Fall has finally arrived!

So after sweating our way through the summer months we are finally being teased by the cooler temps of fall. I for one am ecstatic, it was a miserably HOT summer around here where the kids wouldn't even think of venturing outside during the day unless forced to do so. So with the coolish temps showing up it was my motivation to get the fall decorations out. I started off with my mantel. Remember the hurricane vases I did last year, you can see them here. Well I changed them up just a bit this year by adding just leaves and little pumpkins & squash.  I also put out different pictures, a table runner and a pumpkin candle holder. Which I have to add I scored at Kohl's for only $2.50!! (it was on sale and I had a $10 coupon)

Then I was on to the front porch.  I hit up Michael's to get a hay bale and some other decoration, I finished it off with a Mum I picked up at Lowe's on Sunday for only $5.  I got a new welcome sign at Joann's the other day for just a couple $$'s.  Gotta love sales and coupons :)

 

So bring on the cool temps, bonfires, smores and more we are ready!

If this puts you in the mood to decorate and you need to do it on a budget there are great coupons out there.  Go to Joann's website here and sign up for emails they will send you coupons all the time.  Or if you're in a hurry you can text CRAFT to 56266, they will send you a 20% off total purchase right away and other offers occasionally.  Michael's always has coupons in the Sunday paper, you can also sign up for an account here and they will send you emails about sales and coupons and you can print coupons from their website. You can also go to Hobby Lobby's website here and print a 40% one regular priced item.

Fall Decorating on a Dime

The other day I decided to change things up a bit around here since there for a few days it was feeling a bit fallish around here. But the past couple days and this weekend, not so much. My unit is gonna blow up since it isn't sure weather to blow heat or AC.

Anyways I stumbled across a few blogs that had some gorgeous fall decorations. Here, Here oh and Here :) once I started looking I couldn't stop. Being the deal lover that I am I just couldn't resist, I mean making something for a little of nothing or buying them at William Sonoma for like $60/pc! Monday I headed to Dollar Tree and was so excited to find lots of goodies.

I got started on my project, first I had to take the tags off and I am pretty sure that was the hardest part of the project.

WTH I hate those stupid stickers on glass

then glue the candle stick to the bottom, I used super glue.


Then you get an oh so cute helper to help.

please ignore all that junk in the background

The final product:

what do you think? Total spent about $7 for both of them!! I also bought a candle, some little pumpkins and some leaves (no real fall colors here yet to go get out of the back yard) and Abby picked me up some acorns on our walk the other day! Those 2 pumpkins on the side are from a project from a couple yrs ago, read about it here.

I switched out a couple of picture


Then I was onto a wreath. Dollar Tree helped on this one also, I got a green foam wreath thingy for only $1. Then I dug thru all my scrapbook stuff and found lots of paper. I proceeded to cut and cut.

then I folded, glued and glued. I had lots of help from my cute helper of course!

All ready for fall, now if the weather would just figure itself out.


oh how I love this time of the year!

Fun in the fall leaves

We don't have many trees in our back yard but we still have fun in the leaves we get out back.

The other night the kids raked up a few and went to playing, as you can tell from the short sleeves the weather has been really nice lately. This week it has gotten chilly but it has been so warm out that they have been able to play outside alot.

raking is hard work

Where's Abby?

and since it has been so nice outside this past weekend we took a little trip to where Shane duck hunts at and took the dogs to go play.

The kids tried to catch little minows in their bucket

the dogs got to play in the water and they loved it

and they even took a minute to stop and pose for me:)

Fall = pumpkin fun

So like I said yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch over the weekend. Of course that meant picking out the perfect pumpkin-not.

See after spending the $$ to get in then of course having to buy snacks and treats at the PP the costly small pumpkin just didn't seem like a great idea when we were heading to Publix right after to get stuff for the bon fire.

So we explained the situation to the kids as to alleviate any tantrums on the way out and to avoid drawing attention to us as we walked away pumpkinless.

Monday was a gorgeous day and since there is a chance of rain in our near future we decided to do the carving. Once we finally decided on a picture for it, it was all hands on deck.

First you must scoop the yuck out, well after daddy cuts the top off.


Then you tape on your design and start poking the outline, this is alot harder than it looks and took all four of us!


Then daddy steps in again and carves out the picture, with a little supervision from Abby-Of Course!


And after all that hard work you get a great looking and not so spooky pumpkin.


I'm jumping in on Creepy, Crawly Crafts with Mayhem and Moxie maybe it this will win me a Flip Camera!

I am on a roll this week so make sure to scroll on down to my post from yesterday.

Weekend Recap

Well it was a nice week and weekend the weather was great most of the time, some real fall weather that we have been wanting so badly.

I had most of last week off due to one of the girls being sick and staying home. Wyatt got out of school early on Thursday so I ran some errands which included a trip to the Health Department-Yuck. They had gotten the H1N1 vacc in, so even though I was scared of the shot, I am more scared of them getting the virus and something terrible happening. A relatives perfectly healthy 12 yr old daughter died from the virus and that is what got me really thinking about getting the shot.

Wyatt has issues when he gets a small cold so no telling what this would do to him. He can not get the mist due to respiratory issues, so it was a shot for both of them. He was a real trooper and took it like a man, Abby on the other hand-she freaked the freak out! She was so good with her regular flu shot I didn't even hold her she sat there and took it, but I think she knew what was coming. I had to pin her down in my lap and hold her arm so the nurse could stab her, it was real fun-NOT!

So we did it and they had NO problem at all from it, Wyatt didn't even complain about his arm being sore like from the regular flu vacc we got a few weeks ago. Afterwards we headed to Sonic to get milk shakes for their bravery!

Saturday started off yucky, but I hoped we would see the sun and gladly the weather lady was right for once. There may have been some ugly emails sent if she had lied to me once again about the weather and telling me it was gonna be a nice day only to find out that the sun never makes an appearance.

We were off to the Pumpkin Patch, we went to a new one this year and it was fun. Muddy but fun. There were a few moments during the hay ride I was unsure if we would make it out of the mud!


They had alot of fun stuff for the kids to do and climb on


They also had a huge slide-the kids loved it and went down more than once


there was a small little patch


And a great "corn" maze. I say "corn" because it is actually sorghum which looks alot like corn. It ended up being the muddiest area of of the farm, but was alot of fun and a learning experience. In order to figure the maze out you had to answer questions. Wyatt did good and only took us the wrong direction once.


That evening we had a little bon fire out back and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows with some friends. They had never cooked hot dogs over a fire before! I couldn't believe it. It was a cold night but the fire kept the adults warm and the running around like maniacs kept the kids warm.

Fall festival and leaving old memories behind

The weather has done a complete turnaround. It is absolutely gorgeous fall weather finally.

Friday night Wyatt's school had their fall festival we had a blast! There was tons of things to do and the kids wanting to do most of it:)

They got their faces and hair painted




There was a cake walk-which they won nothing in


There was a big inflatable obstacle courses-which she totally rocked btw!


it had a huge slide! she loved it and had to do it again


The balloon artist clown lady rocked!

it's a butterfly

And there was a dunk tank that just happened to have Wyatt's last year teacher (who we loved) in it, Abby tried her best to dunk her.

ok so that didn't work on to plan B:) run up and push the button!! She went down.

Saturday was much of nothing, it was still raining at this time!

Sunday Shane woke at some god awful time to go sit in the woods. Then when he got home it was off to Mt. Juliet. Our old stomping grounds, the place we both grew up, the place we met and subsequently fell in love, the place when we left we were ecstatic and we only returned to be married and visit the few we knew that were left there.

The Mt. Juliet we see today is nothing like it was when we were there growing up, hell it is nothing like it was 10yrs ago when we left. There was NOTHING to do there. The place has changed ALOT but truthfully I don't regret leaving and I don't plan on returning. After this weekend we have one less reason to go back.

Shane's dad finally sold his house. I really shouldn't say finally since he only had it on the market for a couple weeks if that long. He got married back in May and moved much closer to us.

It is a little bitter sweet though. Shane grew up in that house when he came home from the hospital it was to that house, he left for college and returned and only left again when we bought the house we live in now. He and I both have only lived one other place besides here (I don't count his nasty dorm room in college).

We have had alot of fun and special times there. I remember when my dad sold his house and I pulled out of the driveway for the very last time I cried. Shane Sunday leaving his dad's house, yea not so much-it's a man thing I guess.

I did however force him to sit on the front porch with the kids and take some pictures, afterall they will not remember daddy's old house in years to come.


I am off from the 2 extra kids this week so we are trying to make the best of this gorgeous weather. More on that later

Who doesn't enjoy playing in the fall leaves?

It figures about the time all the leaves fall from the trees it turns cold. We had a few on the ground back when it was 70+ degrees outside but nothing like this. So the past few days they have bundled up and ran out to rake and jump in the leaves.

Here they were just not long ago enjoying the not so fall weather


Wow give it a few days and how the weather changes



Even the dog had fun!


Here is Wyatt and his girl "Jet"


he let me bury him


I am kinda glad the weather did finally turn cold, it gets me more in the mood for the season, it's hard to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas while they are running around in shorts. I can also have my nightly fire and coffee.