Monday, October 31, 2016

TRICKS OR TREATS

We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo!
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too too!
We're goin' to the zoo! Zoo! ZOO!

Eek!  Here it comes. Let's talk about Halloween!!  Weird, I know, but I'm actually excited!

I warn you in advance though:
This post has WAY too many pictures of practically the same thing over and over.  
But I don't even feel bad about that  
      1. Because come on, is there really such a thing as too many pictures?? 
      2. Because the girls are the CUTEST
      3. Because I'm ridiculously proud of their costumes this year!

We'll start with the easy stuff.  We decorated.


And then we costumed!
You might recall that Brinlee tends to fixate on very interesting (ok fine, really weird!) things sometimes.  Broken dog leg x-ray anyone?
Sigh.
A month or two ago she decided she wanted to learn all about reptiles, and then narrowed her field of study to snakes... and then finally after very emotionally announcing to me one morning "Mom... I just think I'm falling in love with snakes!", she decided she wanted to be a snake for Halloween. Honestly. Figuring out a snake costume is every mom's dream, right? Somehow we managed one though.  And then I went ahead and figured out how to manage the rest of her themed Halloween ideas: an elephant for McKenna, a lion for me, and zookeeper for dad. 
And the Borup Zoo was created.
Clever, I have to say.  And fun!  She may like to give me a challenge, but at least it's a cute challenge!

We debuted our costumes at the ward Trunk Or Treat a week or two ago. 


I have never seen a kid more excited to show off anything than Brinlee was about her costume.  She was a very proud snake and wanted everyone to know!  She had gone with me several weeks ago to pick out the fabric and everything for it and then has talked about literally nothing else since. You should have seen her little eyes dazzle when she saw the finished product and got to put it on. The tail even rattled! She could not have been happier.  Or cuter!


McKenna had an initial meltdown when she realized that the cool "purple Meh!" (purple snake) was not a toy after all and she wasn't going to get to drag it around.  But she quickly recovered when she saw her costumed self in the mirror.  Elephants have been a long time favorite of hers, and she was pretty in love.  And obviously darling!


Tim's costume ended up being a little tougher to throw together than we thought it would.  Brinlee is still claiming zookeeper, so that's what we're going with.  But we will also accept Safari Leader or Indiana Jones.  You choose.  He did look awesome though!


On Saturday we went to Boo at the Zoo.  It was really crowded, but the weather was beautiful! And it was fun.  McKenna got to show off her elephant self to the real elephants.  And she was in heaven!  And Brinlee got to actually touch a real snake.  She was in double heaven!


I took the girls up the road to a little pumpkin patch and let them pick out a couple "puns" (pumpkins), and then we took them home and they "helped me" carve them.  I don't really do pumpkins (read: I'm a terrible pumpkin carver!).  But the end product was surprisingly recognizable.  It's a good thing these girls are easy to please!


Brinlee requested mice and mud again this year for dinner, along with some monster mouths, spider eggs, green aliens, and spook juice.


Trick or treating was the highlight, of course.  Brinlee was a seasoned expert and literally hit the ground running.  McKenna looked confused for the first few houses, but figured it out fast enough.  And honestly, I don't think I could ever get tired of watching her hold out her little hand and say "Pwee-poo Teat!" :)
It's no wonder they made such a haul.  I would be a generous candy giver too if those darling little animals showed up at my door!


Obviously very serious business going on here.


We met up with Brinlee's little friend for a while.  They had a good time.


Sigh.
So Halloween can be a decent holiday after all.  You just need super cute kids! 
Luckily we definitely have a couple of those!  :)



Saturday, October 29, 2016

THE LAST FEW WEEKS

Well October turned out to be nice and busy.  October kind of does that I think, at least it usually does for us.  But it's been the good kind of busy.  The kind that produces pictures and makes memories and puts miles on the car and leaves us with stuff and I can blog about! Woo!

The Month of Classes

We signed Brinlee up for another couple of Rec center classes, so for the last 6 weeks I shuttled her to and from gymnastics and swimming lessons.  It was a lot of fun to watch her, and she LOVED all of it! She actually did a really good job with both. Her proudest gymnastics moment was finally flipping upside down over the bar, and her favorite swimming accomplishment was jumping off of the side of the pool.  This sweet little girl likes to play it pretty safe most of the time and doesn't like things that make her feel nervous, but she sure was brave and is SO proud of all the new stuff she can do now!  And I'm pretty proud of her too.  What an awesome little lady!


And this other awesome little lady was the most amazing little tag along.  Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we irritated her nap schedule, drug her all over town, and made her just sit and watch all the fun, and she not only never complained once, but she was super cute and the best company a mommy could ask for! 
These two girls are the best!


The Project I Should Have Never Been Doing

I painted a couple of the walls in our living room.  A couple things about that:

     1. Yes we are renting
     2. Yes, it is in our signed contract that we will NOT paint
     3. Yes I did it anyway!

I can never make up my mind about how I want things decorated, and in our short 2 and a half years here, we've already hung up a bunch of things that we have since moved, and we had some really annoying and very large holes in our walls.  So.  I took myself to Home Depot and I got our apartment paint color matched, and I patched the holes, and I painted the walls! All without any husband help! I felt pretty awesome.  And it was totally worth it.  Those holes were a serious eye sore. Ewe!


Travel and Travelers

This past month we had my mom come for a week, Tim's mom come for a week, and we spent a weekend up in Michigan. Whew!  So much fun to have visitors come, and to go be visitors.  Now our house feels so lonely and our days seem so uneventful.  Thanks MawMaw and Grandma for coming to play with us.  And thanks Aunt Ashlie for getting married 



I of course took my camera to the wedding.  
Congratulations Masters! 


Pumpkin Painting and Popcorn Balling

We haven't gotten real far yet on our fall time bucket list, but we have done a few!  Tim helped the girls paint some pumpkins one Sunday morning while mommy slept in. Love that!  And we have made some caramel corn!  Obviously amazing, that treat always rocks.  
Note to my future self though: Although I'm usually a big advocate for sticky treats being contained in the bathtub, popcorn balls don't do so well there.  
Key words to recall when my memory of this disaster starts to fade: 
Soggy popcorn everywhere!
Disgusting brown sugar water
Bawling toddler
Very slick butter all over
Tub scrubbing for the rest of the evening


TV Buddy

I feel Brinlee's pain here.  Watching a movie "with" Tim is about the same experience.


The BFG

We just finished reading The BFG with Brinlee, so we had a little dinner party.  We dressed in character.  McKenna was the Big Friendly Giant, Brinlee was Sophie, and mommy was the Queen of England.  We ate Snozzcumbers and drank Frobscottle (but did not do any whiz popping, thank you very much!), and made the breakfast that the queen serves to the BFG and Sophie.  We even had orange marmalade!  And we of course watched the movie... a really awesome animated 1989 version. Classy.  Brinlee spent the evening eating, and laughing, and pointing out to me all the ways the movie was different than the book.  It's so fun to have such smart, fun little girls that I can do things like this with.


My Muffin Top

Tim came home to this the other day and was not very impressed...


I, however, don't seem to see any problem here.  The muffin tops are the best part! And I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Well that was fun! Our family's awesome.  And we had an awesome few weeks!