Life Lately - November

I had a work trip to a tribal technology conference in Las Vegas in early November so Grandma Nola and Grandpa Ken came to help Daniel hold down the fort. :) It was Lucy's birthday week so it was special to have grandparents on hand to help with celebrations! 

Roman has 4K for 2 full days per week so on his off-days he stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa to do crafting, baking, reading, etc. He had a great week!

Romy worked on some snowman crafts.

He was excited to do some dinosaur shrink art.

It is so nice to get some sweet Good Morning texts/pics each day at my conference!

Here are my cuties in the drop off lane at school!

Ranger absolutely loves it when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit because that means his BFF cousin dog Chester comes over to play. He also likes to snuggle on the bed in our guest room. He is such a bed hog!  

Roman is a big fan of faux hawks these days. ;)

I can't believe that this sweet girl is already 7 years old!! 

I was traveling home on November 8th so Grandma helped Lucy make some birthday treats for her classroom. They made pretzel sticks - Lucy said that they were unicorn horns! 

Our baby girl celebrated her 7th birthday with a special dinner and a fun cake! I am sad that she is growing up so fast but, at the same time, it is so much fun to watch Lucy learn, grow, and turn into a little lady. She is so kind, smart, fun, and generous! We love you to the moon and back, Lucy Bear! 

Halloween / Early November Happenings

We have had such a fun Halloween season this year! We wrapped up the final week of October with mask making (Thank you to Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Glen for the Halloween package!)

 

 

I had the best Halloween-themed blueberry cupcake at work!

 

 

On Halloween, we kicked off the evening at the DNR. The kids love Trick or Treating around Dad's office. After much debate, Lucy dressed up as Laura Ingalls Wilder and Romy was a werewolf for Halloween night.

 

 

After collecting some treats at the DNR, we headed downtown and met up with our favorite banana (AKA Miriam) at the Rhinelander Courthouse. It was a beautiful night! As you can see - no one needed to wear a snowsuit/boots this year so we considered it a success!

 

After Trick Or Treating our way through downtown Rhinelander we went to the O'Casey house for pizza and play time. The next morning I was digging through the kids' treat bags to find a snack to bring to work and I spotted a couple of these pencils! Hahaha!

 

 

We started November with a Girl Scout meeting - Lucy was excited to make a bee house - A bright can filled with bamboo sticks so that bees can lay their eggs inside the little holes.

 

 

The next day we headed to Culver's for dinner

 

 

 

And jumped in the YMCA pool for the annual pumpkin splash. Is there anything better than swimming with a pumpkin? I don't think so! :)

 

 

Both kids selected a pumpkin from the pool to decorate and bring home. They also spent some time in the bounce house!

 

 

We headed to the movies on Saturday and saw the new Nutcracker film! It was so good! Both kids loved it. It had great music/dancing and enough action to keep the kids engaged. We highly recommend this show.

 

 

 

On Sunday we were greeted with this ... a few inches of snow! The season has officially started! The kids absolutely love playing outside in the wintertime. 

Super Saturday

Our friends Izzy and Kaitlin invited us to attend the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center open house on Saturday afternoon. After music class, we headed to McDonald's for lunch.

 

 

 

Lucy and Roman quickly declared it the best day ever!

 

 

We drove to Minocqua and found the Wildlife Rehab Center. It was all decked out for fall. :)

 

 

We posed for a quick picture with Hootie - the Center's owl mascot - and the kids actually made the front page of the Lakeland Times! It must have been a pretty slow news day in Minocqua. Hahaha!

 

 

We went on a tour of the clinic/animal hospital.

 

 

Lucy's comment was ... Haven't we been here before? I realized that she was talking about the time we had to take Chief to the emergency vet to remove the fish hook that was caught in his mouth. She vaguely recalled taking poor Chiefy to the surgical area of the clinic. Wow! I certainly still have some post traumatic stress from that event but I can't believe that Lucy still remembers that night!  

 

 

We had the best afternoon at the Center - The children got their faces painted and we ate Smores around a campfire.

 

 

We did some crafts and measured up against some birds of prey.

 

 

We visited an eagle's nest and saw some replica eagle eggs. We also met some of the birds that live at the Center permanently.

 

 

We zipped home after the event because our friends Ed, Amber and Miriam were coming over for dinner. We ate, carved pumpkins, and watched Peanuts Halloween on television. Lucy and Roman designed their pumpkin faces and were so happy with the results!

 

 

Amber did a great job of making Lucy's kitty design come to life!

 

 

Here are all 3 of the kiddos with their Jack O Lanterns! Thanks for the fun night, O'Casey Family!

 

 

 

 

 

Not So Scary Halloween Trail

The kids were so pumped to hit the Not So Scary Halloween Trail this year! The weather was awesome so we headed to the YMCA on Friday afternoon to find a place in line for the big event. This year Lucy was a phone - Complete with emojis and Roman was a vampire bat (black cape, vampire teeth, Batman mask, and skeleton shirt).

 

 

Love these little pumpkins so much!

 

 

We started down the trail and posed with Jack before stopping at the police car for Trick or Treating.

 

 

The kids stopped at several little exhibits and played games along the walking path. Fighting with pirates was one of their favorite things! 

 

Thanks to Roman's pirate themed birthday party earlier this year, Lucy and Roman are very good at pretending to fight with swords and walking planks. Haha!

 

It quickly became too dark to take pictures but the kids had a blast seeing mermaids, superheroes, and Incredibles characters along the way.

 

 

We finished up the trail and warmed up in the gym afterwards with snacks and hot drinks. What a fun Friday night!