Sweet Sunshines of Mine: In the middle of the best time of year--fall!

Fall is usually when things slow down for us. Long days at the beach and pool are swapped for at-home crafts, “leaf adventures” invented by yours truly (entails pulling the girls in the wagon around the yard and sub, grabbing various leaves, and yelling, “LEAF ADVENTURE!!”—I swear, I’m only about 60% insane :-P), and yummy hearty dishes cookin away (like the turkey we cooked up this past weekend). But we’ve been on the go the past couple weeks.

Colors like this are good for the soul.

Recognize a little three year old in this pic?

Friday: gots my new hairs. I had five gray strands. That’s five too many. Plus I’m over long hair so 2 ½ hours of salon time later and I’m a new Stacie. The end goal is more caramel mixed with blond and a tad shorter. Baby steps. I'm in love with the end result:

After my pampering, Kris and I met up with friends for dinner and drinks. The girls stayed entertained thanks to one of our fave teachers playing the role of babysitter. Fun night had by all

Saturday: dance followed by trick or treating at an outdoor small business-y “mall”. I’m a planner. From meals for the week, to clothes for the next day, to vacations years in advance, to future kiddos, I like to know what’s going on and when it will go down. So two months prior to this date I went to the website and plugged the date and time in my calendar.

Welp, the place pushed the time an hour back a couple weeks ago, unknown to this pre-planner. Fine, so we walked around and rode the carousel until it was time for actual ToTing. By this time it was pouring. No other choice but to sprint through the rain. Parker and friend had an absolute blast.

Some of the cute shops. The yellow one taught me that I cannot understand a Scottish accent for the life of me.

Waiting for her buddy.

Sunday: RELAXED! + dance.

Monday: back to the grind but an evening filled hanging out at home.

Tuesday: Parker and mama date night! Party City and Target. PC two days before Halloween is wild beyond belief. And probably not the most appropriate place to take a three year old with such a mix of creepy + slutty costumes.

Wednesday: office Halloween bash. The adults dress up (well the fun ones do!) and the kiddos come in to trick or treat around the office. We loaded up not only with candy, but juice boxes and money as well. Yes, cash was given out. Remember, I do work at a brokerage firm ;) I also was awarded the grand prize for best costume.

Do you like my costume a latte?

Teagan enjoyed trying to put candy down my straw.

Thursday: actual Halloween. It was pouring. I think this is a Halloween requirement. And if not rain, snow. Teagan is in the middle of a cold so we stayed back and handed out treats while Parker ran around with her BFF in the sub. All adults and children arrived back at our house. Soaked, but blissfully happy. The kids from the candy, the adults from the spiked cider. Good neighbors!

Shocked that the child who hates getting messy actually touched the inside of a pumpkin.

Paint all day in school but the second I try a craft it's like baby torture.

You don't scare me, moving hand!

Never stand in the way of a drenched child and her candy.

Friday: Disney’s Pirate and Princess show! When I saw this was coming to Michigan I knew we had to make it happen. Parker’s obsession, Sofia the First, was the main attraction. And Cinderella even made an appearance! Between that and the Sofia snow cone + mug combo that took Parker 1 ½ hours to fully consume, we all left happy.

My two little princesses. Though you don't need a costume to know that ;)

Tickles!

Good seats for the big show!

The look on her face made this snow cone purchase the best decision of the evening.

Saturday : dance where finally FINALLY I got to observe the class. I was as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. I didn't really know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. Parker followed each and every instruction. Tapping, dancing, singing, ballet, all of it! I couldn't get over how focused she was on the teacher and mimicking her moves. Not to wish away time but December 14th (recital date) cannot come soon enough. We were also handed all the info and costume order form for the June recital. Talk about planning early!

My parents visited for the day as well. Girls loved having extra playmates for the day.