Some day I'll be caught up on this blog but probably not any time soon. November is almost over (like in a few hours) but October was pretty great and here's why...
One reason I think I love fall is that my birthday falls right in the middle of it. I turned the big 3-0 this year and I have zero reservations about turning the corner into another decade. I have so much to be thankful for!
Jed took my birthday off and these two made me a delicious breakfast!
I even got to enjoy a fancy pedicure during nap time! Score!
And got to enjoy a dinner out WITH friends, WITHOUT kids (seriously, so rare!). There are 7, soon to be 9 kids between our 3 families so it was a real treat to enjoy an evening out! The food at Eatery A on Ingersoll was awesome too!
Evening snacks like this aren't too shabby!
We are still playing dress up on a regular basis around here.
We are enjoying our little preschool small group too. Miss Julie did a "babies" theme one week since all of the kiddos are about to be (or as of the end of October have become again) big siblings and will have new babies around! They made these cute "blankets" and necklaces and Lainey wasted no time finding her baby car seat and covering up (or smothering) her baby doll with the blanket. We are doing lots of things to prepare for the new baby and having lots of conversations about her too.
We don't really get in to Halloween too much around here so I originally planned on just having Lainey wear one of her princess costumes and then throwing something together for Wyatt just to do Jed's office's Halloween party. But then I think Lainey saw an Elsa costume in a Target ad and really wanted to be Elsa. I thought I'd buy her a new costume and (again) throw something together for Wyatt to be Olaf. But THEN I found a NO SEW (this is very important) DIY Elsa costume on Pinterest and decided we'd try that. Doing the math I only spent SLIGHTLY more than I would have on an Elsa dress at Target and it didn't even matter. Lainey had the time of her life putting this costume together. It was really fun to create and go through each step with her.
We started with a plain long sleeve tshirt and I penciled in the outline for the top of the dress. Then we painted a layer of turquoise fabric paint. Then a layer of glitter paint. Then came Lainey's favorite part of all.
Sparkles and jewels!
I deviated a little from the tutorial and just grabbed a few of the packs of rhinestones and pearls from the dollar area at Michaels.
That was all for the top. Then the skirt was just 4 or 5 rolls of different tulle tied to an elastic ribbon.
I think it turned out super beautiful! She loved it. I saw soooo many Elsa's at both Night Eyes at the zoo and when we were out at other Halloween events but I didn't see any other DIY Elsa's so I was pretty irrationally proud of myself.
Night Eyes was way more fun this year than last year. The weather was PERFECT and we went before it was dark which helped a lot.
Plus Ma and Papa joined us which was exciting too!
Another October highlight was cheering Jed on running the Des Moines Half Marathon!
Again... very thankful my parents were there. I don't think I could have managed with the kids and waddled all over town trying to spot him at different mile markers if it weren't for them! Nor could I have kept Wyatt from running away with the pack.
We were soooo proud of him. He beat his Dam to Dam time by a good 12 or 13 minutes and he felt really good about his race.
(And here I am, just being thankful his training is OVER! ... for now!)
I'm not sure how easily we'll manage lots of Christmas treats and cookies this year with the new baby so I thought I'd make frosted sugar cookies with Lainey with a pumpkin cookie cutter. She loves helping with baking and cooking projects and this was no exception!
Especially the decorating and the sprinkles!
Because everyone loves a napping picture. I'm even afraid to type this out but I think we are contemplating transitioning out of nap time for her. She goes to bed SOOO much better at night on the evenings she didn't happen to nap during the day. I don't think we will completely give it up, especially on Mondays (she has dance class then we go straight to community group and it's kind of a late night), but I'm thinking we may start to give her a few days of just having "quiet times" in her room for a period of time in the afternoon while Wyatt (and hopefully the baby) are napping.
We also carved a pumpkin! Yay October fun!
One of the real highlights of October for me was a beautiful baby sprinkle held for me by some of my dearest friends to celebrate this sweet girl on the way. It was just a fun and relaxing afternoon with some of my favorite people and was such a blessing. I can't really imagine living life without the blessing of community and mom friends. These women encourage and challenge me in so many different ways each and every day!
Thankful for such a beautiful fall here in Iowa!
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