October Craziness

Have I mentioned that my life is crazy right now?

In addition to Nolan's school, Griffin's preschool, church activities, extracurricular activities, family gatherings, meetings, appointments, Jared's travel for work, and all the ever-changing challenges that parenting presents...(inhale), my to-do list is so full that there's no white left on my white board.

My current and recent projects include:

• Halloween costume for Griffin
• Altering a Halloween costume for a friend
• Halloween costume for Nora
• Birthday present for Nolan's teacher
• Bridal shower gift
• Custom onesies for an expectant friend
• Christmas gifts
• Costumes for a church play
• Table signs for a wedding reception
• Altering my own bridesmaid dress for a friend's wedding

Yep, I'm actually altering my own bridesmaid dress.  The wedding is in two weeks, so I've been working daily on this stupid dress.  I already spent $200 on the dress, $50 on a special bra to go under the dress, and $20 on the shoes.  I just couldn't spend the $40-60 the bridal shop charges for alterations.  Even though I would consider myself a somewhat seasoned seamstress (say that 5 times fast), this was a pretty challenging project for me. 

I will spare you the details, but I think I have probably spent about 10-15 hours altering this pricey dress.  I had to raise the hem, shorten the straps, take in the sides, and alter the neckline to cover my $50 bra.  Apparently, I can lose weight but I'll still never fit into a dress straight off the rack.  Sigh.     

I finished Griffin's Halloween costume last week and just wrapped up Nora's today.  Hopefully I can get the kids to pose in them for some pictures and then find time to blog about how I made them.

In the midst of all the craziness, we have managed to squeeze in a little family fun.  First, the kids and I have been loving all the colorful leaves.  We have favorite trees around town, and we love to look for new colors everywhere we go.  My very favorite is a tree with leaves that are a bright pink-orange.  I also love when one tree has more than one color.  There are a few trees around town that have orange, yellow, and green leaves--all on one tree!  Hey, a girl's gotta find joy wherever she can.

Second, we made our annual trip to Tanner's Apple Orchard.  I may get to show you pictures from that trip once I get them off the camera and onto my computer.

Finally, the kids and I got to attend the annual family wiener roast with Jared's side of the family (Jared was gone on a business trip).  I love this family gathering!  It's so much fall and family goodness.  This year it was on a particularly cold day.  We kept moving to find the right spot where the fire wasn't too hot but the wind wasn't too cold.  I brought blankets for the kids, too.  They were so cute all snuggled up!

    
The highlight of the evening--of course--was the s'mores.  I thought I was going to burn my face off trying to roast marshmallows for all three kids, but it was worth it when they devoured them.

I hope you're soaking in all the wonderfulness (that's a word, right?) of fall.  I'm doing my best to cling to the colorful leaves and s'mores moments and slough off the knotted-thread-in-my-sewing-machine moments.  Hopefully I'll soon be able to dump organize some of my chaos into blog posts.

Jessica