The Saturday 7

1. October is going out in style at our house:

This picture is from earlier this week. After last night's freezing temps, all of those leaves are on the ground today. Haha. After a rough year, October was good to us. No accumulating snow, mild temperatures, and the nicest Halloween I ever remember. And as much as I hate winter, I'm ready to move on . . . to Christmas!

Lena made this on Tuesday. 😂

2. Levi has been sleeping slightly better this week! Saturday night was rough, and he was up for a few hours in the middle of the night. But since then, he's gone straight to his spot on the floor when he comes in our room (which is every night). One night he came in around 3 a.m. and begged to sleep in bed with me for a long time. I told him he could when Justin got up to go to work. Levi periodically asked, "Did daddy get up yet?" for a couple hours, but slept in between. And most other nights, he only asks to get in bed once or twice. He usually asks me to cover him up with a blanket and turn on some music, then goes back to sleep. Making progress!

3. I finished all of Brooklyn 99 on Hulu, and didn't know what else to watch, so decided to give Suits another try. Luke recommended it years ago, and I watched one episode but couldn't get into it. This week, I "got into it" and have plowed through one and a half seasons already. I'm so glad there are nine seasons! I love long series! 

4. Thanks to Covid, we haven't been able to have storytime at the library this year. But I just found out that our library is handing out packets for "storytime at home." I picked one up this week to do with Levi and Nova, and they loved it. We read "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late," sang some storytime songs, and made a cute craft.

5. The girls didn't have school yesterday (scheduled in-service day), so we finally got around to decorating pumpkins. Lucy actually carved one at a friend's house last weekend. Lena and Levi have been begging to carve theirs, but I despise the mess it makes, so I was thrilled to talk them into painting them this year. 

We also worked on creating a costume for Lucy (who had previously declared she wasn't going to dress up this year). She made a spider-web out of tape on a t-shirt and we spray painted it. 

Googly eyes make everything sillier and spookier.

Earlier that day, Luke and Esther stopped over to pick something up, and let us get our baby/Ruby fix for the day.

Levi holding Casper for the first time.

6. And today was the long-awaited Halloween! It fell on a Saturday this year which was so much nicer than cramming it in on a weeknight. We're serious about candy in this house, so we did all the things today. Lena had big dreams about make-up to go with her costume, so then Lucy wanted make-up too, and you can imagine how Levi felt about being left out. So we started preparing at like noon today. Haha. Thanks to Pinterest and much trial and error, Lena's ended up looking awesome!

Levi had a blue monster costume, and I had to work hard to talk him out of tiger make-up like Lena's. He was finally pacified when I told him he could color his whole face with [washable!] blue marker. Lol. It was a disaster, and smeared everywhere all night, but I just kept telling myself "it's washable and it's making his day."

Lucy just wanted a spiderweb coming out of her eye. I can't even do eyeliner on myself, let alone another person, but it turned out pretty well! And yes, she totally has the smolder going on in this picture. #tweenager 

Levi couldn't decide between monster and pirate, so he went as both. Lol.

It was so nice being able to spread out the festivities over the whole afternoon/evening. We went to Justin's parents' at 2, hit a church trunk or treat on our way home, then went to Niki's to meet up with the cousins:

It is impossible to get them all looking at the camera. Lol. (And Nash wouldn't do it without Libby. She's carrying the newest cousin, though, so it's ok.)

Nash's little lip! And Nova like, "What is the problem here? Let's do this picture and go get candy!"

The cousin crew headed down to the park where there were more festivities/games/candy.

I've never actually played beer pong, but I'm pretty sure this is the basic premise (bounce a ping pong ball into a cup), and I'm alarmed by how good Lucy was at it . . .

After the park, we headed out to my parents' and did a few streets in K.C.

Levi was not at all shy about saying, "Trick or Treat!" #anythingforcandy

We hit up another trunk or treat, hung out at my cousin Esther's for a little while, then came home and did our street real quick before baths and bedtime! (P.S. That washable blue marker wasn't suuuuper washable, so don't be alarmed if you see Levi at church tomorrow with a slight blue tinge. Lol.) We got a major haul, which should last us 'til Christmas. 😁 Levi has a dentist appointment next week. We'll see how gung-ho I am about candy after that . . .

Lena's haul

Levi's (his shirt says "Let's Blame the Sugar" - perfect for Halloween!)

7. A few more pictures:

Making applesauce

When Lena gets her hands on my phone . . .

Lena put on her pajamas before Levi changed out of his outfit for the day and they noticed they were matching. 

He's been obsessed with doing crafts lately. Thank you, Pinterest!

When we bought our first house, I did one of those check deals where you buy 3 boxes, get one free. This week, I finally put the last book of checks from those boxes into my checkbook. We moved out of that house in March of 2013. So I've been crossing off the old address and writing in our new one for over 7 years. Lol. The only thing I write checks for anymore is the stupid water bill that I can't pay online. So it'll probably take me another year to get through this set! Ha! #tooDutchtobuynewones