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Monday, October 30, 2017

So Many Halloween Things!

I'm pretty sure we jam-packed as many Halloween-themed activities into this past weekend as possible!!

Starting on Thursday night, we had Trunk or Treat at our church!


Lucas was most interested in this sweet doggie!


People went all out for this Trunk or Treat. I wish I had taken pictures of each car! One car even ordered pizzas and was handing out slices to the kids! I also really liked this beach-themed set-up!

(The car next to it has a black tarp over it because they set up a full-blown, walk-in haunted house! In their car!)


Friday morning we had a Halloween play date at April's!


Ella was at preschool, but Lucas had fun with everyone!

Friday afternoon, we met up with Mackenzie for Trick or Treating at the Promenade on Providence.




After a quick outfit change, we met up with Trav's family for Auntie Caitlin's birthday dinner!


Lucas freaking LOVED hibachi. He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough. I'd say he probably ate a good 85% of his food, which if you've ever eaten at a hibachi restaurant, you know that is a LOT of food!


Saturday morning, we had Trick or Treating with Penelope at Quail Corners!



After that, we drove to Matthews for the Not So Scary Halloween Festival.
Except, it ended up being scary when Lucas lost one of his shoes! 


Luckily we found it after retracing our steps!!
Ella also convinced me to wait in the longest line ever for this carriage ride.


The horses names were Shenaynay and Moses, which Ella thought was just hilarious!
Are you tired yet?! Because after this, we went to Trick or Treat Street at Blakeney! 
Ella got to ride in a police car...


...and on a police motorcycle!


Both kids also got to sit in the fire truck! (Not like they've ever done that a time or two...!)


Lucas's favorite thing at Blakeney was the service dogs they had there! He loved petting them, and they enjoyed giving him lots of slobbery kisses! 


Yesterday, Edward Scissorhands helped me carve pumpkins!


Thankfully, both kids picked out fairly simple designs!


We also went to yet another Trunk or Treat...this time at Ella's preschool!


It was absolutely FREEZING!!!!


We ended our fun weekend by going to the Hornets game (Lucas's first one)!



Lucas was so into it for about 5 minutes....then he just wanted Ella's popcorn!



And that's a wrap on our busiest weekend ever! Everyone slept really well last night! 
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Monday, October 23, 2017

Our Weekend {Virginia | Halloween Festival | Birthday Party}

We had a very busy (but fun!) weekend! 
We spent most of it at my parents' house in Virginia. As soon as we arrived Thursday afternoon, my kids were put to work picking up the "monkey balls" that fall from a tree in my parents' backyard. 


My grandparents were also visiting from Ohio. We celebrated my grandma's birthday a few weeks early with some yummy chocolate cake! 


On Friday morning, we bundled up and went to Longwood University for the Virginia Children's Book Festival


The college brings in tons of children's authors every year to speak at this festival. 
Ella was most excited to see Todd Parr! He writes a lot of her favorite books, and comes to this event every year! My parents met him last year, and got him to sign some books for Ella and Lucas....so Ella had been counting down the days till she could see Todd Parr!



He did not disappoint! Everyone in the auditorium (it was packed with a bunch of school groups) loved listening to him talk and read a few of his books! He was nice enough to take pictures with my kids after his talk! 


Lucas had a little stranger danger!


We walked around the campus a little bit, and bought some new Todd Parr (and Madeline--the author's grandson was also a speaker at the festival) books! 


After lunch and nap, Ella beat all of us at a very competitive game of Chutes and Ladders!


Saturday morning, before driving back to Charlotte, my mom got out my old dollhouse for Ella. My grandpa made this for me for Christmas one year when I was maybe 8 or so? And yes, it looks almost identical to our old house! (My grandpa jokes with Travis that he's lucky my grandpa didn't build me a castle!)


Ella LOVED playing with it! A lot of the furniture is pretty fragile, and it's really outdated (anyone know if Chip and Joanna do dollhouses?!), but she talked about the dollhouse the whole way home! 


Once we got back to Charlotte, we met up with Mackenzie for Halloween fun at the Arboretum!




It was like Halloween practice!! 


Ella had so much fun painting a pumpkin and meeting Elena of Avalor!


Yesterday, we finished off our fun weekend with Eliana's carnival themed birthday party! 
Eliana's mom used to be a teacher and she went ALL OUT for this party! They had a face painter, ballon twister, horse rides, piñata, and tons of fun carnival games set up! 





Ella loved getting to ride the horse with one of her little friends from preschool!





Ella said, "Mommy, take a picture with me!" so of course I did!


We had a fun morning out, just us 2 girls!


{sweet preschool friends!}

Whew, that was a lot we packed into one weekend, but it was so much fun! 
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Friday, October 13, 2017

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday friends! I actually made it to Ella's preschool pickup a whopping 15 minutes early (I know, I can't believe myself!) so I thought I'd whip up a quick 5 on Friday!


1. We had TWO pumpkin patch trips this week, the first of which was just me and Lucas on Wednesday to the Hunter Farm! Lucas loved every second, especially the wagon ride and trying to poke the sheep in the face. 


{He also enjoyed trying to get in the cow's water trough, too. This boy...}



2. So while we were at the farm, I noticed this crazy bug bite on my foot that would not stop itching (yes, I was the idiot who wore sandals to a farm because it was too freaking hot for other shoes!). By the time I drove to lunch with some of my friends, the bottoms of my feet were burning itching, so I wiped them off with some baby wipes, thinking maybe the grass was irritating them or something? Well, throughout lunch, my itching kept getting worse, my eyes were super red, and by the time I picked Ella up from preschool I had completely bloodshot eyes, a rash/hives all over my stomach and back, and could not stop itching EVERYWHERE. It was awful. We got home, I put both kids down for their naps, and took a shower and some allergy medicine to calm the itching. Then I noticed I could barely swallow. My mom (a nurse practitioner) said I needed to get a shot or IV stat, so luckily Travis was able to rush home from work so I could go to urgent care. They gave me a steroid shot, as well as a 5 day steroid prescription. It took me till the next day to be able to swallow normally again, but I'm happy to report I'm doing just fine now! And you better believe I will never, ever wear sandals to a farm again! 

3. Yesterday, we went to another pumpkin patch (this time I wore sneakers!), Hall Family Farm. We met up with Ella's bestie from preschool and everyone had a great time! I especially had a blast now that I wasn't itching like I had the chicken pox. 




{Lucas was mad he didn't get a ring pop!}






4. We are going YET AGAIN to the pumpkin patch tomorrow (this time with Trav!) and I'm so excited for our 3rd trip in less than a week (no, really, I'm excited)!
Here's a look at our trip to the pumpkin patch last year...look at these little babies!!!









5. I'm thinking about turning our front room into a play room. We have a "play room" so to speak in our bonus room, but we also have a treadmill, weight bench and wall-to-wall built in shelves up there, so it's getting pretty crowded. Our front room has been basically empty since we moved in almost 2 years ago, so I thought why not?!

Here's what I am working with (so embarrassing, do not judge me):







And my inspiration:





{Pinterest board here!}

I'd also love to put french doors on the entrance to contain both the kids and the mess!!
Should be a pretty easy, low-budget project, right?!?! (Famous last words!!!)

Happy Friday!