Happy Halloween!

What a fun Halloween we had!

I haven't blogged in a while, so here's a run-down of the fun.

We went to our favorite farmer's market for one of our October FHEs and picked out pumpkins and gourds.

 Emmitt HAD to pull the cart. He picked a huge pumpkin. It was 30 pounds!

 Then we enjoyed tasty mummy dogs at grandma's house.

 The next night we colored our pumpkins. We gave the kids the choice to carve or color, and they chose to color. I was glad.

 Sam helped Emmitt with his, but Mila did hers all by herself. It's supposed to be a pumpkin version of Sam.

 Then we had some yummy mummy cupcakes. I used the Krusteaze double chocolate mix, and they were delicious. I actually liked them better without frosting. They were that good.

 After the kids went to bed, I walked past the kitchen table and caught sight of Mila's pumpkin. It made me burst out laughing. Like I said, it's supposed to look like Sam and after I took the picture of the kids with their pumpkins, Mila suddenly became concerned saying she needed to work on the chin. I didn't think much of it until I saw the pumpkin later. Notice: Sam has dark hair, pumpkin has dark hair, Sam was wearing his glasses that evening, pumpkin is wearing glasses, Sam hadn't shaved that day, Mila realizes this so Mila adds scruff to pumpkin's chin. It struck me as so funny to have a whiskery pumpkin! 

We've spent many afternoons raking up leaf piles just to jump in them.

 Sam threw the kids (gently) into the piles.

 We played a fun game where Sam would launch a pile of leaves with the rake, and they would rain down on the kids. They loved it! I'm surprised we didn't have a trip to the ER or something with a chunk of leaf in an eye.

Trick or Treating was on Saturday. It never seems to be on actual Halloween here.

Mila was set on being a mermaid, and Emmitt wanted to be a football player.

 Being a mermaid with pink and purple hair was a dream come true for her!

 For the church party, which I was so glad was actually on Halloween, Emmitt wanted to be a pirate. I got both of his costumes on clearance last year.

He was so cute!

The kids had so much fun trick or treating on Saturday. Mila was so funny because sometimes after someone had already put candy in her bucket, she would keep standing right in front of them long enough that it was awkward and some of them would put more candy into her bucket!   Emmitt was so cute saying "trick or treat" that he had all the old ladies drooling over him. The kids didn't want to stop even though it was quite cold and they weren't getting much candy. They got twice as much walking the halls at church last night. We couldn't trunk or treat since it was cold and raining. Very fun Halloween season!

We already went Halloween clearance shopping today and got Mila's costume for next year.

We love Halloween!

Mila's First Field Trip and a Short Trip

Mila went on her first field trip last Friday. I went with her since parents were responsible for transportation. We went to Meadow View Growers, a farm/nursery. It was a blast!

I love the fall so much! They had tons of pumpkins and mums that were so beautiful. They made me feel so happy! Does anyone else always think of Anne of Green Gables when you see/hear the word Chrysanthemum/Mum? I intensely loved the book series. And the movie. The movie reminds me of my childhood so much.

Mila with her pick from the "pumpkin patch" of pre-picked pumpkins

Drawing a face on her pumpkin.

I love how the legs and arms are attached to the smile!

Hay maze.

Instead of a sand box, they had a corn box. It was awesome!

Mila making a corn angel.

Another girl in the class helped bury Mila.

Jumping into the straw pit. 

Wizard of Oz scarecrows. Cute!

 

 We also went on a hay ride and through a kiddie corn maze. What a fun place!

After the field trip, we went home and I got us all packed up. When Sam got home, we hopped in the car and drove down to Virginia. Sam has been wanting to go down to a football game since we left, and they were doing some alumni thing, so we went. We drove 6.5 hrs. down Friday night, slept, went to a yummy lunch on Saturday at Don Tequila, one of the few restaurants in Buena Vista, went to the game, and got back in the car and drove home another 6+ hrs. It was a pretty rough trip for me. I was very tired and was having monthly hormonal problems, so I was having a hard time handling anything irritating. Happens sometimes. The kids and I wouldn't have gone, but Sam was leaving for a work trip on Sunday afternoon for 9 days, and I didn't want to add to that number. We did stop at a delicious pizza place, Pies and Pints, in Charleston, West Virginia that someone at work told Sam about. We tried their grape pizza, and it was life-changing. Tasty crust topped with gorgonzola cheese, red grape pieces, and rosemary. Sounds crazy, but so great! I want to try to re-create it sometime.

I took very few pictures, but Emmitt was having so much fun playing on the handicap ramp to the bleachers. He was so thrilled to have his own can of pop. He then spilled a bunch on his shirt and the bees were after him something fierce, so the kids and I left the game a little early went out to the car to change his clothes. 

It was just fine though because I wanted to spend some time with this view. The field where they play is at the top of a hill and the view off it is breathtaking. Pictures truly do not do it justice. You just can't get the panoramic view or sense the drop off from being up on the hill, if any of that makes sense to anyone but me. Those of you who have been to BV and stood on this hill know what I'm talking about. Sweet Sam also drove me around to our other special places there, like where we used to live, even though we just drive up, look at the outside, and drive away.

I always oooh and aaah over the West Virginia state capitol as we drive by it. We were actually really close to it when we stopped in Charleston for our grape pizza, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of how gorgeous she was all lit up.

And that was my Friday and Saturday of last week.

I am so ready to enjoy General Conference this weekend!

And lastly,

Dear Sam, 

I wish you were getting home sooner. Weekends are lame without you.

Love,

Your Needy Wife

P.S. Our neighbor took pity on me and our jungle lawn and mowed it this afternoon :)

A Long Week

We've had an interesting week indeed. I went to the children's Dr.'s appointments Tuesday, and everything was fine. I was relieved that Emmitt's ears were clear considering he had a fever Sunday and Monday. Emmitt is 50% for weight and 75% for height. He's taller than I thought he was. It's annoying because the pants/shorts that fit his height are always huge around the waist. Mila is 50% for height and 75% for weight. No surprise there. She's always been a very dense child :) 

Mila's throat was hurting really bad the next day and was covered in sores (they were not there the day before when we were at the Dr's), and we went back to the Dr's. SUPER long story short, both children had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth is an odd illness. The only real complication is dehydration if a child's throat hurts so bad that they don't want to swallow. If Mila wouldn't have complained about her throat hurting, I would have never known they had it since they only got a few, almost unnoticeable, bumps on their fingers (rash on hands and feet is another symptom). I definitely wouldn't have known Em had it since he never complained. It is highly contagious though, so we quarantined ourselves for a few days. I decided that during this time of not going anywhere, I would potty train Emmitt. We used the 3 Day Potty Training method. He's doing pretty well. Not 100% all the time, but good for a starter. I hit up Pinterest for a few ideas and used some of my own to keep us busy. 

The kids enjoyed getting plenty of popsicles to help ward off dehydration.

We made bath paint from here. 

Mila's masterpiece

 After we made the bath paint with shaving cream, Mila wanted to shave like Daddy. We used the popsicle sticks from above to "shave." Mila was really good at it! They wanted to shave over and over. Emmitt put the popsicle stick covered in shaving cream in his mouth a couple of times. Must have not tasted bad enough to keep him from doing it.

We colored a bunch of fish, cut them out, made some fishing poles, and went fishing in the living room.

Emmitt hauling his catch. P.S. I covered the floor with dollar store shower curtains for the first two days until he had things down. I was certainly glad they were there the first day when he was peeing everywhere!

During Emmitt's nap on day 2, Mila and I made some homemade laundry detergent. Another Pinterest find. I based mine off of this and this. I figured it would be a good time to test it out since we had lots of pee pee clothes. So far, so good! All the recipes say to only use a tablespoon or two. I think it works better using 2-3. Maybe my washer is just bigger or something. It pretty much doesn't have a fragrance once the clothes are washed, but things smell clean and fresh.

Later I was listening to Mila while she was playing with the rocking horse. In this high-pitched voice she uses when she's playing, she had this conversation doing both voices:
HORSE: I'm so sad because no one thinks that I'm a girl.
MILA: Oh, you poor horse! Let me help you.
HORSE: Thank you so much! Now I look like a girl.

Getting him to go #2 was way easier than I thought it was going to be. He didn't get it at all the first day, but since then, we've had no problems. The first time he went #2 in the potty, we had a poo poo party. I had some confetti poppers ready for this moment and let the kids have fun. Supervised, of course ;)

I straightened Mila's hair! She loved it so much!

Super long post for a super long week!