On October first we celebrated our first official fall harvest. We harvested our pumpkins, our potatoes (or pots as we call them) and our carrots.
This was our largest pumpkin. It was so heavy, Ellie could only hold onto it for a minute.
We ended up with five pumpkins for our porch. Ellie claimed the largest one for when it would be time to carve them into jack-o-lanterns.
I believe we had around 60 pounds of potatoes from our little garden. We were so excited!
Kevin officially earned his green thumb (and other fingers).
We ended up with a few alien looking potatoes and one that we thought looked like a snowman.
I forgot to take a picture of the rest of the harvest, but we had bags and bags of carrots, lots of peppers, and a ton of bitter cucumbers we had to throw out. I loved this picture of our jalapenos.
The garden was wonderful for our family. I think what we loved the most was watching it grow. Almost every morning we would all go out to the garden together to see what was happening with our plants. Of course we enjoyed the food; Kevin loved the stuffed jalapenos and Ellie loved the potatoes. I think my favorite part was having fresh onions and lettuce any time I needed it. I would often go out in the morning and pick a piece of lettuce for Kevin's lunch sandwich. Ellie would often go out to eat from the grape and cherry tomato plants. We can't wait to do it again next year!
In October, we also spent some time getting our house ready for Halloween. Ellie enjoys helping with the decorations for a short amount of time. Yet when it takes me two days to get it right, like it did this Halloween, she has about 15 minutes of decorating excitement and can tolerate about thirty.
Friday night, October 5th, we had a family date. Nights like this one are just priceless. We have such a good time together. We had to stop at JoAnn’s for a birthday present and as I was wandering the aisles I came across Kevin and Ellie down an aisle battling it out in a sword fight.
Ellie convinced me to buy her a craft project (it’s pretty much impossible to go to a store anymore without Ellie finding something she wants) and she worked on painting it that night.
We had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and while we waited for a seat, cute Ellie took out her toys and played on the nearby table. It’s little nights and little things like this, that make me love her and my family so much. We didn't do anything particularly special that night, just a bit of shopping and some dinner. But we were all excited to be together, in great moods, and just enjoyed the night. Pretty much perfection in a Friday night.
This was earlier that day....making some concoction in the bathroom that is always awesome to clean up.
Love the boots.
The next day we had helped to organize a charity run for my cousin’s son, Conley. Instead of running, we helped with registration and money. The run was a zombie run and Ellie had zero interest in dressing up. At the event they had professional make-up artists that would zombify you – and she honestly could not see the point in that and did not want to be a zombie or have anything to do with them. When I told her some of her cousins would be there and be zombies, she mentioned that the younger cousins probably wouldn't and was shocked to find out that they were totally into it. Not Ellie.
For no particular reason on a Tuesday night, Ellie had donned her old dance clothing and was putting on a show in the living room. I happened to catch a sassy look or two on camera, but in the picture I was shocked to see how grown up she is. Eight has been a big year for this. I have noticed she is starting to look older, in fact it has been eight where I have started to see her more as a kid than a child. And of course she has started to act a bit older.
The next day I took her for her first orthodontic appointment and they wasted no time getting started. The same day we had our consultation Ellie was in the chair getting spacers inserted in her back molars to make room for an appliance and braces that would come a month later. (Talk about looking older…..it took me some time to recover when those finally went on…but we’ll get to that in November.) We went for the consultation and were wowed by the office and the reward program. The office has over fifteen televisions, broadcasting the latest children’s movie, its very own game room, quick and friendly service and an awesome reward program. Every time Ellie goes to the office if she wears his office shirt, has clean teeth and no broken parts she gets points. After she reaches so may points she can trade them in for prizes. And there are some really cool prizes! We laugh that the doctor's name is Dr Payne, and love the irony in it.
Every Saturday in October we had soccer games. I loved them every time, but struggled with the girls losing every game. At first I know it didn't bother them, but as the season went on I know it was hard on them.
On October 13th, my family (Emalynn, Jed, Kevin and I) had organized another fundraiser for my cousin, Conley. We organized a golf tournament that was hugely successful, we were pretty excited about it! Anyway, while the golfers were playing, I took Ellie to her soccer game and of course it was the best game the team had all season. They actually scored two goals, and Ellie had a good game. Almost every Sunday she gave Jed a hard time because he didn't come to every game and after this game she said, “Well, Kevin missed our best game.” I am glad she still cares that we are around and there for her.
I don’t know that Ellie loves soccer, but I know she at least enjoys it. And honestly for her first season she did awesome. She is the fastest runner on the team, she listens to the coach, she follows the rules and guidelines he gives them (no surprise there) and really if she can get some more time and practice under her belt I think she’d be really good. I just don’t know if she will have the drive or desire to stick with it. She doesn't like to be aggressive with the other players – she’s polite and it’s almost as if she says, “Oh….you have the ball, okay, I’ll wait my turn.” Which really I must be proud of as a parent, but I found myself pushing her to be more aggressive! It’s sports Ellie, no need to play nice! I guess you can tell who the competitive one in the family is!
Ellie is a bit more driven to play with toys. In fact a few days later these were her exact words, “If I don't play every day my life will be ruined. My reputation will be ruined! I will be demanded to do my homework the minute I get home and do chores every day!”
I think that sentence pretty much sums up Ellie’s loves and hates at this point in her life.
On October 18th, we were able to at least keep one of our October traditions. We teamed up with the Sorensen girls to go on the annual witch hunt at Gardner Village.
On the 19th we went to the Vanderlindens to make dinner. We always enjoy our time at their house and I’m always impressed with Ellie. The Vanderlinden’s have three girls and Ellie does a great job at playing with and including all of them. As a matter of fact, one time Kimese mentioned she likes to invite Ellie to their birthday party because Ellie will entertain the girls that don’t have friends. Kimese thought I might be offended by that “use” of my child, but I was not and so proud to be Ellie’s mom.
The friends and parties continued for Ellie as we joined the Sorensens on the 20th for Taj’s Tortoise party. Taj wanted a tortoise for her birthday and it just so happened that there was one that needed a home. Ellie and I helped Leea get all of the decorations together and the kids all had a great time. Two years in a row now, the weather cooperated for an outside October party.
Five days later…we got snow.
In October I had been working on a gallery wall for my entrance. I had to get a final piece, so another visit to JoAnn’s resulted in another craft project for Ellie. I was super excited about buying this one for her. Why, you ask? Because I remember doing this exact craft when I was just about her age. It was Halloween and I am old enough that at some homes you might get a homemade treat or an apple. That year there was a particular scare about razors in apples and other perverted treats so my mom decided we would just stay in. She bought me a latch hook project to do in between handing out candy. Now here is where Ellie and I differ. I worked on that project until it was complete. I even recall getting additional projects and completing them. Ellie gets the same excitement, but after either it takes longer than she expects or is more difficult than she wants, she is done. That awesome latch hook project will likely never be completed. She will likely not have the same excitement to buy her daughter one. :D
At the end of the month, Ellie had to return to the orthodontist to get her spacers checked and to get a mold made for her appliance. She hates getting the molds made and of course they messed up the first time and had to do it a second. Although, even though she hates it so badly, she is super cooperative and doesn't say a word about it to the staff.
Thursday night, October 25th, I got a “save my bacon” call from Shawn and I had to quickly plan a birthday dinner for Leea. I was stressed about it because I knew I was super busy at work the next day, and my entire family had eye exams that afternoon. I wasn’t quite sure where I was going to find time to put dinner and little party together. I was discussing it with Kevin and Ellie and pretty soon Ellie had put this list together for her. She also had a busy day and a lot to get done before the party!
Everyone’s eyes checked out okay the next day. Mine were like 20/10 – I am thankful they are still doing so well several years after lasik. Ellie’s are good, but there may be a need for glasses in the future. Kevin’s are also good, just slightly on the decline. Dr Rice told us that most everyone starts to need bifocals around 40 for reading – ugh. We all had our eyes dilated and that gave us a glimpse into what is to come. Our vision plan will cover glasses, but since none of us need them we decide to get sunglasses instead. Kevin couldn’t find a pair he liked, but Ellie left with a sweet pair of Ray Ban’s and I found a back-up pair that live in Kevin’s truck. Kevin left with the awesome Ray Charles, paper-thin version.
We rushed home, cooked up some curry and had an amazing dinner, some yummy cupcakes (thanks to the bakery down the road) and a successful birthday party. I have to admit I was pretty happy to have pulled the entire day together.
Saturday the 27th – another soccer game, another great effort, more pacing and anxiety from me. (You want the team to do well, you want your child to be good, you want your child to help contribute to the team, you want ONE win.) At this point in the season, Ellie didn't want to go any more, but look at the smile she has once she gets there. This is something Ellie and I do have in common. We are perfectly happy at home and it takes some convincing for us to go out and do something, which we always enjoy.
The final two days of October were pure Halloween fun. On the 30th, Kevin’s work had their annual party. This year we took the Sorensen girls but then we also took Jeff and Sherrie. Kevin wasn't as excited about their theme this year, Peter Pan, yet once they started planning they took it to the extreme where it was impossible to not be excited. They had a flying Peter Pan, a huge ship, mermaids, the lost boys, the Indian Village (with real teepees) and of course Tinkerbell. Kevin and I spent some time at Savers piecing his costume together. Most of the items were from the women’s section, but he looked awesome and they took first place!
The entire event was again amazing. They had acrobats, musicians, ice cream, churros, popcorn, the yo-yo pro even the reptiles made it back for the “wait in-line” entertainment and once again the girls braved touching the snakes.
Kevin is not sure if this was the last year, but the company funded it like it was. Every team member was allowed to bring more people than the prior years, so it was a bit more crowded and a bit slower. Some of the areas took advantage of the funds and were honestly the best I’d seen. We hope they will continue it for next year, but if not, we had a great time at the last few!
On Halloween Ellie got to dress up for school. She was a detective this year and in her class she won the most creative costume. This was the first year in her life she was a bit indecisive on her costume. She had started out wanting to be a dog, but when we couldn't find a costume she liked she started bouncing several ideas around and one night in the scary (to Ellie) costume store we found the perfect one. It was the only one like it and a little big. We snatched it up and I did a few alterations. She was super cute!
I went to the school in the afternoon to help with the class party. This year I brought a relay type game where they had to deliver the ghost (balloon) on the platter, throw the eyeballs (ping pong balls) into the witches brew, fish eyeballs (gumballs) out of a bowl using only vampire teeth and solve the math problem written on the eyes, and then make as many words as they could with certain Halloween letters. The kids got so excited about the games and of course I love to do them. I try to get as creative as possible and fortunately…so far…I've been successful.
With the busy month, we hadn't had time to carve our pumpkins so on Halloween we took some time after school and before trick-or-treating to make our Jack-o-lanterns. I don’t love cleaning them out so I went with decorating, rather than carving. Ellie drew and carved an awesome cat and Kevin went with a more traditional face.
She got tired before her pillow case was full (which I suspected would happen) so we headed home to hand out candy. Sadly, we missed almost everyone while we were out and only got to give a few pieces out. Ellie sat on the porch, dumped out her candy, and like a good mini-Brooke, started to organize, sort and count her loot!
We put them outside for the night and then got dressed up again and headed out in our neighborhood. Ellie was excited about the volume of candy she was going to get this year. She did not want to buy a bag, but instead take her pillow case. That is such a sign of growing up. This was also the first year she expressed desire to go with a friend from school, but we told her she was not quite old enough to go alone.
I know that is coming up soon, so we dressed up and took advantage of one of the last years Ellie will want to come with us.
We had so much fun going together, just the three of us. I realize that this was probably the last year for that and ate up every moment of it. It even worked out to Ellie’s advantage. Because Kevin and I were dressed up, most people would also offer us candy, and when we declined they would put it in Ellie’s pillow case anyway.
She got tired before her pillow case was full (which I suspected would happen) so we headed home to hand out candy. Sadly, we missed almost everyone while we were out and only got to give a few pieces out. Ellie sat on the porch, dumped out her candy, and like a good mini-Brooke, started to organize, sort and count her loot!
When I was younger and we had a fun but exhausting day my mom would say that we spent or punched all of our fun tickets. I can’t quite remember if Taj was sick or just grumpy after Halloween but Ellie said, “Oh, she spent all her fun tickets!” I loved the reference and to be honest we punched all of ours as well…it was a great, but exhausting October!
(Writing all of this in April, thinking about the mental and physical work that went into this month is even exhausting now. But it’s also one of my most amazing months. The garden, the charity events, the birthday parties, the gifts, the Halloween games, the Halloween costumes, the soccer games, the doctor appointments, not to mention work and school –all crazy successful. I’m super excited about it, but now I realize why I’m playing catch-up on the blog in April!)
