School

Both girls had school today.
And rather than running errands I came home
and did laundry,
vacuumed,
put laundry away,
and cleaned my bedroom,
all while Bravo played on in the background.

AND I did all of this uninterrupted.

There are no words.

I also got out the Halloween books.


this is pretty exciting.
I love children's books,
and holidays,
and themes,
so these things coming together makes me quite happy.

Apparently it makes my girls happy too.


today was a good day.

October 2016

October is always a busy month at our house.
We've got a big birthday girl to celebrate,
an annual visit to the pumpkin patch,
followed by decorating and baking all things pumpkin,
right up until Halloween.












But we decided that wasn't quite enough,
so we added a few more adventures this month;
a trip to Iowa and a Bubble Run.

The girls had an amazing time in Iowa...
jumping in piles of leaves raked by Grandpa


playing with cousins and celebrating October birthdays at Aunt Shelley's






and we even spent some time in KC.
We met up with Uncle Tyler & Holly,
spent some time with the Great Grandmas,
and two of us even got to see a Chiefs victory.


Sometime over the summer, I came across some information about a local bubble run.
Lauren can't get enough of bubbles,
so I thought it might be a fun activity for the whole family.
I greatly underestimated the bubble in BubbleRun.





We may have found a new October tradition.

Speaking of tradition...
This guy won the McQuinn Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest

by a landslide.

44 weeks

Halloween 2015

It's amazing how different this Halloween was from last year...
she understood so much more,
was involved in the pumpkins, the decor, the costume, and the candy,
which made it fun for the whole family.


The rain put a slight damper on our trick-or-treating, but we made the best of it.
She would practice saying 'trick or treat' all the way to the door followed by a thank you
and went completely silent when a person finally came to the door.
The second we walked away, she was digging into her bag to find the best treat.
And then demanding that we show it to dad
{who was handing out candy}
So we covered a lot of ground,
by walking to a house, then back to our house to show dad the sucker,
then another house, then our house to show dad the treat bag,
yet we only went to a few houses.

And finally getting to eat that sucker that she had been eyeing all night,
put on her Halloween jammers,
and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

That brought a big Halloween smile to our little cows face.

{five things}

{1}
At the beginning of last week a little virus came into our home and took Matt and I hostage for 24 hours.
Thankfully it didn't take Lauren.
But having a healthy toddler did make the day a little more challenging.

Remember a few posts ago, where I whined about how much more difficult this second pregnancy is.
Well, I got a little taste of what it could be like and I'll just keep my symptoms.

{2}
Halloween has been a lot of fun this year.
Lauren understands a little bit more,
is excited about pumpkin sightings,
the potential of scoring some M&M's
and her cow costume.

Last week, we attended a little Halloween party at The Little Gym.

She got a few pieces of candy, had a blast with the bubbles, and enjoyed pointing out all the Elsa's in the room.

We also attended a local Halloween in the Park event.
Lauren got a little more practice with the actual trick or treating part and really enjoyed looking through her collection of candy.


She even got to choose one piece before bed.
Brave?
yes.

{3}
Lauren is a budding little artist.

She loves to color, paint, and do anything with the word 'project' attached.
While we had our first 'no coloring on the wall' conversation recently...

I love watching her creativity at work

and how proud she is when we hang it on the fridge.


{4}
Now that I don't take a monthly photo of Lauren, I also don't do a monthly update of all the little things she doing or saying.
I realized that makes me kind of sad.
So as a sort of documentation for my mama-self,
here's a few of my fave All Things Lauren right now:

* she talks. a lot. and quite well. Her phrases are getting larger and larger and her vocabulary broader and broader.
Our conversations are becoming quite entertaining.

* she calls herself, Lorno.
 I love this.
"Lorno wash her hands"
"Lorno's dolly"
"Mommy, Daddy, Lorno"
Did I mention I love it?

* she loves her dollies and has been playing with them so sweetly.
Putting them to bed,
feeding them,
patting their little backs and
shhhh-ing them at the same time.
If it's any indication of the big sister she will be... this baby is a lucky one.

* she still loves books and has started to memorize her favorites.
She can pretty much rehash the story of Five Little Pumpkins
and the other day I heard her say "true love" when reading Frozen aloud.
Oh, my heart.

* Speaking of heart, she talks about Disney, a lot.
Hugging Pooh & Tigger & Belle,
Ariel at the parade,
riding the 'horsey' with Papa & 'Gamma',
Mickey singing Happy Birthday.
Matt and I are amazed at how much she remembers and love listening to her talk about it.

{5}
We held our 10th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest.
Lauren painted her pumpkin while mom & dad carved theirs.



It's pretty obvious we don't have the time we once had to devote to this competition.

But a winner was crowned,

evening out the score at 5 wins a piece.

Good time to retire?

Maybe next year when I take another win...

the pumpkin patch

Five Little Pumpkins.

It's currently a favorite at our house,
which means it is read a. lot.

So, we had one excited little girl when we told her we were on our way to the pumpkin patch.

We had such a great time at Dewberry Farm last year that we made our way again this year. 

The highlights this year included the ponies, the pillow and big slide, a ride on the train, the carousel, and pumpkin picking, which Lauren was very much a part of. 

Can you guess which pumpkin Lauren chose?

She had a thing for those bumpy ones.

This is usually a sign of a pretty successful day...