Halloween!

The day before halloween was dreaded by me.  You know, it means that I get to carve a bunch of pumpkins for the kids.  Oh Joy!  I HATE carving pumpkins. It's gross, smelly, and it makes my hands hurt like a ::insert expletive here::.  But as a parent, you gotta do what you gotta do.  

It starts out something like this.  I cut out the top of the pumpkin and the older child squeals about how cold and slimy it is.  She does her best but manages to get out 1/100th of the pumpkin guts.  

The little one doesn't even try and gives me this reaction.  Ugh.  

So, being the awesome mom that I am, I clean and carve all three pumpkins.  ::sigh::

The top one is mine.  The middle one I did for Anna.  And the bottom one Meredith designed and I did the rest.  

Meredith decided a long time ago that she wanted to be Cinderella for halloween.  Fine by me.  Nice and easy and cheap.  She was even growing out her hair for months and months to be able to wear it up like Cinderella.  We got it all cut off the next day.  Hahaha!  Thank goodness.  I was tired of the tangles.  

I love these next two pictures because it explains perfectly in pictures how things are at my house all.the.time.  Fighting over things.  Stealing things from one another.  I could go on and on.  

We went out trick-or-treating with our neighbors (Mer's BFF) and got lots of candy.  

Anna couldn't keep up so she got dropped off at home to enjoy some of her new snacks.  

Picking Pumpkins at Pahl's

I'm kind of sad about this but this is the first year we haven't gone to Emma Krumbee's since Meredith was born.  I guess I have just started to get bored?  The drive is too long?  I just don't know.  Since Pahl's Nursery is about a 1/2 mile away and I had a buy 2 get 1 free coupon, we just decided to go there to get some pumpkins.  They have a blow up bouncy pumpkin every year but Meredith was SO disappointed that she was too tall for it this year.  But it was fun.  They have a corn pit, a hay bale maze, free popcorn, and goats.  

So these pumpkins that we picked are a hot commodity amongst the zillions of squirrels we have hanging out in our neighborhood.  I think there's a nest in every other tree.  And there is one out back of our house that is like a $5 million squirrel mansion.  It's monstrous.  They seem to like to eat the small pumpkins they can get their hands on.  And they do it right out in the open when we walk to the bus top every day at other houses in the neighborhood.  I noticed that one night they tried to eat my pumpkins but I think they are too big.  Just a few bites taken out of the top and they have been left alone for the most part.  

Anyway, the squirrels  climb up the walls of my house to get to my deck (not connected to the ground in any way) to eat my bird seed.  I. hate.them.  I've resorted to chasing them off my deck with a tension rod.  Actually, my ultimate goal is to beat them to death but I have not succeeded with that yet.  I've broken my tension rod though.  And I purposely accelerated my car near my driveway to try to run one over but was unsuccessful.  I'm sure my neighbors thing I'm a nutjob.  

I'm waiting until the evening before Halloween to carve though as once they are carved, it becomes a squirrel delicatessen.  

Meredith's 6th Birthday

It has been brought to my attention that I never shared pictures from Meredith's birthday in September.  I guess that's a Mom Fail.  We kept her party small this year and took all the kids to Kid's Hair to get their nails and hair done.  They all had a blast.  Then we continued on to Davanni's where we used their party room to have pizza for lunch, cake, and open a few presents.  

It turned out great and they all had a blast.  

Here she is letting her nails dry and getting her hair done.

 

 Here are all the girls with their crazy hair. 

 They all played a bit before we left the salon. 

She picked out princess cupcakes so we stuck 6 candles in one. 

And the  best part of all...presents!

Fall

My favorite season is upon us now.  I absolutely love fall.  What a glorious month of September we had and I'm looking forward to a lovely October.  Meredith is on her SECOND field trip of the year today.  They headed up to Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan to do a nature hike.  What a perfect day!  

Meredith is very excited about Halloween.  She's going to be Cinderella this year.  Anna is going to be a bumblebee.  The same bumblebee that Meredith was when she was 2.  

Hockey is going to start in a couple more weeks.  We're all really excited about it, although Meredith is doing a clinic this fall already.  It will be fun to see the kids she played with last year again.  

We bit the bullet and booked an Alaskan cruise with the whole family for next August.  We are really looking forward to that and having some other family come along with us.  I have been saving for years for a vacation.  I've been saving all my cash back on my Discover card, all the money that I make selling my gently used kids stuff at JBF consignment sales, I take surveys online, etc. for this.  Alaska is a bucket list destination so I'm really excited for it but 10 months is such a long time away!

We found out a couple weeks ago that Greg is the recipient of an all expenses paid, 7 night cruise for two courtesy of RBC (his employer) which will set sail in early January.  Every year, RBC charters out  a WHOLE ship for a week and holds their performance conference on board.  So we will be enjoying that this winter with 800 of RBC's finest and their guests.  CAN'T WAIT.  They have not announced the itinerary yet so I am very impatiently waiting to find out what our destinations will be.  We do know that the ship is the Celebrity Constellation and it will leave out of Ft. Lauderdale.  

Just a few pictures to share this time.  I literally have taken ONLY these pictures since Meredith's birthday party a month ago.  

Here's Meredith's Halloween countdown witch she made.  Pretty cute if you ask me.  

And look at this little cutie.  Her cuteness makes up for her 2-year-old stubbornness.  

Yesterday, my friend Amanda from Amanda Kellogg Photography took these pictures of the girls.  Love them!  

1st Day of Kindergarten

The day finally came.  The day where I send my child in a bus off to school all on her own.  To tell you the truth, I was completely ready for it.  And so was Meredith.  I am truly grateful that she missed the kindergarten cutoff last year by a mere 8 hours and 37 minutes so I wasn't forced to make the decision of if she was ready to go or not last year.  Had she been born just a few hours earlier, I probably would have sent her but I am glad that I didn't have to make a choice and am grateful of that extra year she got at home.  Anyway, she was so ready for school.  The past two months have been pretty bad for her behavior-wise and she needed to get back on a routine AWAY from home.  

She is in afternoon kindergarten.  I wish our district offered all day kindergarten free of charge but I digress.  Next year they will with the new legislation passed a couple months ago.  

We went out to take a few pictures.  

Her friend Lydia was out playing so we played all morning.  

Then when it was time to walk to the bus stop, Anna wanted in on the backpack action.  

Lydia is in her class so they wait at the bus stop together.  

A rare snapshot of me in the picture.  

And off they go!  

I'm happy to report that her first week of kindergarten was really fun and she really likes it.  Her teacher, Mrs. Johnson, is really nice!  She is excited every day to go.  

Road Trip!

That's right folks.  We took a good old fashioned, Clark Griswold style vacation to Florida.  With airfare running $420/ticket and a rental car at $500+, we decided to drive to Florida this year instead of fly.  Was it worth it?  I'd say so but that is a relative answer.  It saved us $1200+ so why not?  It was a LONG drive.  We stopped overnight in St. Louis and Atlanta on the way there and in Murfreesboro (TN) and St. Louis on the way home.  Doing it with just one overnight would have been very agressive with two little kids.  

When we got there, we headed to the pool.  It was HOT.  and HUMID.  And we celebrated Grandma Carlson's birthday.  

We played with Grandma.  

This was at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater Beach.  We prepped for this excursion by watching Dolphin Tale.  The CMA houses Winter the dolphin who is without his tail due to being caught in a fishing net.  

In this tank, you could pet the sting rays.  

I'm not sure which one is Winter as there are 3 dolphins that call the CMA home.  Winter wears his prostetic tail for only a few hours each day.  

On the bus to the Dolphin Tale museum.  It was quite neat with lots of props, photos, and background behind the filming of the movie.  I would have liked to spend more time there but the kids didn't allow for that.  

After visiting the CMA, we headed out to Clearwater Beach for a while.  It was HOT.  Nothing to drink and even the Gulf of Mexico was like a steam bath.  This park we were at was right across the street from the hotel I interned at in college.  I have lots of memories of Clearwater Beach.  I'm kind of in awe that I got to intern at such a BEAUTIFUL place.  Clearwater Beach is absolutely stunning.  On the way home, we approached a severe storm just as we entered onto the causeway to cross Tampa Bay.  I think it was the worst storms I have driven through.  Palm fronds were flying everywhere, visibility was almost nothing, lightning bolts from the sky to the ground right in front of me.  It took us a half hour just to cross over Tampa Bay.  I was in the passenger seat with white knuckles and Meredith was in the back enjoying every minute of the storm.  We even had a tree branch stuck in our car when we got home.  

The following day, we headed out to Homosassa Springs State Park.  I LOVE doing things like this.  Seeing nature, no crowds, etc.  Anyway, Homosassa is a spring where the manatees like to gather.  In the winter, the Gulf water gets too cool and they swim inland up to the springs because the water coming out is always a steady temperature.  I can't remember exactly what it is, but it's somewhere around 76 degrees.  This picture below is the actual spring and we were lucky to be able to view some manatees.  They actually have a viewing platform that goes out in the spring and you can view manatees from under the water.  It was pretty neat.  

There is also a wildlife preserve at the park that has a rather large and very nice wildlife viewing area.  There are lots of native animals and tons of birds.  They also house a hippo who was rescued that is an honorary citizen of the state of FL.  

Just one of many alligators there.  

And birds galore.  Just a few flamingos here.  

We spent the next day at Busch Gardens.  Anna stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa so Greg and I took Meredith by herself.  We figured we would be able to navigate the park so much easier without her and it was good for Anna to get a little bonding time.  I did not bring my camera with so I have no pictures but we did have a good time.  They have every A list animal you can think of there so that was kind of neat to see.  We are not roller coaster people so we skipped all those and did some other things. Meredith did end up going on a few adult rides like the Congo River Rapids, the flume, and even one of their tame roller coasters.  I had to threaten to leave 4 times as Meredith began to have tantrums over silly stuff like the rides having to close because of lightning, missing the train ride, and not being tall enough to drive the bumper cars.  Seriously.  

On the way home, we stayed in St. Louis on our second night of driving.  We got there early and spent some time at the Gateway Arch and then at Washington University where Greg went to college.  

The arch is pretty neat.  I was excited to go up to the top but it was not what I was expecting.  At. All.  First, you have to buy a ticket for a designated time.  We waited about 45 minutes for that.  Then when it is your time, you get in line and wait another 45 minutes to ride to the top.  I would rather have saved the $10 it cost to go up and just view it from the bottom.  I was expecting a nice indoor viewing platform with room to walk around.  Nope.  The viewing 'room' is tiny and there were probably 75 people all crammed in there.  You couldn't even move around and the people waiting in line to go back down takes up half the space in the viewing room.  And the viewing windows are tiny.  I wanted to go down as soon as I got up to the top.  

They have a nice area in the bunker below the arch with a gift shop, museum, and theater.  

I made this picture extra large.  If you look closely, you can see the viewing windows in the right third of the picture.  They look like black dots.  

You ride up to the top in these pod-like things.  It was interesting.  

All-in-all, it was a good trip.  We had fun!