Grandpop's Visit

Grandpop visited from VA for the week of Thanksgiving. This is how Reese and Grandpop spent the mornings while mommy and Gus slept in!The first two mornings Reese woke up way too early and said "I'm ready to see Grandpop!" I convinced him to sleep a bit more and when it seemed a reasonable hour I said he could run down to see if Grandpop was awake. After those first 2 days he just went down without telling me and I blissfully slept on. They sat on Grandpop's bed and ate their cereal and watched movies. This morning we were up in the dark and the freezing cold to take Grandpop to the airporter bus. Of course no one but mom had any interest in going back to bed, so we had some cinnamon buns for breakfast and we're starting our day way earlier than normal. Maybe we can keep up this early morning routine.

Even though I haven't posted I promise I always have a menu plan on my dry erase calendar. Except when we decide to eat out we follow it pretty well. Since we are currently eating Halloween candy and gearing up for Thanksgiving, then Christmas we've got to get a handle on portion control! ha ha!

Monday: Pork Roast, roasted potatoes from our garden, broccoli
Tuesday: Spicy cabbage soba pork (Food Matters Cookbook, soba noodles, napa cabbage and left over pork)
Wednesday: Veggie Stir Fry over Brown Rice
Thursday: Homemade Chicken Soup - use up homemade stock
Friday: Jambalaya
Saturday: AmyLu Sausages/rice/peas casserole
Sunday: Fajitas

Get more menu ideas at Organizing Junkie!

Happy Halloween

Da na na na na Batman! and Robin! I love the idea of coordinated costumes. This is the first year we've done it though because in the past Gus has been whatever Reese was at that size and when we bought the costume to begin with there was no need for coordinated suits. I'm wondering if this is the last year Gus will be willing to do whatever Reese wants.

We started at Mimi's house about 3:30pm. We visited a little and got big gift bags of candy. Really we needn't have gone farther than this one stop with all the candy Mimi piled on, especially since it was the good stuff. No single stick of gum or pixie stick at this house. (Though as a mom I'm thinking one pixie stick per kid is plenty. It's just not enough for the parents.)

Then we had a quick dinner and headed over to my friend's house to trick or treat with them...and their whole cul de sac. UGH. While Reese thought it was great Kyle and I were on sensory overload from too many crazy kids and varying ages. It was a seemingly never ending night of hurry up and wait for everyone to get together. Then a huge jumble at the door and every. single. house had skinny windy stairs. BUT the pay off was good loot. This neighborhood had a high rate of participation and a handful of really good decorators. We saw tons of skillfully carved pumpkins and some pretty intricate yard displays. One even had coordinated music. (Like those crazy shows you see on HGTV at Christmas, but on a smaller scale.)

Batman and Robin with Daddy just when we were getting started. I prefer to start out in the light, but coordinating so many kids (and their pack of adults) took us over the threshold of dusk into actual night. It was super dark and in the cluster I got few decent photos.

The boys were super happy with the whole scene. Reese only once forgot to say Trick or Treat and Thank You at the house of a hanging lady that I think slightly unnerved him. Gus never said Trick or Treat once, though he did it perfectly when we practiced at home. He did however say "tank yooooooo, Next House!" in his southern drawl. It was pretty cute. It also scored him an extra piece of candy at a several houses.

By the end of the night Gus decided he was all done. His pumpkin became too heavy to carry. So he rode in my friend's stroller for the remainder of the houses while Reese continued to Trick or Treat. Then we headed to Gigi's house to visit a little and get some more candy and sort of watch Scared Shrekless. Finally we headed home and got into bed.....at 10:20PM!!!