A Halloween worth melting for

We had such a fun Halloween this year... majorly improved from last year's Halloween when I failed in every way possible. Last year I planned our family's Pumpkin Day, and we drove 45 minutes to a fabulous pumpkin patch, only to find that it was closed for field trips during the week, and my two toddlers did not count as homeschooling.  Then on Halloween the Officer was working, so I took the girls trick-or-treating by myself. We walked out the front door, and I realized I had forgotten their candy baskets and (much more importantly) my keys to the house. I frantically called the Officer, who had to leave work and drive 30 minutes home to unlock the door for me. The girls were also wearing second-hand lame costumes that I chose for them. So last year Halloween was kinda not so great, but this year... this year was perfect.

this year the girls were old enough to help clean out their pumpkins

The Officer's awesome Papal flag pumpkin. Just in case anyone in the neighborhood was wondering how much we love being Catholic....

The week before Halloween we went to a really fun pumpkin patch 10 minutes from our house. We enjoyed the hayride, moon bounce, pumpkin launcher, straw maze, perfect weather, and found 5 good pumpkins. Then we easily drove 10 minutes home in time for lunch and naps. Pumpkin Day this year was a success! 

"Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs"

For the first time in years, the Officer was off for Halloween!! Weeks ago (right after we watched Frozen on Ice) the big girls asked if they could be Anna and Elsa for Halloween, and their Aunt Mantha delivered. Oh boy did she deliver. She sewed them beautiful dresses, and made a little Olaf hat for their little sister. She also made homemade costumes for all 4 of her boys. She is superwoman. I'm going to have to do an entire post just on the 7 costumes she made, because they were all awesome.

homemade Anna, Olaf, and Elsa costumes on some very excited little girls

We joined the Mikboys (Aunt Mantha's family), our friend Miesha, and a lot of other friends from our Church Mom's group at the Little Sister's of the Poor nursing home. I don't know who thought of this fantastic idea, but everyone with little kids needs to do it. We donate some candy a week early, and then we bring our children in their trick-or-treating at the nursing home (indoor, not dark, not cold, no streets, minimal walking...). The sweet elderly residents get hours of adorable little visitors, stopping by their rooms, saying "trick-or-treat", and showing off their costumes. It is perfect, and I hope we get to do it every year.

Then we went over to the Mikboy house for some dinner and some neighborhood trick-or-treating.... their neighborhood gives out the good candy. You know... king size bars, snickers, skittles.... only one pack of pretzels and no candy corn. I got to watch Belle run through the yards holding hands with her Godmama singing "Let it go". I got to watch Bug smiling from ear to ear in her pink cape that she waited and waited to wear. I got to push a chubby cheek Olaf in the stroller all night, and she never cried once, even though I didn't let her have a single piece of candy :). I got to watch so much joy from my girls, my nephews, our "frezins", and every little child I saw along the way. Oh I also saw an incredible Transformer costume on a friend (complete with sound effects as he "transformed")... it was worth remembering! Then we had a big sleepover and were ever so thankful that the Mikboys moved back from the West coast.

The girls are blessed with some incredible "Frezins"

This Halloween was a good one. Holidays can't always be magical, but this one was.

Back to work

Tomorrow I'm heading back to work. Temporarily. Remember a few months ago when I was talking about my last day of work... well that didn't last too long. The wonderful woman who replaced me as the Junior Kindergarten teacher just had an adorable baby boy and is out on maternity leave, so I'm going to cover for her for the next 8 weeks. I will be teaching the same curriculum I did for the last 3 years and have the same part-time hours. I always loved teaching, and I'm looking forward to teaching again, but preparing to go back to work has confirmed 100% that I made the right decision to be a SAHM this year. Being a SAHM can be hard and exhausting, but I love it, and right now it is the best thing for my family.

Ah I'm going to miss seeing that face all day

Going back to work means the stress of waking up earlier, juggling children, and a lot more work for the Officer and Aunt Mantha who will be taking turns watching the girls while I'm gone. For me the hardest part of being a working (outside the home) Mom is the guilt. I feel guilty that someone else has to deal with my kids' tantrums or take care of my kids when they are sick. I definitely feel guilty if I ever miss out on a milestone for my little girls, or if they are missing me (usually they don't miss me at all when I'm gone because they love all the family who babysits them so much!) The days when I have to drop all the girls off at Aunt Mantha's house in the morning will be difficult too.... having everyone in our house up and out the door before 7am will be no small feat. I will enjoy teaching again though, and in 8 weeks I will happily pass the class back to their teacher and head home full time with my girls.

Ziptastic

Last week the Officer and I went on a fantastic date. We used a groupon and went zip lining through the forest. I always stress before a long date like this, because I get nervous about leaving all 3 girls with someone (this time my awesome sister Michaela babysat for us).  My sister said the girls were all good for her, except one explosive diaper and one girl who likes to ask "why?" 10 times a minute. Once I actually got out of the house and stopped worrying about my 3 month old and her bottle, I had such a good time- maybe I can just remember this the next time we're planning a long date, but probably not.

The Officer and I absolutely loved zip lining.... the views of the mountains and the autumn leaves were beautiful. There were 8 zip lines, and the last one got up to 45 MPH. The Officer and I wished all of them were that fast, because that one was just awesome. We hiked through the woods in between some of the zip lines, and we walked across some rope bridges. The trip ended with a rappel down from a tree, in which the Officer just embarrassed all of us as he jumped off the tree and flew down one-handed.  I'm not sure why the Officer and I go on all these dates where he is super good at everything..... like the time he completely destroyed me in laser tag. I need to start choosing things that I am better at than him, if only I could think of something.

We love going on fun, adventurous dates together. I told him we should overcome some fears together on a date sometime, but ummm he is scared of nothing. absolutely nothing. The only fear I have that I can think of is snakes. I have no interest whatsoever in overcoming that fear on any date. not ever. We did walk past a snake while we were hiking in the woods, and that is enough for me.  Anyone else have any fun date ideas? We get to do "dinner and a movie" at our house for the rest of our lives, so when we finally get a babysitter and get out of the house we want it to be new and exciting!

Good days

All Moms have the days when nothing seems to go right, and you are staring at the clock wondering how soon is an acceptable time to put your children to bed? Like when a toddler throws down an epic tantrum because somebody is wearing the socks that she wanted to wear today (or you know, she doesn't have peanut butter and jelly). Or the day my 3-year-old "helper" drops a gallon of paint in my kitchen, and I almost cry as semi-gloss white paint comes pouring out all over my hardwood floors (that one actually didn't end too badly). Those days can be hard. I probably won't forget those hard days, even if I wanted to, but I definitely want to remember the good days. Especially on the challenging days when patience is hard to find.... I want to remember the joyful moments, the days when I don't think I could possibly love these little humans more than I already do.

One of the nice peaceful moments

Yesterday was one of the good days. Yesterday the Officer worked a 23 hour day. 23 hours straight at work. You might want to feel sorry for the Officer who had to stay awake that long, but really we all know that Mommy alone with 3 kids for 23 hours is the one you should feel sorry for- well at least since she's the one writing the blog.

I had mentally prepared myself for the marathon day and was expecting it to be awful. I had to take all 3 of them to the grocery store and the craft store. Miraculously, the whole day went really smoothly. All 4 of us napped =) which is my definition of a good day. Then I was putting the girls to bed, and usually at the end of a long day alone I practically throw them in their beds and run for the couch. Have you heard Jim Gaffigan say that bedtime is like hostage negotiations in reverse??... you will give the kids anything they want just to stay in their rooms- yes that is my life at night. Not last night.

Belle was telling me how she is getting all grown-up. I gave her my usual, "Oh no you are not allowed to grow up. I want you to stay my little girl forever!" Then my little girl who can be so stubborn and bossy laid this on me...
Belle: "I want to grow-up and get old so that I can go be with Jesus some day."
Me:
Belle: "Mommy, will you help me go be with Jesus when I get old?"

Oh, I hope so my dear girl. I hope so. Then they all peacefully went to sleep with none of my usual hostage negotiations, threats, or bribes. Yes, it was a good day.

Toddler Talk volume 2

Bug had a cough
Belle: "Mommy, you need to give her the fertilizer"
Me: "You mean the nebulizer?"
Belle: "Oh yeah, she needs the nerdalizer."

Nerdalizer alert

I made gnocchi for dinner and Belle said, "I want more Pinnochios!"

Me: "You hurt my feelings"
Bug: "That's okay Mommy, because you have more feelings"

Bug chooses some stylish outfits for herself... I especially love the mitten

Anytime we are talking about any playmates:
Belle: "I want to play with my Frezins" (it's confusing to keep track of who is a cousin and who is a friend)

We just love these "frezins"

While the Officer was packing his lunch to bring to work....
Belle: "Daddy make sure the bad guys don't take your lunch"

While reading from our children's Bible....
Belle: "Why could Jesus walk on water?"
Me: "Because He is God"
Belle: "Well how come Daddy can walk on water too?"
Me: .......

Belle singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game: "Buy me some peanuts and jackercracks!"

And here is a nice quote from the Officer after I handed him "play clothes" to put on the baby....
"Why can't we just leave her in pajamas? I don't understand baby clothes. Babies do the same thing during the day that they do at night."

Dairy-Free

Right before my sweet little Third baby turned 2 months she started having a little bit of blood in her diapers. Negligent Mother over here thought "oh no big deal". I know that is usually a sign of a food allergy, but the girl is one of the happiest babies I have ever met. She never cries and is definitely thriving in the weight-gaining department, so I figured a little blood in the diaper wasn't a big deal. Then I took her to her 2 month check, and her pediatrician thought the blood was a big deal. My Mom (who works for an allergist) also thought this was something to be concerned about.

Thriving.

Anyway, after a few weeks with the blood happening occasionally I stopped eating all dairy and nuts. She hasn't had any blood in a week, so I'm motivated to keep up the diet, and she has an appointment with the allergist next week.... hopefully we'll get some answers. I'm hoping my sweet little girl is okay- she seems pretty happy.

But Mommy needs to complain a little.... after being sick for 30 weeks of pregnancy it seems a little unfair to have to cut out all the delicious foods that I struggled to keep down for 30 weeks. Plus a breastfeeding Mama is starving all. day. long. When I decided to cut out dairy I was pretty sure it was the end of the world. Peanut butter M&Ms. Ice cream. Milkshakes. Cereal. Cheese on EVERYthing. Those are just a few of the things I knew I could not possibly live without. This is dramatic, but dessert is my weakness, and I'm an emotional eater.

There is a reason I never take pictures of food, but don't these look yummy?!

After I gave myself the "be reasonable" pep-talk about all of the people who have much stricter diets for much longer, and this really isn't a big deal.... I decided I'd look at this as a diet, so I could lose my baby weight from the last 3 pregnancies (isn't baby girl so sweet to give me this opportunity?!). I'd love to report that I've lost all kinds of weight and have learned self-control, but nope. It has been good, because it has forced me to meal plan better, so that I always have dairy-free meals planned, and I've learned that rice milk on cereal is delicious, but I have also learned about all kinds of dessert substitutes.... Did you know that Oreos don't contain dairy!??!?! I don't even want to think about how it is possible that those chocolate and cream cookies have no dairy, but they are in my pantry, and they are yummy. The other night my friend, Miesha, came to my rescue- she is also a dairy-free breastfeeding Mama... except I think she has cut all allergens, and I don't think she complains about it. She brought this Heavenly little bag of dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips with an insane price-tag. We used those and coconut oil for butter, and we made some fantastic chocolate chip cookies that I have been inhaling ever since. We also enjoyed some margaritas. So I have really learned no lessons, except that being dairy-free isn't so bad after all.

Fall Fun

I'm linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary, and I'm finally writing down what we've been up to this fall. I've been in denial that summer is actually over. Fall means winter is coming and winter is just the worst, but we've been having so much fun the last few weeks.

1. Belle has been asking the Officer to teach her how to play tennis for months, but we never had the time. So the last few weeks we've all gone out a few times to play, and she has loved it!

2. We've also hit up our favorite playground a few times and walked to the neighborhood slide on beautiful fall evenings.

3. Frozen on Ice. What an amazing night. Aunt Mantha wanted to take her Goddaughter (Belle) to it, and Bug and I tagged along for a super fun girls night out. The girls squealed and laughed and smiled the entire time. It was so magical to watch their joy!

4. Every fall our church has an awesome Oktoberfest that raises money for some of the local Catholic schools. We always have a great time at Oktoberfest. I hear that the beer is excellent (ew I hate beer). I can vouch for the delicious food, and there is a kidzone that my kids love. The KidZone had a moon bounce and a huge blow-up slide, different bean bag toss games, and face painting. We all had a great afternoon at Oktoberfest, and my sweet little baby just napped in her stroller the whole time.

Belle wanted her face paint to be "scary", and that's what it was. Bug's was worse though, because it didn't come off well, and the next morning she had blue circles around her eyes at Mass.

5. The following weekend our little town had a fall festival, which was packed and FREE. You park at the local High School and a trolley takes you down to "The Village Green" where they have tons and tons of tents full of different vendors, food trucks, and a kidzone that I wish I was small enough to play in! They had face painting, bull riding, a dunk booth, moon bounce, a blow-up maze, dancing, and more.... Did I mention that all of that was FREE?!?! We packed lunches, and the only money we spent the whole day was buying the girls ice cream at the end.

6. Also, this fall we have decided to tackle a few more home renovations. The Officer spent a week renovating our powder room, and this week he did the demo on our master bathroom. The master bath reno is going to be a long project I'm sure....

Here is the finished powder room. Hard to get a good picture of such a small bathroom, but I love it! 

7. So this season is off to a great start for us, and now we get to start doing all the fun Halloween activities! Next year when I get all depressed that summer is ending, someone remind me that fall is pretty incredible too. And here is a picture of the littlest Mik (and all of her chins) hanging out with one of her buddies. She is always so chill for all of our family adventures.