Hotober

Well, it's FINALLY feeling like Fall around here....better late than never, right? But October certainly did not. We still pretended that it was Fall and did all things October in short sleeves and flip flops. Here's my tardy attempt to catch up on one of my favorite months!

I finally participated in one of those "bulk cooking" days with my Home Group. My friend Melissa set it up, did all the shopping, organizing, and prep work. This was a massive effort ya'll. I pretty much brought my apron and a check. We voted on 8 recipes that are freezer friendly, and worked like dogs for about 5 hours. I admit-it was more prep work than I thought it was going to be.....but that's the whole point...you go home with 8 meals that all you have to do is take out of the freezer and warm up! And of course, we did have a BLAST cooking, dancing, and singing in the kitchen while we worked.

Pretty sure my friend Emily was burning something at this moment. 

I was the "rib prepper" and sliced and broiled 8 racks of ribs. I was pretty much a vegetarian by the time I was done. #overit

I'd love to tell you that I've enjoyed each scrumptious meal. Sadly, our deep freeze decided TO BECOME UNPLUGGED at some point and I lost 7 of the meals. Awesome.

Moving along. The famous "State Fair of Texas" was in full swing last month and sadly, we had NEVER been. After going, I can say this is something I would mark on the "Do Before Kids"....or "Wait Till the Kids are 12" List. Ya'll. I know it's famous, and a tradition in some families, but Lawd have mercy. We spend a fortune, parked my new car in a gully FOR TWENTY DOLLARS, and there wasn't really much Greyson could enjoy because of the crowds. I know they have a lot of the barnyard stuff for the littles, but even that was SO CROWDED. I did indulge in a fried bacon-wrapped hot dog. But I think we'll put this one to the side until G is big enough to not need a leash.

We did enjoy the Pig Races!

And got our first picture with "Big Tex"!

This was an entire exhibit made out of can goods. G simply REACHED behind the rope to touch one and I about DIED.  

We've been trying to keep our Friday night family dates going and our favorite new area/collection of restaurants is Watters Creek in Allen. They have the cutest little play area and tree house that Greyson loves. This MIGHT be my favorite picture of all time. 

You could caption it with so many things, but I'm thinking: "Just SHUT UP you little duck!" 

Greyson has made his Christmas choice at Toys R Us. Sadly, Santa will NOT be bringing this.

He warmed up to the ball pit at The Coop.

And he participated in his first presidential election. This actually made me a little emotional, picturing him voting many years from now. 

I've had a blast so far with my little gig with the Collin County Mom's Blog. We've been spoiled with dinners, facials, and a super fun launch party! My first post was published a couple weeks ago and you can read it here! 

Both sets of our parents came for Greyson's birthday weekend, and we all went out to eat at one of my favorite new spots, Hash House a Go Go. 

The food is delicious AND enormous! 

There's nothing quite like having ALL of your parents around....ours get along so well; it is quite a blessing. And duh......I love having four sets of extra hands! 

We finally made it to the Arboretum to visit the acclaimed pumpkin patch.  Oh how I love the Arboretum. G is like a free spirit out there, so when we arrived, I told him I just wanted to get a few good pics and then he could play. He pulled this out the first shot.

Yes, Please, and Thank You

 I did grab a couple more cute ones before he went wild!

The rest of the month was pretty much chalked up to Halloween. Holy Smokes, when did Halloween become a SEASON?! When I was a kid, we dressed up ON Halloween and called it a day! I do LOVE all the celebrations though, so I'm not complaining!

First up was the "Noah's Ark Parade" at Greyson's school. So clearly he had to dress like an animal. It was completely adorable.

Despite his facial expression, he was SUPER into his monkey costume. Too bad it was 90 degrees so he didn't get to wear it again! 

After he spotted me in the parade, he lost it, so I made a scram for the door. 

Next up was "Boo at the Zoo" at the Fort Worth Zoo. This was the a super fun event....all the kiddos were dressed up and they had trick-or-treating and a little Fall Carnival. I've never been to the Fort Worth Zoo; it is BEAUTIFUL and amazing!

We went with our #doubleBFFs, Jorie and Preston. Jorie and I met in breastfeeding class when we were pregnant and then gave birth to our little guys 5 days apart!

Greyson went as a train engineer. ; ) 

 

We were all melting....literally and figuratively by this point. 

The next night we walked down to our neighboorhood's annual Halloween block party. It was so much fun! Greyson was thoroughly obsessed with the bounce house. I was getting worried, because it was getting rowdy in there, but he DID NOT want out. At one point, a seven year old climbed out and was like "Whew, it's getting crazy in there....."  I took that as the cue to rescue my toddler.

He went as a firefighter, but with the heat, he only wore his jacket long enough for me to snap a few pics. 

"Stop where you are.....I can take it from here."

The fireman and the fire dog. 

The next day we had a birthday party at a gymastics place and it was so fun.  G was running around like a wild man, and then at one point, I found him like this.....

I feel you buddy.

Nothing a piece of chocolate cake couldn't fix.......

And that's how I feel too my darling.....

We went straight from the party to our church's "Trunk or Treat", which I have discovered to be quite the trend. Traditional trick-or-treating has almost phased out.  (Which makes me kinda sad.)  BUT, I have to say.....this truck or treat thing is fun.  It's essentially like tailgating with a theme. That's pretty much two of my favorite things EVER behind my husband and child. Our home group did a Candyland theme and it was really cute. We loved walking around and playing all the games at the different trunks! SO FUN!

My favorite was probably Noah's Ark trunk....they had beanie babies that you threw in the boat to get candy...hilarious!

Needless to say, by the time Halloween day rolled around (the next day), I was DONE. We didn't even go trick-or-treating. I put G to bed and called it for Halloween 2016.

October was a total blast and it's so fun to watch how much Greyson enjoyed all the activities this year now that he's a little older. 

I'm so excited to be headed into the holidays! 'Tis the Season...right?