Anticipating Fall

We're still dealing with un-Fall like temperatures here, but since Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons, I'm trying to take advantage of this time of year. It rained a lot this weekend which helped us get in a cozy Fall mood, but K and I also did as much as we could this weekend to make it really feel like a Fall.  

I spray painted our small pumpkins on the front porch and then let K go at it using sample sized paints with a q-tip, which was much less cumbersome than a bulky paint brush. I was pretty impressed with that idea since I am most definitely not a crafty lady.

Our final products

I bought these (fake) pumpkins at Target. K and I decided to glam-up the plain orange, black and cream colored ones by applying some glitter paint I bought at Home Depot. We love sparkle!
Halloween manicure complete with a blow-dry to speed up the process.I purposely didn't have her nap this weekend. After activity-packed days she went to bed early and I enjoyed some unheard of alone time complete with hot cider and Halloween themed rice crispy treats (coconut oil, peanut butter, agave nectar, rice crispies and chocolate chips, for good measure.)

Speaking of unheard of, I decided to take up a project that fell into the "crafting" category, something that I've never really taken an interest in. I saw a really cute wreath on a website and thought it would look nice between Kathryn's room and the spare bedroom, a place where I hang seasonal wreaths. 

First of all, the lady on the website is a total liar. She said that wrapping the yarn around the wreath (twice) took her 30 minutes. Three hours later, I finished that step and then I don't even want to admit how long it took me the next day to semi-figure out how to sew the felt so it was ruffled. It didn't turn out as good as I had hoped, but I say it's a decent outcome for a beginner.

Finally taking a break to pretend we were at the movies and watched the original Cinderella.

You can't be in the Fall mood without some comfort food. I made a big batch of my veggie-packed potato chowder and on Sunday took four hours to make one of my favorites - Short Ribs Lasagna Rolls. It's worth every moment to make them, trust me (and they can be easily turned into a vegetarian meal, which would take far less time).

K has been asking for weeks if we could put on her flannel penguin sheets from Nana. Even though it's not really flannel sheets weather, I gave in this weekend.

We're ready for Fall, whenever it decides to show up.

Becoming a "Soccer Mom"

Albeit slow, I can see my future self become a soccer mom, minus the minivan. Kathryn has been asking...and asking...us for a couple of weeks to take gymnastics. When I asked her if she knew what gymnastics were she said, "No. Can you tell me?"

Her persistence paid off. I looked into classes and found times for the 3-5 year old class that could allow me to pick her up from school, grab a quick bite to eat, change her and head to class (hence, where the 'soccer mom' portion of my life is beginning) and before I knew it, we were pulling into the gymnastics facility for her to take her first class!

To say that she had a blast would be a total understatement. Without hesitation, she joined the other kids and left me in her dust. 

She appears to be the youngest in her group, but I don't think that phased her. There were a bunch of classes going on at the same time and I think she really loved the energy in the room from the high school girls practicing for the competitive cheerleading team to the other girls on the balance beam.

I hope she continues to enjoy it as much as she did on her first night.