Leaves!

A couple Saturdays ago, a gorgeous weekend day, was the perfect day for some fun you can only have in the fall. When I was a kid, my sister and I looooved to rake leaves so we could jump in them. So much fun! I knew Grant would love it and we just happened to have a ton of leaves around our yard.

So I grabbed a rake (next time I'll use work gloves too...a thought I had only after getting a giant blister on my hand) and got Grant's tractor too and we set to work on our "big" pile.

Helping me gather leaves

After we started I remembered how much raking sucks. But I kept going. Every time I added more leaves Grant would ask "Can I jump in it now?" I'd say no and we'd work on getting more leaves. We don't have nearly the amount of leaves that some people do so I was gathering from all over the yard. Usually if I had some leaves that I was raking toward the pile, Grant would run over and grab an armload then take off toward his tractor to fill his loader...scattering the leaves all over again. He was having a ball. Eventually we had a pile big enough for jumping.

Now it was time to jump...

When the pile would flatten out enough, we'd build it back up...then more running and jumping.

Before we went inside to get ready for a nap, we pretty much dismantled the pile. Ok, Grant did. I think that was just as much fun for him as the jumping was. He ran through them, ran around in a circle in them, and was super excited to watch them fall when I told him to take big handfuls and throw them in the air.

I think this might have been my favorite fall day ever with Grant. He had so much fun! Later on when I took him for a bike ride, he kept pointing to the remains of our pile and asking to do it again the next and talking about how much fun it was. There are some things you just have to do as a kid and jumping in a big pile of leaves on a fall day is one of them! 

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren to share some good stuff from the past week!

1) The weekend weather was wonderful for playing outside! On Saturday, Grant and I raked leaves into a pile for jumping - a first for him - and he loved it! On Sunday, I took for him a trike ride and we played some baseball too. I love how much he loves to play outside :)

2) On Saturday we had family movie night! I love family movie night! We rented Monsters University (super cute!) and I popped popcorn on the stove like my mom used to. Then we hung out together watching the movie. Good stuff!

Wearing his monster feet and ready for the movie!

3) On Monday, Husband and I "celebrated" our 7th anniversary! I use the term "celebrated" loosely because Grant was super sick so we didn't actually celebrate at all (except a drop in Grant's fever). Our anniversary evening consisted of one of us laying in bed with Grant so the other one could eat dinner...also I was probably still wearing vomit from the 3 times Grant threw up on me.

Husband stepping on the back of my dress and breaking my
bustle as they announce us on our way into the reception.
Happy Anniversary Husband! :)

4) After two days of fever, vomiting, sore throat, lethargy, and no appetite Grant finally felt better Tuesday afternoon and was able to go back to school Wednesday. Tests for everything came back negative, the doctor said it was just a virus. It was so good to see him getting back to his normal, crazy self!

Taken Monday evening after his day long 101.whatever fever
finally broke and he felt a little better.

5) AAAAAAHHHHH! For my birthday Husband got me Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets - which was finally last night! - and actually said he'd go with me! This day seemed to take forever to get here! I've been a fan for years and have wanted to go to their one-night-only-show every year and missed it ever year. The tickets were a complete surprise! Since our anniversary was side-lined we decided to use the show as an anniversary date night. It was the most incredible concert!! Best date night  - and birthday present - ever :)

None of my pictures could even begin to do justice!

Hopefully soon I'll begin to catch up on posting somethings I've been meaning to do but just haven't gotten around to (like going to the State Fair and Halloween!).

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Have a great weekend!

Why My Birthday Was Awesome

*This happened two weeks ago, I'm super behind*

For weeks before my birthday my sister had been bragging about my present. How much I was going to love it. What color it was. That it was huge. That I'd never in a million years guess what it was. I'm not one to make a big deal out of my birthday. I'm not one of those women who hates the day and denies their age...I'm just quiet about my birthday. I don't need presents, honestly I don't. But if you're going to keep throwing it in my face that you got me something crazy awesome, you can bet I'm going to be curious. But no one seemed to have any idea what she got me.

I had planned to take my birthday (Thursday) and Friday off. Veteran's Day was Monday so that gave me a lovely 5 day weekend. I planned to shop with Grant on Thursday and then send him to school on Friday because I had a cake to do. So on Wednesday afternoon I was sitting in my office with a major case of vacation-itis when my co-worker's husband called and she up and disappears all secret like. 

And she comes back in two minutes later with my sister. Fresh off a plane from NY! 

Apparently, just about every person in my life was in on it. Most of my office knew. My husband, of course, knew. All my family in NY knew. I had no clue. Husband even let it slip that week telling me "Hey, you and Shauna can go running together while she's here!" and it went right over my head because I figured he was talking about her possibly coming for Christmas. THAT was one hell of a surprise!

When we left my office, we went to pick up the one other person who had no idea my sister was coming. And the one person who would probably be even more excited to see her.

Grant.

We got to school and Grant smiled when he saw me. He was headed to the bathroom. He stopped when he saw Shauna behind me, smiled really big and said "I gotta go pee". Ha! When he was done, of course, he gave her a big huge hug.

Grant very much enjoyed the surprise visit. He liked to wake Auntie Shauna up by yelling "ROAR!" in her face every morning.

And he likes that she lets him get into mischief that he might otherwise not if she weren't there. Like getting into a bowl of the frosting I made Friday morning.

Note to party-goers: The frosting that Grant's hand
is in was NOT used on the cake you ate!

We did the shopping on Thursday that I had planned. Made the cake on Friday that I had planned (I loved baking and decorating while my sister went behind me and cleaned up my mess!). And on Saturday we went for a great walk at the park before attending the 1st birthday party of a special little guy and then taking my sister to her first ever NHL game! (More on that later...along with a ton of other stuff I've been too lazy to post).

A break in the walk for some playtime!

"Shauna, I wanna hold your hand."

We also came across a few lizards at the park and
my sister found one of them to be friendly.

Grant was not expecting him to scurry up Auntie's
arm when he tried to pet him.

Grant and Auntie Shauna decided to call him Reggie (and I
decided that his home would remain at the park).

On Sunday we had to say bye :( It never seems like her visits are long enough. Since we were going to the airport we decided to take Grant to the observation deck there. He kept asking when a plane took off if it was Auntie Shauna's plane. 

Pretending to be a plane on the observation park's mini runway

It was an awesome surprise and a great birthday!

High Five for Friday

It's November! Which means the state fair is over and my fall season can finally begin! Today I'm linking up with Lauren to share some of the good stuff from my week (and then end of my October).

1) The state fair does fireworks every night of the fair at 9:45, which is way later than Grant's bedtime. But as a treat on Saturday we met for dinner after my shift at the fair was over and then parked near the fairgrounds for Grant's first actual fireworks display. They were much closer than we thought they'd be but that wasn't a problem. Grant loved them! I'm so glad he's not scared of them (my sister was for years...now she just hates clowns) because fireworks are great!

Waiting for the fireworks to start!

Open-mouthed amazement the whole time. Except for the
few minutes that he spent pointing out to us that the fireworks
didn't come from where we first told him to look. Smarty pants.

2) Even though I spent 6 days at the state fair for work, I couldn't let Grant miss it just because I was sick of it. So on Sunday, the last day, we took Grant to the fair. We ate, went on some rides (ok, I was the only one who rode with him), people watched, ate...the usual fair stuff. Grant had a great time and even rode one ride by himself! (That doesn't sound like a big deal but, to me, it is considering it's the fair.)

Riding all by himself!

His souvenir from the fair...love at first sight!

3) Monday I surprised Husband and Grant with some cupcakes after dinner from Sugarland in Cameron Village. They were so good!

I bet you'll never guess which one was for Grant. 

It's possible that I may have stuck his face in it...

4) I didn't have time to carve any of our pumpkins this year, which makes me sad (but I will definitely be harvesting their seeds for roasting - which makes me happy!). However, Grant and I made time to use this Mr. Potato Head Pirate kit that I bought after Halloween last year and have been saving! It wasn't nearly as easy as they lead you to believe, but we got it!

5) Halloween! I baked a Halloweeny cake for my coworkers and last night we took Grant trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. No hesitation this year! He loved every minute of it.

Cake for work - fun!

Trick-or-Treat!

6) BONUS: Did I mention the state fair ended and my schedule is back to normal! Thank goodness it only comes once a year.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I hope you have a great weekend!