The Saturday 7

1. We had a fun Halloween last week. It was nice having it on a Sunday so we didn't have to scramble to get ready after school. The girls are all about the makeup, and Levi has FOMO, so he got his done too. 

Lena: neon cheetah, Levi: transformer, Lucy: Mal from Descendants

Levi's costume was a little small to begin with, then I shoved warm clothes underneath it and he ate a big dinner and his belly busted right out of it. Lol.

I was pretty proud of that make-up job!

Lucy was excited to find a colored hairspray that actually worked in her dark hair! She's been working hard on taking care of her hair and it's so beautiful with all those natural curls. #jealous

After a quick stop at Justin's parents', we met up with my family at Niki's for a cousins' picture and obscene amounts of candy.

The Cousin Crew. 

Then we hopped over to my street to prowl the neighborhood for candy.

This is the first year Lena actually walked up to houses without me at her side!

We stopped at the fire station, did a trunk or treat and a couple more streets, then headed home to sort out the haul! A good time was had by all! 

2. Now that we've reached November, I've started listening to Christmas music and doing my Christmas shopping! I usually don't wait so long to start the Christmas music. I don't know what my problem was this year, but I made up for it this week. 😁 I'm also buying into the hype about "supply chain" issues and concerns that nothing will be available close to Christmas, so I'm trying to get a good chunk of my shopping done early. I've also started buying 2 packages of toilet paper every time I go to the store. This week, there was only one brand left and the rest of the shelves were empty. #notagain! 

3. We had conferences for Levi this week: the first time I've ever dreaded conferences. Haha. The good news is he's as smart as the girls. Whew! I've always been worried that we'd have one kid significantly "less smart" than the others and he/she would always worry about measuring up. But Levi's right on track with the girls academically. It comes easily to him, he's thorough and meticulous, and he's mastering all the tasks he's supposed to. The bad news is he's a troublemaker. Haha. Not that we were surprised. And his wonderful teacher absolutely did not use that term. The worst part is morning drop-off. I've done the clingy thing with Lena before, but she isn't destructive and disruptive (except for that one freak-out in 1st grade). Levi doesn't care who gets in his way. If he's unhappy, the world is going to know it. He also has some laziness issues and will flat-out tell his teacher, "I don't want to do this." But that's getting better as the year goes on and he realizes that he doesn't have a choice. Haha. And on Friday, for the first time in weeks, Levi gave me a hug at the door, then walked into his classroom without issue! I couldn't believe it!!

4. Meanwhile, Lena's anxiety is ramping up again. 

She is melting down already about the school Christmas program - which isn't until the first weekend of December. She's picked up a new tic (constant humming/making noise in the back of her throat/doing this weird breathing thing through her nose) that is super annoying. And she dreads Friday all week because she knows she has music class and will have to practice for the program. Once again, I don't know what to do. She is legitimately terrified - like panic attack level. She's gone so far as to tell me, "I start to get excited about Christmas, but then I remember about the program and then I'm just scared." And anytime she hears me playing Christmas music she starts to cry and say, "That reminds me about the Christmas program!" The part of me that always seeks the path of least resistance wants to just tell her she doesn't have to do it. She didn't do it last year for the same reason. But am I enabling her? How will she ever overcome her fears if she doesn't practice? Then again, she's overcoming her fears every day by leaving my side and going to school without me. Am I asking too much of her? Blech. What do you think? 

5. In happier news, we had a fun playdate with Lena's friend Leah today. (She fits right into our family with the 4 letter L name, but makes it even more confusing. Lol.) After playing at home for a while, I took Lena and Leah to open gym at gymnastics (much to Levi's chagrin #fomo). I hate taking Lena to open gym because she makes me follow her around for two hours and it's super awkward, but today, I only had to stay by her until she got comfortable with it because she had a friend to be her safe person! (And no, that doesn't help for the Christmas program for some reason.) So I got to sit on the sidelines reading my book. Winning!

After some more playing at home, the rest of the fam joined us for a movie: Ron's Gone Wrong.

The movie was an interesting treatise on the dangers of technology/social media, but I didn't really understand the ending. #notsmarterthana5thgrader

6.  That's all I've got this week. Enjoy these pictures.

Unicorn Overall Twins

My attempt at decor

Reading!

Selfie I found on my phone

It's rough being the little brother during your sister's playdate. #lockedout

The history class saga continues. 

I got to do the library bulletin board for the first time! Full disclosure: Mrs. Miller made that turkey for a previous display and I re-used it. But I did the rest! Haha. The little signs say "Save A Turkey! Feast on Books!" and "Eat More Pizza!"