Halloween is Coming!

Greetings all!  We are entering the "Halloween to Christmas Death Spiral" and are super excited about it!  Things are finally starting to gear up for Halloween and we are already making plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Mom realized she is going to need to order Christmas cards soon and is getting a wee bit stressed out already.  Yipee!

Our week was nothing exciting.  I didn't feel well at school on Thursday so mom picked me up a little early which means I didn't go to my Mad Science club after school.  We got home before 5 for the first time in several weeks and it was awesome.  

Saturday was kind of a busy day around here.  Mom had an appointment with her hair stylist (whom she missed dearly when we were in Colorado) on Saturday and this most wonderful person agreed to cut my bangs for free.  It doesn't sound like a big deal except mom always takes me to the cheapy places for that and I never, ever walk out with straight bangs.  So after 5 years of crooked hair, she decided to take me to her salon and I think I look fabulous.  So does mom.  It's amazing what straight bangs can do for a girl!  

After that, we headed to the pumpkin "patch" to pick out some pumpkins.  The patch was in a parking lot on Broadway Boulevard- kind of different from our real pumpkin patch in the middle of a big farm in Denver last year.  It was still kind of cute, with a little petting zoo and tons of different pumpkins to pick from.

We ended up with 3 tiny ones, a white one and a big orange one so it was a good time. And only 86 degrees.  Perfect for a cup of hot apple cider!

We were invited to a Halloween get together at my camping friend Madeline's house on Saturday night.  We were in charge of appetizers so earlier in the week, mom and I scoured the Internet for cute Halloween-y treats.  We found a few- witch's brooms with string cheese and pretzels sticks, deviled egg eyeballs and a fruit pumpkin.  The pictures were so very cute and the directions so very easy-  what could go wrong?  I mean, doesn't this look just like a pumpkin??

And doesn't this look like scary eyeballs?  Yeah, we didn't think so either.  Stupid Pinterest....

So after the not so appetizing appetizers and the yummy dinner, we headed out to Colossal Cave Park for their Halloween carnival.  They had jumping castles, ball toss, s'mores and scariest of all- a haunted hay ride!  That was kind of super terrifying for me.  It was pitch dark and we are riding in a wagon with scary people jumping on the wagon trying to grab us, headless horsemen, witches.  About 1/4 of the way through, mom was questioning the wisdom of taking us on this but we made it in one piece.  Dad ended up sleeping in my room that night though.  Yeah Dad!

Sunday was a semi-relaxed day.  I had a birthday party in the afternoon so mom and I hit Target in the morning for a present- because that is how organized mom is these day- and then we went to the plant store to get some flowers for all our pots.  We ended up buying a lot more vegetation then planned but that is how it usually goes.

Grandpa Vern is back from the high country for the season so he and Grandma Sue stopped by for a bit and then we wrapped up the evening with a little Skylanders and early bed.  Here's hoping for no nightmares!  Have a great week!

Daddy Daughter Weekend!

We give mom one night off from her parental/family duties and she completely forgets everything.  Which is how we end up 2 days late in our post this week.

We had a good week for the most part.  Mom is forced to get the flu shot now for work.  She grudgingly succumbed to the pressure because she does like her pay check and got the shot on Thursday.  She spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday feeling kind of yucky, thank you very much.  Good thing dad and I got to leave but more on that later.

Friday night was my night to pick where we eat.  I picked the steak place near our house and mowed down a Lil' Cowboy t-bone and a root beer.  Then we walked over to the mini golf place next door for a round of 18 holes.  I'm definitely improving (or else dad is getting worse) and we all came out pretty close in score with no temper tantrums this time.  It was a beautiful night and we had a great time.

Everyone slept in Saturday morning but then dad and I headed up to Mt.  Lemmon with our friend Brian and his daughter.  We all spent the night at our friend Joe's cabin with Joe and his daughter.  It was tons of daddy fun!

This is the deck of Joe's cabin with Lizard Rock behind me

We got to eat lots and lots of junk food because the dads shopped for us too.  We all know if the mom's had any say in the matter, we would have been eating carrots and oatmeal.  Thank goodness they had no say!

After fueling up on cookies, we all headed out for a hike.  I made BINGO cards for all the girls to use on the hike.  We had to find things like rocks, minnows, pine needles etc.  They were actually kind of a hit.  There was a candy prize for the first person to get BINGO and wonder of wonders!  I won!  Uncle Brian thinks it was rigged......
We also found a half empty creek which had just enough water in it to make a mess and find bugs.

We came back, had a great dinner of hot dogs and s'mores and wrapped the evening up with a crazy game of Candy Land.  Everyone was in bed nice and early which is a good thing because I was up and ready to go for more at 5:45 the next morning.

It was awesome fun and we hope to do it again.
Mom took full advantage of her down time and got a bunch of shopping done that she had put off.  She rounded out the evening with a huge slice of carrot cake, a big beer and a bad chick flick.
On Sunday morning, she got to head out for a great hike (to burn off the carrot cake) and still had time to read the paper when she got home.
We spent the rest of the day laying low and getting ready for the busy week.  I told mom I was tired of having something to do every night after school so we'll see how much long this lasts!
Have a great week!

A Semi Relaxed Week

We were so relaxed this week, we forgot to post yesterday!  We had a "semi-relaxed" week and it was a nice thing!  I only had 3 days of school which means mom and I had the battle of the homework only 2 nights instead of the usual four.  Those battles can be epic so it was a nice change.  I had Thursday and Friday off school and since mom has no PTO, she only took Thursday off and dad took Friday off.

Thursday, mom and I hit our awesome little zoo.  You will notice that I am wearing long pants and a jacket- we only had a high of 69 degrees!  We about froze to death- I spent most of the morning complaining about how dang cold it was.  This was a very different child from the one that didn't want to come in from the freezing snow in Denver.  How far we've come in a short time.

It was an awesome day to be at the zoo because the cooler temperatures brought out all the animals.  The zebras were galloping, the elephants were playing, the giraffes were munching...

Friday, mom headed back to work and dad and I hung out, getting the RV ready for another camping trip.  We went to Catalina State Park which is an easy 30 minute drive from our house and it was amazingly perfect.  The views were awesome, the weather was warm, the skies were clear.  We got there about 4:30, mom and dad popped an adult beverage and we headed out for a little hike.

That night, it was so clear that we laid out on our picnic table watching the stars.  Dad knows a thing or two about astronomy so he taught me about the Big Dipper, the North Star, we found the Milky Way too so it was a pretty cool evening.

In the morning, mom headed out for a nice long run while dad and I got breakfast going.  When mom got back, we went out for another short hike before packing it in and heading home.

Mom and dad had forgotten how pretty it is out there and we have plans to go back soon.

We got home from our camping adventure about 11 and I was kind of a crabby basket case.  Might have had something to do with the little cold I caught from my friend Julia when she "accidental coughed in my face".  Dad talked me into laying down and resting with him and I fell asleep for two hours.  It was awesome for everyone!

That night, mom and dad headed out for a date night with some good friends and my very favorite pre-school teacher of all time came over to hand out with me.  It was such a fun night!  I showed Ms Barb all of my toys in my amazingly neat and tidy (not!) room, showed her around our backyard, then we skipped down to Frost for some gelato, came home and watched a movie.  She can come back anytime and I hope she does.
Sunday was just a nice, quiet rest day.  Dad got in a long bike ride, grandma Sue stopped by for a bit, I played a little Minecraft and all was right with the world.
Hope everyone has a great week!

Back to Reality

Whew- this has been a bit of a tough week.  For mom at least.  She is going through major vacation withdrawal and hasn't been a whole heck of a lot fun.  Going from full on vacation to full on "real life" is just no fun.  Waaaaaaa!  First world problems.....

Anyhoo....I have officially joined Ford Aquatics Swim Team.  I made it to two practices this past week and actually showed some return to form.  We got my kick board, fins and buoy this weekend, so I am set.

This past Tuesday, I started my First Communion classes at my church.  Mom volunteered to help out but my class is so small, she wasn't really needed.  She stuck around anyway to see what it was all about.  It was a little bit of a struggle sitting through it but we'll manage- at least until my First Communion.

The weekend could not come soon enough and we (meaning mom) slept hard.  Early to bed, late to rise pretty much describes our weekend.  

Saturday, we got back into our exercise routine with a long run for mom, a bike ride for dad and some "mental exercise" for me on the computer.  We ran some errands in the afternoon and then headed up to our friends Brian and Christina's house for dinner.

Sunday was another nice, sleep in day.  Dad got the smoker up and going again and made some really good brisket and mom and I headed out to work on my bike riding skills.  I got a new bike with hand brakes a few weeks ago and we have been working on riding in a straight line.  Not as easy as you would think.  Today, we headed out to the bike path near our house and I did pretty well, only running into the railing once!  Yeah me!

We spent the afternoon getting all our Halloween decorations out and up.  I'm not sure I can wait for the actual day!  Grandma Sue came over for dinner and now we are wrapping up our weekend with family movie night.  Here's hoping for a better week ahead!