Happy Halloween!

I feel like we've been building this holiday up with Sean for a month straight and I'm so excited that today is finally the day!  All of our holiday preparedness helped because Sean totally gets it.  He knows about ghosts, skeletons, pumpkins, witches, scary monsters, and the concept of trick or treating.  And boy is he ready!

We had a trial run last weekend at the Zoo Boo.  Aside from the chilly temperatures, we were lucky to have a beautiful sunny evening since we bought the 5pm tickets - genius!  We were home by bedtime and didn't have any meltdowns from either kid.

 On Monday night, we let Sean clean out his little pumpkin he got from daycare.  They let the kids paint the pumpkins one day last week so it was already decorated, but we thought we'd see what he would do if we let him clean it out and "carve it" (Obviously, Scott did most of the work...).

 I think he was more interested in the ziplock bag of carving tools and the Music Choice Sounds of the Season channel on TV.

But, none the less, here are the pumpkins:

In case you can't tell, the two big pumpkins are Bert and Ernie - thanks to Scott's craftsmanship and Google images.
He was also thrilled that Evan was big enough to do the pumpkin picture he wanted to do with Sean two years ago!  Unfortunately, when he wanted to do this picture with Sean, Sean was only 4 weeks old and I put my foot down on that one.  Since Evan is 8 weeks and has good head control, we gave it a shot.  And we were surprised to see that he actually cooperated (once we lined the pumpkin with a towel so he wasn't cold and put a small space heater on blowing in his direction...).  The things we do to get some funny shots of our kids...

Now it's Halloween day and as an added bonus to being on maternity leave and home, I was able to spend this day with the boys!  We watched Garfield's Halloween Adventure this morning (a classic!) and then I was lucky enough to attend Sean's Halloween Party at daycare from 9:30-11am while Evan was with Nana.  It was so awesome getting to see him interact with his friends and see them all in costume!  While the plans were postponed until tomorrow for the helicopter to drop healthy snacks all over the field behind the school for the kids because of the rainy weather, they still did a great job of putting together arts and craft stations and sensory tables for the kids!

 

With Sean down for his nap and Evan hanging out in his bouncy chair, I was able to whip up some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I found on Pinterest and a salad for dinner over at Scott's sister's house tonight (she lives two blocks away)!  Turkey chili, salad, and the muffins are on the menu for a nice dinner with Scott's family and then the kids are off for trick or treating while I hold down the fort with Evan and some warm apple cider!  Happy Halloween!

Thankful Thursday

I am having a fabulous Thursday, so I thought I'd list a few things I'm thankful for this week:

• I'm thankful for this beautiful weather yesterday and today.  
• I'm thankful that Evan is sleeping one long stretch at the beginning of the night.
• I'm thankful that Sean has not gotten sick since the week Evan was born (knock on wood).
• I'm thankful that Scott helps out with anything I ask of him and always comes to kiss both Evan and I goodbye in the morning while I'm nursing Evan before Scott goes to work.
• I'm thankful that Bailey has been really good with Evan being here.
• I'm thankful that we have such an amazing support system of friends and family in our life that have helped out immensely since Evan was born.  Your gifts, meals, words of encouragement, and visits mean the world to us!
• I'm thankful that we have a very fun weekend in the works!
• I'm thankful that Evan's diaper came back negative today for blood in his stool, which means my sacrifice of giving up all dairy products in the past month has paid off!  I feel encouraged and energized to keep with it!
• Most of all, I'm thankful that sometimes you can take hundreds of pictures and not feel like you captured "the one", but other times, like today, you can take 38 pictures and find one that takes your breath away...

And a few other honorable mentions...

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Go Tigers!!

Well, it's official!  We're going to the World Series and we're going to kick some Giants butt!!

Since we're such avid Tigers fans, I had to take a minute to reflect on all the fun memories we've made going to the games over the years of our relationship and introducing Sean to the love of the game.

From being season ticket holders for a few years while we were dating, engaged, and married...

to seeing Ernie Harwell's farewell...

 

to having a groom's cake for Scott at our wedding...

to Opening Day...

 

to meeting Paws at Amy and Eric's wedding while pregnant with Sean...

to standing in the freezing cold while carrying my breastpump around at TigerFest...

 to Sean's first Tigers game...

 

to Evan's first Tigers game (in the womb)...

CONGRATULATIONS TIGERS!!!  From our growing family, we can't wait to see you all play in the World Series!!!  GO TIGERS!!!

Fall's Festivities

I'm a Michigander for life.  I mean, how could you live somewhere you wouldn't get to experience this?

  

Fall this year has been stupendous!  Maybe it's that I'm home on maternity leave and have the ability to throw the kids in the stroller and enjoy the crisp air, the beautiful colors, and the warm sun every day it's available.   Maybe it's truly like this every year and as I get older each year I appreciate it more.  Either way, I'm a huge fan of September-December every year and it just keeps getting better now that we have kids to share it with.

We've taken full advantage of local cider mills...

 

Pumpkin patches...

Halloween arts and crafts...

 

Sean's birthday, Evan's birthday, my birthday...

 

and all the many Halloween events we have planned.  One of which, being the Pumpkin Palooza in downtown Plymouth:

 

What a beautiful season it has been so far!  Pure Michigan at it's finest!