PattisBlessedFamily: 2012

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Halloween 2012

We had a nice Halloween. The weather was absolutely perfect for everything outdoors! I always have these high hopes of planning super cute, creative costumes for my kids that go together but sadly it never happens and I always just end up letting my kids go to the party store and pick out over-priced but cheap costumes! So Ellie picked a Monster High Doll Costume (Leguna Blue--mind you she doesn't even play with these darn dolls!!) and poor Jack had to use a Buzz Lightyear costume from last year because I didn't want to pay for two new costumes (can you tell Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays :). But the kids had fun and that's all that counts! Both of their school parties were fun. They were at the same time this year so I recruited my mom to go with me to Jack's so she could stay and I could leave early to make it to Ellie's for a little bit. Even though I don't really enjoy Halloween I enjoy having Halloween-themed food for snack and dinner. So the kids made witches hats for an after school snack and then for dinner we had Mummy Dogs and Ghosts (strawberries dipped in white chocolate). If I was a Pinterest follower I'm sure I could have found countless other creative ideas but I already feel so bad about my lack of creativity that I think I will stay away from Pinterest! The kids don't know any different and they were happy with their mummy dogs and ghosts! We once again trick or treated with our neighbors. We have been doing that since I think Ellie was about 2. It's a fun group and the kids love doing it together and the parents like it too! This year my mom came over and stayed at our house to pass out candy while we took the kids out. We went further than we usually do and got way too much candy! So much so that Ellie decided (with my suggestion) that she sell her candy back to a dentist who donates . I tried to convince Jack but he wasn't having it! So I let her pick out a few pieces to keep and the rest went to the dentist (I confiscated a lot of Jack's candy as well--he just doesn't know!) She made $6.00. I love it! Definitely will do that again! Some pics from our Halloween:

Jack and Hamdoul at school party

Ellie at her class party

Carving our pumpkin (better late than never!!)

Ghosts!

Halloween 2012

Laguna Blue

Buzz Lightyear

Eating mummy dogs for dinner!

The neighborhood kids before trick or treating

Jack with his loot!

Ellie with her loot!

Grandma!

Best we could get at the end of the night!

St. Louis

The kids had a couple of days off of school for P/T Conferences so I asked my mom if she would be interested in going to St. Louis for a long weekend to see relatives. I wasn't sure if she would want to because St. Louis is where my both my parents are from and that is where they met, got married, had Linda and Chris and lots of other memories. But she thought it was a good idea. My main reason for wanting to go was to see my 92 yr old Aunt Marie. She is the oldest of my dad's siblings and never married or had kids so she was kind of like a Grandma to me. She wasn't able to come for the funeral because she can't travel that far so after realizing how fast life can be taken I decided that I wanted to be able to see her and spend a little time with her. Plus she likes seeing the kids and it had been a couple of yrs since she had seen them. So my mom and I the kids hopped in the car for a roadtrip! The kids did great especially Ellie--she is such a good car traveler. Jack got a little antsy but overall they were great. We stayed with my cousin Laura and her family which includes 2 girls who are close to Ellie and Jack's age. Needless to say the kids had a ball because it was basically a 4 night sleepover--yikes!! But what fun they had. On Friday they had to go to school so my mom, kids and I took my Aunt Marie out to lunch and got to see her new place (she moved to an assisted living about a year ago). It was nice to see her--I know she is having a very hard time with my dad's death. Saturday we went to my cousin's kids soccer games and then just hung out with them and did some bowling! Sat night Maya had a Halloween party so she invited Ellie to go with her. They really had a good time and Maya's friend were so nice to include Ellie. That night my cousin had all of our relatives over for a cook out so we got to see Aunt Marie again. It was a nice visit and so nice to spend some time with her. Ellie wanted to go to the arch so on Sunday we took the kids downtown and headed up to the arch. That was a little hard for me because I have so many memories of going to the arch as a kid with my dad...we would go everytime we went to St. Louis which was at least a couple times of year. My dad was so good about always taking us to do fun things there. My kids loved the arch--especially taking the little tram all the way up. All in all we had a great visit and I'm so glad we went. We are hoping to meet my cousin and her family sometime soon at Great Wolf Lodge. Ellie and Jack love Maya and Marie Claire so we have vowed to try to get together at least once a year. There is nothing like family!! Here are a few pics from our trip...

Lunch!

Ellie and Aunt Marie in her apartment

Ellie, Marie Claire, Lauren and Maya--wearing their pagamas to Orange Leaf!

Bowling

Maya and Ellie before the Halloween party

Great pic of Ellie and Jack with Aunt Marie

Getting ready to go up the arch

In the tram going up

At the top!!

Lots of memories from my time at the arch as a kid!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Vala's Pumpkin Patch 2012

Another thing I love about Fall in Nebraska is Vala's!!! I seriously hope my kids never get too old or tired of going to Vala's because I love it and want to go every year for a long long time! This year our church was hosting a bonfire on a Wed night so we decided to go that night so we could roast hot dogs and marshmallows, etc. Of course the day that it was scheduled it was cold and windy :( But it wouldn't be Fall if it weren't chilly so we bundled up and went anyway! Fun tmes as always. This year I feel like we didn't see or do as much stuff for some reason but the kids were happy and that is all that counts! Ellie's favorite thing to do is the jumping pillows and could literally spend hours on them. Jack doesn't love them so much so he just spends his time when we are on them running around the edge of the pillows and playing in the sand :) I love that kid!! His favorite thing this year was the corn pit which thankfully is right next to the jumping pillows so all was good! We had fun running into lots of friends and Ellie found a girl from church that she wanted to play with the whole night.
Another fun activity that we did this year was the Zoo Spooktacular. We had never gone to that before but some friends had done it and told us that they liked it so I decided to get tickets. Of course once again it was a super cold night (after our Fall has been so nice!!) so we bundled up the kids in their costumes and walked around the zoo while the kids got to trick or treat for candy. They had the Kingdoms of the Night exhibit all lit up which was really neat because normally you can't see much of anything because it is so dark. We are so incredibly lucky to have such a great zoo in our city. We love it! Here are some pics from our trip to Vala's....

Annual "how tall am I" pic

Sibling love :)

Sand---one of his favorite things

Feeding the goats

Playing "teacher"

We love Vala's!

Getting too big for the trikes :(

So cute!

Jumping pillows

That's has far as he would go on the pillows!

Much preferred the sand :)

Bonfire

Roasting marshmallows

Love him!

Jack's favorite--the corn pit!!

Here are some pics from the Zoo Spooktacular...

Getting started

Getting ready to trick or treat at the zoo

Balloon creations!

Sweet kids--wish they would stay this little!!

Fall Catch Up

I love Fall! We have a had a busy one so far so I am going to try to catch up on a few fun things that we have been doing to celebrate this time of the year. It's been so bittersweet this year after losing my dad but we have been trying to keep with as much "normalcy" as we can and continue some of the fun Fall traditions that we have. The first....my favorite place in Nebraska.....Nebraska City!! I love that place so much. I have fond memories of going there as a little girl with my family to see the Arbor Day Lodge. It is just the cutest little place and it's something I look forward to all year. This year we went on a Sunday after church. We usually do the Tree Farm Adventure with the kids but this year opted to not do it because of time constraints and crowds. So we ended up just having some apple treats and then did something different and took a carriage ride through the park which we had never done before and then went to Kimmel Orchard to pick apples. The carriage ride was fun! We took the kids last year for the first time and did a carriage ride in the Old Market on Thanksgiving night and had so much fun that we decided to make it an annual tradition (not on Thanksgiving night---way too crowded!! But another night during the holiday season). So it was a fun surprise to have the carriage ride in Nebraska City. We also had fun picking apples at the orchard. We really had to dig to find some because of the bad apple season with the major heat wave over the summer and early Spring last year (not that I'm complaining because I am praying for another winter like last year!). Here are some pics from our afternoon in NE City....