Monthly Musings: Fall and Halloween

I'm too late to do the link-up for this, but I liked these questions!

1) Favorite Fall Tradition?

I can't think of anything we do consistently every year EXCEPT decorate the house ha. I do love putting my fall decorations up in September, adding Halloween and Thanksgiving in October and November...all leading up to Christmas, which is my favorite FAVORITE holiday. Here you can see how I decorated last year. It's very similar this year with the addition of a few pumpkins...I always seem to buy more!

My favorite decorations...all the pumpkins!

I would say MOST years we go to a fall festival - sometimes it's a farm-type setting, it's been at our country club before, so not consistent on WHAT we do, but I do like to do something. We actually have plans for one this weekend, yay!

2) Favorite Halloween Tradition?

Trick or treating! I can't think of anything that screams Halloween more than that, can you?

3) What will Halloween look like this year for you and your family?

I highly doubt we will trick or treat this year which is a bummer {obviously I understand but it's still a bummer}, but because we have our friend family in the neighborhood, we are planning a 'progressive' Halloween between the 4 houses we spend almost all our time with. The kids are still going to dress-up {and look at me being prepared - we have our costumes already!}, and we will have an activity at each house. For example, we are going to get a pinata for one house and maybe do a scavenger hunt at another house. It's awesome that Halloween is on the weekend this year so we can really enjoy ourselves and not rush home for bedtime - and the parents will all love this too!

4) Share your favorite fall recipe.

I love soups and stews - give me potato soup, corn chowder, tortilla soup...BUT most of my family disagrees. Womp, womp! One recipe that Brent loves, and we make on a regular basis in the fall - spicy taco soup. It's too spicy for the girls, and Trent wouldn't eat it if he were starving to death, but Brent and I both LOVE it.

5) Favorite fall fashion staple.

I'm a fan of themed outfits for the kids - I can't get Trent in anything anymore.

I even have a few festive fall shirts!

For everyday wear, though, I'd say my style is just wearing what I wear all year long and throwing a cardigan over it since our winters aren't too cold. I am working on my winter wardrobe though because I do get frustrated when I try to dress cute and have so few choices because I don't buy a lot of long-sleeved stuff ha.

6) Favorite Halloween costume?

I had to pick the jack-o-lantern costume my MIL made for her niece over 30 years ago! All of my babies wore this costume their first Halloween, and I love it so much!

7) Favorite Halloween candy?

I'm a chocolate girl, and I love a mini Kit Kat the most! I will also chow down on mini Snickers, Reese's cups, and Twix!

8) Favorite family Halloween movie?

We don't really watch Halloween movies as a family, but I remember watching a Garfield cartoon a million times as a kid about Garfield and Odie going trick or treating and getting caught up with a band of ghost pirates - I loved that one! I did a quick Google search and found it on YouTube! I am totally sharing this with the kids!

9) Scary movies? Yes or no?

I'm not generally into scary movies, but there are a bunch I've seen over the years, and I can say I prefer suspenseful vs. just a true bloodbath horror film. I don't want to watch Friday the 13th or anything like that AT ALL, and I can remember seeing Scream in the movie theater asking myself why I wanted to go see it, ha. I had nightmares after watching The Ring in my early 20s, ha! I do however really like ghost/supernatural films - I've always enjoyed ghost stories. It made me laugh to see Natasha's response about Poltergeist because I do actually LOVE that movie!

10) Favorite fall beverage?

I don't drink it too much in the 'fall' officially, but it is my 'cold weather' drink - my mother-in-law's Cranberry tea! I get super excited when she makes her first batch. I will make a batch or two myself, but it is full of sugar, so it isn't something I need to keep in the house. You guys also know I love me a chai latte, but I drink that year-round ha. I especially love November 1 when the holiday cups arrive!

First Days of School Part Deux

 We have been back at school for a week and a half IN PERSON! It hasn't been without its challenges, but overall, we've had a great start to the year. I personally had a lot of anxiety about it {which I've blabbed about incessantly so I will try to not rehash it all here}.

Originally the school stated we would be virtual for 4-weeks with the school reopening on September 17. But as we got closer, they announced a phased-in start. Only the 7th/8th graders would start on September 17. Primary {Paige} would start September 22, Lower Elementary {Drew} would start September 24, and Upper Elementary {Trent} would start September 28.

We decided to have Paige start the same day as Drew because we didn't think it would go over well with Paige getting out of the car by herself, I couldn't walk her into class, and she'd be going into a new class in a new school. So Drew and Paige started together on September 24.

We had to do 2 versions of our first day pic to show their masks and chains!

A co-worker of mine makes personalized mask chains, and they are so cute!

Drop-off went GREAT! Way better than I expected. NO TEARS from Paige, she just marched right in. And Drew had been SO EXCITED for days, she practically jumped out of the car! I was so happy!

I was nervous all day how the girls would do - Would the masks drive them crazy? Would Paige cry a lot? How would naptime go for Paige? What would recess look like? Well, at pick-up, I mostly got good news!!! The masks seem to be a non-issue thankfully! Paige said she cried a few times {including when she had to go to the nap room}, but I thought we had a successful day!

BUT...the rest of Thursday Paige kept saying over and over again that she didn't want to go back to school. She cried at bedtime and Friday morning about having to go to school the next day and drop-off was awful. She was sobbing and clinging to me, ugh.

Paige did request another picture on Friday morning!

We got snow cones Friday afternoon to celebrate!

On-and-off all weekend, Paige would bring up school and not wanting to go. Monday morning there were more tears while getting ready, tears in the car, tears when I got her out of the car. Trent, at least, had a good attitude about it all - he wasn't thrilled to be going back but knew he had to - that is HUGE for him!

Monday afternoon, everyone had stories for me. They kept talking over each other in their excitement to tell me about school. Trent made some friends, the big 2 were excited about multiple recesses, Paige painted a picture {that she said was for me and then changed it to being for Drew and Trent!} and was happy at pick-up but said she cried several times. 

Brent and I decided we would be lenient on screen time and give extra treats this week, since it's been so long since they've gone to school and we wanted to celebrate any victory. So Monday, I took everyone to Starbucks for a treat!

Tuesday and Wednesday involved lots of tears for Paige {Trent told her at drop-off on Tuesday 'I don't want to go to school either, but we have to.' That CRACKED me up.} But!!! On Wednesday at pick-up, Paige told me 'I finally had a good day!'

We ended the week on a high - each day drop-off got better and better, Friday there were no tears {although clinging to me} and walking into class independently and smiles at pickup. Trent's teacher also emailed me {I'm the class mom} about Trent being a 'treasure'!!!!!!! And Drew just loves school, her guide, and her friends!

I know it's early days, but I'm so happy with how things are going!!