Riverside Trip in October (Halloween Fun and a New Car!)

We were on the hunt to buy a new (to us) car in October.  When Aaron found an Acadia that met our wish list in Riverside we hopped in the car for a weekend with family and a wish of returning to Fresno with another car.  It was the weekend before Halloween so we loaded up our costumes as well and attended Adam and Christy's Trunk or Treat party while we were there. We had a great time with the fam and ended up buying the car so it was a happy, successful weekend on all accounts :)

^^I had fun finding some gems among old family photos and snapped a couple of pics on my iphone of my favorites

 ^^it was waaaay past Ford's bedtime at this point ;)

Halloween Costumes 2016: Goldilocks and The Three Bears

Our Halloween costume story really starts last year.  I had racked my brain for a fun family costume idea but came up empty handed.  We ended up borrowing a lion costume for Eleanor and she was in love.  I was pregnant so I was really okay with not dressing up anyways. 

A week after last year's Halloween though, genius struck and I thought of doing Goldilocks and The Three Bears once Ford joined the family.  So I've been biding my time all year to finally whip together a family costume.  Of course, as Halloween approached, Eleanor kept asking to be a scary monster and I was so close to just giving up my idea.  She would say, "I'm going to be a scary monster!" And then jump down on all fours and start growling. It was so cute and funny!

Before abandoning my hopes though I made one last ditch effort to convince her.  I ordered a new special Goldilocks book and surprised her with it.  She fell in LOVE with the book and requested to read it all day every day after that.  And all of a sudden she was all about Goldilocks.  

We went to several thrift stores together looking for a special Goldilocks dress but kept striking out.  Jessica came through last minute with the most perfect dress there ever was (thank you Jess!).  It was like all my motherhood dreams came true the moment that Eleanor put on that frilly blue dress.  She may look a little more like Dorothy or Alice in Wonderland but I don't even care.  

I made bear ears for me and Aaron and found his vest and my dress at Salvation Army.  I ordered Ford's bear costume from Walmart and he was the cutest bear you ever did see, so plump and kissable.  Eleanor traded off calling him Baby Bear and Fordy Bear all week.  

We did our main dressing up for Adam and Christy's Trunk or Treat church party while we were in Riverside and took a few quick pictures beforehand. 

Ford didn't have his bear nose on yet so we tried again later.  Of course though at that point, Eleanor was way too in to her hot dog bun and Ford was way past his bedtime.  

But I still count it a Halloween family costume success.  Our first yet! (Well, I guess we were all sort of cats together for Eleanor's first Halloween). 

Anyways, I had a chance to take each of the kids out front for their own Halloween costume pictures so indulge me while I share one too many pictures of my kids in nearly the same pose.  

 Now to figure out next year's costumes :)

Labor Day

We had a pretty low key Labor Day but we loved soaking up that extra day with Aaron around.

We went on a drive look at dream homes and then ended up trying out the Meat Market for lunch.  So good!

^^Eleanor devoured her beans and rice

While Eleanor and Ford napped, I ran to Home Depot for potting soil but then got side tracked by tile samples.  

I had just read this blog post about redoing a kitchen backsplash and I was feeling inspired.  I'm not ready to jump into kitchen projects yet but I would totally love to redo our backsplash down the line. 

(Also, I totally nodded my head in agreement when I read Mandi's explanation for why she put off kitchen projects for so long: "I didn't really do anything cause it was just too sad not to do everything."  I feel ya, Mandi.  I'd love to change so much about our kitchen but that's just not reasonable or necessary so for now we just wait. But someday we should take the plunge and at least do something :))  

Anyways, back to Labor Day activities because they really were awesome...

After naps, we headed to the park for some KFC with the Winters.  Eleanor sat on the play structure with London chatting away about their bedrooms and things.  It was darling to witness from afar.  And then they ran around wild and free while we adults talked.  It was a great afternoon.

Then we put the kids to bed and watched Bridge of Spies.  I've been wanting to see it forever and I really liked it.  I'm starting to notice though that every time I watch a movie just before bed I end up having a crazy dream that night where I'm living out the movie in some way.  Interesting stuff...

All in all, it was a wonderful day and I wish we could have Mondays as holidays every day!  Wouldn't that be dreamy?  Saturday you get chores done, Sunday you focus on spirituality and Monday you play!  Now that's a recipe for happiness right there :)

Siblings

I love this sequence of photos.

At first glance the pictures don't seem that all different.  However, if you look at the progression of how they interact you realize the true magic of these shots.  They have a sweet sibling bond that makes my heart happy.

Every time I try to take Ford's monthly photos (I really need to post those on here...), Eleanor has to jump in and play too.  I'm always a little bugged at first because I'm just trying to get his photos done as fast as possible.  But I inevitably just accept it and keep snapping photos with her in them too.  The result always make me happy.