Boo!

Happy Halloween! Or should I say, Happy Elsa Day?!

This might be Molly's favorite holiday.

New favorite pose? Yours truly carved the pumpkin.

In costume at the Evanston Fairy Tale Trail last weekend. Molly was obsessed with this teen Elsa's braces. 

Unfortunately, the weather is less than ideal for trick or treating. It's 38 degrees and extremely windy. Boo indeed!

Making plans

What have we been up to lately? Oh, just plotting and scheming ways to have fun and get away from life for a while.

On Saturday, we're having a party. An adults party. A real party with all of Jason's friends, good food, loud music, and every kind of beverage you can imagine. I can't wait. We're planning to pack the house and stay up way past our bedtime. Or, at least as late as our friends can stay out before having to go home and relieve their babysitters :) Molly is going to have a slumber party with her Aunt Susie, so Jason and I can be irresponsible and sleep in late.

Then, in a couple of weeks, Molly and I will be off to Boston to join Jason on a work trip. It's been a while since we've done something like that. But when I heard he had to travel for a full week, including two weekends, I thought it might be fun to tag along for a couple of days. If anyone has any good ideas for what to do with kids in Boston, please let me know! Molly and I will be on our own for most of the weekend and I'm sure there's only so much shopping and Freedom Trail walking she will be willing to do.

The last big thing we're planning (other than the holidays of course) is a trip to Spain in 2015. We were hoping for Spring, but I don't think the timing is going to work out, so Summer it is. We're aiming for June, when my parents will be around to babysit, and Jason's parents will also be free to fly in and help out for a few days. We'll need the help because we're planning a long, glorious vacation of at least 10 days.

We definitely have some time to plan the trip, but want to try to spend time in Barcelona, Madrid, Grenada, and Seville.

It doesn't seem like that long since Jason and I went to Ireland, but I think we took that trip in 2006. I think it's time to get another stamp in the passport. Better make sure those things aren't expired!

Family rivalry

It's always a little bit stressful but lots of fun when Nebraska comes to town to play Northwestern. Although I don't like having to cheer against Jason's favorite team, I love having our Nebraska family members come visit! This year, we were lucky enough to have Jason's parents, his brother Joe, his Uncle Tom, his cousins Emma and Tori, and their boyfriends, Ben and Philip, in Evanston for the game. I made sure Susie, Sean, and Sean's dad, Joe, also attended our tailgate to help balance out the red with a little purple.

This year, the Huskers won 38-17 -- it was close until the Wildcats, in typical fashion, fell apart in the fourth quarter. But the two teams have started to establish a little bit of a rivalry since Nebraska joined the Big Ten. I'm looking forward to a Northwestern payback victory next year in Lincoln!

And now...pics from the weekend:

Striking a pose on their way to the park. Molly loves her Uncle Joe!

From left: Uncle Tom, Joe R (an NU fan, despite the red coat!), me, Jas, Ben, Joe O'G, Cousin Tori, Philip, Cousin Emma, G'ma Marsha, G'pa Steve, Molly, Aunt Susie, and Uncle Sean 

Family selfie at the stadium -- Marsha, Joe, Tom, Steve, and Molly (wearing Steve's glasses)

Jas and me...when we were both still happy. This picture was taken when the score was 7-7

And now for some soccer shots. Team pic with 6 of 8 Silver Bears

Coach Jason and Molls

Post-game fun at the park

I feel weak

Up until a few weeks ago, Molly was all set for Halloween. She was planning to dress up as Merida, the Scottish princess from the Disney movie Brave. We already had the costume at home and she looked so perfect in it with her red hair.

I should have known it wasn't going to be that easy. All of a sudden, Molly started telling people she was going to dress up as Rapunzel. And then she started her campaign for Elsa. 

I'm assuming everyone knows who Elsa is, but if not, she's one of the princesses from the movie of all movies, Frozen. She has long blonde hair and special powers. I think half the girls in Molly's class are planning to dress as Elsa for Halloween. 

For some reason, I was opposed to jumping on the Elsa bandwagon. I kept trying to sell Molly on dresses we already had at home. And then I started my own campaign to get her to go as a fairy. I figured it would be easy, just pick up a pair of wings and a wand. 

But then we were at Target and the Elsa dress was on sale... for only $4 more than the wing / wand combo I was pushing. Molly was so excited when she saw the Elsa dress and clearly not impressed by the wings. So I caved. What's a mom to do? 

I'm so conflicted! On the one hand, I don't want Molly to think she can just get whatever she wants. But on the other hand, there's something special about Halloween and getting to pick out your costume. Sigh. It's done, and she's thrilled (sweetly appreciative, not bratty), but I know I'm going to have to keep a close watch on things to make sure this little princess doesn't turn into a monster!

She looks happy and cute, but does she look spoiled? 

All done (for now)

Most people who read this blog probably know about our tile woes, so I won't get tooo far into the details. Basically, we've been waiting for our tile to show up since late April. It never came. We couldn't get answers, or a refund, so we finally ended up contesting the charges through our credit card company and finishing up the project with tile we bought off the shelf. Hurrah! Check it out:

Not exactly the tile of our dreams, but it still looks great and ended up being much less expensive. Huge improvement over the old cream vinyl :)

It's hard to get a good pic of such a small space, but you can see my favorite detail -- the light switch! -- it's no longer hidden behind the door

The pedestal sink really opens up the space. And I think the purple walls look SO much better than the baby blue

It feels really really good to have that project wrapped up, even though I was starting to get used to living among boxes of home improvement supplies. Now we can move on to some of the smaller details and finishing touches around the house. Maybe we'll even get around to hanging up some of the art that Jason has worked so hard to create!

Sweater season

Since my last knitting project took about 5 months to complete, I thought I'd get an earlier start this year. I picked a less complex project and thicker yarn and voila! I have a new sweater for the winter:

The cowl neck was a little too open for my liking, so I'm probably going to wear it pinned up at the shoulder. 

The weather is definitely starting to get cooler. It was about 40 degrees and rainy today, so we decided to watch the Northwestern game from the comfort of our home instead of shivering at the stadium. Maybe that was a good luck decision -- they beat Wisconsin! Go 'Cats!