Life Lately - Spooky Season

Here is the latest and greatest from the Storm crew in late October. 

Roman headed to his friend Brock's birthday party. Nothing better than time with friends at High Rollers. Cheek out this haul of goodies and popcorn that he took home! 

We took advantage of the last beautiful fall days to clean up the yard, fill the shed with flower pots and summer things, move out the snow blower, etc.

This sweetheart took some of his last spins around the block for the season; zipping around the neighborhood on his scooter. Love that he was sporting his ninja vests on his ride.

You know it is fall when we bust out the buffalo plaid jammies!

Poor Leo had a little accident at day care - he got a wood chip stuck in the front wheel of his scooter and did a face plant. :( It is like the first layer of his skin from his forehead down his nose to his lip got shaved off. We are very lucky that he did not have a dental injury or anything more serious. This sad little peanut got picked up early and received lots of hugs and kisses from mama.

Lucy had a Halloween themed night at her Dance Studio where the kids did special spooky routines for family and friends. There was a lot of dancing to Harry Potter music which was delightful. 

The students could wear their Halloween costumes but, it is not easy to dance with angel wings / white robes so Lucy just wore her halo. 

Ken and Nola packed up the last of their belongings from Fargo and headed to Eau Claire! YAY! So happy to have them in the neighborhood!

Lucy had fun making some spooky cookies for the family! Love that Aldi has these holiday mixes. 

We zipped down to Onalaska for a swim meet. We brought Leo {with his lil scar} + Grammy Nola to be part of the our cheering section,

Always great to get a ribbon! Lucy placed in the 10 and under Girls Medley. So proud of our swimmer and all of her hard work! 

We headed home for a Halloween party with the Cihacek crew. 

Gotta love a festive Bingo game.

Roman got an IronMan costume at the Fall consignment and he wore it at every possible opportunity during the month of October. ;)

I found some cute Halloween balloons at the Dollar Tree! After months of a helium shortage, there was finally no limits on balloon purchases so you better believe that I bought 5 of these guys - one for each kiddo.

Look at these delicious and fun desserts - candy eyes make everything amazing. Love these mummy brownies! 

The little guys found my ropeless jump ropes and pretended they were microphones. Haha! 

We had tacos for dinner.

And carved pumpkins for the win!

These two did a terrific job with their Jack-O-Lanterns!

The Cihacek's stayed overnight and we all went to church the next day. Here is our pack of boys quietly working and coloring during services.

We came home and had some brunch with Batman. What a great visit!

Oh yeah - had to include this g-r-o-s-s picture. Lucy got a Bio Hazard bag from her friend Marnie on Sunday evening; filled with red kool-aid. She and Roman gleefully drank this liquid from the attached plastic tubing. Yuck!

It was such a fun few days leading into Halloween - next post will be about the big night! :)

 

River Falls Swim Meet + Pumpkin Patch

This Fall brought early morning swim meets back to the Storm household. Yay! On this Saturday we drove to  River Falls for some competitive swimming. 

Lucy loves the water.

This swim meet was very special because Lucy had a big cheering squad. Amelia and the boys came from Roseville to watch the races. :) 

Can you see Lucy on the very far lane? She is in the white cap, ready to jump! 

The boys had fun goofing around in the bleachers, running laps on the indoor track, eating snacks, and cheering for our girl. 

After Lucy's events were over, we grabbed some lunch in River Falls and headed back towards Eau Claire. The kids and I ended up stopping and spending the afternoon at the pumpkin patch near Elk Mound -- 'Tis the Season! 

Roman found some baby chicks at the Patch and promptly fell in love!! Of all of the Storm children, Roman is the biggest lover of pets and lil critters. If he could, Roman would have a hundred pets! He sometimes tells me that, "13 years from now" that he is going to have a "wall of cages and habitats" for all of his pets. Haha! I can't wait to see it. He cuddled these chicks and fondly named this one, 'Nugget'.  

We jumped on hay bales - I like that these were painted with images of the PacMan ghosties. 

It was a warm autumn day, perfect for playing.

Lucy and Roman bounced for a long time on this pumpkin pad.

We enjoyed apple cider and silly cutouts. 

We measured ourselves - all of these kids are growing like crazy.

Yikes - I have TWO kids that are now just a silver below 5 feet (Roman) or clearly above 5 feet (Lucy) and both are ready to outgrown their Mom.

We selected our pumpkins for the season!

Love that my strong swimmer just hoists her pumpkin right on her shoulder.

Mid-October Happenings

October brought the arrival of this beautiful new appliance - A dishwasher that works consistently! All of the praise hands! Nothing will throw our house into squalor more quickly than a dishwasher that is garbage - haha!

 

This fall we enrolled Roman in the city basketball program at Flynn Elementary. He loves to play b-ball on Tuesday nights. Leo enjoys being a spectator {most of the time}. 

October = lots of trail cam viewing with Daniel. :)

The big library opened up again downtown!! Yay! It had been 2 years since we were in the building on the banks of the Eau Claire River so everyone was eager to get back. Here are the types of books that Lucy is checking out these days. 

As part of Esther's birthday gift our family gave her a big ol' bag of gum. She was so excited and freely sharing with all of the cousins {except for Elijah and Leo - Leo is fully aware that he can not have any gum until he is 5 years old and will loudly state the rule to anyone. Haha} This Sharing is Caring philosophy ended up being problematic - see the photo below. As I was doing laundry from our October trip I found this big old wad of gum stuck to Roman's shirt. Ugh. 

Just as the kids and I were returning from South Dakota - Dan and the boys were headed out West to Mitchell for a pheasant hunting trip.

You can't go all the way to Mitchell without meeting up with the Uncles and cousins for a hunt. :)

Chester and Ranger were eager to get those birds!

We would send daily pics to Dad to keep him posted on the happenings in Eau Claire. 

Some of us were goofier than others ... 

Roman attended a friend's birthday party at Chaos Waterpark - best evening ever! ;)

Lucy's Halloween costume arrived in the mail - she couldn't wait to be an angel. Spoiler alert - her friend Harper was planning to be the Devil. 

More hunting pics from the crew - love the blaze orange and the blue skies. 

More silly pics were captured for Dad.

Lucy's Girl Scout Troop celebrated Halloween. Do you see our angel in the back row? 

Leo wrote his name with play apples at day care - If you look closely you can see a L-e-O. He was very proud of himself so had Ms. Catherine take a picture. I can't believe how good our lil 3 year old is at identifying letters - it is so fun to watch him learn. Funny side story - Leo bonked his head and was crying so I asked him if he was okay. He replies, 'That hurt my neurons!' He has a book on the human body and I guess he was paying attention! LOL!

I am nervous to even put anything in writing/say it outloud but Dan and I are determined to get on a European adventure!! Since our highly anticipated trip to Germany back in June 2020 failed due to COVID, we have finally started to get our stuff organized for another vacation. My passport expired in 2022 so I needed to send away for a new one. :) 

Ending the post with our fam in some of our happy places ...

From pheasant hunting in SoDak to a booth at Cancun. :)

Yay for chips and salsa!!