this week {from my phone}

After being away from our kids all last week {on an AWESOME trip to Vegas! post to come!} we’ve stuck close to home this week. Snuggling in pjs, decorating for Halloween and having picnics in our driveway.

Emory had the day off of school on Monday, so the kids watched their new Lion King DVD for the first time. We saw the movie in the theaters just a couple of weeks ago, so Emory was asking if she had to wear the 3D glasses when she watched it at home. And this movie might have just replaced Cars as Watson’s favorite. When he’s watching it, he’s yelling things at the screen. Things like “Mommy, I love Lion King!” as the movie is beginning or “nobody not getting him!!” when Simba is stuck at the top on the branch during the stampede. We've recently established a No TV During The Week rule, so a Monday movie was a big treat!Also because she didn’t have school {and isn’t allowed to have painted nails at school} Emory got her fingernails and toenails painted after she let me cut them. We use kid-friendly polish, which means it comes off really easily, and about 30 minutes after I painted them I found her crying in the corner of her room because her polish came off while she was playing dress-up. So we pulled out some ‘big girl’ pink nail polish and had a redo. She told me it was the ‘best day ever!”…We snuck in a doughnut breakfast as well…Boland was appreciative!And I cleaned out the fridge after {mostly} clearing out every bit of food. In conjunction with my meal-planning for the year goal, I’m trying really hard to not waste food by letting it get ‘lost’ in my refrigerator. I threw out 6 pounds {SIX!} of chicken breasts because I had forgotten I bought it and it went bad. I’m not a coupon cutter, and don’t go out of my way to shop for sales, but it was getting a little ridiculous how much food we were wasting. One of Watson’s treats from Vegas was a Hoover Dam construction helmet. He loves the flashlight on the front! But he kept calling himself a “firemans”…We also brought him back a toy helicopter. He has loved that too, but the toy lost a little of it’s manliness when it was paired with Emory’s pink tutu. We picked up some new rain boots for Emory because she wanted a pair to match mommy’s. She was a little upset when the store didn’t have the same green color, but settled for a pair of navy ones.  We immediately left and jumped in some puddles!After having a random conversation about PEZ dispensers at a birthday party, I got a sweet treat in my mailbox from a neighbor! It’s amazing how much better that small surprise made my day! The Boy is all about his cowboy boots and insisted on wearing them to play outside. He practiced some shots on his basketball goal…and is getting pretty good! This little one will be running and playing with his big brother in no time at all, but for now, at least while we’re outside, he’s confined to his stroller. Funny enough, Watson kept asking to get in the stroller with Boland instead of playing!Daddy was working late, and the kids were already a little stinky from playing outside all afternoon, so we had a pizza picnic in the driveway for dinner. The kids thought it was the best thing ever and were barely able to keep their eyes open by bedtime.Boland was the first to finish his pizza. He’s all business when it comes to eating!Can you guess who was last to finish…and why? This girl cannot stop dancing. All day every day. It’s cute and annoying all at once. We finally pulled out  some Halloween decorations and Emory helped decorate our Halloween tree. She was SO PROUD of herself for hanging the ‘sparkly ornaments’ all by herself! They all ended up on the very front of the tree, but I didn’t have the heart to move them while she was watching, so once she went to bed I had a little ornament redistribution on my to-do list. She and her brother were most mesmerized by the cheesy orange and purple lights that I somehow acquired but have never used. I’m trying to find non-tacky way to use them…for my kids’ sake. Any thoughts??I wish my kids were as excited to see me at the end of the day as they are their daddy. Most afternoons, beginning about 4 o’clock, are a non-stop barrage of ‘when is daddy going to be home?”, “is daddy in his car yet?” and “I want to see daddy!”.  After answering them a hundred times, they usually just park themselves at the front door and wait to see his car pull into the driveway. Only Daddy gets that special, end of a long day love from the babies.

That’s the recap of our week, via Insta-Friday! I’m so happy that means it’s finally the weekend!!