All that Halloween

We went to Main St trick-or-treat in our lovely little town last week and it came complete with a fire truck, trunk or treat, and a party at our favorite bar and grill. We even got ice cream on the final day of the season at the local ice cream house. My daughter is teetering between loving stuff and being too old for it. She went as an 80's girl complete with fanny pack, side pony, and leg warmers. She immediately got asked if she was JoJo. Mind you, we don't have cable and when she does watch Netflix, it is cooking shows or mermaid shows. She got all salty that people didn't immediately get the costume. I fear my little lady is growing up and I do NOT like it. The following is a list of why I fear this may be the last year of all this Halloween cuteness at my house...

1. We bought a pumpkin because she loved it, but she doesn't want to carve it. She wanted to paint it instead. NOW, she likes it plain just like it is. We are going to let her throw it off the deck and destroy it this weekend. She is much more excited about that!

2. We watched Hocus Pocus, but we won't watch anything else because, "those shows are too little for me now." (Can you hear the sound of my heart right now?!)

3. We can go trick or treating, but she really wants to go with a friend. And only half the time. She wants to come home, bundle up, and pass out candy the second hour (which is fine by me because they're predicting SNOW).

4. She went to a Halloween themed birthday party but didn't feel like dressing up because she wasn't in the mood. Then all the other kids dressed up and she felt a little guilty. But then she got over it!

5. She wants no part in Charlie Brown, Halloween music, or anything else related to Halloween that doesn't involve candy or mildly dressing up.

Look at this cute little 80's diva! You can't even see her fanny pack, but it's there. Oh, yes. It is there!

the finger pain

It all started innocently enough. I ripped off a hangnail that had been bothering me for a while. Within 4 days it became extremely infected. Who knew how important a ring finger was? I swear I bump this thing a thousand times a day and shooting pain ripples through my body and my eyes tear up. Over a ring finger? This is one of the most ridiculous amounts of pain I've experienced and I gave childbirth epidural free and I have been in more than one car accident. This is ridiculous. I continue to soak with Epsom salts all day and use neosporin at night and after a week and a half it looks worse but seems better... We are even to the point where my daughter is afraid to hold my hand for fear she will send me into a pain spasm. People, do yourselves a favor and think before you rip! After 39 years of ripping hangnails out

, they finally got me! Don't be a victim! ;) And this is the "after" picture. I couldn't even stomach a "before" picture.

windmills

Driving through the midwest isn't always the most exciting, but there are some amazing views. I have been staring at these windmills my whole life and they're still one of my favorite things about driving through Indiana. They're also helping keep that little person in the back seat occupied as we listen to Wonder on audiobook and stare out the window.

Road trip day!

We are driving to Indiana for a wedding. Just a quick overnight and we are looking forward to it! That means one bag per person with overnight clothes, wedding clothes, swimwear, toiletries, and clean clothes for tomorrow. Plus a bag for the dog. Plus a bag for drinks and snacks. I packed a week in advance, double checked everything and felt confident it was taken care of. We have been in the car for 42 minutes and my daughter already did her homework and put in an audiobook. She is now pouting because I didn't pack actually reading books, just coloring books, activity books, and audiobooks. What was I thinking!?! Oh, boy... 

At least the clouds are pretty. This could be a long drive....

Tent camping in October

We used to have this awesome pull behind camper that had heat, air, a TV, a shower, you name it. Then, after three years, it started to break down and we decided to sell it and take a year off. There was only ONE camping trip left that we had booked way back in April and since it was only one town over, we decided to tent camp it. Well... anyone who knows the midwest knows our weather is highly unpredictable. We had high 60's and low 70's ALL WEEK. Until Friday, day 1 of our camping extravaganza. It was rainy, cold, and windy until about 2:30pm. We left for camping at 4pm. We arrived to find our campsite was flooded in parts. Fortunately, we packed the extra big tarp which went down before the tent did. An extra bonus was that our friends were coming to camp with us in their even bigger, even more amazing camper that had heat! So, we set our 2 room tent up complete with a cot, a queen sized air mattress, a cooler, a bin of supplies, and a dog. Then we lit a bonfire that lasted most of the 48 hours. If you haven't camped while trick or treating, you are missing out. Sugar River Forest Preserve has an excellent camping area and their regulars do Halloween right! People were making haunted houses and had scary, interactive stuff to see and do. The whole campground is one big loop, so the kids were able to ride and walk around with a walkie talkie while the adults enjoyed the fire. There were games, a magician, a costume contest, a campsite decorating contest, hot chocolate each morning, and lots of night time fun for the adults. I cannot believe I have lived down the road from Shirland most of my life and was unaware of the coolness that is the Sugar River campground Halloween extravaganza. It got down to 35 degrees each night, but the small space heater we put in the tent, plus the queen sized comforters kept us comfortable. We will most definitely be going back for the festivities, regardless of whether we are in a tent or not!
                          The girls enjoying some old fashioned potato sack racing.

         It was GORGEOUS weather until the sun went down, then it was bonfire time!

         We managed to get a child sized hike in and let Charlie boy run off his energy.

How can you steal THAT?!

My friend's brother was a marine. He passed away awhile back and they had a memorial cross put at the site of his crash. And now that cross is gone. Gone. No trace of it. This is now all over the news. My daughter wasn't sure why I was upset so I had to explain that it isn't nice to steal from anyone, let alone someone in heaven. Let alone, a veteran. Guys. What kind of a world do we live in? This is what I am entrusting to my daughter when she's grown? Oh, boy. We need to go back to the basics. Please and thank you, keep your hands to yourself, do unto others as you would do unto yourself kind of stuff... I am hoping my friend's family gets their cross back. I am hoping for peace and happiness in this world. I am guessing I will be waiting awhile, but it all starts at home. We can lead by example and all that. Here's to good news, a good world and a good day!

This is how we do... gifts

You know how you spend a TON of money on that one gift that just turns out to be a novelty item your kids discard shortly after? I felt the same way when we bought our Xbox Kinect. It was great at first. My stepson loved the graphics and all the cool features. Then the weather got warm and it became a glorified DVD player.

Now that my smallest is bigger, she LOVES this thing! Not only do I work out from home a lot (Biggest Loser, Zumba, and Dance Central are my favorites), we can use it for so much more. On snow days when we can't really go anywhere we have bowling marathons. We dance when we are bored. We play Twister the really cool, really fun way if friends come over.

Depending on your kids, you can get lots of different games. The ninja game was NOT a big hit, but Disney is. My daughter can walk around Disney, get autographs, play games with individual characters and so much more. Since she is like me and definitely likes to move, we use the Kinect a LOT when it is too hot, too cold, too rainy.

I doubt that we will invest in many more games now that my stepson has gone off to college. My daughter seems pleased with the games that we actually have. I am sure some day, they will come up with something new to draw her attention in. For now, we really like to do Xbox adventures. Our favorite feature is the snapshots of you in live action. You can save them to your account to laugh at yourselves in all that free time that's lying around...

Featured here is my daughter attempting to smack my bottom during an intense game of Xbox adventures. We were trying to plug the holes in a ship and I am pretty sure we laughed more than played, but for 20 minutes, we were together. Laughing. Creating memories. Having a grand ol' time.

Fall temps

Fall is here. Officially. This means it is cold in the mornings to the point where your nose drips and pleasant in the afternoons. You can almost smell the leaves, pumpkin spice and apple sangrias... We officially traded out our summer clothes for fall/winter ones. In the midwest, once you switch your clothes and pumpkin spice appears on every menu, it's fall ya'll!!! Now excuse me while I go pumpkin picking and catch up on my scary movie watching ;)

Fall has finally arrived!

This is the moment we have all been waiting for! It has rained for almost 2 weeks here, which is unheard of in the midwest fall weather movement. So it goes from 80 degrees and rainy in late September to brrrr, fall cold! I will take it! Now we impatiently wait for the wood to dry up from all the rains and it is bonfire all night, every night. Bonfires with hot chocolate and the sound of the local football game coming in from across the field.... Ahhh. I love fall!!!!