Halloween

Halloween was not invented by moms. For some reason it made perfect sense when I was a kid, but now it just baffles me every year. We're basically teaching our kids that it's totally acceptable to knock on stranger's doors and beg for candy. You can go into their house and take whatever they have, as long as you're wearing a costume. Obviously.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for it! We've never had a trick-or-treater at our house, so we were thinking of driving down to another area to beg for treats. Just as we were getting ready to leave, we met Thing 1 and Thing 2, our new neighbors two houses down, and decided to stick with them. Just about every house we went to said ours were the only kids they've had stop by in years - but they all had candy and it was nice to stay on our block and get to know our neighbors a bit better.

Aurora kept reciting Halloween safety tips she'd learned at school and insisted each house only give her one candy. What can I say, she's a stickler for the rules! We also carved a pumpkin this weekend - another tradition not designed by mothers.

She didn't want anything to do with the carving knives, but the girl does love fire. This is the only pumpkin we carved, even though we had three. Chuck refused to help because he "knows what's inside" of pumpkins. Yeah, delicious seeds! Oh well, maybe I'll bake something with the others... I'm not sure I have the skills or ingredients to do it right, but it sounds like a fairly safe, mom-approved activity.

Trick-or-Treat

Halloween may not be until Monday, but the festivities happened this afternoon at my work. Staff were invited to bring their kids in for some desk-to-desk trick-or-treating, which was a pretty great way to end the week for me and my little Pirate Princess.

We got candy and stickers, played with lots of big and little friends, colored, ate snacks, and yes... I even got some work done. We might do a little trick-or-treating in the neighborhood on Monday, but after today I think we have enough treats to last us for awhile.

Halloween story time

Last night after dinner, Aurora and I headed out to the library for a pretty awesome pajama story time which included spooky songs, scary books, and even a special oreo spider treat!

A couple weeks ago we did Halloween arts & crafts at the library. Aurora decorated a bunch of pumpkins and haunted houses. The girl loves cutting and gluing as much as she loves books.

I'm not sure why we haven't been doing art and story time every month at the library; either I haven't been paying attention, or they weren't offering activities like these in the evenings before. Laura's library is a mile from our house, everything is free, and they do a great job. It wasn't at all crowded, so I'm just hoping they keep up the evening kid's events. We're already looking forward to Thanksgiving story time!

Weekend Activities

We had a nice weekend full of all sorts of fun.  Saturday morning we went to the Austin Nature Center so Aurora could dig dino bones... er, walk with duck feet.

She did plenty of digging, too.  It was perfect weather and not at all crowded.

Later in the afternoon we went to a birthday party for Aurora's friend Julian at a bowling alley.

After all that activity, she totally conked out in the car.  I'd call that a successful Saturday!

Today we went to the gym, ran errands, watched movies, and... went to the pumpkin patch!

We found a pumpkin patch pretty close to our house, and they had a Halloween room full of witches, ghosts, skeletons, and a HUGE pumpkin. Aurora thought it was scary, but she loved it.

I love fall weekends like this. We have more Halloween activities on the horizon, so stay tuned!

Fall Festival

Tonight was the Fall Festival at Aurora's school. We met up with Presley and her mom for dinner at an incredibly crowded restaurant, then carpooled over to the Children's Center for MORE crowds and kids, as well as art projects, cookies, games, prizes, and even a bouncy slide! It was the girl's first time wearing their Halloween costumes and boy did they look cute.

I took a bunch of pictures, but these have to be my favorites. They had a bright orange backdrop setup for family photos, so technically it was supposed to be me and Aurora. As soon as it was our turn, Presley and Mia just went right up with Aurora and started giggling and gabbing, as Seth snuck in to stand next to them.

We were in the company of some pretty adorable Princesses, but our Pirate Princess and Seth the Mailman got a ton of compliments. And yes, Aurora's bear wore a matching Pirate costume...

Aurora in Action

Challenge

This weekend Team Rooster hit the streets of Austin for the LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K. We didn't have as many people on our team as last year, but we raised over $1000 and had a lot of fun.

We walked with Bailey, Laura, Mona, my friend Anne and her 3-year old daughter, and it took us over an hour. Quite honestly, it was more of a challenge than I expected it to be. I'm actually a little sore today! Now that the weather's cooling off, we'll have to get out and walk more often.

Special thanks to all who donated and joined our team. Go Roosters!

Nothing Much

Not a lot going on this weekend, but that doesn't mean I don't have cute pictures to share!

Shaving cream at school

Spinning with daddy

Finding friends at the park

Stickers with Atticus

LIVESTRONG Day

This weekend we celebrated LIVESTRONG Day at work with staff, friends, food, music and all sorts of fun activities. I know you can't see these well, but I am a sucker for photo booths!

Aurora's a sucker for bounce houses, sidewalk chalk, and of course... Laura Masch. 

Each year we celebrate LIVESTRONG Day on 10/2, and this year it marked 15 years since the date of Lance Armstrong's cancer diagnosis. In just over a week, we'll be hitting the streets once again with Team Rooster in the LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K. I know my family can't be here to join the team, but I wanted to share my fundraising link anyway: http://austin2011.livestrong.org/rooster. More to come! 

Baby Shower

I honestly feel like it's baby season around here. We have a record number of pregnant women at work, my co-worker Robert just had a baby girl, and my friend Sarah is just 6-weeks away from delivering a baby boy. This weekend we held a baby shower for her at my house. Aurora's favorite part was playing with the balloons - she'd throw them in the air, catch them and yell "I'M A WINNER!!!"

She also played along as we used the balloons in slightly more silly ways. Wow.

Don't worry, Sarah is the only one who's actually pregnant in this group. Though, clearly something is in the water so watch out! Seriously, she is going to be an awesome mama and we can't wait to meet baby Callum.