More Sun and some Leaves

It warm and sunny and Fall.

So we made the most of it.

And then drew some rainbow hearts and just chilled out.

It was awesome.

Playing in the sun

The Sun is shinning and the weather is warm. It is fabulous.

Little Red and Snow

This week in phone pictures

Pictures from the week via my phone.

Little surprises by my bed Baking chocolate pumpkin cupcakes

Sheriff Strider First attempt at Mug Cakes

Planking

Enjoying Hot Chocolate presents from Grandpa

It was a good week.

Embracing Fall

I woke up one morning and decided to embrace fall before the rain comes. Right now the sun is shinning, the air has just a hint of crispness to it and they are selling pumpkin ice cream at Prince Pucklers.

Life is Good.

~Thankful~ Day 12

I am thankful my girl LOVE each other.

I mean really love each other. They play well together, they are constantly hugging each other to the ground. Their eyes light up when they see each other. They truly are best friends. I am going to do everything I can to encourage them to stay that way. To avoid competition between them, teach them to support each other and be excited for each others successes and comfort each other in hard times. And to sit back and enjoy the ride. We will see see how high school goes.

~Thankful~ Day 9

Today I am Thankful for silly contests and new perspectives.

This picture represents two things I vowed never to expose my children to, Chuck E. Cheese and Barney.

I failed. I'm glad I did.

Let me explain...

Our apartment complex had a little Halloween shindig two weeks ago and the girls and I went. Free food, pumpkin bowling, coloring contest. Good stuff.

The manager suggested we enter the girls in the coloring contest. I looked at their art, Brooke's was mostly colored by me apart from some awesome scribbles, and Jocelyn had drawn a spider on the back of hers.

"Sure"

Next day I get a phone call from the manger saying both girls had won in their age groups and their combined prizes totally $25 in Chuck E Cheese gift cards.

Oy.

Today was a hard day, Jocelyn got shots, I paid bills, Ben had PT, so Chuck E. Cheese sounded pretty good for dinner. I found a coupon online and we got dinner and 45 tokens making our out of pocket a grand total of $4.95.

It was amazing! We all had a blast. Especially Jocelyn, her favorite part was collecting all the tickets. Ben hit the jackpot and over a hundred tickets came rushing out of the machine. It was like Christmas.

As for Barney, they didn't ask and I didn't tell.

~Thankful~ Day 5

Today I am thankful for my vintage baby clothes

This dress was bought my my grandparents in Austria for me when I was two. My mom (clever lady that she is) saved a few special pieces for me when I got older. I love dressing my girls up in my old clothes. It makes me feel so connected to them and to my female heritage.

Plus it makes for stellar Halloween costumes. I made the hat from felt and was greatly inspired by this tutorial.

PS

Katie, I can not thank you enough for selling me your glue-gun at a garage sale you had right before you had Cal. (I just bought new glue sticks for the first time last week)

PPS

Jocelyn fits in this dress to and they take turns wearing it to church. It really is the cutest thing, my little danish girls.

PPSS

This is the only picture I could get of her standing still and smiling, but I have loads of her running fast towards the street :)

photo of the week 48

Halloween was good, mellow and good.

November is going to be a busy month.

I have plans... loads of them.

Some of which involve me NOT eating all of Joce's candy,

Although it is tempting.

photo of the week 47

It was a really good weekend.

We went to the beach and to the lighthouse.

Craziest windstorm ever.

It was beautiful, exciting and freezing.

The girls loved it.

Yummy Food.

Dinner with new friends.

Church.

Molten chocolate cakes.

Good Weekend.

now... it's time for laundry... lots of laundry.

pumpkins at the orchard

Last Saturday we got out of the house and headed west to the local orchard.

For balloons and straw labyrinths.

Pumpkins galore.

Honey sticks, homemade microwave popcorn, jams and jellies.

Apples, Pears, and fall veggies.

Big girl pony tails and stripy tights.

Oh, We heard a rumor of free cobbler and ice cream.

It was true.

It was delicious.

Till next year...

Well maybe sooner...

I am already out of apples.

And I could really use some more cobbler.

HALLOWEEN

Let's just say we won the FSH costume contest for "Best Family Costume" including to tickets to the "exclusive" UCSB Dinning Commons. It was a good but crazy day. (P.S. I am aware that I look slightly like Christina Aguilera, maybe next year)

Jocelyn, Levi and the Pumpkin Patch

Vivian had the rather brilliant idea of dressing the kids up cowboy style (note the boots she found at the swap shop) and going to the pumpkin patch. It was a good time.

Together we took some pretty awesome pictures I think.