Halloween Brownie House

I picked up a Halloween Brownie House kit on my last visit to Aldi.  It was $5 bucks and very much an impulse buy while waiting to check out.  But I knew that Avery would love baking the brownies and decorating the brownie house. 

Side note: I often bake with Avery.  It's something my mom did with me and I have fond memories of making chocolote chip cookies, cakes and brownies.  At Christmas we would always make spritz cookies and decorate them.  So I find myself baking a lot with Avery.  She is big enough to help and well, it doesn't hurt to have an edible finished product!

Avery had been asking to make her brownie house so I finally caved and got to work.  The kit came with the brownie mix, shaped pans and lots of decorating supplies (like icing and candy).

Ronnie was Avery's helper of course.

But then Avery had everything under control and could decorate her house all by herself.

Avery was very serious about the placement of her candies! I think as much candy was consumed as what was put on the house.

Avery's finished house, with the help of her dad of course. I'm pretty sure after I took this picture Avery added more candy to the door and windows so this wasn't the "final, final" product.

She was still pretty proud.

The kit made two houses.  And Ronnie being the kid that he is couldn't wait to get his hands on
the second house.

Not too shabby.

With the holidays right around the corner, I'm certain there will be lots more baking and decorating going on in our house.  Bring it!

More adventures to come!

Bubble Blast

Recently I have been helping out my bestie and watching her girls a few days a week.  Being the awesome "aunt" I am, I am always trying to find fun things for the girls to do.  Plus it gets us out of the house and usually provides a few hours of entertainment.

Our local community center offered a Bubble Blast one morning so I signed us all up to go.  The activity was supposed to provide lots of different ways to play with bubbles. 

The first thing they did they got a small container with bubble solution and a straw.  They could blow through the straw and makes lots of bubbles.  The girls seemed to enjoy this.

Well, Avery and Hannah seemed to enjoy the activity.  Chloe refused to participate.  Apparently she is too cool for bubbles!













See, Hannah having a good time.  Chloe not participating.  Can't please everyone right?

There were also other bubble activities too.













All in all I think we were all a little underwhelmed. I was expecting more organization and everything was just haphazardly set out.  But I think the girls had a decent time and it gave us all something to do.

Plus there was a snack involved. Bonus.

Can we all agree that snacks make everything just a little bit better?

Avery has enjoyed having her friends over.  And although there is usually some bickering and tears (usually my child- she's kind of a drama mama) I know deep down they all love each other.

They kind of have to since their mama's are such good friends.

More adventures to come.

33 Weeks

Confession: I'm horrible at taking pregnancy pictures of myself. 

It's one thing I regret with my pregnancy with Avery and I told myself that with this kid I would do better.  If anything I've done worse. I had big plans to take weekly pregnancy pictures.  As of today, I have 2 pregnancy pictures.  Pretty awesome right?

This is the first picture I took of myself pregnant. I was 14 weeks.

I had a little bump and hadn't gained too much weight. I could still wear some of my regular clothes including my favorite pair of jeans. At this point, I barely knew where my yoga pants were stashed.

This is me now. At 33 weeks.

Huge. I'm past that "I feel like a cute pregnant girl".  I've now entered the "I look like a whale" stage.  Mental not to self: This blue shirt does not help the whale look. I can no longer wear any "normal" clothes and am sick of maternity clothes. My yoga pants and I are BFF and I'm fairly certain Ronnie thinks I don't get dressed during the day.  I assure you, if we go out in public I am dressed appropriately.  But I will admit as soon as we get home, the jeans come off and the yoga pants come on. 

I will admit, I'm doing better with this pregnancy than I did with Avery as far as weight gain.  I've walked a lot more now than I did with Avery and am trying to eat better.  But the holiday season is just around the corner and I'm going to really have to watch myself. I mean, look at my face.  It's already getting puffy and there's still 6 weeks to go!

So here are some things you might be wondering.

When are you due again?

My due date is December 10th but we have a C-section scheduled for December 5th.  I had to have an emergency C-section with Avery and while it's not the ideal delivery plan, it's what I've got.  I am praying (and asking you to do the same) that I go into labor before the 5th.  Mostly it's selfish but I want to deliver around the 1st so we can be in the hospital over the weekend. Bizarre I know but it's a schedule thing.

How are you feeling?

I'm feeling fine...as fine as you can feel at 33 weeks.  I'm definitely getting tired and being home with Avery can be exhausting at times (that's not me complaining by the way). But, all in all, this pregnancy has been good to me.

Is Avery excited?

Avery is VERY excited to be a big sister.  I'm not sure she understands what she's in for when Baby Sister gets here.  We've tried to explain that Baby Sister will take a lot of attention but Avery's 3.  I'm not sure she really gets it.  But she likes to talk and sing to Baby Sister.  She gives Baby Sister hugs and during every prayer time she says "thank you for Baby Sister and keep her helpy (healthy)".  It might be the sweetest thing ever. Melts my heart.

Are you ready?

No.  I'm not ready.  Not only is the nursery not ready (although we do have a crib so what more do we need?) and not prepared mentally.  I mean, two kids?! Some days I can barely handle the one kid we have.  How does it work with two?  Yikes!  But I am thankful that Ronnie is such a hands on dad and I'm not doing this alone.  Our girls have wonderful grandparents that are willing to step in at a seconds notice so we have lots of help.  Not to mention our friends that I know I can call and cry on their shoulders too!

Do you have a name?

We did finally decide on a name: Ellie Abigail.

There's no special significance to either name.  We just liked them. 

So there you have it.  A 33 week update.  Maybe I'll update weekly from here on out... but I wouldn't count on it!