Today was a crazy busy day.

It started out with Alethea and I going to Cost Cutters for her first haircut.

We only got the back cut, because I’d still like the front to keep growing and I don’t want Alethea to have bangs.  Still, I’m glad I went to a salon, because Alethea was pretty cooperative, but I think that was mostly the result of getting to wear a cool surfing penguins cape.

After her haircut, we went to Wendy’s for a mother/daughter lunch.  Getting to have a meal together (just the two of us) isn’t something that happens all that often.  We bonded over chicken nuggets and an apple chicken salad.

With tummy’s running on full, we hopped into the car and did some more errands, including the dry cleaners, which isn’t something I’d normally bother to share, but I’m super impressed with this one I found near us because they have a drive up window.  LOVE IT!

Our last errand of the morning was Kohl’s where we used our 20 percent off coupon to procure a black hat for Alethea’s Halloween costume and new sunglasses for me, who foolishly let Lydia play with my last pair while she was sitting on our concrete sidewalk.  SCRAAAAATCH!

I found a really cute new pair and so did Alethea:

After we put her selection back on the rack, we bought the hat and my sunglasses and then headed home for nap time.  Or at least Alethea took a nap.  I, however, took off again and picked up a pumpkin at the grocery store, take n’ bake pizzas for dinner and a paint sample for our main floor bathroom.

Then home again, home again, jiggidy jig, I tossed the pizzas in the fridge and grabbed a paint brush, determined to test a small square of the color before our dinner guests arrived.  I’m wasn’t sure exactly when I’d get around to actually painting the bathroom, but I just love to see what paint colors look like up on a wall.  So yeah, dinner guests coming and no plans to paint the bathroom soon.  Should I have waited to try the color out?  Oh probably, but I had a brilliant plan.  Just paint a small square behind the picture frame on the wall and hang the picture back up when finished.  Fool proof…

Unless one fails to realize that the screw in the wall only marks the top of the picture frame when the hanger for the picture frame is actually at the top.  Not closer to a third of the way down the back, like mine is…

Oh well.  Looks like I’ve got new motivation to move ‘paint main floor bathroom’ up on my to do list.

Our dinner guests arrived on schedule, but since it was my parents and Peter’s parents who came over, they were very understanding about the painting mishap and the tool box sitting on the kitchen counter.  Besides, we were about to create an even bigger mess since they had all come over for our annual pumpkin carving.  It’s quickly becoming a family tradition for the men to watch football and drink beer while the women-folk do the carving, but that’s okay.  We all probably enjoy it more that way anyhow.

Naturally, step one of carving is to pop the top off the gourds and clean out the guts.  The girls both helped with this.  Lydia very willingly stuck her hand right into the pumpkin, but then had a hard time grabbing seeds, since they were so slippery.

And when she did finally get a seed out of her large orange friend, it went straight into her mouth.  I was about to dive in after it when she swallowed it in one easy gulp.

And with that, her pumpkin gutting time quickly ended.

Alethea was definitely more squeamish than her sister, but eventually got into the seed finding fun.

With the guts cleaned out, we began the carving process.  I worked on a puppy pumpkin as per Alethea’s request (yes, she had a puppy pumpkin last year too) and Peter’s mom Denny worked on Lydia’s pumpkin eating pumpkin, which was based on a photo I found online (I wish it had been my design idea, but it wasn’t).  I’m super happy with how they turned out!

Small pumpkins and gourds of the world, beware!

We also took some time during the evening to have the girls model their Halloween costumes for their grandparents, who won’t be around on Monday to see them all dressed up.  I just can’t get over how cute they both look!

The bumble bee costume was actually mine when I was about Alethea’s age, so I’ll have to dig up a picture so we can do a side by side comparison.

Alethea was disappointed it wasn’t actually time to go trick-or-treating, and honestly, I was too.  It’s going to be a really delightful Halloween!

My little flower and bumble bee are snug in their beds now, and I think I’m going to join them and put an end to this very busy day.