Friday
Friday night was soccer night! We’ve fully embraced the soccer family lifestyle ever since Chase began playing on his first real team and genuinely look forward to our Friday nights out on the field. Next week is Chase’s final game of the season and watching him grow as a teammate and a player has been such a joy.
(Flare leggings: Aerie – I have the super flare but they also have a regular flare / Sweater: Amazon / Bralette: Amazon / Shearling clogs: Amazon / Checkered bag: Target)
Chase’s team is actually undefeated (Chase scored a goal Friday night!) which has the boys all the more excited. As a player it’s been neat to see Chase evolve and become a little more confident on the field.
(Side note: I’m not sure who works harder on Friday nights, Chase or me and Ryan as we try to entertain his little brothers.)
Chase is fast and loves to run like crazy but can be a little timid and isn’t likely to try to challenge another player for the ball. We saw some strides in this area from him on Friday night which was so cool and, more importantly, we could tell he was proud of himself!
Saturday
Saturday centered around pre-Halloween fun as we made our way to OWLoween at the Carolina Raptor Center. We actually joined the Raptor Center as members the last time we were there (as a family of five, if you go twice, you’ve already made your money back) and knew we wanted to return for OWLoween since we loved the event so much last year.
The Raptor Center goes all out with buckets of candy, treats, toys and stickers all around the boardwalk in front of the raptor cages and has lots of tables and activities set up for the kids as well.
We were also there in time for the first owl presentation and learned more about the great horned owl. Something I learned that felt worth passing along: If you ever find a baby bird on the ground, put it back in the nest. Most birds don’t have a great sense of smell so the whole “if you touch a baby bird, the mother will reject it” thing is mostly a myth.
Chase’s hand then shot up in the air as he asked what he should do if the nest is too high or he cannot reach it. We were told that the next best thing would be to make a faux-nest of sorts (a small basket or Tupperware container would work) and put the baby bird in it on a low branch because baby birds are noisy and the mother will find it! (If the mother bird is no longer around, that’s when you would want to bring it to a rescue center.)
We had a great time at OWLoween and made a pit-stop at the new house to drop off some towel rings, confirm our shutter color selection and check on the rope swing Ryan had installed on our dock!
We were pretty convinced Ryan was going to end up swimming on his inaugural rope swing there for a second!
By the time we made it home, everyone was ready for lunch and then Rhett went down for his nap. We then did a little pumpkin painting and hung out around the house until it was time for our second trunk-or-treat event of the month.
I made my way to trunk-or-treat with Ryder and Chase 30 minutes before Ryan and Rhett joined us because we wanted Rhett to get in as long of a nap as possible since he was sick last week. Chase and Ryder were thrilled to debut their “real” Halloween costumes (aka not the costumes they picked out from our costume bin)!
Ryder the Red-Nosed Reindeer!
And Chase the Bald Eagle!
I love the way the costumes they chose this year perfectly capture their interests and personalities. Of course Creature Man Chase was all about being a bald eagle (due, in large part to the eagle rescues he loves watching on Alaska Animal Rescue during our movie nights) and Ryder didn’t miss a beat when he said he wanted to be Rudolph this year! Ryder is the kid who truly asked me when Christmas was coming again through June of this year and he sleeps with a Rudolph stuffed animal every night so Ryder the Red-Nosed Reindeer was the perfect choice for him!
My friends Lauren and Laura and their families joined us as the kids loaded up their buckets with candy and played in the grass. We loved the catch-up time with friends and the boys clearly loved running around with their buddies.
We’ve actually trick-or-treated with my friend Lauren and her family (she’s Claire’s mom for anyone who might remember!) since Chase and Claire were one and will be trick-or-treating with them again this year.
It’s crazy that now there are six kids between us!
Eventually we made it home for the whole night time routine and called it a day.
Sunday
Sunday morning began in a special way when I walked into our kitchen to find a sweet note from Ryan nestled into a bouquet of flowers. It was our 12-year anniversary on Sunday and while we agreed not to do anything huge (the new house is mega big deal for us right now!) the day still felt a little more special than your average Sunday!
I surprised Ryan with a record player and paired it with albums that reminded me of different points in our relationship (dating, married, kids). I figured he would like it but I had no idea how much our boys would get into this gift!
One of the albums I gave Ryan was a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album featuring the song Hallelujah because it’s the instrumental song our boys loooove dancing around to like little maniacs around the holidays. Of course that was the first album we ended up playing yesterday and it ended up feeling an awful lot like Christmas for the rest of the day.
I actually had little cut-out cookies for the boys to decorate as part of a Halloween monster cookie kit but they looked like little gingerbread men so between our faux gingerbread cookies and instrumental Christmas music blasting throughout the house all day long, it was a holly jolly pre-Halloween Sunday in our house.
The weather was cold and dreary all day on Sunday which suited us just fine because we wanted a more relaxed day after a bunch of jam-packed fall weekends this year. We made it out to Lowe’s and Publix and also popped into the pet store to pick up crickets for Lucky, our leopard gecko. The boys also talked us into getting a little container of super worms after seeing them at the Raptor Center. A quick Google search told us super worms are okay as a periodic treat for leopard geckos so we made our way home with a carload of kids, crickets and super worms.
The super worms ended up serving as nap time entertainment for the big kids while Rhett snoozed and they built the worms a “super worm mansion” with their magnetic tiles complete with a slide, pool and plenty of rooms to explore. (FYI, super worms are more like caterpillars in the way they move and not slimy at all.) The little play pen we bought for Lucky has come in awfully handy for a myriad of creatures in our house so far!
After Rhett’s nap, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at home, cleaning up around the house, tackling some chores and getting ready for the week ahead. Rhett and Ryder are off school today but Chase has school so we’ll be stopping by for a Fairy Tale parade this morning. All the kids are dressing up as various storybook characters and I’m looking forward to waving at Chase and then getting our whole gang dressed up later tonight for trick-or-treating!
I hope you all have a very Happy Halloween!
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Happy Anniversary!
Thank you!!!