Trotting Turkeys Ver 2.0! - Nov 8

Last week Chloe's school had their annual fundraising run thing formerly called the "Fun Run" more recently renamed the "Turkey Trot". This year was the 2nd year it has been called this so I guess they probably were able to re-use a lot of the signs they bought last year, lol. This year the weather in November thus far has basically been in the mid 70s every day so the kids were hot and sweating out their laps, lol.

Just a few snaps from the event to share, have a great weekend, folks~
-B

What's My Name?! - Nov 1

This year Halloween fell on a Thursday and as luck would have it the kids(at least in our district) are off school tomorrow for a "teacher workday". This is code for "no thanks on the sleepless kids with a sugar crash from all the candy they ate the night before so we'll get some work done instead", day. Not the worst idea, in my opinion. LOL.

Rolling up to Halloween we have been pretty busy with all of the usual formalities like carving our pumpkins, the classroom party/parade, and of course trick or treating. CANDY!(ugh) =) We did all the usual things this year and of course Chloe is ONLY interested in carving a standard jack-o-lantern. Not going to complain, do your thing, girl! lol. All I want are the SEEDS!

Chloe's costume this year puts us into a new territory(again). I thought last year was difficult for me because I wasn't really up on the whole Harry Potter thing but...this year she went an entirely different direction with a Disney character from a movie that I haven't seen, "The Descendants"(specifically Part 3). These are movies that I am aware of but so far have not seen one second of so once again I am completely uninformed about the character she chose but, most people seem to know her as "Uma". I understand she is the daughter of a previous Disney villain, Ursula(from The Little Mermaid). Apparently "The Descendants" is just that, all the characters are the children of Disney villains. Hmm, I'm going to have to find some time to watch these movies. I'm sure Chloe will be happy to watch with me. Anyway, just a few photos from the weeks events as per usual. Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Pet Spiders! - Oct 25

So, I thought Chloe's home-made Halloween decorations were cute and I applauded her creativity but apparently just like her father, you can't stop her from running with an idea once it's gotten into her head. LOL.

With just one more week before Halloween, our house apparently has become the target of some rather large spiders. The pest control guy is gonna be pissed. =P Not much else to report this week, impending candy overload in t-minus 6 days. Have a great weekend, folks~

Halloween House! - Oct 18

Halloween is just under 2 weeks away and suddenly Chloe has become interested in decorating our house accordingly. It's no secret that Halloween literally doesn't exist in my neighborhood. No trick-or-treating, no kids, no sidewalks, NO CANDY. LOL. Actually, in the last few years with the advent of "Next Door", they have been able to electronically establish addresses within the community that are actually participating in trick-or-treating and kids can visit those homes and get treats/candy. We have not and will not be doing that but, pretty cool that people are putting in the effort. We haven't had to buy a bag of Halloween candy in like over a decade.

The other day Chloe got the idea that she wanted to spice up our front yard so with minimal supplies and the help of both grandmother's, we have decor. I'm not sure where this sudden enthusiasm is coming from but, I'm good with it and I can appreciate her being creative/crafty and resourceful. =)

Also, unrelated but this past week (15th) was our 13th wedding anniversary so, yay us?! It's all gone by so fast.

Just a few photos to share. Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Short Days! - Oct 11

This week has been "Conference Week" for all the schools in the area so we have been kind of adapting our schedules this week, as it were. What I mean by that is basically I had to drag Chloe with me to the store to grocery shop and me making us lunch at home every day. We did manage to squeak in a couple hour play date with some friends but generally it was just Chloe and I every day(and just more of it). LOL.

Actually, they were out of school last Friday so I thought it would be fun to go throw a couple games. As you probably already guessed, Chloe had a dollar on deck and was chomping at the bit to throw it in the claw machine. Over the weekend we made the trip up to visit my Brother and his family and finally got to spend some time with Chloe's newest baby cousin, Paxton. This week week wrapped up with Chloe's conference on Thursday where Chloe sat outside and did her homework while we talked to the Teacher. Afterwards I offered to take her to Wendy's for a Frostie as a little reward for her glowing review from the teacher. Thankfully the kid still loves School and is a very bright, hard working student(just like her Mom).

Just a few (phone) photos to share. Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Free Pumpkins! - Oct 4

This year, unlike previous years, we managed to actually grow THREE(and now working on number 4) fully formed pumpkins. Our first attempt a few years ago resulted in a few oddly shaped and quite small pumpkins. Last time I'm pretty sure we planted some that just never grew so this year we took a new approach. We went to the pumpkin patch last year and picked out some giant pumpkins and with that Heather & Chloe saved a few seeds from those pumpkins. By planting one of those seeds we managed to fill our backyard with like(not exaggerating) probably 100 feet of vine. This stuff is WILD. It grew all the way into one corner and then doubled back on to itself and all the way out into the walkway before it actually grew a pumpkin that didn't fizzle out. Another one flourished way over in the corner behind some other plants and the 3rd one kind of right in the middle of those two. Pretty funny that of all the buds that didn't make it, we ended up with 3 pumpkins for the 3 of us. The 4th will likely never be ready be Halloween but..we can call that a "fall pumpkin" and maybe it will be ready by Thanksgiving. =)

I ended up cutting one off the vine already but the other two ripe one's are still attached (as per google's recommendation). Whoops.

i suppose in a few weeks we will harvest the rest and see how many seeds are within each new pumpkin. Insane to think that 100 feet of vine came from a seed the size of your fingernail. LOL.
Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Fall-A-Palooza! - Sep 27

And just like that, we're back. I mean, we'll see. LOL.
Every year (for the last several years, at least) something fun that Chloe actually likes to do is take photos and play in the leaves in this one little corner of our neighborhood. We walk past this area pretty much every day so we get to see when the leaves are finally collecting on the ground. Chloe, who as I mentioned has not been super interested in participating in any type of photos lately was actually on board for this one. It was actually cute that when I told her what I wanted to do she shyly agreed where she usually would push back. That's how you know she actually likes doing this, lol.

This week has been unbelievably hot, in the 90s and 100's but as the week rolls to a close we start to get back our more expected fall weather. As the sun sets a little bit earlier each day and the leaves start to fall, my favorite time of year is upon us. =) Just a few photos from this week to share. Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Nope! - Sep 20

Hey! It's Friday and generally I like to fill this space with photos and words about things that have gone on over the last week or so buuuuut, NOPE!? We didn't really do anything this week. LOL. I'm starting to feel like this blog thing is starting to slowly decide for itself that it's almost time to hang it up. I know I've gone back and forth saying I'm not going to post all the time..and then I just keep on doing it. I know there will be some stuff we'll be doing in the coming weeks and months..so we'll see what happens. With that I figured I might just drop a photo from SEVEN years ago(Sept 2012). =)

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

The Great Desk Debacle! - Sept 13

Well, at long last after (over) a year of talking about it and months of looking, Chloe's room gets a desk.

The space formally occupied by a "glider" covered in stuffed animals that had been largely unused since Chloe was around 2 is now the home to a Chloe sized desk and chair. This year as a 4th grader they do have a fair bit of homework and while generally she can do her work at the kitchen table, it does make sense for her to have a space in her room to be able to do her work and keep her..stuff. Heather searched high and low for the perfect sized desk that would fit in the space we had available. The one she originally decided on when she went to actually order it came back unavailable until the end of October or something. Great.

As luck would have it, Chloe happened to need a specific size 3 ring binder that Target did not have so, I stopped into the Office Depot down the street and saw this little desk sitting there. I took the card home to show Heather and she ended up going there and buying it. Unfortunately, as most of these "build it yourself" furniture things go, while unboxing the last(and biggest/most obvious) piece in the bottom of the box we noticed it was damaged. The damage is actually visible in the photo above however, I have since resolved it as of publication of this blog post. The guy at Office Depot was extremely helpful and while they did not have any more desks in stock, he did trade me out for a brand new top a week later when they got one.

Anyway, Chloe does seem to enjoy her new found work-space (although she was absolutely not in the mood for any photos as such). No problem, I didn't press the issue but this is the one snap I was allowed to have so..that's what I am here to share.

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Five Years Ago Friday! - Sep 6

This week was a short week due to the Labor Day holiday. We spent some time on our extra day doing you guessed it, bowling. Other than that the week really got away from me and there isn't much new to report. I figured since I really didn't have anything to post it would be a fun opportunity to time travel back to a post from 5 years ago just to see what we had going on back then. Chloe has grown so much just in the last year its wild to see some of these older pictures and once again it's really fun to be able to just click back and see her 5 years ago in an instant. =)

Have a great weekend, folks~