Halloween - Trick or Treat

Tonight was crazy, we went trick or treating with 8 kids and 4 adults.   It was a bit crazy and after about an hour Tutu and I went home to dish out candy along with another of the kids while the rest continued on.  We had over 250 kids. I had to shut down the house.  Last year I ran out at 200 kids so I planned for 200 bags and extra candy. I guess next year we plan for 300.


I was told our house is the famous house and they liked that I upgraded and added a cemetery.  People bring cameras to take pictures with our giant pumpkin. Tomorrow I will be getting up early to see what new decorations I can score for next year.

The girls carving the pumpkins

The pumpkins from left to right Monkey's, mine and Muffin's

The front yard

Me as a punk rock witch

The gang before we headed out

The kids by the giant pumpkin

And I exist in pictures

It was a fun and crazy time and I need to do more planning for next year to make the yard even better. I hope we don't end up on one of those reality TV shows where it started off as small ad innocent and ends up being big and gaudy decorations.  Well I guess we'll see in a few years.

Hope everyone had a fun night. Happy Halloween.

Ania

Halloween Sneak Peak

Today at school Monkey is having her Halloween party. I just finished the costume last night. I still have to finish Muffin's but I have all weekend to do that.

It was another collaboration between my mom and myself.  I'll post more details about it later.


Ania

Healthy Inspiration

Today after 3 and a half weeks of not hitting the gym I finally got back on that horse. I did 10.5 km on the bike and 1.2 km walking/running.  I felt so much better after working out. I got to watch the sun rise as I walked the track.


I realized that this whole working out thing is not going to work if I'm not into it.  Just like quitting smoking. It only worked when I was fully committed. I don't think my head is quite in the right head space.  Rock has gotten there, he has now lost a considerable amount of weight and feeling a million times better,

Isn't he looking good.?

And then there is my friend T.  She's the one who is dragging me kicking and screaming into becoming a healthier person.  We were about the same size in the spring but she's now looking HOT.

This is her on her vacation last week.

She has been literally working her butt off. She took the triathlon training and ran with it and then sum. She went from training for the bike portion to the triathlon relay to preparing for the Ride for cancer and either the duathlon or triathlon.   I am amazed and in awe of what she has accomplished.   

T on race day in Sept. 

Maybe between her and Rock I will get that motivation and stick with it.  I need something because the 3 weeks off caused the scale to move in the wrong direction. 

Ania

What I Wore Wednesday - Great Wolf Lodge

Still trying to get back into the swing of things after our vacation. It wasn't until I was in bed last night that I realized that it was Tuesday night and I forgot to edit my pics and write my post for this morning, So now I am scrambling to get it done this morning.  I can't wait until we all get back into our routine because this week was rough for all of us.  Tutu is having a hard time this time around, I think it's because we weren't home for this vacation.


I also need to find time to get ready for date night tonight with Rock. Right after work we are heading out to a new Indian buffet. I'm looking forward to a few hours alone with my man.  Need to hurry this up so I can get ready and for some reason all the children decided today was a good day to wake up early. Thank God the cavalry aka the baby sitter aka Grandpas aka my dad came so he can watch them and I can get this done.


This week I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked. I had some cute outfits on but I wasn't in my routine and would realize after I changed that I forgot to take a picture. Sorry will try better for next week.

As the previous weeks I'm linking up with The Pleated Poppy,  and Momma Go Round.

 

 At the Falls wearing a hoodie I got a Fashion Bugs years ago.

Hanging out at Great Wolf Lodge

headband - made by me

sweater - Target

belt - Penningtons

jeans - MXM

What Tutu wore ( and only because his sisters put him in a dress) (and please ignore the big pile of laundry behind him)
one piece outfit from Walmart
dress - made by Grandma

Headband - made by me
sweater - Target
scarf - picked up at Great Wold Lodge
belt - Penningtons
jeans - MXM
camera bag - Henry's


I hope that next week I get more pictures to share. Until then hope everyone has an awesome week.


Ania

My Biggest Obstacle

Why am I my biggest obstacle? Why do I stop myself before I even start? I guess you can't fail if  you don't start but you also can't learn.

Yesterday at work a co-worker had a flyer out for his side business. I made a few suggestions for him to improve it and then a whole bunch more to promote his business. I could do that because I've been doing A LOT  of research on small businesses, but that's where it ends, at the research.

I have a few ideas of what I want to do but the ones that call t me more wouldn't' be as profitable as some of my other ideas. So instead of taking any action I do nothing.

This weekend while vegging and recuperating from our vacation I listened to a lot of podcasts about turning you  passion into a career. The message that I heard over and over again is to follow your passion and the money will follow. Follow the money and you get nothing.

Another message that came across was it's ok to start something and if it doesn't work you can change things. The main goal is to take action. It doesn't need to be perfect and we learn more from our mistakes.  In order to succeed you need t be doing something.

So I guess I need to give myself a deadline and do it. Now would be a perfect time to start with the holiday season but I don't want to follow something because of the money.  I guess I will have to cater to my jack of all trades way and do a little of everything because that's what speaks t me now.  Maybe one things will stick or maybe doing a little bit of everything is the key to MY success.  I guess time will tell.

Ania

Great Wolf Lodge

 I am so happy that we are home and trying to get life back in order. We had a blast over our vacation but I need a vacation from our vacation. We tried to cram so much stuff into one little week that I am pooped.


Thursday morning using the kids as alarm clocks we got up and headed out to Niagara Falls.  The kids ate breakfast in the car and when we got there we headed to the falls.  It was colder then I expected so we weren't dressed as warm as we could have been but nothing that a hot chocolate, tea and a coffee didn't cure. The girls hadn't been there in 2 years and loved seeing the majestic beauty of the falls.

We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  The kids enjoyed it but Rock and I were not impressed. The food was not good at all and the prices certainly did not match the quality of the food.

The kids enjoyed all the animals in the cafe. After lunch we headed over to the Great Wolf Lodge. 


I  think the kids were over the moon, this is what they were waiting for the whole vacation. It's not that they didn't love visiting family but who can really trump this.  From walking into the lobby they were in love.

Tutu had fallen asleep in the short ride from Clifton Hill to the lodge and transferred into the stroller and continued to sleep. Rock and the girls quickly changed into their swimsuits and headed to the water park while I waited with Tutu.

While waiting for him to wake I played around with the timer on my camera and took a few pictures. Plus I surfed the web and uploaded photos from the wedding to Facebook for family to see. Once  he woke up we headed straight to the water park.

The kids enjoyed the bunk beds in the room and watching TV in their own little cabin.

Before dinner we went trick or treating at the different stations they had.

After dinner we visited the arcade for some fun.

Heading down to story time. And enjoying the show before the stories were read,. It was all done so well, the guy reading the story was great, very engaging, funny and captivated the kids attention.

 Before we checked out and headed back into the water park I snapped some pictures of the girls. Tutu was napping at this point,.

We had so much fun, lots of family memories were made. We will definitely be turning this into a yearly tradition.  I highly recommend this as a family get away.

Here is a video of Tutu enjoying the water park, he had so much fun. He even went on a big water slide twice. the second time he insisted he go.  Also over the last week Tutu went from not talking to increasing his vocabulary to over double.  It was a great week.


Ania