One of the new items on the spooky holiday bucket list is to hit up the MN Zoo pumpkin fest. There are 5,000+ pumpkins on display, and because the spectacular runs for a month, the pumpkins are switched out regularly. Last year the theme was all about the different decades. For 2019, the theme is "Around the World".
It's hard to get tickets for a weekend show, so we ended up going on Wednesday night, and there were still a lot of people there. We learned last year that while there's a people-jam at the beginning of the display, the path is wide enough that we can skirt around the crowds and get ahead of them, so we aren't blocked by a ton of people. We all are much happier when we follow that plan!
Ava had a fairly good week...she had a science test, as well as a make-up math test, so her brains were really put to work this week. It's been an adjustment to being able to see all of her grades/lessons online, but it makes it easy to check in on things regularly. We have a standing Saturday morning date to review her grades and see where she can improve upon things.
G had a decent week...he had a few rough days, but his teacher is so good at staying in contact with me. Over the last 15 schools days, he's had 12 good days and 3 not-so-good days...I think that's a pretty decent ratio! Overall he's such a smart, sweet boy, and it's only the struggle with the impulse control that's a challenge. That's how he's wired, and we are doing our best with teaching him how to recognize and redirect his impulses. I'm often reminding myself that it's "progress, not perfection." (Thank you to "Raising Your Spirited Child" for providing guidance on how to raise a child who is "more"...it's definitely not the same as raising a calm child, like Ava.)
It's also changed my lens of how I see children acting in public places. I will not judge a child who is "misbehaving" as I don't know the situation, or the parenting tactics that have been tried. There was a woman and a small boy (maybe 4 years old) behind me in line the other day and the boy was running around like crazy. She apologized to me for her "wild" child, and I immediately told her not to worry, that I had one of my own. It's a tough world, and I'm grateful for the opportunity that G has given me to see that not all children are easy to raise. Being his mom has made me a better, more open person, in general. (Ava, too, of course, but she has brought out different characteristics as a parent, like "how to manage OCD tendencies in a child"...ha!)
Scott was out of town this weekend, and I ended up taking Friday as a mental health/cleaning-the-basement day. :) That's a project that I've been wanting to tackle for oh, about five years now, and there's just not enough time on the weekend, so I used one of my precious PTO days...and I'm so glad I did! Friday, I worked for six hours to get 1/2 of our utility room and "shop" room organized. I discovered that I have a cleaning supply hording problem. Wow.
Yesterday, I worked for about 4 hours and unpacked (yes, boxes from when we moved here six years ago) the other half of our utility room. I found all of our barware - hooray! And, it turns out that Scott has a canning/mason jar hording problem. Double wow.
I also realized that we might have so many gift bags that we could open our own gift bag store. Like, seriously. I will not wrap gifts again until this crazy gift bag supply is cut in half!
But now, everything is unpacked with the exception of all of our photo albums and loose photos. THAT is a huge project that is mentally exhausting as well, and I just didn't have the ability to tackle that after 10 hours of organizing. That can be a winter project.
So, now we're left with a huge pile of things to donate, a medium sized pile of things to recycle, and a small pile of things to throw away. As a bonus, I was able to clear out part of the piles in our office to find a permanent home in the basement for those things. It feels great to get things done!
We're going to have dinner tonight at my parent's new place, so it'll be nice to see how it's all come together, and to spend a few hours relaxing with them. Should be a great way to cap off the weekend!
It's hard to get tickets for a weekend show, so we ended up going on Wednesday night, and there were still a lot of people there. We learned last year that while there's a people-jam at the beginning of the display, the path is wide enough that we can skirt around the crowds and get ahead of them, so we aren't blocked by a ton of people. We all are much happier when we follow that plan!
There are so many pumpkins there that I only captured the carvings that I really loved.
France
Germany
Germany
Greece
Greece
The Count
Ariel
Minions
Egypt
Africa
Zombie eating a brain birthday cake...?
G loved the little tunnel with the purple lights
G had a decent week...he had a few rough days, but his teacher is so good at staying in contact with me. Over the last 15 schools days, he's had 12 good days and 3 not-so-good days...I think that's a pretty decent ratio! Overall he's such a smart, sweet boy, and it's only the struggle with the impulse control that's a challenge. That's how he's wired, and we are doing our best with teaching him how to recognize and redirect his impulses. I'm often reminding myself that it's "progress, not perfection." (Thank you to "Raising Your Spirited Child" for providing guidance on how to raise a child who is "more"...it's definitely not the same as raising a calm child, like Ava.)
It's also changed my lens of how I see children acting in public places. I will not judge a child who is "misbehaving" as I don't know the situation, or the parenting tactics that have been tried. There was a woman and a small boy (maybe 4 years old) behind me in line the other day and the boy was running around like crazy. She apologized to me for her "wild" child, and I immediately told her not to worry, that I had one of my own. It's a tough world, and I'm grateful for the opportunity that G has given me to see that not all children are easy to raise. Being his mom has made me a better, more open person, in general. (Ava, too, of course, but she has brought out different characteristics as a parent, like "how to manage OCD tendencies in a child"...ha!)
Scott was out of town this weekend, and I ended up taking Friday as a mental health/cleaning-the-basement day. :) That's a project that I've been wanting to tackle for oh, about five years now, and there's just not enough time on the weekend, so I used one of my precious PTO days...and I'm so glad I did! Friday, I worked for six hours to get 1/2 of our utility room and "shop" room organized. I discovered that I have a cleaning supply hording problem. Wow.
Yesterday, I worked for about 4 hours and unpacked (yes, boxes from when we moved here six years ago) the other half of our utility room. I found all of our barware - hooray! And, it turns out that Scott has a canning/mason jar hording problem. Double wow.
I also realized that we might have so many gift bags that we could open our own gift bag store. Like, seriously. I will not wrap gifts again until this crazy gift bag supply is cut in half!
But now, everything is unpacked with the exception of all of our photo albums and loose photos. THAT is a huge project that is mentally exhausting as well, and I just didn't have the ability to tackle that after 10 hours of organizing. That can be a winter project.
I found the boot from Gasthof's...we took this home the night we got engaged!
I uncovered this gem...Scott is on the right, and his brother, Tim, is on the left. Garrett looked at this pic and immediately said that he looked like his dad. It's those eyes and eyebrows, for sure!
We're going to have dinner tonight at my parent's new place, so it'll be nice to see how it's all come together, and to spend a few hours relaxing with them. Should be a great way to cap off the weekend!
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