Pumpkin Carving

I never know when its a good time to carve pumpkins because even having them sit inside (which stays around 75 degrees), the poor things wilt and cave over night. This week is a busy one for us. I work two nights. We have a friends birthday party gathering. and then BAM it's Friday and Halloween AND Brinley's birthday. We are packing in a bunch of stuff this week and there is no time for pumpkin carving! We actually ended up skipping pumpkins all together last year because we just had too much going on! I almost thought about doing that again this year, but I am so glad we pushed through the stress and planned it for FHE because the moment we started digging out the pumpkin guts, I got my first smell of pumpkins and I was in heaven! The girls hated the smell and wouldn't touch the insides, but they had a fun time anyways. 

so many good things going on in this picture!

ellie really tried to like the experience, but she just kept saying "mama, it's fooky!" (it's spooky)

sweet Brinny girl

Brin drew on her design but daddy helped the with the mouth and then carved it out.

ry gets serious about his pumpkin carving :-)

isn't Brinley's pumpkin adorable!? It turned out so cute and I love that she designed it.

and Ryan's pumpkin! So cool, huh!?

And the finished product! Ellie refused to have her pumpkin carved so I drew a ghost face on it. And again, she kept saying "ghost pumpkin is fooky!" (ghost pumpkin is spooky). She is so funny. 

I cleaned off the pumpkin seeds after the girls went to bed and we roasted them using olive oil and Lowry's seasoning. (bake at 350, and turn every 10 minutes for a total of 30 minutes). They turned out perfectly and we can't stop eating them! I am totally in the holiday spirit now and I want to eat and smell everything fall right now. I can't stop craving apple cider, pumpkin pie, chilis, spice candles, pumpkin cookies, roasted pumpkin seeds, etc! I want it all! 

DONUT PARTY

It was the year for Brinley to have a friend party. After getting multiple invitations for birthday parties from her school class, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed! They were having circus parties and Frozen parties, with a real ELSA. I couldn't compete. Plus, if you want to invite one kid from school, you have to invite the entire class!! So I thought about all Brinley's favorite things and donuts are always a favorite. We thought of some fun games to revolve around donuts and we invited her Primary class. It was the perfect amount of friends and they had lots of fun! 

I ended up making the donuts and they turned out perfectly! It's amazing how easy they were. Obviously we didn't fry them, but I bought a donut pan and they were super tasty! I also sewed some aprons for them to wear and take home. The kids were adorable. 

So the line up was:

pin the sprinkle on the donut

donut spoon race (that was hilarious to watch!)

blowing bubbles outside

throwing donut holes at Ryan

eating snacks

and frosting donuts to take home

Thanks everyone for coming! 

Pumpkin Patching

Even though the weather here in south Florida gives no indication of fall, we still are feeling excited for the upcoming holidays. Fall is the time when I'm most anxious for cooler weather, and I guess we do get a variation of "cool," but it only happens in the mornings (68 degree mornings but goes up to 80 by 9am). 

So on Saturday, we went to our favorite local farm that was having a Fall Festival. It was so much fun! We went to the petting zoo. Played some fun games. Went down the big slide. Picked out pumpkins. And before the girls had "I'm hot and tired meltdowns" we had some homemade fruit popsicles. It was a great day!

Our pumpkins have to stay uncarved until a few days before Halloween (darn heat and humidity), but they look so good on our kitchen counter! Happy Fall, everyone!

Happy Birthday, Ellie!!

Oh, Ellie.

She is just the cutest little red head! This past year has been so much fun. I love this stage in toddlerhood. So curious. Learning new things. New words. Nursery. Making friends. Lots of imagination. Ellie is always making us laugh. She even makes herself laugh! It has been interesting comparing Ellie and Brinley's different personalities. They are so very different. Ellie is a go-getter. She is loud. Loves to climb and run and jump and do things that make my mama heart stop beating because she can be so spazzy! She's already gotten stitches once and I'm surprised it hasn't happened more often.

I always need a moment to remember baby Ellie and how she came about 2 years ago. Just two weeks before my due date (10/13/12), my doctor decided that we need to consider a c-section because of how big Ellie was. He was concerned with my vaginal delivery with Brinley, and she only weighed 8 pounds even. I'm grateful he brought up her size because I had gained 50 pounds with Ellie and I honestly felt like my belly was SO HUGE. We had an ultrasound and they estimated she was over 9 pounds already! So, we planned the c-section day and everything went according to plan! I was super nervous but the hospital was so wonderful and it was such an enjoyable experience. So at 11:20am, Miss Ellie Charlotte came into the world. All squishy and cute and perfect.

Ryan and I fell pretty hard for Ellie the moment we saw her. We were all surprised to see that red hair but it completely fits her personality.

I'm not big on birthday parties for little kids (tried it with Brinley and she cried the entire time). So we just had a fun family party and tried to make the day all about Ellie! The entire day, wherever we went Ellie would say, "Bird-day girl...Bird-day girl..." So cute!

New baby. She's in love!

I found this backpack on amazon and it was full of fun baby stuff! Both Brinley and Ellie have loved it. 

New bike from Grandma and Grandpa Briggs! 

We went to our favorite pizza place for dinner and then afterwards we went home and had some cupcakes for dessert!

It was a great day! We love you, Ellie! So glad you are in our family!!

Conference Weekend

This past weekend, we were lucky enough to have a visit from my parents. We love it when they come. Schedules get thrown out the window, lots of good food gets eaten, beach trips, dog walks, and lots and lots of playing with Brinley and Ellie. Grandma and Grandpa are the chosen ones while they are here and Ryan and I are happy to take a backseat.

On Thursday, we dropped Brinley off at school and headed straight for the causeway bridge that connects us to the island. My favorite spot to get a quick killer workout with amazing views. We pushed Ellie in the jogger and had such a fun time!

After school, we picked up Brinley and headed to our favorite place, Mulligan's for lunch. The girls were both starving and ate their entire plates!

The dogs, Sophie and Penny are adored by these girls. Penny has her quirks so she spends most of her time away from the kids, but Sophie is always in the mix. She loves following the girls around and especially around meal time.

On Friday, Grandpa had to spend the afternoon in Jupiter for a work thing so Grandma, the girls, and I spent our day at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary. It is such a fun place with a variety of animals. Plus, it's free! Brinley's least favorite place (see below) the birds. Stinkyyyy.

Checking out the snakes.

Thanks Grandma for the stuffed animal! 

Grandma brought new pillowcases! and Halloween jammies!

We've decided on a new tradition, whenever we get together, we WILL have an adult night out. So, we hired our favorite babysitter, we went downtown to have a delicious dinner. Mom and I also dragged the guys out to do a little shopping!

Over on the east coast, General Conference doesn't start until 12pm. So on Saturday, we decided on a little beach adventure. We had the most perfect weather. and we had so much fun!

I had to work in the afternoon but when I got back, the girls were all bathed and in their jammies and singing with Grandma.

On Sunday morning, we couldn't believe that the weather had dropped to 65 degrees! We rushed out the door before breakfast to go for a walk. There is a playground by the causeway so we took the girls there and had so much fun! We even spotted a pod of 6-7 dolphins out in the intracoastal! It was amazing! That was our first time seeing dolphins and I was completely mesmerized. I kept pointing the dolphins out to Brinley, but she wasn't too interested. Too much waiting to see a small sighting, I guess.

After the park, we had a big breakfast of waffles and sausage and bacon and it was sooo sooo good. We also decided to celebrate Ellie's birthday with my parents and she had so much fun opening her presents from Grandma and Grandpa. She kept singing, "Bird-day tooooo meeeeeee!" She's adorable!

Conference was amazing, wasn't it!? Listening to conference is always a bit tricky with rowdy kids, but I felt like the talks I actually did hear were ones that I really did need to hear right at that moment. 

Thanks for visiting, Grandma and Grandpa! We always enjoy our time when we are together and can't wait until Thanksgiving!!