Our Little "Fla-Bingo"

Halloween was just like everything else this year, we had no idea how it would look...or if it would even happen.  BUT, I love any opportunity to dress the kids up in costume so you better bet we were going to have costumes NO MATTER WHAT.  Everly is still at the age where I can "guide" her into decisions so "together" we came up with the Flamingo idea (other top contenders: bunny and cinderella).  The cutest part of the whole thing though is the fact that she can't say Flamingo correctly and definitely says it like "Fla-bingo"...we have all asked her no short of 100 times what her costume is just so we can hear it!  Anyway, here is our little Fla-bingo in all her glory.  I definitely dressed her up on a random Friday by herself so that I was sure to capture the cuteness of this little costume.  I will also have you know that I did in fact make the cape she is wearing, with a little help from my seamstress friend Julia of course.  But NO my Mom did not make this costume (to all the haters out there) although I'm sure she could have made it better and probably quicker than I did!  

Birthday Bash

I'll be honest, the birthdays kind of got away from me this year.  Septembers are insane in this house (not that Octobers are much better) but Everly and Nolan's birthday celebrations got delayed a bit.  That's okay though, gave me an excuse to do a little Halloween theme!  And who doesn't love a good Halloween theme?  When you are trying to do a combined party with kids that are very far apart in age you've gotta stretch it a little bit.  And while you might be looking at this party and thinking, gosh it seems very Everly centric...well you are probably right.  BUT...Nolan had another party too.  So don't be feeling too sorry for him!  He's "too big" these days for me to do a good theme or to even let me take a picture but I assure you there were pre-teen boys in his presence singing him Happy Birthday, making jokes about balls (we were at Top Golf) and eating a crap ton of food.  If that doesn't exude 12 year old birthday party bliss I don't know what does, so yes this Halloween themed animal stuffing party might be geared at the freshly promoted 3 year old.  And it is what it is.  Everyone got presents, everyone got cake, everyone had some giggles so I'd say everyone thought their birthdays were just perfect!  

A Picking We Will Go

Quite frankly we start to run out of time in the Fall around this house, and I start to panic about getting all the fun Fall activities in.  One thing I knew I wasn't going to miss out on was apple picking.  I just think it's such a fun little thing to do with the kid(s) but it does take a little commitment because the spot I like is not exactly close.  So anyway long story short...the boys (who probably could careless at this point anyway) got the boot this year.  There just wasn't going to be a day that we could make it work for everyone so Ev and I grabbed Grandma and Grandpa and we were on our way!  We had a lovely little outing and Everly thought it was just the greatest.  We told her to find the apples without yucky spots so she would carefully look over the apples and if there were ANY spots she would "gently" put them back on the ground for the animals to eat!  Needless to say we came home with some pristine apples!  I'd love to tell you we made a fancy cobbler or apple pie but if I'm being honest I think the only thing we made was apple slices!  Maybe next year...maybe not!  Here are 1 million pictures of our girl at the apple orchard because what is cuter than a girl picking apples with her Grandparents?  Not much.

Lori's Old

 Lori is the first one to turn the big 4-0 in our little group of friends, therefore I have the right to call her old...right?  Anyway, in honor of her being old we decided to celebrate in Arizona.  We took a few days to relax and celebrate the birthday girl.  We had a week full of (too many) drinks, lots of delicious food, some amazing hikes and some pretty decent company.  We were fortunate enough to stay at Lori's parents vacation home in Scottsdale and let me tell you it is nothing short of amazing.  We are talking a backyard oasis that dreams are made of (putting green, heating pool, hottub, grilling area) you name it, they've got it.  It was a perfect little escape and hopefully Lori felt the love, aside from our frequent old jokes.

Trip Notes (because I too am getting old and will forget): The hiking that we did was in Sedona.  The first day we did Solider's Pass which had the 7 Sacred Pools and the "hidden cave".  Getting to the cave was a little difficult but mainly because of the heat and lack of shade.  The second day we did Cathedral Rock which was a shorter hike but STRAIGHT UP.  It was actually my favorite of this trip, I loved it mainly because of the climbing and the view was very rewarding at the top.