Pre-Halloween Fun

Today the girls and I headed out to a Halloween party at my work. Jr. Princess was all set to be a princess this year, but after one of Starshine friends gave her a cat costume, cat it became. (Notice she can barely squeeze herself into it. She's big for her age, and Starshine's friend is a teeny little thing). Starshine pulled together a lovely cowgirl ensemble.

FYI - I did Jr. Princess's nose and whiskers in washable marker. Easy to draw with, and washes off in a snap at the end of the day!




There were fun carnival games, a candy walk, balloon animals, and of course, fabulous face painting...

M&M Dad was invited, too, but we also gave him the option of a little quiet time alone. The only catch was if he did, he was in charge of dinner (and any disaster he creates in the kitchen). Well, I think I came out ahead. The girls and I had a great time, AND M&M Dad made the most delicious green chile enchiladas the two of us had drooled over a few days ago on America's Test Kitchen.

Starshine's first cache

Ever since our first geocache find, Starshine has wanted to hide her own. So, since we had a lot of time this weekend, I took her over to Island Lake park and let her scout out her own location. She found this awesome tree with a hole in it, and we went home and crafted our own container (thanks Grandma and Grandpa M for the pill container and camo duct tape!). Then, after seeking permission from Ramsey County park and rec, we dropped it off. Here's a photo. the black string is all you see as the container is suspended down in a very dark hole. We made it nice and easy (no bush-whacking required), just like the caches she likes. She was very excited because someone found it the very first day!

Disc Golf

The girls had off of school today for teachers' convention, so I stayed home to have some girl time. We started the morning doing a whole lot of nothing, which is a nice change of pace after the first busy month of school. Starshine taught Jr. Princess how to finger knit, which turned into us all wearing matching pink scarves on our outing - fabulous! We then drove down to have lunch with M&M Dad at a Chicago food style diner - yummy.

After we dropped him off, we decided to try a new activity - disc golf!

We had a lot of fun just walking through the park, and occasionally throwing frisbees at the targets. More than one uptight golfer had to point out to us that we weren't using the right kind of disc (we brought our el cheapo frisbees). Ummmm - duh - we're just out having a little fun, loosen up!

We also played at the park and found a geocahe. All-in-all it was a nice afternoon.

Thanks Grandpa!

A week or so ago, Grandpa L innocently asked me why I hadn't blogged in awhile. I had a mini melt down about how overwhelmed I currently was with:

• arranging to get the insurance claim and contractors lined-up to fix the bathroom (and possibly some other things) after our Labor Day water leak
• Finding our super old furnace was dead (more estimates and furnace research)
• I started WWIII in Starshine's girl scout troop because we wanted higher behavior standards, and was trying desperately to role model appropriate female leader behavior to Starshine while setting up a Mom's meeting to resolve the issue (I hate female drama!)
• I have been wanting to get a new computer for upstairs for months, but have not had time to understand all of the million of decisions that entails...
• I'd been fighting off a virus for over a week, and honestly just wanted to sleep...

So, Grandpa L heard me loud and clear and super nicely researched the perfect computer for us to buy, told me what to order, and it just came today - yeah!

Now I can use the computer even if M&M Dad is on the treadmill, and the girls can use it while I'm making dinner, but I can still supervise - yeah!

I'm not sure who was more excited - Starshine getting to listen to her Pandora channel while we made dinner, or Jr Princess that a new box arrived for her to play in! (I can't believe she even gets into a laptop box!)

Thanks for the help Grandpa L!

Grandparents' day

Today was Grandparents' Day at the girls school, and M&M Dad and I filled in as "special people." Since this was Jr. Princess's first year, she got to pick which parent came to her event, and she picked me. All the Kindergarten classes started in the gym with a few poems and songs for the crowd (she now has all kind of options for the Thanksgiving family talent show!!)...

We then went to her class room for cookies and photos

and then we were set loose in the school so she could give me the grand tour of the school. It was cute as could be to hear about the school in her words. It did give us a chance to go down the 3rd grade hallway to spy on M&M Dad and Starshine doing the activities in her classroom. They were busy talking about school "when I was a kid" (which I'm sure is more impactful with grandparents. Honestly, their school seems very similar to what M&M Dad and I had), and playing math games.

It's a joy to see our kids at school because we can see how much they love to be there.

Crazy things my husband claims - a new (recurring?) poll

So I'm not sure how we even got on this conversation, but a few days ago M&M Dad claimed he could dig a hole big enough for him to stand in -- in one day. Now, I don't usually like to rain on his parade, but I couldn't let this one go. I had to call him on it. After some quick bantering on the ground rules:

• one day means sun up to sun down
• We're talking a 6 foot tall hole - he has to be standing in it
• All standard shovels and picks can be used, but no power tools, help, etc.

Seriously - he still thinks he can do it. He must not remember the tears and swearing (my tears, his swearing) during the planting of our two front trees. Those were small, maybe 2 foot holes. We have some seriously hard clay soil here.

I thought about making Sunday "dig a hole day", but quickly realized this was a losing proposition for me because I don't NEED a hole dug, and this would distract him from raking leaves and other helpful activities.

So, he said I could put it up for a poll. So, please comment on whether you think M&M Dad can dig a 6' hole, that he could stand in, in one day...

This could lead to other "Crazy things my husband claims" polls in the future :)

A beautiful fall day

Friday, M&M Dad stayed home with the girls because they did not have school. Unlike last weekend when we nearly froze to death at their soccer games, it ended up being 85 degrees outside. What a perfect day for a leaf pile. I found these cute pictures on the camera when I got home...

Seems like a lot more fun than my boring day of meetings!

CNN Marathon

Again this year, the YMCA after care program had a running club that built up to running the final 1.2 miles of the Twin Cities marathon. Starshine has been looking forward to it all year, so she signed up eagerly. Jr. Princess, however, was disappointed because she didn't meet the minimum age requirement - bummer. She is an awesome support crew, though, making a cute "Super Starshine" sign to wave near the finish line.

So, last Sunday Jr. Princess and I went down as the cheering section for Starshine and M&M Dad, who volunteered to run, too, this year. She did great! We didn't see any other elementary aged girls run by ahead of her, and M&M Dad said she was totally squirming her way to the front of the start line to get a fast start.

After the race, there were snacks and medals, but we were all disappointed there was no visit from Jillian Michaels like last year. Oh well, we had to head out to go to the Twins game anyway. It was quite the busy day.

Starshine's Weekend

This year in school, Starshine has to track the minutes she reads everyday on a calendar. The goal for this month was 180 minutes, which, because they didn't send it home until halfway through September, works out to about 15 minutes a day. So, I had to take a picture after the first week of keeping track because she is already at 531 minutes! OK, it's really only 400-some minutes, because Thursday was double minute day, (which I think she took as a personal challenge), but seriously - she is such a fabulous reader. No joke - unprodded by us, she read for 173 minutes on Saturday afternoon between her soccer game and having a friend over that evening. I wish I was 8 again and had 173 minutes to read in an afternoon...

Today she couldn't read nearly as much because she's in charge of the "Art to Wear" Try-it badge for girl scouts tomorrow. After a lot of shopping and organizing, she had to practice one of the activities - face painting. Guess who was super excited to volunteer as her model?

Super Face Painting

Friday night we went to the Back to School Dance at the girls' school. Luckily we spotted the face painter early in the evening, because the line was super long later. But boy was she talented...

It also gave me the opportunity to ask what supplies Starshine would need for her upcoming Girl Scout "Art to Wear" try-it badge where, for one of the activities, the girls will try face painting. I'm pretty sure we'll go for something a little easier...