What We've Been Up To...

Last weekend we went up to the northeast corner of our state to visit my parents. I had last Friday off school and we pulled C out an hour early so that we could hit the road. First on our agenda, going to Aunt C's last Anchor Splash as a Delta Gamma. She graduates college in December.

 Saturday we felt up to hike at the beautiful waterfall near my parents' house. B wasn't quite feeling up to a smile.

 I am pretty sure both of my kids would've been up for tossing stones in the creek all afternoon.

 Three generations of beautiful felt up to taking a picture.

 After our hike, we made our annual trip to the farm stand and corn maze in the valley. B felt up to attempting to plank on a pumpkin.

 And later he felt up to showing off his big boy style.

 The rest of our time was spent enjoying a fire in my parents' fire place (oh how I wish our fireplace were operable again-- I'm sure it can be done, but it'll probably cost an arm and a leg), introducing One Ordinary Dad and my parents to the awesome-ness that is The Hunger Games movie, and relaxing. I'm about halfway through J.K. Rowling's newest (it's good, but it's definitely not Harry Potter, which it shouldn't be). Our drive home Sunday was uneventful.

Yesterday, we were up to an outing at a local farm with C's preschool class. It was a little cold and drizzly, but we enjoyed the hayride, decorations, and animals all the same. C's best buddy from school was there too. According to their teacher, they're like brother and sister-- they get on one another's nerves sometimes, but won't let anyone else mess with the other either. We spent the rest of the day in our jammies/sweats doing a whole lot of nothing.

 Lately, we've also been up to figuring out Halloween costumes. C has been insistent on being an Aye-Aye. Yeah, I had no clue what it was either. Luckily, when she saw the Super Mario costume at Target, she decided it would work, but not after first making sure that Target did not, in fact, have an Aye-Aye costume. C plays Super Mario 64 every time we're at my parents' house. That Nintendo 64 was the hit of Christmas my freshman year of high school.

 C was excited to wear her costume to HallZooWeen today. B made one adorable Dalmatian. 

I'm not sure what all we'll be up to this week, but I have started Christmas shopping, so I might be up for some more of that. What about you-- what have you been up to? What will you be up to this week?

~One Ordinary Mom

Turn on the Heat

We are continuing to enjoy fall here in the Midwest. The weather forecast shows that we won't be hitting 70 at all in the next week. We've enjoyed having our windows open and fresh air in our home for almost all of the last month. But now? Now, it's getting to the point where it's too chilly at night to leave the windows open. We've turned the heat on just in case the temperature really drops, but it hasn't actually "kicked on" yet.

 

The sun helps take the chill out of the air during the day, so we've spending quite a bit of time outside-- the time change is around the corner and we know it won't be long before it will be dark by dinner time.  

                                                      

And once it starts getting dark by dinner time, our evening walks will be accompanied by blankets, hot tea, and a flashlight. For now though, we're still enjoying those after-dinner sunsets. 

                                                       

Christmas is less than 3 months away too, which means we've started thinking about Christmas cards. I try to seize every moment for a family picture, trying to find the perfect one to go on the front of our card. I always like the front picture to be fairly recent (as opposed to using a picture taken last spring), because the kids change so fast. But since the last two years we've used the folded card style, we're always able to put a few pictures on the inside from earlier in the year. This morning presented one of those golden family-photo opportunities. I don't really try to coordinate outfits so much as colors-- so today we all had to have gray somewhere in our outfit. 

                                        

Our weather-beaten potting shed with the wheelbarrow leaning against it made a perfect backdrop. Last night's rain ensured perfect greenery.  

                                                   

It helps when the kids are in a good mood too. 

We know turning on the heat means winter is just around the corner, but I'm hoping we have a few more weeks where it's on "just in case" instead of "because it's freakin' cold outside and we need to turn it on."

What about you? Are you turning on the heat where you live?

~One Ordinary Mom :-)