Halloween 2017

We made it through another Halloween fairly unscathed. This was accomplished by mostly just pretending nothing was happening, which worked out well for us! The girls had lots of fun trick or treating with friends, and Anders hung out with friends at a couple of parties. Nils and I watched Stranger Things 2 in between handing candy out.

I managed to go to the school Halloween parade and help in Ava's class party, and I didn't even hate it that much! Ignoring Halloween until it's actually Halloween is the best.

Documentation:

Ava the witch

The 5th grade teachers as the Hogwarts faculty

Aani the "creature"

Ava's class par-tay

Anders and friends all got horse heads. Not scary at all. The band teacher managed a nice photo bomb...

Annual picture of the kiddos in costume. Momma's phone wall paper for the next year (tradition)!

(Addie was a midnight hag with her fellow Shakespeare nerd friend)

Happy Halloween!

My dreams have come true

There are 12,000 reason why we love our house. We feel very lucky in many ways, considering we went into this whole purchase pretty blind and went off of a gut feeling that it was right. We truly had no clue what we were in for project-wise when we moved in. It's been non-stop projects galore, but it's okay because it keeps us out of trouble, and it keeps us from saving any of that pesky money. I mean, who wants to save money anyway? 

We have a huge yard, but it's a weird shape and has this hill running along the entire back and side. We didn't know what to do with it initially, and we couldn't afford to do anything, since our first priorities were sprinklers and grass, and then finishing the basement. 

Not to be dramatic, but this hill has been the bane of my existence, as it has served as nothing more than 2,500 square feet of weeds. It's driven me insane. I've weeded that hill so many times, and every time when I finished, I have been very traumatized. It's true, you can ask any member of my family. So, I've been wanting a terraced rock wall for about 3 years now (that's 3 years of weeding the hill, thanks), and my wildest dreams have finally come true. We had the rock wall man come give us a bid in April or May, and he was just able to get to us this month. 

It was a magical experience. I loved every second of watching these two guys tear apart that hill of tears and make it beautiful. When they finished 8 days later, I felt like they were my best friends and didn't want them to leave. 

He dug a hole for the trampoline and dug it way too big,  so we're enjoying that massive pit until we can get some more dirt to back fill it all the way. Who knew putting a trampoline in the ground was such an ordeal? Holy moly!

(I really wouldn't recommend burying a trampoline unless it's absolutely necessary. We live in a very windy place, so it's necessary for us. I just need everyone to know that it's a huge pain in the butt and stupid expensive.)

We all loved watching them work! It was seriously so cool.

LOOOOOOVE.

Now we just have to put the yard back together, and do a wee bit of landscaping on those terraces. That's gonna have to wait till spring. That there shop you see has now been moved to priority #1.