October 16: Family Fall Festival

On Sunday, we went to the Family Fall Festival hosted by our church.  We had a great turnout and a good time celebrating (again!) all things fall.  Fall really is a great season.  So many fun things to do!

This event was perfect for Audrey because there were a lot of crafts.  And this girl loves to make crafts.  

They also had face painting.  Again, always a hit with this little girl.

One of my favorite parts of the night was watching Audrey and Elliot compete together in the three legged race.  They are so cute!

Isla recently discovered the tunnel at the bottom of the playland.  I think it would be much more fun for her if she would learn to crawl around in it by herself.  But she is content to just scoot through it.  These pictures are horrible quality (trying to take pictures in the dark tunnel without a flash=not a great idea), but her smiling face is so cute that I still had to post them.

October 13: Celebrating My Birthday

My birthday was on Thursday.  My thirty second birthday.  Geesh, I'm getting old!

It was a good day except my computer stopped working.  We have been having issues with getting it to charge for a while now.  It has been repaired twice and then it broke again.  A new computer is now on its way to me.  Happy birthday to me.  Except it is not a very fun birthday present when it has to come out of our budget! 

For my birthday, Audrey insisted that I should have a Belle party.  She wanted a cake with Belle and the Beast spinning on top of it.  Daniel printed a picture of Belle and the Beast dancing, cut it out and put it on top of the cake.  Audrey was pleased with the cake. 

She was also pleased when I let her help me blow out my candles.

On Saturday, we went out with some friends to celebrate.  We enjoyed a nice, kid-free evening with dinner at Bella Milanos.  Then we went to see the movie Argo (which is a great movie by the way, you should go see it).

October 10: Monster Day!

It's been a really long time since we have done any themed activities around here, so I figured it was time.  Just to change things up a bit and make things more interesting, for both me and the girls.  So, after checking out a couple of monster books at the library this week, I declared today:  Monster Day.  Our friend Elliot came over for the afternoon, so he got to enjoy some of the festivities with us.

For lunch, I made Audrey a monster peanut butter and jelly sandwich with monster eyed peas (inspired by this blog).  I didn't want to go to the grocery store, so I had to use whatever I could find in my kitchen.  I think my sandwich turned out looking more like a strange looking man than a monster, but I don't think Audrey cared too much.  She was still excited to eat it!

 

 

For a snack, I made Audrey and Elliot monster pudding (inspired by this Pinterest find).  I didn't have the right kind of cups, and I didn't have any oreos to put on top.  I found a few chocolate sprinkles to use on the top, but I didn't quite have enough to give the full effect.  But again, the kids didn't care about my imperfect monster pudding creation!

Audrey and Elliot also got to make their very own monster pet, using random craft supplies that we found in the basement.  I think these turned out pretty cute!  The green one is Elliot's, and he named it Aiden.  The pink one is Audrey's, and she named it Girl Aiden.  (so creative, I know!)

I didn't take any more pictures, but throughout the day, we also:

• had a monster dance party listening to (non-scary) monster songs that we found on Spotify
• colored monster pictures
• read monster books (Go Away, Big Green Monster, Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters, I See a Monster, and The Monster at the End of this Book)
• and I'd like to say that we watched Monsters, Inc. as that would have been a perfect fit with our themed day...but Audrey and Elliot didn't want to watch it, so we watched The Fox and the Hound instead.  =)

October 9: Countdown to Audrey's Birthday

The countdown is on to Audrey's fourth birthday!

 

Audrey's friend Anna has a birthday this week, and my birthday is also this week.  With all the talk of birthdays, Audrey was feeling a little concerned that she was not going to get to have her birthday.  So we made another paper chain like last year to help her know how many days until her birthday.

It's no secret that I like to plan big parties.  And I have managed to share that love with Audrey.  She has been interested in helping me decide everything for this party. That girl loves birthdays and parties, and I'm afraid I have created a monster party planner in her!  She is now old enough to decide what kind of party she wants to have, and she chose a Rapunzel party this year.

I really want to try to stick with my budget for this party.  Actually, I really NEED to stick with my budget because money is tight around here these days.  My budget for birthday parties is between $250-$300.  I feel like that is a reasonable amount for a themed party with decorations, favors, dinner and dessert for 30 plus people.   I went a little over for Isla's party (closer to $375), mostly because I just wasn't paying attention to how much I was spending.

I am writing all of this not because I think you care, but because I need some accountability.  It would be so much fun to plan a party without thinking about costs, but that's not possible right now and probably not a very wise use of money.  So I'm posting my budget here, in the hopes that if I make it public, I will be more likely to stick to it!

Invitations:  $25
Decorations:  $75
Audrey's Rapunzel Costume:  $25 (which will also serve as her Halloween costume)
Favors: $40
Food:  $100
Games:  $25

TOTAL:  $290

My plan is to report back here about how much I spend in each category.  Then if I go over budget, you all have my permission to yell at me!

October 8: Martha Stewart Fall Fun Weekend

This past weekend was our annual Martha Stewart Fall Fun Weekend with our friends.  This was our sixth year of participating in this weekend about all things fall.  (You can see previous posts about this here, here, here, and here). 

Our group has gotten bigger and bigger each year.  This year, for portions of the weekend, we had about 20 adults and 14 kids (age 5 and younger!).

We stayed in a hotel Friday night.  The past few years we have just made this a day trip, but it makes for a really long day on Saturday to try to squeeze everything into one day.  So we all hung out on Friday night in Tuscola.  We did some outlet mall shopping, ate pizza in the hotel lobby, and went swimming!

Saturday morning, we went to Curtis Orchard first.  Traditional activities here include:  pony rides, eating apple cider and doughnuts, and feeding the goats.

 I love doing these same activities every year, because it is fun to compare pictures from year to year.  Here is Isla last year when she was about 5 months old.  She was getting ready for a bottle, while the rest of us enjoyed our apple doughnuts.  This was also her second day wearing her helmet.

 And here is Isla this year, helmet-free and enjoying her donut just like the rest of us!  Such a big girl!

We headed to Arthur next, which is in the heart of Illinois Amish country.  We went to a unique bulk foods store called Beachys and stocked up on some spices, grains, candy and cinnamon rolls!

For lunch, we needed a restaurant that would be big enough to accommodate our group of 30+ with many small children.  (Just in case you haven't been to a restaurant with small children in a while, it is not always a pleasant experience...especially when you are talking about 14 small children in one restaurant!).  We made a reservation at Yoders Kitchen in Arthur.  And it was the PERFECT setup for our group!  They have a large room in the back to accommodate groups just like ours.  We had a huge long table, and plenty of room for the kids to run around, as well as our own bathrooms.  They offered a buffet, which again was perfect for a large group with small children.  I was so excited to find a place where we could all eat together in a fairly enjoyable way!

After lunch, it was time for the main event (and the inspiration for the whole weekend):  the Great Pumpkin Patch.   It was pretty cold and windy, so that put a slight damper on an afternoon at the pumpkin patch.  But it didn't stop us from having fun or taking pictures.

Big news at the pumpkin patch!  Isla (who hadn't walked at all since the previous Wednesday) took quite a few steps by herself...in strange place and walking on straw!  She had a big audience, and everyone gave her a huge cheer when she finished.

Here is the "must take no matter what" picture at the pumpkin patch each year.  I love watching how they grow!

And the other "must take" picture:

October 4

FYI:  Isla showed little to no interest in walking by herself today.  Daniel got her to take a few steps this morning, and she did stand by herself a few times throughout the day.  But walking all over the room like she did yesterday?  Not a chance!

At one point tonight, she was standing on her own.  I moved a few feet away from her and tried to encourage her to walk to me.  But she just looked at me, shook her head no, sat herself down on the floor and started laughing hysterically.  Like she knows exactly what I want her to do, and she knows she is capable of doing what I want her to do, but she is just not going to do it.  She's an ornery one, I tell you.  And stubborn too!

October 3: She's Walking! Again! (For Real This Time?)

I posted about a month ago that Isla was walking, but that proved to be a false alarm.  After taking steps that night, she refused to even try to walk on her own again.  Everyone kept telling me that she would just "get it" one day and start walking, but I was starting to feel like that day would never come.

Then this afternoon, she just started walking across the room by herself.  (Please ignore my obnoxious, high pitched voice in this video and just focus on the fact that Isla is walking!  Also, if you can't tell in the video, I was getting a little annoyed with Audrey.  She thought it was fun to jump right in front of Isla wherever she was walking, and I wasn't too amused).

I'm trying not to get too excited, because this stubborn little one has a mind of her own!  Today could have just been a fluke again.  But it was pretty impressive.  She walked all over the room, over and over again.  Not just a few steps....we're talking 15-20 steps at a time here.  She did it this afternoon multiple times, and then after dinner she continued to walk around the living room.

It does kind of seem like this is the real deal.  For the first time, when she started to feel unstable or about to fall, she was able to balance herself and keep going.  In the past, she has always grabbed on to something to steady herself or just sat herself down.  This is definitely an improvement with her balance, and that is a good thing since last week her physical therapist was just starting to be concerned something was wrong with her balance.


The real test will be tomorrow.  Will she still remember how to walk or will we be starting over from the beginning again?