The Lowdown on Halloween

Instead of dragging out halloween into a million separate posts, I am going to bust it all out in one. But, let's be honest about something, the day's festivities for halloween are starting to rival christmas. It's kind of crazy in that matter. 

The kids elementary school is the only one left in our area that still does a halloween parade. So, all the parents come and all the kids parade around. Then the choir sings...I may or may not have ducked out at this point, given I had a toddler that wasn't super into just chilling in his stroller with me. Both kids also had halloween parties that morning at school as well. But given that younger siblings aren't allowed in the classroom, I skipped the parties. At school, Connor was a ninja and Isla was a witch, which she was all day long. And, surprisingly, both kids acknowledged me during their parade. This is a big deal for Connor! He usually ignores me at things like this. 

^^ Do you see that midair leap?!

In the evening, we did some early trick or treating in our neighborhood before handing out candy at our house. The boys wore matching astronaut costumes and Isla was still a witch. Our neighborhood gets super into halloween. We get hundreds and hundreds of trick or treaters. One street over is actually blocked off to traffic even. Many houses decorate like crazy...we had some spider webbing and a big spider, so we are legit too ;)

Callum wasn't super into the trick or treating. He just wanted to run around. He didn't even care about the candy. The other two, on the other hand, they really cared about the candy. They would literally rifle through people's candy bowls in search of the perfect piece of candy. Yep, we have "those" kids. There may have even been some fighting over a piece of candy right at someone's door one of the times...you know, just sharing in the spirit of honesty! 

Though the kids liked trick or treating, they really wanted to get home and pass out candy. Connor actually changed into a third costume to pass out candy, but I didn't get a picture because it was already dark out. But he wanted to look spooky and scare people. The kids were super hyped and pumped about passing out candy. It actually didn't last super long because they claimed one of their friend's won the jackpot and filled his candy basket with all our candy. They wanted more candy to pass out, but I decided to call it a night and let them still go to bed at the normal time. 

And just like that, halloween 2017 was over. 

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Pumpkin Carving

Like so many other parents out there, we spent some time this past weekend carving pumpkins. And like some of those parents, I totally failed at taking a picture of both my kids pumpkins...oops! 

The kids designed their own pumpkin faces. Both of them went with rather simple designs. The hardest part was Isla's pumpkin was thicker than the carving knife, so we had to get a little creative. But neither kid had intricate or hard designs. Also, someone mentioned to me that good ole hairspray inside the pumpkin would help preserve it, so I decided to give it a go. So far, three days on, they are holding up...and obviously they are pretty much to the finish line at this point. 

I have to admit, though I have dissed how hot this fall has been, sitting outside in not too hot and not too cold weather to carve our pumpkins was pretty dang nice. Plus, it's given us more time to enjoy the backyard remodel, which we go out and play in everyday since getting the amazing fake grass...I seriously love that stuff. I wonder if they are looking for a spokesperson because I would totally sing them praises. 

Happy halloween! Have a safe one out there. I know my ninja, witch and astronaut are pretty excited about the day's festivities.

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That Time a Burger King Ad Made Me Cry

And I'm not a cryer, so that is a big deal.

I'm sure all of us have been made fun of or picked on and made to feel like we were nothing. How much I wish someone had come up to me after that happening to encourage me...or even someone coming to stop it! So often, it feels like these mean behaviors are brushed off as things like "well, junior high is an awkward time for everyone" or "it's just a joke, lighten up." I don't care. There is never, I mean never, a reason to make fun of or put another person down. My kids and I talk about this often. We talk about how if something isn't a joke to the person you are joking about, then it isn't a joke at all, it's just being mean. But the thing is, not being mean isn't enough. We need to stand with those that are being picked on. Make sure they know that others have their back, love them and care for them.

And the problem isn't just with kids. Adults are mean. They make fun of strangers for how they look. The made little remarks, or yell out their cars at people. They throw food at homeless people. Yep, this is true. It broke my heart to hear when I brought a homeless guy some food one time and he hid behind his hands because he thought I was going to throw it at him. He said it happens all the time. We then call these adult bullies insecure and say they are jealous, making excuses for them rather than calling them out on their narcissistic and destructive behaviors.

It's time to take a stand folks. It's time to teach our children to be better. It's time for us to model those better behaviors. For us to stand up for people, even if we don't know them. I don't care where you land on any issue, bullying, name calling, physical assault, none of it is ok.

Take two minutes and watch the ad for yourself. It really is powerful.



And in case you wondered, I cried at the end when the people went to talk to the kid being bullied.

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Oh, hey fall

Fall feels like it sort of snuck up on me this year. I really think it was because we had the market the first weekend and Isla's birthday the next weekend. So, I've been left feeling like I'm playing catch up. Gone are the days of me taking my kids to play at the pumpkin patch numerous times a week. Now we are lucky to make it out there once in the whole month. 

Since having kids, fall has taken on a new meaning for me. I used to not like it. It ushers in winter, my least favorite season. Because of that, it landed on my bad list. Whelp, three kids with fall birthdays later, fall is a season of busyness and celebration. It's also a time filled with the "hard" decisions of choosing a halloween costume, pumpkin patch visits, pumpkin carving, halloween parades and more. And, let's be honest, I can get on board with the beautiful leaves. They may be messy, but they share are pretty. 

Fall is now a special season, albeit a busy one in our household...in the span of seven weeks, not only do we have all three of our kids birthdays, we also have three of our parents birthdays and a nephew's. Talk about a busy season!  

I am liking fall so much, next I may try to get on board with winter. That will be a hard sell though. It has nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the short hours of daylight. I love me some sun! But, I am no longer going to diss fall for ushering in winter.

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Kindergarten Goodness

Alternatively titled, Kindergartners and ALL their projects. 

Don't get me wrong, kindergarten is such a sweet time. But, when your kid brings home two projects the week of their birthday, which also happens to be the week the stomach flu took down two people in your house, it feels like a bit much. Alas, we survived. 

First up, Isla's letter vest. Every week a different letter is covered in class and one person gets to decorate a vest for that letter and there will be a letter vest parade at the end of the year. The kids all seem to covet the letter vest that starts with their name. So it was pretty cool that "i" was the letter the week of Isla's birthday and that she got that vest. Her and I went online and looked up various things that start with "i" and she picked the pictures she liked best. 

^^ This girl and her poses, I tell you! This is the back of the vest, but she didn't want to just turn around, so she turned the vest around. 

Next up was Isla bringing home the "birthday bag" from school. It included a birthday certificate, a special birthday book to read and a page to tell about what you did for your birthday. Then you bring it back to school and share it with the class. Isla drew a picture of herself blowing out the candles on her cake. I thought she did a really good job. I included a picture of her with her cake for reference ;)

^^ Isla could have written out what she did for her birthday herself, but she included a lot of detail and I knew there was no way she could write small enough to include it all, so I wrote it for her. But she wrote both her name and the date. 

It felt like the week of Isla's birthday was crazy, but I know she really enjoyed every single thing. I know it meant a lot for her to get the "i" vest, so I am glad she got it. Now I am looking forward to a break in school projects for a bit, haha!

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Museum of Ice Cream

We went to the Museum of Ice Cream in San Francisco last week. I've been wanting to go ever since I heard about the one in New York City last year. When I saw it was coming to San Francisco, I was over the moon. What I didn't expect was how insanely difficult and stressful it would be to get tickets. Being in a virtual queue and being told there are more people waiting than tickets when you had been refreshing your computer screen every 10 seconds for several minutes waiting for the tickets to drop is just heartbreaking. Alas, I did eventually score tickets. I bought them in August, so we had a while to wait. Finally, the day arrived. And I must say, it really didn't disappoint...though I will also say it would have been easier and more enjoyable to attend without a toddler ;)

I'm going to warn you, there are a lot of pictures and there aren't even pictures here from every room we went through! 

^^ The room that was floor to ceiling magnetic and covered in pink magnetic letters. It almost made me want one in my own house...until my adorable toddler started throwing letters off the wall by the handful. 

^^ Cherry cotton candy with glitter on top, yes please! 

^^ Let me start by saying that Isla asked me to take a picture of her acting like she was licking a giant popsicle...and I'll end by saying that she may or may not have accidentally licked said giant popsicle in the process.

^^ This tiny little mirrored room was a fun surprise. My kids would have stayed in there for days, but there was a line waiting to get in it, so we only stayed a couple minutes. 

^^ Connor LOVED the rock climbing room and we literally had the room to ourselves. No one else seemed interested in it, so would just walk through. But Connor, he kept climbing to the top and jumping down, having the time of his life. 

^^ The sprinkle pool really does live up to the hype. It's really fun to be in. Ian and I got in too. The only bummer is that you can only stay in it five minutes...but it was the only part of the museum they had a time limit on. 

I was pleasantly surprised with how uncrowded the inside of the museum is. I knew that we had an entrance time on our tickets, but what I didn't expect is they only allow about twelve people in every five minutes, so it spreads people out. I think you are sort of supposed to stay together with the group you are let in with, but we only lasted the first three rooms with them, then fell behind. Also, by room three, we had people from the group behind us passing us. But I appreciated that the workers never hurried us along and let us enjoy each room as we pleased. We were told it would take 45 minutes to go through and it took us an hour and a half. The only treat the kids didn't really enjoy was the salted caramel ice cream, but Ian and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The mochi was my favorite, but I just love mochi. Connor said the sprinkle pool was his favorite part and Isla said all of it was her favorite. The swings were at the end and were pretty dang cool. I just love swings anyway, so to have them in fun decorated boxes was just cool.

I am really glad I was able to get tickets because it was something just totally fun and unusual to do as a family.

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Isla's Birthday Party

After going to a main-pedi party for a girl in her preschool class last year, Isla chose to have a mani-pedi party herself. It was a really sweet time, and was super simple for me, given I didn't have to decorate at all or even do any games! I brought doughnuts for the girls to enjoy while the others were getting pampered, as two girls went at a time. Then, when the last two girls were being done, Isla opened her presents.I started to say super simple again, but have you ever seen six little girls pick out a color for their nails? It's serious business, I tell you. One that involves a lot of mind changing, a lot of looking and perhaps even some dropping of bottles on the ground. Isla ended up going with pink sparkles, which most of the girls ended up getting sparkles of some sort. It's popular, I tell ya! The girls laughed, they giggled, they bounced around and talked about crazy things. Isla really enjoyed herself, and for that, I am thankful.

^^ The salon brought out Isla a little cupcake and everyone sang her happy birthday while she was getting her toes done. 

I leave you with what may be the cutest video of all time...Isla squealing with laughter as her feet are being scrubbed because it tickles. 

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