Month: October 2017

What a day! Wade stayed home today to help me out with child-care coordination. I needed to be at Teague’s school all day for his parade and party (somehow I am the only room mother for the class), and Alex gets off the bus an hour before I would get home. The party went great and the kids were adorable!
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Then we had a short time at home before it was time for trick or treating! The kids were so excited to visit the houses on our street. Then we ventured to “South Street.” This is a street close to ours that shuts down and puts on a huge block party. Some of the houses have movies, cotton candy, popcorn, etc. It is insanely crowded but a lot of fun.
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We didn’t get home till almost 9 and everyone was worn out! We let each child pick one candy and then the rest of the sorting/trading was put off for another day.

About three years ago, I figured out something most people probably already know. If I prepare some meat (in our case pulled chicken and ground beef) and keep it in the freezer in pre-portionioned sizes, dinner can always be ready in a pinch. For me this took so much time out of preparing certain meals and gave me a few that I can always make at a moments notice (Chili, tacos, nachos, several casseroles, etc). I freeze each bag with about 2 cups of meat, which works perfectly for most everything I prepare.
Last year I stumbled onto a blog that truly revolutionized my meat prep. It turns out you don’t have to shred chicken by hand. I have always boiled chicken on the bone, let it cool, and then shredded it with my fingers. Imagine my surprise when I learned you can use your mixer to shred multiple chicken breasts at a time. Now I buy a lot of meat at one time (normally at Sam’s Club) and take an afternoon to get it all ready for freezing. Then we are good to go for a month or two.
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Every year when the boys wear their costumes for the first time, we encounter a few problems or drawbacks that weren’t anticipated. This year it turns out Alex can’t bend his arms enough to find the small opening in his treat bag. Wade and I have found it hilarious, but Alex has been quite annoyed and worried he is losing candy.

My MOPS group had a playdate at Tougas Farm today. I had heard great things about the farm, but we hadn’t been able to find time to go as a family. Instead, I kept Kaitlyn out of school and we met up with the other Moms and kids. We didn’t actually see any pumpkins, but the play area was great, the apple cider donuts were delicious, and everyone loved feeding the goats.
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Today I discovered how Alex must really feel about taking out the recycling. I have no idea how long this has been on the trashcan since Alex normally empties it for me.

(Next up is learning to spell.)

Why oh why can’t all store checkouts have children’s books at the front?

Wade is working hard on costumes. Alex wanted to be a robot for the third year so this year it’s a round trashcan and bucket.

We have so many Legos at this point that I’m not exactly sure what we have. I know the boys love the “jewels” and we have them in several colors. I also know one boy loves to take special pieces that they fight over and just put them in his pocket. I didn’t think too much when I found a few in the washing machine. Then I completely emptied the washer and realized I had a huge number of jewels – much more than I thought we could possibly own. After a little strategic questioning, it became apparent that these were from the Lego class at school. They had once again ended up in his pocket. Apologizing and returning is never fun, but my boy did it today and helpfully at some point he’ll quit filling his pockets.

This is the first year we haven’t had some kind of pumpkin carving party, but between a new house, new town, and a baby coming it just never got planned. Instead we had the best time as a family carving pumpkins today. Kaitlyn and Alex had both wanted a huge pumpkin so they picked one out together yesterday and had to work as a team to clean it out and design the face. Teague had picked a reasonable size pumpkin and wanted to do it all himself – cleaning, designing, and carving.
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Teague’s class had a nature walk at school today. Amazingly, I was able to tag alone while Kaitlyn was in school.
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Fall in New England is pretty awesome.

She’s so content to entertain herself while I do necessary things like make us lunch.