Playin Hookie

This morning I was feeling overwhelmed. Halloween is tomorrow, and we didn't even have a clue as to what we were doing. We haven't done any of the fun traditions that we normally do in October, and it's ending so soon. I knew we needed to go to the store, but I had been hearing ambulances on the road a lot--lots of car accidents with the snow that fell last night. I was scared to go out and just frustrated that Kenny works so much when I need him home!

 

But then I took a few deep breaths. I realized that 1) I cannot live in fear of driving on the roads for 6 months out of the year. I just have to get over it. 2) I need to learn to not depend so much on my husband. I've just got to put on my big girl panties and take care of stuff myself. If I want the kids to have fun memories and traditions, I need to be the one to do it. 3) I'm going to be positive about the winters here, and not let them defeat me. For lots of people, it's just not a big deal. But I think I have a lot more anxiety than the average person, and the cold/snow/ice with little kids stresses me out. But I resolved to not complain, and to be positive about it. I will try to catch myself and change the way I think, or else I'm going to be miserable, and make Alaska miserable for my family as well. We are here, so we are going to love it. So, with those thoughts in mind, we set out to have a great day.

 

First order of business, declare a day-off of school. Every kid (and mom) needs a day off now and then, and the beauty of homeschooling is you are free to do it whatever day you choose. We then went to Target to finish up some costume-shopping  and get Bryn some clothes because she's grown out of everything. We came home and carved pumpkins! We had planned on doing it last night for FHE activity, but Kenny didn't get home till around 10 and I didn't want to do it while Kelsey was awake. So once she went down for a nap, we pulled them out and got messy! :)



"Make a yucky face!"

This cute girl actually liked it a lot. She kept saying, "Can I stick my hand in there again?" Brynlee wasn't a huge fan, so Tyler helped do most of their pumpkin.

The finished products:

I let the kids (mostly Ty because the girls didn't care) pick out what we would carve on them. He took this job very seriously, as he does all tasks assigned to him.

 

I had pandora "Children's Halloween" music playing and they were dressed up and dancing/running around like crazies. Kelsey sure enjoys being in the middle and watching all the chaos :).

 

We picked out pumpkin seeds and baked them too! The house was smelling so good and I was feeling so domestic. But then I went to put Madison down for a nap and by the time I came back upstairs, the seeds were a little too toasted, and tasted like burnt popcorn kernels :(. Oh well, we tried.

 

While Madi and Kelsey's naps overlapped, these two angels went out to play in the freshly fallen snow.

 This picture makes it look like Bryn's being attacked by Tyler with snow, but she actually instigated the snow fight. They have so much fun together, and it makes me so happy to watch them. They ended up being out there for quite a long time, while I finished carving and cleaning up the big pumpkin mess. They came in and enjoyed hot chocolate with marshamllows. This evening was a mad rush to do dinner and get to soccer on time. All in all, we did end up having a great day, and I thoroughly enjoyed being with my kids. I can't say that about every day, because I sometimes get caught up in what we have to do! Do! Do! But I just let go, and had fun, and it was wonderful.



Just a cute picture from last night. They each picked out their own donut and had apple cider with it for FHE treat :).