Life lately - October Edition

Here are some scenes from October life ... 

First up - My car battery died at the gas station! ugh. I was filling up my tank after Lucy's dance class and my car would not start again. Insert major frowny face here. :( I had all of the kiddos; we were so close to home but Dan was on a work trip so I was going through the rigamarole of calling a tow, hustling kids into the gas station bathroom (shout out to the employee who gave the boys a piece of fruit from their bin of bananas!), and getting food from the Subway inside the Holiday station. Ai yi yi. The person I was talking to on the phone was having trouble finding a tow truck with a cab big enough for an adult and 3 kiddos (+ room for a carseat) so I was trying to text with Dan and my Dad at the same time; just looking for any brilliant ideas on how we could get the heck outta there! Dad suggested that I try to start the car in neutral, and when I did that, it fired right up. I have never been more grateful to hear an engine turn over!! I squealed my tires away from the gas pumps and never looked back! haha! You better believe that I purchased a new battery and had it installed the very next morning. Whew!

In other photos depicting our real life ... how much stuff does one need to get one child off to practice with swim team and entertain 2 boys. Answer - A lot of stuff. It looks like I am headed out of town for the weekend alas we are just trying to make it through a single swim practice.  

Roman has so many skills - he is an avid reader, great at math and he is a talented artist but his penmanship is terrible!! Sigh. We asked his teacher to send some extra resources our way so we can practice writing at home.

He definitely spends more time on his artwork rather than focusing on his writing skills. 

In happy news, we got to spend some time with the cousins in October which is always a treat. 

James and Neal brought us some delicious cupcakes.

Gotta love green frosting and eyeballs! :)

We carved our pumpkins!

Lucy went for cat eyes and the boys opted for lots of teeth.

Here is the finished product!

We got so many crispy pumpkin seeds from our Jack-O-Lanterns!

We purchased a pie pumpkin from the patch as well and I made these bars - my fall favorite!

Check out this sweet skeleton that Lucy crafted in art class. If you look closely you can see that the rib cage spells out 'Lucy'.

Dan and I reminisced about the 30th Anniversary of the Minnesota Twins winning the World Series {October 27}! Dang - it seems like October 1991 was just a couple of years ago!! Game 7 ... 10th Inning and Jack Morris was still pitching. Unbelievable! Wow, those Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Danny Gladden years were the best! I just wish that my own kids could experience the joy of the Twins winning the World Series!

Speaking of 30+ years ago ... I saw a set of toys at Leo's daycare that quickly transported me back to the early 80's. Do you guys remember these plastic toys? Blast from the past! Glad to see that the Tupperware toys survived all these years and that new children are now playing with them. Haha!

It is October so I have to post an obligatory photo of a big ol' crockpot of chili that I threw together.

Lucy had a Halloween party at school, she was bummed out because she was selected to bring vegetables. LOL! We tried to make it as festive as possible - look at these fun little autumn baggies with carrots, peppers and tomatoes! 

Finally, here are some pics from an October library visit. Leo absolutely loves finding books.

Also, the big kids literally get into fights over the self check out kiosk. Good thing we always check out 20+ items. Hah!

That's life lately!

Fall Break in SoDak

The kids had a fall break from school in October so we headed to South Dakota.

We love to play Rummikub when we visit Grandpa Glen & Grandma Sharon. :)

When you are in South Dakota and have tea with the family, you gotta use the Rhinelander Hodag cup.

While Grammy read some Halloween books to the big kids ...

...I thumbed through the bookshelf and found this treasure. A VHS copy of the 1991 World Series! Hard to believe that this event was 30 Octobers ago. I remember it like it was yesterday! Haha!

We worked to make some festive cookies. My 2 L's love to bake. 

Check out these fun little monster cookies.

We picked out some pumpkins and took them back to the house to decorate.

The big kids opted for white pumpkins this year.

Roman worked on a Jack Skellington. I think that it turned out pretty well!

Lucy made a cute little Olaf with her white pumpkin.

Leo painted a pirate jack-o-lantern face on an orange pumpkin.

We had beautiful weather and spent time doing spooky chalk art on Grandma and Grandpa's sidewalk.

I even joined in on the fun - look at this cool ghost!

Lucy made the biggest bat!

While Leo napped, Grandma and the big kids did some weaving. Mom has been working on a project with church to make sleeping mats out of plastic bags. 

While the kids and I were in South Dakota, Dan was living his best life hunting and fishing with his buddies.

On Friday night we made homemade pizza at Grandma's house.

Then we met the cousins at the bowling alley! It was Leo's first time at the lanes.

These boys were ready to bowl!

The LAA Club was thrilled to be together again. 

My boys had the best evening. 

The vending machine was a highlight for the littlest guys - always looking for a snack!

We spent the early part of Friday night at the bowling alley because we knew that we wanted to see Paul's football game but didn't think that everyone could make it through all 4 quarters.

I think that we made the right choice!! 

It was actually a pretty chilly evening!

After the game was over, we got to run out on the field.

The crew was so excited to find their big cousin Paul!

Paul let Roman try on his helmet and Romy was in heaven!!

Look at this cute little family!

After hitting the Friday night lights, we spent Saturday at the volleyball courts. First up - watching Anna play in Baltic. 

We sent Roman to play at Peter's house and the rest of us went to see Abby's volleyball game in Sioux Falls. 

Here are our bookends at the volleyball game. :)

Can you believe that my sweet nephew Paul is old enough to have a driver's license!?!

We grabbed a quick lunch at Scheel's and the big girls were treated to a ride on the ferris wheel, always a favorite tradition!

On Sunday we went to church and hit the road. You can see that Roman is sporting traditional Wisconsin Sunday morning church wear. ;) I do have to give a special shout out to Lucy here. Grandma Sharon was one of the readers at church on this day and Lucy read volunteered to read the scripture with her. There were definitely some tricky place names that Lucy worked on in advance but our girl was cool and confident and did an excellent job reading to the congregation. :)

It was a wonderful fall break for the entire crew!