A Post Where I Sound Like Eeyore.

I have about five minutes of quiet and lots swirling around in my head. I woke up grouchy and sensitive. Not sure why. Thinking about these things:
- I can't stand when my kids argue. I haven't found a good reward or punishment for this one. They are the best of buds but they also drive each other  me crazy with taunting and pestering each other. The whining is beyond irritating.
- It seems like every one's pregnant. And I'm OK with not having more kids. But I feel a little pang of...I don't know what when I see baby bumps. Jealousy I guess. Which is ugly.
- On the topic of babies, all of the sudden my children loathe them. Which is equally embarrassing and devastating to me. My neighbor with a one year old came over for the first time the other day and the kids raced out of their rooms and proudly yelled, 'EWWW! A baby! We don't like babies, they're soooo gross.' Cue me melting into a humiliated puddle on the floor. This isn't just Maxwell, it's Ella too. What? How? And to make it worse, Ella no longer plays with her baby dolls and while searching for Christmas treasures in the Target catalog she CROSSED OUT the pictures of dolls. To make the whole thing even more disgusting, she prefers dogs. Little, long haired lap dogs. Excuse me while I throw up. She has channeled every maternal instinct into her obsession of tiny dogs. Any encounter with them triggers sugary baby talk in which she crouches down and puckers her lips while she says she 'woves the yiddle cootie wootie.' It's sickening.
-Every day is a battle to brush her hair. It's tangled into a knot 75% of the time. I take back every silent judgement I passed on little girls with messy hair. I always assumed this was a reflection of bad hygiene. In our case, Ella can be clean as a whistle but her hair is just a bitch to brush. Then she yells at me. And I use my fake nice voice but I'm pretty much yelling back at her. It's SUPER fun. So in an hour we are going to get it cut.
- Maxwell is really smart and I feel like I should be challenging him more. He loves math and I should be intentional about coming up with number games and challenges for him. I'm not.
- I'm hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year and all I really want to do is order pizza.
- I'm hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year and it will actually be fine.

 I woke up on the wrong side of the bed ;) If I think about it, I'll take pictures of Ella's first hair cut to blog. Otherwise, it's sure to make it's way on instagram. Follow along there if you'd like (I'm meghanelainebeck) where I'm usually a half glass full type of girl.

Mario And Princess Peach

When it came to choosing costumes this year, Maxwell chose Mario. Obviously. Because he thinks he IS Mario. Which is kind of weird, no? What is the infatuation with a 30 year old plumber? Sure he shoots fireballs, but really I just don't think he's that cool. Which matters zero. So Mario was the clear choice for Maxwell and Ella went along with Princess Peach because any princess is magical to her. For the third year in a row, Grandma Judie made them amazing costumes. Check out years past she made of Buzz and Tink, and Woody and Jesse.

They were SO proud to wear their costumes to a Trunk or Treat last night. I intended to draw a mustache on Mario but then realized A. I don't wear makeup and didn't know what to use. B. Didn't feel like buying any. I'll find some for Halloween. Thank you Grandma J for their outfits!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkins

We took our annual pumpkin photos with our twin friends. Don't blink, these kids are practically off to high school. Sniff, sniff.



We missed pictures last year but here are the Octobers before...It's not that I want to stunt who they are now, it's just that I want to visit who they were. I want to hear their voices and squeeze their little bodies.

Ahhh, sweet girl's mullet.

I could stare at this one all day. It's all I can do not to climb through the screen and gobble up that chubby boy of mine.

 

The kids stayed still just long enough for me to snap a few pictures. I'm not above bribing with lollipops. Our days feel full, we like October.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty Vs Spooky

I decorated for Fall. I wanted really simple, pretty and white. I mostly used what I had and added some free printables online into my frames and some ceramic owls from the Dollar Tree. The kids came out from quiet time and I said, "Isn't it PRETTY?!" And they kind of nodded. Then looked at each other and said, "We want spooky." Oh. Here are some pictures of our home this season. I took these with my phone. They're blurry, but you get the idea.

So I thought I'd stack pumpkins on a few crates on the porch. I called my neighbor who has EVERYTHING in his yard. I asked if I could borrow any crates and he showed up with a bunch of crates and this cool old chest for me. I pulled dirty lanterns out of my garage and pumpkins from the house.We went to Target and splurged on this owl who hoots and a plug in pumpkin. The kids agree, now it's spooky.

 How cool are these ugly rats? $5 for a sheet of decals from Target, we put some on the front door and some inside.

And since I already had the wood crates from my neighbor, I thought I might as well do Halloween inside too. The spider candles are from past years and the mini chalkboards are from my kitchen.

 Dollar Tree roses.

The room's a little cluttered, but it's fun. My favorite decorating is changing out frames that I already have up. It's so easy to find fun things online and either print them out at home or send them to your local copy center. I email my bigger prints to Staples.

That's it :)

Little Scavengers

Last week we went on a walk down the road. The familiar trail by our house became an adventure when we searched for signs of fall (thank you scavenger hunt from Pinterest). These weeks months are getting away from me and I have to force myself to get the camera out. Has instagram replaced blogging for anyone else? Lately the kids have LOVED watching videos of themselves as babies. I love it too. I'm trying to record them more to capture them at four, because all of the sudden they're little people. And soon they'll be five. Then twelve. But for now, four's good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lemonade and smiles for sale.