November | 2019 | tandem in love

ever since olive could paint a pumpkin, we’ve always invited our family over to our house to carve pumpkins. maybe do dinner and the kids would have fun outside {based on the weather} or in the garage and carve pumpkins!

this year, we decided to do it the weekend before halloween…as halloween fell on thursday.

everyone came over late afternoon and i had made a couple appetizers to tide everyone over while we waited for kim and famille to arrive with the chili. i was so geeked out to make my spooky charcuterie board! i pulled a sheet of white paper off the girl’s drawing roll…i kind of wished it was bigger but that was what i had, i used that as the ‘board’. i had purchased so much cheese and accroutrements that it turned out way bigger than expected, so there was no room for me to write out the components onto the piece of paper. bummer but no matter…i’m always extra anyways. LOL

i filled and filled and filled the sheet with cheese, crackers, and all sorts of jam. then made a spidery onion dip with chips. it all turned out so cute, if i say so myself! the apps were a hit and were quickly gobbled up!

slowly everyone arrived and we just hung out and relaxed. kim and terry finally arrived with the chili that was so delicious! hc started to prepare the toppings and soon we were all feasting on all sorts of yummy food!

the girls were the only ones who ended up painting pumpkins as no one brought over any pumpkins to carve. i was bummed as i love seeing everyone’s finished products! no matter, the girls had so much fun painting their pumpkins and everyone had full bellies and full hearts.

it was another successful family get together and so much holiday fun!

[bat girl]

[my charcuterie ‘board’…it did it on paper. if i had more time or space…i would have written out the make up of it onto the paper!]

[daaaaaaaaaang i look old and tired AF in this pic]

[boo bar]

[hc]

[buggy swizzle sticks]

[silly uncle dan and ellie]

[he had his work cut out for him…she’s persistent]

[boo cake]

[thuy super ‘angry’ she’s baking…just kidding. it’s all for play]

[nope…i don’t have enough pics of my charcuterie. not a chance. not enough at all]

[ba and dan]

[thuy and mom]

[bennett]

[brotherly love]

[reagan and kim]

[olive’s favorite person. LOL]

[olive’s is to the left and ellie’s is to the right]

H A L L O W E E N

[monarch butterfly…minus the wings]

xoxo

i follow waterlemon on instagram…and you should too!

when they posted they were having a halloween bash earlier in october…i was game! it sounded like so much fun! they have the most beautiful play area and it was going to be filled with crafty fun, cupcake decorating, and more! what a great event for the kiddos!

this was the night ellie told me NO to her monarch butterfly costume. i was so bummed! i had purchased two matching costumes for the girls and they both agreed that they wanted to be monarch butterflies specifically but ellie threw a wrench in that idea! no matter…they both ended up looking so cute in their gear.

the weather was terrible…the sky opened up and it would not stop raining. no. actually it would not stop pouring buckets of water from the sky. hc pulled up to the shop and i quickly dragged both girls out of the car, one by one, to the safety of the awning by the door. we walked inside and we were immediately greeted by nina!

she is just a ball of energy! i love her enthusiasm, kindness, and love for what she does. we hugged as it was the first time we were meeting in person after all the emails and text exchanges we have had!

olive and ellie got right into it. we first took photos and then the girls were super excited to get crafty. they both looooooove to paint, so painting the {what olive calls it} ‘haunted’ house was so much fun for them! once they finished up the house, they were super excited to hit up the play area. olive was a bit bummed that the slides and upper play house area was closed off but nevertheless, my positive girl said it didn’t matter and that she had so much fun anyways!

two funny things happened and they happened with the two same boys who were dressed up as doctors to each of my girls. so, olive saw the grocery store area and lit up. she took a few minutes and rearranged allllllll the products on the shelves {hellooooo, just like mama}, and became excited at the prospect of selling food items to anyone in need. olive stood at the counter and in a slightly loud voice, says, “who needs to buy?”. naturally i decided to play along and said, “i’ll take a banana and…” while she handed me a shopping basket and i was picking out my items, olive went to grab the register scanner. before her little fingers could reach the scanner, the two boys ran over and snatched it out of her reach. oh em gee. LOL what i love so much about my girl is that she is so sweet! her eyes bugged out and she looked at me with the biggest smile and said, “uh oh!”. i started laughing and we both laughed that she no longer had a scanner. oh my girl…she spent so many minutes organizing the store and then ended up not being able to play along without the scanner. no matter. she moved onto something else and continued to have fun!

while i was watching olive, ellie caught the corner of my eye. she was surrounded by the two boys who were examining her. ahhhhhahaha! it was so funny to watch. there was ellie, standing there just staring at the two boys dressed as doctors. they decided to check on ellie to make sure she was ok. they check her heart with the stethoscope and used the grocery store scanner to make sure her arms and head were ok. all the while, ellie just stood there a bit amused and confused on what these two boys were doing to her. oh kids! they are so funny! always fun and entertaining.

after they were in the play area for a bit, we decided to call it quits and head out to dinner as their bedtime is the main reason we do everything so early now! hahaha! we gathered them together and in the process, we were lucky enough to snatch yummy cupcakes to go. i gave nina a hug goodbye and thanked her for hosting an amazing halloween party for the kids! it was so much fun – so unique and festive and perfect.