Monday, October 12, 2015

Countdown to Halloween - Oct 5 - 11

Happy Monday! Is it just me or is this month flying by a little too quickly?? The weekends are filling up fast round here, but in the best possible way. 

Thanks for joining Courtney, Amanda, Elizabeth, Kelly and myself as we countdown all the fun ways we're celebrating fall and Halloween this month. If you're new to this Halloween linkup party, start here. Otherwise, grab a button and jump right in with all your fall favorites! 
  The Joni Journey

Starting our countdown at 5 (read 1-4), here's what we've been up to this past week:

5. Fall festival. Although if you ask Ez, it was more of a car festival. Read more over here.

6. Halloween painting craft. I got this little Halloween cat from Michaels and decided to go to the park to paint it. Unfortunately it was kind of a bust. Mostly because the outdoors offer so many distractions. Oooh a stick! Let's paint that. Look a leaf! Declan's toes! I wanna play with those! So we had a nice afternoon, but the cat didn't get painted. Oh well.

7. Fall baking. Every last single one of our apples from our trip to the orchard is gone. Ez ate 80% of them. He was requesting them for snacks all day long. "ah-pull?? ah-pull??" I did manage to sneak a few for baking. We made these muffins at Courtney's suggestion. They were so yummy I forgot to take pictures before we ate them all.

8. Monster bowling. Ez has had this Melissa & Doug bowling set forever, but suddenly this week he's decided it's his favorite toy. Apparently he's been bitten by the Halloween bug as well. All day long he's tugging on my shirt asking me to "set down the monstees" (set up the monsters). He usually likes to snuggle the "monstees" before he knocks them over. Then we cheer and do the whole thing over again.

9. Halloween books. I finally brought out all our old favorites from last year and we took a trip to the bookstore so Ez could pick out a new one. But he quickly realized there were toy airplanes at the bookstore, which meant zero interest in books. I picked out Room on the Broom because of all the great reviews I've heard and guess what? Ez hates it. He acts super offended if I even try to read it, and slams it shut while repeatedly yelling "NOT NOW!" You win some, you lose some... Also, what a little diva. Guess we'll save that one for next year. In the meantime we've got 5 Little Pumpkins, Duck & Goose, and 5 Black Cats to tide us over.

10. Corn maze. Now that we're back near the area I grew up I was super excited to go back to the corn maze I went to every October from middle school through high school. It's seriously the best. Super big and intricate and it's one of my favorite Halloween memories. Since the last time I went it's grown a lot and it's basically a daily fall festival for all of October now, complete with zip lines, pumpkin shooting, and kiddie rides. Due to the heat we stuck to the corn maze, wandered through the pumpkin patch, then headed out for lunch anywhere with A/C. Ez enjoyed shouting out which direction we should go, which meant we spent a good amount of time walking in circles. Eventually we had to veto him in favor of actually getting out of there sometime this decade. 

11. Halloween nails, hard cider, & Walking Dead. As much as I love all the kiddie family stuff going on this month, I'm so excited for the return of Walking Dead! Any other fans out there? We thought Fear the Walking Dead was alright, but not a whole lot of zombie action going on in the first season. To celebrate I got some hard apple cider and attempted Halloweenifying my nails. To be honest, I got a gel manicure a month and a half ago, and the nail polish refuses to come off, so this is me trying to mask my half grown out manicure. #momlife

Here's how we're doing on our fall bucket list:

Your turn! I've seen lots of fun family outings on Instagram this week (#cdtoHalloween15 ) and I'm excited to read all about the fall stuff you've been up to!



11 comments:

  1. So much cuteness happening here!!! Love, love, love your nails! I think Mason would love reading books in a fort...I'm going to have to steal that idea lol

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  2. I love the little kitty. Oh man, l used to love painting those little ceramics as a kid. I don't think Aria would have much patience for it just yet. One day!
    That monster bowling is so cute!
    Yum, I'm glad you tried the muffins! Did you glaze them? I think I skipped that step when I made them because I'm usually too lazy.
    Too funny about Room on the Broom. It is a longer one. Next year! It's so cute.
    What a fun maze! We actually found one about an hour away. (close to Disney...I think we will have to make it a double =) )

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  3. Your nails are so cute! That Monster bowling was a really cute idea!

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  4. Monster bowling!! LOVE!!! My 3 year old is going to love that. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. This month is flying by too fast. Boo! It’s always the best months that are gone in the blink of an eye. You guys have had the best {& festive} month. The monster bowling is a genius idea! So much fun. And those Halloween nails are adorable. Cute pictures, friend! Oh and we missed the whole last season on the Walking Dead. We need to catch up!

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  6. The pictures from the patch are darling! Ive had a couple different hard ciders but my interest is piqued at pumpkin ale. Love your halloween nails!

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  7. Monster bowling! How fun! I've been trying and trying to read Room on the Broom to my 2 year old ever since last fall and she hates it as well. I can't get more than 2 pages into it before she's done. Such a bummer, because it's a cute book! The corn maze looked so fun! We have them all over the place here, but I've never actually done one. I need to get on that. Huge The Walking Dead fan here! I'm excited to see what happens this season!

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  8. Lol at Ez acting offended totally sounds like Lily. Alllllllll those pumpkins at the patch! Man! What a selection! Love that you used the straps (or appears that way) for Declan in the bumbo!

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  9. So many fun ideas!
    We love The Walking Dead! So glad it's back on!

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