Freebies & Fun

I have managed to swing us some seriously good freebies this weekend! I've done really well with free samples in the mail lately, coupons I actually use and just free things in general. By Thursday Ella Ann's mouth was much better so I thought I would go ahead and pick up my FREE box of chocolate dipped fruit from Edible Arrangements. Wow, it was tasty! The best was the chocolate covered pineapple! Who would've thought? Ella Ann still has trouble eating anything crunchy and has to put food on the side of her mouth to eat but she had no trouble downing those treats! They tasted even better knowing I got them for nothin'!

Saturday I took the kids in the morning to Boo At The Zoo. I let Ella Ann wear her Tinkerbell costume because I have yet to buy her the costume she will wear on Halloween because she changes her mind weekly. I do know, though, that it will be some sort of insect because that is the category she seems to be sticking to. Strange. So we braved the cool, windy morning and had a blast. They had the zoo decked out to the nines, no joke, for the event. We got there an hour after it opened and the main parking lot was full. Yeah, it was packed, to say the least. Every single kid I saw was dressed up. As soon as we walked in the front gate Ella Ann completely ignored the animals and all the beautiful decorations and was yelling, "MOMMY! THERE IS SNOW WHITE!! MOMMY! THERE IS A LADYBUG! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! THERE ARE DINOSAURS!" And so on and so on. She was beyond thrilled to see all the kids in costume. This is going to be the best year yet for Halloween with her and the upcoming holidays. She's really aware of everything now and can understand so much more of what is going on and has a lot of fun, so that means Spencer and I have more fun! On a side note, you should see the kid in Lowe's. I have had to go there a few times in the last few weeks and they already have out ALL of their Christmas decorations. When we walk in the door Ella Ann starts jumping up and down, squealing and takes off in a mad dash to the Christmas isles. I wish I could record the excitement in her voice when she sees it all. It makes me so happy to see her SO excited over just decorations in a store! Of course we have to press every single snow globe they have and sit there and listen to a rendition of all Christmas music. She found the Disney princess snow globes and I thought she was going to lay an egg when she saw those. Oh and Rane is in awe as well. He doesn't move in the cart and goes all bug eyed. It's so cute. Okay so back to the zoo. We walked around the entire zoo twice, looked at most of the animals and did some trick-or-treating. We had SO much fun! I packed a lunch for the kids so we had a picnic as well.

On Sunday the kids and I went to church (Spencer worked both mornings) and by the time I got home Spencer was home so we hopped back in the car and headed to downtown Decatur to eat brunch at Ruby Tuesdays because I had a buy one brunch get one free coupon. It was a four course brunch that was very good. Rane ate his weight in food, as did Ella Ann. We rarely do anything of the sort so it was nice to just have a nice, relaxing brunch after church....you know, like most people do! I went to Trader Joe's in the afternoon and Spencer and Ella Ann carved two of our pumpkins. Spencer went all out this year and did an "advanced" carving. He worked forever on one of the pumpkins and it turned out really well. As the sun went down tonight we lit them and Ella Ann was over the moon about them. She kept saying, "Oooh that one is scary!" Of course then she wanted to stay outside and play on her playground in the dark. We are the only people on our street that even have pumpkins, let alone jack-o-lanterns (we live in a Jewish neighborhood). With that said, we will head down to our old stomping ground in the Highlands and trick-or-treat this year. I would have done it anyway because I will not miss "Halloween Row!"

Yummmmmmm!

She did not want to pose for me because she was too busy yelling and pointing, "Look Mommy!......"


I know, I torture him. I bought the ghost shirt and candy corn hat in the dollar isle at target. Oh he looks so cute in his hat but as you can see, he reaches up and takes it off as soon as he feels it touch his head.

Tink checking out the tigers.

Both of them stuffing their faces. This was Ella Ann's first encounter with an Air Head and it literally took her 45 minutes to eat it. Never again.

She jumped right in and started helping Spencer.

All that digging around and she pulls out 4 seeds......

then stands up and says, "I'm done Daddy."

Rane wanted to eat the pumpkins and kept chewing on the stem!

We couldn't get a decent picture. Rane was ready to take off and eat the bits of pumpkin that littered the porch.

All lit up!