The Saturday 7

I have to make this one quick. It's going to be the succinct version.

1. It was great to hear from so many of you - both on facebook and in person, that you're mean moms who won't let their kids have phones too. Let's stay strong together!

2. My dream of cozy nights at home hasn't completely died yet. I mean, we only actually sat at the table and had dinner together once this week (🤦), but there was one night that Lena, Levi, and I snuggled on the couch and read five chapters of a book together. Maybe I'll try harder on the dinner thing next week. Baby steps . . .

3. Justin and I took advantage of early voting and cast our votes on Thursday. It was nice to have the option. There were no lines, we were in and out in minutes, and I got the cool sticker I wanted. 😁 I do feel like I should be able to opt out from all political ads and mailers from now on, though. It's too late for me to change my mind! You can stop trying to convince me!

4. We actually had pretty nice weather for Halloween this year. It was windy, but in the low 60s. I didn't even have to break out my gloves! 

Darth Vader and Princess Jasmine

The gang. 💖

Princess crew

The boys 

Trick or Treat!

5. We made some serious progress on the church library this week. I finally got all the books entered and categorized, and we applied the last of the labels. At least for now. Haha. Donations will keep coming in. And then we finally put all the children's books on the shelves, and set up the children's area. It's looking so good and we're getting so close to our Grand Opening!

6. Today was our semi-annual girls' Ikea trip - this time with most of our Thursday night book club. And let me tell you . . . shenanigans ensued. For the record, I wasn't the only one acting a fool, I'm just not publicly sharing all the pictures of everyone else. Because I'm nice like that. 

"Please, sir, I want s'more!"

Table for one.

As far as anyone knows, we are perfectly normal people. 

We left home at 8:30 this morning, hit Ikea, the Container Store, Home Goods, and Cracker Barrel, and didn't get home 'til 10:30 at night. Whew! That was a long day. 

7. One quick cute-kid story, and then a couple pictures. No memes, sorry.

I share school library responsibilities with Mrs. Miller, and we get assigned different grade levels every year. So last year, I had the kindergarteners, but this year I don't have the first graders. I did however, get called out to help with first grade recess one day last week, and one of my sweet former kindergarteners literally stopped in his tracks when he saw me and shouted, "Mrs. VanderKodde?!" I said, "Hey! I never get to see you anymore! I'm so glad you're here!" And he said, "Me too! I can't believe I get to see you! This is the best day of my life!" 😂😂😂 I love that kid. Hopefully I'll have him for second grade next year!

My friend gave me all her kids' old perler beads this week, and my kids have been playing with them ever since!

Boys being boys. (Can you tell which one has actually used a real gun before? Lol.)

Bam! Done before midnight! Now I can go to bed. 😴😪😴🛌