Hurricane Fort

With Hurricane Sandy now out of the way, we can thankfully say that we never lost power or had any damage to the house from the wind and rain.  We were very fortunate.  Nina got to stay home from school on Monday and Tuesday, so we made a hurricane fort in the basement.  From inside the fort, they read books, watched a movie, ate snacks, played imaginary games, collected mail (the Fruit Snacks box), and made signs for a lemonade stand.  The lemonade stand was their idea of how they could help Mousey and Poppy who had a tree fall on their house and break through a window, tear off siding from the house, etc.  They thought they could sell lemonade (in a hurricane, mind you, at $0.25 a cup) to raise money for a new window for Mousey and Poppy.  It was a sweet idea, but obviously we never set up the stand. 

Mousey and Poppy did end up coming to sleep over last night as they’re still without power and no definite time table for when they’ll get it back.  We didn’t make them sleep in the hurricane fort though…

Birthday and Pre-Halloween Fun

Friday was my mom’s birthday, so we gathered out at their house on Saturday evening for dinner and some pre-Halloween fun. My parents hid white pumpkins for the girls in the field, then when they found the pumpkins, they got to decorate them which was a lot of fun.  They also got a surprise from Bo’s girlfriend, Richelle.  She brought them awesome Halloween baskets filled with goodies, glow sticks, cute hats, and crafty things.  What a treat that was!!!!

 

Bo was well prepared to head out for Halloween festivities after dinner, so we got to see a little preview of him all dressed up.  Lyla wasn’t so sure about him wearing the bear head.  She wanted him to take it off and wouldn’t stand next to him in the picture. 

Bo Bear in full costume!

Fun with glow sticks from Richelle.

 

After dinner, Bo and Richelle headed out for Halloween festivities with friends, and we headed down to the woods for a bonfire.  Mark and Pops got the fire blazing, then Nina, Lyla, and Mousey took turns telling stories. 

   

Mousey is known for her campfire stories, and this year was another real nail-biter (cough-cough)!

 

At one point, the plight of Brownie the Dog took a downward turn, and there was quite the upset reaction from the girls (Nina particularly).

    

Thankfully, Mousey rebounded with a funny story about Chick Chick the Nick Nick and got everyone smiling again.  Another memorable Mousey fireside story memory!

The next day was our community’s town center Trick or Treat, so the girls (and a friend who was visiting for the day) took advantage of the time to get dressed up and collect some candy.  With Hurricane Sandy raging down, we weren’t sure if Halloween on Wednesday is going to happen or not, so at least they got a chance to trick or treat at least once.  Hopefully the storm will make its way out after tomorrow, and we’ll be in for some Halloween fun on Wednesday.

Lyla’s Last Game

Saturday was Lyla’s last soccer game.  She had really enjoyed playing this season, and she always plays hard, has fun, and looks forward to Saturdays when she gets to play. 

 

Here she is giving a little wave after scoring a goal.

Lyla was so excited to get her medal for playing this season.  She was very proud, and Nina was so proud of her also.  We’ve enjoyed watching her this fall, and I’m sure she’ll want to be back out there in the spring session.

    

Catching Up

Over the weekend, I had the chance to take a training course in Philadelphia to get certified to teach another group fitness format. The calm before the storm of the weekend for me was visiting with P and Kristin on Friday before my training started early Saturday morning.  We spent Friday together hanging out, chatting, watching the kiddos play, then heading out to a nice dinner with just the three of us.  While I was there, I got to meet P's newest one, Jack, for the first time.  It was so great to see the girls and enjoy the time catching up. 

While I was away doing that, Mark and the girls did soccer games, a double date night, and chili and football with friends in the neighborhood. They did a good job of keeping busy while I was away.

 

The training was exhausting, and I didn't get home until Sunday night, so Monday was a recovery day for me, then it was back to business yesterday.  Everyone knows the song and dance that seems to be everywhere these days.  Well, everywhere just happened to be in the Simpson house last night.  Before heading out for the annual ritual of "Boo-ing" neighbors, the girls got the blood flowing with a little of the Gangnam Style.  Too funny!!



 

First Grade Field Trip

On Friday, the first grade classes at Nina’s school went to the zoo for a field trip.  Lyla and I went with Nina’s class and enjoyed the nice fall day at the zoo.  I didn’t bring my nice camera with me this time as I took a bunch of pictures when we were at the zoo in the spring, so I just snapped a few with my camera phone.  Nina’s class wore t-shirts with each of their self-drawn self-portraits on them.  They were really cute!  Considering her school has 7 or 8 first grade classes with 28 kids in each class, it’s amazing that no little first graders got lost, everyone got to see the animals they wanted, and all the adults who helped also survived the day! 

    

Fall Fun

This past weekend was perfect for fall festivities. Friday was a gorgeous day, and our good friends, the Rumples, came over to hang out, have dinner, and go to the neighborhood Homecoming parade and football game.  As always, we had a great time hanging out with Jill, Mark, Jonathan, and Kate and enjoying the neighborhood festivities.

 

Saturday was the fall festival in our neighborhood.  Traditionally, this has been a great event, and although this year’s set up wasn’t as great (in my opinion) as years past, the kids really did have fun.  There were some kiddie rides, inflatables, face painting, glitter tattoo station, bands, food, etc.  Nina and Lyla found quite a few of their friends from the neighborhood there, so we made a day of it and all came home quite tired.  We finished off the evening with warm showers (it got quite cold towards the later part of the afternoon), pizza, and a movie.  Not a bad Saturday!