October in the 'Hood

This year, October brought us a ticket to the high school homecoming game, a trip to a local park, and an outing at the pumpkin farm.  Check it out!

Each class at the kids' school had a hand in decorating the homecoming float - this year had a wild west theme.  Here's Colin's class:

I convinced Colin to do some reading with me outside in the hammock.  He's doing such a good job reading - reading books that are geared toward 3rd and 4th graders!

We ran some errands one Saturday & then grabbed Panera for dinner - Colin wanted to be all fancy with his tie.  😎

Found this one evening in the living room - Cadence dressed her American Girl Doll (she's named Chloe) in a matching PJ set and gave her a book to read as well.  Adorable! 😍

Danny had a work trip in Belgium over the weekend in mid-October.  I took the kids to a local park for a bike ride. We had a great time - they didn't want to leave! 

When did they get so old?!

This project was a joint effort - Colin drew up the plans for the "tree house" and Cadence made it come to life with a tissue box, Popsicle sticks, paint, pipe cleaners, and LEGOs.  Pretty impressive, right?

We wrapped up the weekend with a trip to Lehner's Pumpkin Farm.  Man, was that place a zoo!  It was unseasonably warm and I think the rest of central Ohio had the same idea we did.  There were long lines for a lot of the attractions, so we went through the corn maze twice!  It's the kids' favorite thing there, so that was okay with us.  

They both had fun on the rock-climbing wall.

We had a picnic lunch in the car.

This sling-shot thing was harder than it looked!

Mini golf was kind of lame after going to Westerville Golf Center, but at least one of the two kids had fun.

Everything was going well with the teeter-totter until Cadence let Colin slam to the ground.  

Not cool, girl.

I think the kids had reached their limits and they were getting on each other's nerves (and frankly, mine too), so we left the pumpkin farm without any pumpkins.  I knew a nursery near the house had pumpkins for sale, so we stopped there on the way home after everyone calmed down.  They had a greenhouse set up like a spooky haunted house!  I got Cadence go to 2/3 of the way in with me!

Here's a cute pic we sent Danny one morning before work/school to say, "good morning".

Halloween 2019

This year, Halloween started off with special shirts from Mamaw and Papaw - Colin's 

glowed-in-the-dark and Cadence's had flip sequins on it!

I was able to help out with the kids' Halloween parties at school as well!  First up, was Colin's class...

We made hands out of vinyl gloves filled with candy and finished with a spider ring.

One of the moms brought Halloween themed treats.

In one activity, the kids had to hunt for "eyeballs" in some cold, cooked spaghetti noodles.

Cadence's class had some Halloween themed treats as well!

Cadence's class liked the candy "hands" also; they did some neat crafts, too!

This year, Cadence dressed up as a taekwondo student and Colin was Kevin from the movie Home Alone.  They've had these costumes picked out since last year.  I love how the kids get their hearts set on a costume and stick with it.  It makes things easier for this mama!

They were so stinkin' cute!

We met up with our friends for trick-or-treat - stick figure people and a cop!!

Luckily, the kids' school collects candy to send to the troops.  If we would've kept all of this candy, we'd have a ton of candy in the house well into 2020!  I'm proud of the kids, though, and their determination.  It was misting/snowing during trick-or-treat and super windy.  They ran from house to house and made it through almost the entire 2 hours of trick-or-treat!  Impressive!

Sports, Jack-O-Lanterns, and Applesauce, Oh My!

Between fall sports and the usual fall activities, we're pretty jam-packed each weekend.  Take a look...

The Chargers made the Super Bowl this season, so the girls had one last time together as a team - unfortunately the weather did not cooperate (can't really complain, though - most of the season was pleasant).  Colin stayed home with Grandma, and Danny and I went along for support.  It rained sideways from about halftime on.  Cadence refused to wear a coat or gloves and didn't want to be covered with an umbrella.  They rocked their halftime routine and despite the weather, had a great time!

Speaking of Cadence, check her out next to the principal of the school.  She was part of the Character Crew in October.  Each month, one student from each class is selected for being an exemplary student.  They get to celebrate and have a little party at the end of the day.  So proud of our kiddo!

Colin and the rest of the first graders got to go to the new Legoland for a field trip.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to chaperone with Halloween being the next day, but he told us that he had a lot of fun!

Speaking of Halloween, check out this house we saw in Sunbury on our way to cheer practice - the kids counted 100-something Jack-O-Lanterns.  It was amazing!  We learned that they used strings of Christmas lights to light them up - genius, right?  I don't even want to think about how long it would take to light all of them if they had candles!

Next up, pumpkin carving!  I gave Colin the fancy camera and he took lots of pictures - enjoy! 

(for the pictures including Colin, I was the photographer 😊)

The kids actually enjoyed cleaning out the pumpkins this year - I hardly had to do any work!

Left: Colin/Me -- Scary Face

Middle: Mom/Dad -- Ghostly Face

Right: Cadence/Danny -- Cat on Jack-O-Lantern

Lastly, it was applesauce time!  The kids took turns peeling/coring apples with Danny while I sliced the apples into smaller pieces.  The kids don't appreciate the deliciousness of the finished product - that leaves more for Danny and me!  At least they have fun prepping the apples.

And then...it was HALLOWEEN!!!

Another Fun Fall Weekend

The following weekend, Danny's parents came to visit and brought Gracie along for the fun.  They met us at the football field in time to catch the kids' games.

We took a trip back to the Westerville Golf Center (since Colin loved mini-golf so much).  Cadence had a birthday party to go to, but she had fun there as well!

We stopped for dinner at Antonio's Pizzeria - here's Colin preparing to eat his meatball sub 😂

We also had pup-sitting duties for my parents that weekend.  We let Olive hang out at our house for a little while.  Scarlet's back leg has been bothering her, so we kept the visit short.  They did well together.  Olive wanted Scarlet to play so badly!

We wrapped up the weekend with Colin's last lacrosse game - good job, buddy!  He came a long way this season!  We're looking forward to watching him play in the spring.