The Barela Family

1. Tonight Mr. Barela and I are celebrating our 8th anniversary and going to our favorite restaurant in town, 5th Street Steak House. Yummy! Our anniversary was last week but seeing that Brian was out of the country not much celebrating was going on. Can’t wait for quality time with my husband while enjoying quality food! When we do get an evening out we find that we can get more talking in those 2 hours away than pretty much a whole week or more. Tonight I will soak up every minute of it!

2. A Ninja Turtle and 2 princesses/ballerinas have invaded our house for Halloween. Yesterday we had a party to go to and Mason didn’t understand why I wasn’t dressing up. After much insistence this is what I came up in the hour before the party.

And the kiddos… not the greatest pics but the best I could do with kids on extreme sugar highs!

3. We had a the best family night celebrating Fall on Tuesday. As Brian commented I was in my glory: we were together as a family, doing traditions and celebrating my favorite season.  loved it! We carved pumpkins, Brian made some amazing pumpkin seeds, we ate warm apple crisp and watched Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin. It’s an evening I will look back on for a long time. I love building these memories as a family.

4. My favorite picture of the week…oh I am in love with it! Mason is his Daddy’s boy through and through. He wants to be just like him, prefers to be right by his side, loves to show off everything to him, looks up to him, gains much confidence from Daddy’s words of encouragement. A daddy-son relationship is a special bond and I’m thankful for the one Brian and Mason have.

5. In school most weeks we’ve been doing a station I’ve dubbed the “letter workshop”. At this station we do anything we can think of to help the kids learn how to make their letters. Along with ding letter worksheets some fun things we’ve done are making letters with play dough, putting finger paint in a baggie and duct taped it up and had them trace letters in it. We also practiced tracing letters in rice on a cookie sheet or in pudding on a plate. They loved this of course because they could lick off their fingers! Always looking for more ideas, if you have any pass them along.

That’s it for this week, have a great weekend!

1. I have been flying solo this week without my wonderful husband. I am so excited to share that our week has gone very well. We have had minimal meltdowns, good sleep and lots of fun. I know I have lot of people praying for me. I’m so thankful for good days when the husband is not around. It is a gift.

2. Picked our first red bell pepper of the season. I know it’s almost November, I guess our pepper plant is a little slow on his job. But none the less it was a great pepper. We enjoyed it on one of our favorite ways to make pizza. We get wheat Naan bread from Trader’s Joes, a little sauce, cheese, shredded broccoli and carrots and turkey pepperoni. Yummmmy!

3. The girls got a little wooden kitchen for the birthday as a combined gift from the the grandparents. It is a huge hit, actually with all 3 kids. We have been making lots of food and serving it up all day. It’s fun to see their imaginations come to life. Any time you want to stop by let us know, I’m sure they will whip up a batch of their delicious cookies:)

4. To much surprise to me my body has recovered very well and quickly from the marathon. So much so that I am itching for Brian to get home so I can go on a run! I’m looking forward to a run with no certain time or distance. Just to go and be done when I want without a BIG race in my every thought with each step. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to get out there tomorrow.

5. I’ve had Christmas on my mind lately. I’m thinking about gifts I want to make for others, what crafty things I can get my hands on. This week we did something TOP SECRET for some gifts to give to others. We’ve been reading Christmas stories and even watched Polar Express today. Yep. I’m excited.