Learning a New Hobby

I have a challenge for you - tag along with your kids or your favorite people to learn something new.

For example, Fletcher loves to go fishing.  He reads about fishing, watches videos on how to become a better fisherman, collects fishing gear and goes fishing any chance he gets.  So one day I tagged along to learn a little bit about fishing.  He fishes by himself most of the time so my request to join him was a fun surprise.  

It. Made. His. Day.

He let me pick which fishing lures he used and gave me advice on which ones usually work best in this pond.  It was a beautiful day to do something with my favorite middle guy.

Olive loves to crochet so I have made more trips that you can imagine to all the best yarn spots in town.  Now we are investigating organizations that will be needing hats and blankets for their people this winter.  She'd love to turn her crafts into something that someone could use.

Leo loves to play games, build cities out of Lincoln Logs and Magnet tiles and read books together.  It's fun to surprise him from time to time and join him for a build.

I challenge you to join your kids, your grandkids, your friends or your spouse to learn a new hobby!

Adding a Kitten to the Family

We added Peanut to our family this Summer and I thought it was time to give you a little update on him.  He's been an easy addition to the family.  He is so easy going - all the other cats love him.  He brought balance back to our cat crew.  We have Penny & Pearl that are 6 year old sisters.  Then we have Pumpkin and Peanut that are the nicest boys.  Cats really are better in pairs.  Remember that if you are wanting to add a cat to the family.  Two cats mean they have a built in best buddy.  Siblings are great, but we have had good luck with adopting two cats of the same gender that are close in age, too.

Peanut is very curious.

He has the loudest pur ever.

He snuggles with each of us at night.

He hears my alarm clock go off and is the first to greet me goodmorning.

He carries toys around in his mouth.

He's been an easy addition to the family.

Penny - we call her a weighted blanket because if you sit down, she wants to be on your lap.  She's very sweet and snuggly.

Pearl - is a little rude, harder to get along with, sleeps with me every night and loves Kevin the most.  She also picks fights with everyone.

Pumpkin - the sweetest, fluff.  He needs about 20 hours of sleep a day to maintain his fluffiness.  When he's awake, he's curious about everything.  He's also afraid of anyone that doesn't live at our house.

Peanut - always out and about.  Is curious, has been known to climb curtains and he's always on the go.  His BFF is Pumpkin.

We started out with separate food bowls and litter boxes, but now we have community ones.  They all share a food and water bowl.  Then we have several litter boxes for them.

Tiny Peanut from last Summer.

He's growing like crazy.

He loves rugs and we often find him under or rolling around in a rug.  If only he could flatten them back out when he's done playing.

A basket of cats.  He and Pumpkin are best buds.

Curious.

Cat sweaters aren't his favorite, but he's a good sport.

We're thankful Peanut joined the family!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  I hope you've had a great week!  It feels like Fall and the weather has been so nice.  The best parts of our week were:

1. Olive loves a good coffee run this time of year.  She loves a PSL and I usually order an iced caramel latte.  Scooters is adorable.  I love their smiley logo!  They tell you to scoot on through the drive thru, but their coffee wasn't as flavorful as we'd hoped.  It was almost $15 for two coffees which seemed kind of crazy to us.  We'll probably scoot on over to another coffee place next time.

2. We celebrated my mom's birthday!

3. Take your favorite girl to school day.  Olive got to spend the morning with me and I loved every minute of it.  She read to my class, answered a million kindergarten questions and we had a fun time together.  She asked if my students always ask so many questions and if they were always so needy.  They wore her out after an hour :)

4. Double date night!  We had a great time with my brother and SIL.  Delicious food and fun conversations.

5. Leo loves games.  Headbands is his current favorite.

6. Homemade apple pie with apples we picked in Wisconsin.  Leo was eager to help and learn how to make a pie. I got a new Le Creuset pie plate as a souvenir in Wisconsin.  It baked so well!

7. Fall Colors.  Fog on the farm, a beautiful sunrise and a chocolate brown scarf.  All of my favorite things!

8. School lunches.  A big hug from home in the middle of their day!

9. Leo asked his teacher if he could sit with me and my class at chapel.  Yes, please!

10. The 50th day of Kindergarten!  We had a blast.

11. Surprise teacher treats!

12. I baked the cake and Olive iced it.

13. Peanut.  Super cute.  Enemy to all rugs.  He insists on laying under every rug and it drives me bonkers.  Good thing he's so sweet.

14. When your bestie is in town for a college visit for her daughter and she pops by to say hi!

15. Leo loves calendars.  He made his own for November.  It makes my calendar, list loving heart so happy.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  See you back here next week :)

Linking up with Momfessionals

Print Those Pictures

Do your photos ever make it off of your camera roll?  

I'm coming to you today to say - Print those photos!

The school pictures you purchased, the fall break pictures, Halloween pictures or favorites from Summer.  It's time to showcase those memories with the people you love.

I'm trying to be better about printing my favorite pictures from every day, from trips and then display them around the house.  I pick up cute frames at TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods when I see them.  I love the fact that they are unique, have some bold options and they are really affordable.  I use them for myself and gift them to family.  The frames also seem to be much better quality than big box store frames.

I have the Walgreens app on my phone for easy printing.  I upload my photos, google the best photo printing code and pick the pictures up about an hour later.

We came home from Wisconsin and I promptly printed some of our favorite pictures from the trip.  It makes me so happy to see it in my kitchen.

I have a photo goal of printing some albums of our trips from 2026.  No captions.  No scrapbooking.  Just photos and tons of memories that the kids can flip through.  I'd love to put one in everyone's stocking this year or maybe have our elves bring the kids photo albums from 2026, but we shall see what I pull together between now and Christmas.  If you print photo albums, what is your go to place for that?  I did Snapfish books a million years ago.  I have done some at Walgreens and didn't love the cropping/quality.  Give me your tips!

I would also like to print Halloween photos from all the past Halloweens and have them in a container for us to flip through every October.  Do you know of a good spot to print them in an old polaroid style that would be durable for flipping through and not cost a million dollars??

Happy Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween weekend!  I vote for Halloween to always be the last Saturday of October.  We had fun assembling each of the kid's Halloween costumes and doing a dress rehearsal, made Halloween treats and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  The kids were so excited about their costumes this year.  I love a good family theme, but I really love finding costumes tht the kids love.

We lined our patio with pumpkin lanterns.

We put Peanut in a pumpkin.

The kids picked out the biggest pumpkins they could find and each had very specific plans for their pumpkins.

I upgraded our cutting tools for the first time in years and their pumpkins turned out so cute!

Peanut wasn't sure what to think of pumpkins on his first Halloween.

Peanut snuggles.

Peanut in a pumpkin sweater.

I baked treats for a Halloween party.

Olive as Simon the chipmunk.

Fletcher as CJ Carr Notre Dame's QB.

Leo as Michael Jackson.  He's been obsessed with Michael Jackson's music since Summer and was set on being MJ for Halloween for months.

Read to trick or treat.

Olive stayed back with her friends to pass out candy.  We headed to a neighborhood party with the boys for dinner before we trick or treated.  

We bumped into the chipmunks - Alvin, Simon & Theodore!  They looked so cute!

The biggest candy haul yet!

The end of the night candy trading is always a highlight of Halloween for me!

Halloween 2026 was a good one!  I hope yours was, too!