Our Little Zoo

I often feel like I'm living in a zoo filled with strange animal noises, constant feedings, and all sorts of messes to cleanup. Tonight our zookeeper and her little lion met up with an M&M and several princesses and mermaids for some trick-or-treating fun and a great neighborhood block party.

Truth be told, it was 81 degrees and humid when I got home from work, and Clark was too hot and hungry to enjoy his lion costume until things cooled off and he'd eaten just about everything in sight! Aurora ended up trick-or-treating with 2 Rapunzels and 2 Ariels, which was so exciting that she just about had a total meltdown when we got home. It was hot, hectic, and exhausting, and I hope your Halloween was every bit as fun!

Pumpkins

Halloween might just be my favorite holiday. I love the fall, pumpkins, chocolate, and who doesn't get a kick out of seeing cute kids in costume? I like wearing sweaters, boots and scarves while sipping coffee, hot tea or cocoa in the mornings, and my commute is so much happier when I get to drive past beautiful fall leaves on crisp autumn days. Okay, so right now Austin's sort of muggy and rainy, but Halloween marks the beginning of the holiday season. It reminds us that year is coming to a close and the big holidays are waiting just around the corner. Did I mention pumpkins?

We took a trip to the local pumpkin patch this weekend, then carved a cute girly pumpkin named Edwina. Who wouldn't want to kiss those sweet pumpkin lips?

We also got to practice trick-or-treating at the Hill Country Galleria this weekend with our friend Melody. The girls had so much fun as "a doctor and a ballerina going shopping for candy." We got SO much candy, and the girls went on the bungee jump ride together!

I can't wait to see my kids in their costumes tomorrow... seriously, what's not to love about Halloween?!

Sock Hop

Our preparations for the sock hop began last weekend, when the soccer moms got together for a poodle skirt sewing party. The girls had fun playing while we spent hours designing, cutting, and sewing skirts from scratch. Aurora picked the colors and gave input along the way, and we were both very pleased with the results!

The sock hop was a blast. Grandma & Grandpa went and had a great time listening to 50's music and seeing all the kids dance and jive in their adorable outfits. They took lots of pictures, but our neighbor is a photographer and sent these beautiful photos my way. The girls looked so cute!

This is an annual Valley View tradition, and I purposefully made her skirt adjustable and a bit too long just in case there's a chance it'll last through elementary school. The kids had so much fun dressing up, and more costumes are coming as Halloween is just around the corner!

Excellent

Five years of daycare and preschool prepared Aurora perfectly for Kindergarten, but for some reason it didn't quite prepare me for being a kinder mom. These last few weeks have been really fun and quite busy. Last week the kids had a field trip requiring special t-shirts, and they had a teddy bear picnic (seriously, they all brought teddy bears to school and had a picnic with bread and honey!):

Today I sent Aurora to school with $5 so she could pick out her own book at the book fair (we ended up with a Lalaloopsy Princess book), and we have 3 half days this week to accommodate parent-teacher conferences. Yes, today I got to meet with Mrs. Parolini for my first ever parent-teacher conference and we got Aurora's first REPORT CARD! I am very pleased to report that she got mostly E's (Excellent), lots of S's (Satisfactory), and no D's or N's (Developing/Needs Improvement). 

What ever happened to A's, B's, C's, D's and F's!? All the feedback was great - Aurora loves school and happily tackles every assignment with creativity, curiosity, and enthusiasm. Her highest marks were in reading, math, and PE. I couldn't be more proud or any happier with the quality of education she's getting at Valley View Elementary. Luckily, our after school program has been picking her up early so nobody has to stay home due to early dismissal. 

As if all this wasn't enough, Friday is the much anticipated annual Sock Hop! We've been having an excellent time preparing for it, but you'll have to wait for my next post to find out more.

This Week

This has been quite a week, and I must say we've been very lucky to have my parents living here. Monday was sort of a holiday - work and daycare were open but school was closed, so my folks stayed home with Aurora. Mom made a long list of all the activities they did together, including: "Slap Jack, Dominoes, School - Grandpa student, Aurora teacher, Grandma Principal." A day off from school definitely calls for playing school! They had lunch at Chick-fil-A and went to the library, where they ran into several friends. It sounds like they all had a great time.

Today Clark had a fever and had to stay home from daycare, so once again my parents saved the day. There was no list of activities, but it's safe to say that snuggling was involved. Mom and dad have also been picking up food for dinner each night, and we're still taking walks together most evenings.

It is getting darker and colder, both in the evening and in the morning, which makes it harder to wake up early. We've stopped walking to the bus stop together and now I drive Aurora down the block and head directly to work afterwards. Today we missed the bus for the first time so I drove her to school. 

Clark just started sitting at the little table to eat breakfast with Aurora. He's such a sweet boy, and some mornings feel so rushed that leaving him is really hard. Now that we have extra help, everything is definitely easier - especially during a hectic week like this one. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Fall

Last night was the Fall Festival at CCOA. It was a fun night full of games, candy, and plenty of opportunities for the kids to play, bounce and dance. There was even a live kids country band!

I wasn't ready to unveil this year's Halloween costumes, so we dressed as Texans! Aurora still had last year's cowgirl costume and Clark, well I just gathered up some cute country duds and he was adorable. It's been a bit muggy but the weather's sort of cooling down. Actually, it's way too hot out today, but it's the middle of October (happy birthday, Julian!) and the fall festivities have begun!

One Aurora

After spending the past week deciding between 8 adorable pictures of Clark, Aurora's school pictures just arrived, and good news - there's only ONE! When I went to order online I quickly realized that it wasn't quite that simple. The order form showed her with a dark blue background and mentioned some other choices -  but once I went to order there were DOZENS of backgrounds to choose from.

It took a lot of searching to find the plain white background. They clearly wanted me to go with a very bright color or strange pattern, which made it hard to see these amazing curls - and Aurora has no idea what color the wall behind her really was. They also wouldn't let me see her photo online at all, and the proof sheet was covered with "DO NOT COPY" so, for $5 extra I bought the digital proof for the blog. Yup, one gorgeous girl STILL = tons of options. The coolest thing is that this photo will go in Aurora's first ever yearbook! Now, when will that soccer picture arrive?

Too Many Clarkies!

I just got Clark's school pictures back, and not only are they way too cute - there are just too many to choose from! Last time he had class pics he was crying and wearing his jammies, even though I'd packed a cute outfit for them to change him into. This time they couldn't tell what outfit he should wear, so they did two sittings - and apparently he enjoyed himself a bit more this time around! So, loyal blog readers, I really need your help. Which pose should I buy!?!?! Here's the first set. My parents said they like the first pose, but I enlarged the third for you. Those hands, that face...

And the second set... seriously, the smile! His hair isn't as neat, but both outfits are adorable:

And here's our boy with his little buddies from the Owl's class. He has a great time at school...

But I don't think I need to spend $200 on photos to commemorate it! Or do I...?

Neighborhood Walks

Ever since my parents moved into our studio, we've been taking two walks a day. One to get Aurora off to the bus stop in the morning, and one after dinner. Recently our evening walks have become block parties, with several of our neighbors (who all happen to have 5-year olds and 1-year olds) coming out and joining us. The kids (and their parents and grandparents) are taking over the streets!!!

They check out mailboxes, pick up rocks and sticks, walk the wrong direction, squeal and laugh, share strollers, sit on shoulders, pet dogs and run through sprinklers, all while walking about 1 mile per hour. The weather has been perfect and it's become such a fun part of our routine.