae Rae all to herself!!
Brooklyn saw Mrs. Borys on the way to her classroom on October 28th, and they snapped quick picture together. I’m glad that Brooklyn is able to see her occasionally throughout the week.
Abigail was really into playing with the pretend food upstairs in the playroom this month.
The girls were allowed to wear their costumes to school on October 29th…the last day of school before Halloween. This year, Brooklyn really wanted to be Darth Vader, so I found her a costume online and ordered it. Savannah wanted to be a polar bear, her favorite animal. Polar bear costumes aren’t exactly plentiful, but we made it work with white sweatpants and a polar bear hat :) They were excited to dress up and show off their costumes to their friends.
Here is Brooklyn’s class in their costumes that day!
This picture made me smile :) Savannah was able to read all of her 200 1st grade sight words by the end of October, so Mrs. Pride took her picture with her sight word superhero mask and cape on. She looks like a superhero polar bear (wearing 2 types of masks…haha). We are very proud of Savannah for how well she is reading! The sight word superhero parade was scheduled for December, and she couldn’t wait to march in it!
The girls’ soccer games on October 30th got rained out, so unfortunately Savannah’s season ended just like that. I hate that I didn’t get to see her last game on the 23rd. (Brooklyn’s team played in a tournament during the first weekend of November, so her season wasn’t quite over yet.) The girls were both sad not to play, but it was a cold, drizzly day so there was part of me that was a little glad ;) We did have the Hoods’ Halloween party to go to at lunchtime, so that was another opportunity to wear our costumes. Abigail opted to be Anna, a costume that Savannah wore several years ago. I tried to steer her toward picking something we already had, and thankfully it worked ;) They were all excited!
The weather wasn’t great…it was cold and lightly raining for most of the party, but we made the best of it, and everyone still had fun!
I loved the idea of having the party at lunchtime because we were finished in plenty of time to get home without the kids being up late that night.
Caitlyn went all out with the games and fun activities for the kids. We hurried around their front and back yard for a selfie scavenger hunt ;)
Brooklyn loved the “fishing” and couldn’t figure out how she caught something (which lets me know she’s not all grown up just yet).
Jon was inside the box hooking the goldfish packages on the line…haha. Brooklyn loved winning prizes for the different games.
The cake walk was especially fun…
and the girls also loved the bean bag toss!
So many prizes to choose from :)
Of course, they got lots of candy trick or treating around the driveway, as is typical with our church family Halloween parties.
Brooklyn even won a prize for the “most fun costume”…she tied with Vera for 1st place. She picked out a soft Halloween blanket as her prize. She was super excited!
Had to get a picture of Harper and Abigail in their princess costumes before we left. It was a really fun afternoon!
The next day was Halloween and also a Sunday, and we documented the fact that I am slowly getting better at French braiding hair :)
We planned to trick-or-treat after church that night…not because we needed any more candy, but because it had been a couple of years since we’d trick or treated in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, and it’s fun to see all the decorations at night. We packed the girls some supper to eat in the car on the way home from church, and then we hurried as fast as we could to get them changed into their costumes. Abigail made a last minute switch and decided to wear last year’s parrot costume instead of being Anna again like yesterday. We managed to get out the door to start by about 6:40 PM, which I thought was doing pretty good!
We went up and down part of our street and two other streets in our neighborhood…
Two neighbors did candy chutes this year, which I was surprised about since most people are a lot more comfortable with covid than they were this time last year. Maybe they just wanted to get another use out of them? The girls thought it was fun though! We saw lots of spooky decorations, and the girls got a ton of candy. Abigail told a few people “Happy Parrot Day!” when she was trick or treating…haha. This was the first year that we didn’t go to the door every single time with them…we stood at the sidewalk, and the girls went up to the door by themselves. It’s really nice now that they are old enough to know what to do and use good manners too ;)
We ran into Gabriella and her family…
…as well as the Dyess fam! We had a fun night and finished up around 7:30 pm. The girls ate some candy when we got back inside, and Travis put on some music for a quick dance party before it was time to get them in bed. It was a great end to a month full of fun!
Notes and Quotes from October 2021:
- 10/13/21 – Abigail and I finished reading “Scaredy Cat Sleepover” a 5 minute Disney story, and Abigail said, “That was a scary story! It scared my feelings.”
- 10/31/21 – Abigail: “Will we trick or treat when it’s dark?” Me: “Yes, we are going to try to go for a few minutes after church tonight.” Abigail: “I can’t wait to see the scary witch! But I will protect you if she comes out.” :)
Thanks for reading!
One reply on “October 2021”
What a fun month!!