Seth's Birthday and Halloween and everything in between

Seth went to each of his (in-state) grandparents for a weekend in October to celebrate his birthday with them. He got new dress clothes while visiting Rob's parents. And some flying remote control bird thing. (boys and remote controls...)

 Our couch was not built as supportively as it should have been, so we opened up the back and added some more jute webbing (strap things that support the cushions) - we couldn't do it the "right way" because the couch is already built, but it has helped some.

Halloween costumes this year:
Alee wanted to be Doc McStuffins
(Alee has been wearing a stethoscope for about 4-5 months now. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.)

 

Kaitlyn is Trixie, a character from Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

I figured most of you would need the reference to see the costume resemblance.

Those two were easy since they were mostly just clothing items bought at the consignment shop and now they have a new skirt and leggings and shirt each...but I hope Kaitlyn won't wear hers in that particular combination after Halloween.

The other girls wore their costumes from last year - Carolyn as Hermione and Natalie as Ginny, both from Harry Potter books.

Seth wanted to be a villager from minecraft (game), so I just bought him a brown hoodie and said good luck! (I've got 3 other projects that I'm working on this fall! I love Halloween, but it was low priority this year.)

We did some yard work (trimming bushes, pulling weeds, pulling thorny vines) and Seth found this snail. (And a chewed up tennis ball half buried in the dirt. But that wasn't picture worthy)

Alee had a kindergarten fall festival at her school. Cute games and activities

Seth accomplished 2 levels in scouts (I think tenderfoot and first class.) Rob's in charge of scouts, so I have no idea what I'm talking about (despite the fact that I have 4 younger eagle scout brothers).
(I'm in charge of the girls' goal-setting!) These are the pins they give to the mother when the scout reaches each level (class? rank?).

First quarter is done. Awards time - Seth made A's and B's (and his one B was one point from an A...fantastic!) and the three girls made all A's. Alee doesn't get grades yet.

 Music award

 Carolyn was a little embarrassed to go up alone for her award. Hopefully she AND some of her friends will get all A's next quarter.

 Alee tried to skip school twice this week, but I don't know why she wanted to stay home - she loves school and is very good at it.

Seth wanted a donut cake for his birthday - which was the easiest "Cake" I've ever made, but kind of expensive. (It's made up of 2 dozen donuts and 2 dozen donut holes. Obviously, that's a lot of donuts - so the "cake" was eaten Friday night and again as breakfast Saturday morning and dessert Saturday night.)

Rob and I wanted to make his birthday not just any other Friday, so we went to a party store and picked a theme and decorated so the family party would be worthy of being called a party.

 Mustache balloons (I drew a different mustache on each balloon)

 Mustache stickers 

(they kind of hurt coming off, and most of us only had them on long enough for a picture!)

 Seth had a friend over to spend the night - they got creative with the discarded mustaches from sisters and parents. Seth may not have facial hair yet, but he is officially a teenager now.

 Oh, and chocolate mustache lollipops. haha...Once Rob picked the theme, I had fun with the last minute "party".

 Alee just wants to lick her lollipop - forget the picture!

Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with some friends nearby 

(Alee really was happy about it - she just didn't want another picture)

 Seth used smoke bombs Grammy bought while she was in town to make his jack-o-lantern (which was rotting on the inside by the way) smoke and look "cool".

Will took this pictures for me. We had Jared's family come over to visit and Will and his friend come over to visit. But I didn't take pictures of them.

And now it's November - how is it already November??

I am finished one of my 3 fall projects - it turned out really nice. I will have to post them later, but it would ruin a Christmas surprise!

My next 2 projects have to be done about the same time - since they are related to Carolyn and Alee's birthdays and they share a birthday.

One is Carolyn's birthday party (In case you don't know, I throw 1 "friend" party a year and this school year it's Carolyn's turn. I'm probably going a little overboard with this, but Carolyn has never had a friend party that was just her party and not shared with a friend or brother.)

The other fall project is a gift for Alee's birthday.