On Monday Elise and I went to visit Papa at his office. We even ran into our friend Aiden! They were hits and scored big time.
We carved a pumpkin...
Went to Halloween story time at the library...
And went trick or treating! It was absolutely freezing and kind of raining and Elise refused to wear her mittens most of the night. She still had a good time.
Thank you to Stacy for letting us borrow this cute little fishy costume!!
(and we sorta totally copied her kitty pumpkin too...)
We've had a busy weekend. Saturday we headed to Post Farms for a little fall fun. It's probably the last sorta-nice day we'll have in awhile. We went with my Dad, Nick's parents, and Lauren. Quite the herd of people following one child - but she had a blast as usual.
They have delicious donuts.
Awwww. Cuties.
Auntie Lauren is here! And she MADE that adorable hat Elise is wearing.
She is super extra crafty. Thank you Auntie Lauren!
Elise was saying "two Papas!!" and pointing to my dad.
Three out of five of the Kloostra's are currently handicapped.
Yep. It's pretty sad.
Mom is still scooting around from her foot surgery. Last night around 4 I get a call that my dad is on the way to the ER after almost cutting off his finger with a hedge trimmer. This morning I get a call that Aubrey broke her arm after being pushed over by Spiderman at a Halloween skating party (apparently it's what the cool kids do in college). It's just funny at this point. It's a good thing nurse Lauren was in town to haul my dad to the ER. Except now the only capable daughter left in town is post-chemo with two year old. Just kidding I'm totally fine -- but seriously... What is wrong with this family??
Auntie Sarah got married last night...and now we have an Uncle Adam! Elise did great the whole weekend. She was the cutest little flowergirl.
(this post has a bajillion pictures and a video...)
We started off on Thursday night with rehearsal and a fabulous dinner at Mangiamos. We are so so grateful to my sisters who took care of Elise the whole time so we could be in the wedding. They took her home from the rehearsal and wedding and put her to bed so we could go stay and have fun.
Thank you sissies!
It was 80 degrees on Thursday and 50 on Friday. (Welcome to Michigan.)
Elise and her Auntie Sarah waiting to walk down the aisle!
We had a party bus - it was pretty awesome. Aren't they cute??
Elise kept dozing off while drinking her water. Her eyes would close and she'd just zone out for a minute. She got a second wind after this though...probably thanks to the candy buffet and endless supply of M&Ms.
Elise and both of her Great Grandmas.
Sweet.
She kind of snuck into the father/daughter dance at the end. I tried to get her but was physically held back by all the Grandmas...
Auntie Aubrey was there too!
Dancing with Daddy. Her dress was in shreds by the end of the night. She kept tripping on it, getting it caught on stuff. Good thing it was only 30 bucks and it's now in her dress-up bin.
Uncle Tom knows how to get on her good side -- candy.
I sorta made Nick go dance with Sarah. It was pretty much adorable.
Elise danced until almost 10. She was having SO much fun.
That about sums this up. But I took pictures so you have to stick around.
We just got a brand new Target. It is heavenly. I pretty much hear the hallelujah chorus when I walk in beckoning me to the dollar section. And since I'm already in the Christmas spirit (per the hallelujah chorus) the brand new holiday stuff decorating the perfectly placed end-caps cannot escape my brand spanking new all-plastic red shopping cart that glides like a dream.
So I grabbed the cutest little red pillow. It was $14.99. It took a nice little ride around the store with me and my shopping buddies -- my mom on her scooter and Elise in the cart. We took up entire aisles. And then -- wait for it -- I saw the SAME thing in placemat form. In blue. And everything I've ever seen on Pinterest came rushing back to me.
And since I'm trying to impress Nick with my thrifty-ness - I put back my $14.99 pillow and picked up this placemat. For $3.99.
Now this entire project took me 20 minutes. I did it while my trusty assistant emptied my scrap fabric bin and dumped out all my buttons. No pictures of that because Little Miss is way snotty these days and in Christmas pajamas that say "My Grandma is friends with Santa". Guess who bought those.
I just used my seam ripper to rip the seam about halfway down on the side. I murdered another pillow that was gathering dust in my basement and stuffed the placemat. Then I just used some blue thread to sew the hole with a zigzag stitch. You could even hand-sew this if you don't have a sewing machine.
Viola!
A brand new Christmas pillow for 3.99. Go me.
So -- do you care? Is this interesting? Okay if it's not I won't do it anymore. I've been sorta boring lately so I'm trying to spice it up. I have a few more Target copycat ideas for the holidays that I will definitely tell you about if you want. Or if you don't want just go away and read real craft blogs.
Every year some old high school friends try to get together when our friend is in town from Colorado. The rest of us get together pretty regularly but it's extra special when Jayne is here with her cutie boys Cohen & Arie. Here they are last June...We've added a few more members to the crew! They look so little!
Jude, Cohen, Lyza, Elise
Such a fun morning. Here are some outtakes...
We gave them all smarties to get them to sit still for two minutes.
We actually should have gotten a picture of 5 of us trying to get them all to look. That would have been funnier.
Leighann's sweetheart girls Lyza & Ruby...
Lyza & Elise this year...
And last year...
It's so fun watching all these kiddos grow up together!
Now that its getting cold outside I've been trying to come up with some more inside activities...Play-doh is a huge hit around here. Even if her face says otherwise in this picture...
She makes 'nummies'...balls, worms, and more nummies.
She asks for Lauren almost every day. Lauren there are houses for sale on our street!! ;-)
(the weird press 'n seal covered cup you see is my own invention - a way to drink a smoothie with minimal spillage from a two year old.)
Yep. It happened. The bridesmaids dress I need to wear in three weeks -- oh wait -- 17 days is a little too tight. Rach has been hitting the gym and I've started 'The Shred' - apparently if you let Jillian Michaels kick your booty for a few weeks you will lose some inches. Also I'm hungry all the time. Here's hoping I don't rip any seams. And Jillian, I love you and I hate you. I took some 'before' measurements to see if this actually works. It's funny my list goes arms, waist, fat roll, hips....you all know what I'm talking about. Measurements will not be published.....
Anywho.........
Elise and I went to Post Family Farms this morning with my MOPS group. It's the cutest place - and right around the corner from our house! Elise had such a good time - even if it was cold and windy.
Feeding the goats. And look - french braids! I didn't believe it was possible.
Tongue out for concentration...
All the kids got to pick a pumpkin...
It was really windy. My hair probably looked this stupid the whole time and no one told me.
They had really nice kitties everywhere. This might have been her favorite part.
I'm going to do my workout now. If you want to see something really funny you should peek in my windows at about 2:00 everyday. I will be attempting sit-ups, push-ups (I can't even do girl push-ups), jumping jacks, and weightlifting using cans of chickpeas as my dumbells.
