Halloween weekend - Zebras and Mermaids

So this year I was not sewing, gluing or pinning anything to costumes as we were heading out the door to all of the festivities, but that's probably only because I knew that I would be missing the trick or treating so I forced myself to complete something without it being extremely last minute.  Procrastination is my middle name.
Everyone was in town for Halloween this year and we had lots and lots of activities to share.  First up was the community pumpkin decorating.  GG and Pap were able to go with us this year and we were able to share our morning with our new friends Jill, Colin, Riley and Tony.  There were two sizes of pumpkins to pick from and of course A went for the smaller size.  The community did an excellent job of bringing around new and different supplies every few minutes (glitter, pipe cleaners, hair, eye balls, and much more).
After pumpkin decorating we went to the local library for their annual haunted Halloween for kids.  Adelaide was scared at all, she wanted to touch everything and get to the end to get her candy and complete her craft which was a spider web.  We go to the library most Mondays for story time and crafts, so we did run into a few people that we knew.
One more Halloween activity for Saturday morning...back to the community center for a hayride and trick or treating.  Everyone was able to get into the wagon and ride around the parking lot where there were vendors set up to give all of the kids candy.  Since it was drizzling outside there were many participants so the kids were able to make multiple laps.  I think the adults enjoyed it more than the kids.
Day 2 of Halloween weekend meant a trip to Ya-Ya and Grrs for dinner and then we hopped back into the car to go to one of the many local churches for a Fall Festival.  There were games, prizes, bounce houses, crafts, balloon animals, cotton candy, icees and I am sure a lot more that I can't think of right now or we got too tired and never made it to.  I have to admit that I was being a little morbid on this night and trying to really soak everything in with A because I was a little scared of what was to come with my surgery the next morning.  I can honestly say that I did not take anything I did this weekend for granted.  After the festival we headed home to rest.
Halloween morning - off to the hospital for Grant and I while everyone was still sleeping.  GG and Pap stayed with the kids and had a full schedule of activities for the day.  First A needed to be at speech and then immediately needed to put her costume on and head to the library for story time and trick or treating in the library.  In true P fashion, she got hungry AGAIN as soon as they got to the library, but thankfully Aunt Kari was there to save the day and keep A so P could go home and eat with GG and Pap.  (P refuses to drink a cold bottle)
There was a little window of time that allowed Grant to go home and see the girls before they had to get dressed up for their big night of fun.  My little zebra and mermaid went to the community center again for activities, games and costume parade before heading out for trick or treating.  Grr was also on zebra duty for the night.  My Mom and Grant came to see me before dinner and they were both looking pitiful and I knew they wanted to see the girls, so I sent them home to take lots of pictures of the girls and report the Halloween happenings.  The first call came from Grant to tell me that Penelope won a prize and then a few minutes later I got the call that Adelaide had won one too.  I am the proud Mom of a Best Homemade Costume and Best Tot Costume.  That's right...2 years running champ in Fleming Island Plantation!  Had to brag a little here.  It was an exciting weekend for everyone!
So since I couldn't see them in their completed costumes on the actual day of Halloween, I made my sister come over to help me reenact the night.  Two weeks after the festivities, we dressed them up again so I could take my own photos.

Update - A was mentioned in the community newsletter and there were two pictures of P.

A picking her pumpkin to decorate

Oh yes, pink hair

Someone please tell me why there is a pumpkin on my head?!

A was sharing her craft with Riley at the library.

trick or treating on the hayride

A little family photo op

Balloon flower at the festival

I see you - at the library

Two little pumpkins

Riley wasn't interested in a photo, but Colin was.

Ya-Ya was the game helper.

prizes

P wasn't so happy in her costume

costume parade

Halloween is over, let Thanksgiving begin!

October Happenings

October was a busy month for the Gasbarro Family.  There were Fall Festivals, School Pictures, Birthdays, Aunt Kari moved home, baby milestones, pumpkins to be picked and the list goes on and on and on.  

Adelaide:

new obsession with pumpkins and went crazy when we took her to two pumpkin patches.  

still loves school and especially all of the crafts

FINALLY learned to really kick a ball and now does it in the house all of the time

still going to speech therapy and the therapist is very impressed with her progress

Penelope:

turned three months old

chunk, chunk and more chunk

sleeping 8-10 hours at night

starting on formula and now that the shock of it is over she sucks it down in a heartbeat

rolling over

laughing out loud

happiest place on earth is the changing table

sleeping on belly

blowing bubbles

cries when Adelaide yells in the house

not happy

love that I live in a neighborhood where people just leave money in a bucket for their pumpkins

A was not interested in the big pumpkins, just the little ones.

total goof ball

Happy 3 month old baby

life is good, but my clothes are getting too small

P does not suck her thumb, but she does suck her hand

poor baby - powdered sugar on her face from the fair

pumpkin patch number two

Out of the House - MNF

So this new life of being a stay at home mom to two has been an interesting adjustment.  The one thing I took for granted when I worked was my freedom!  The freedom to listen to the music I wanted to while in the car at whatever level I wanted, the freedom to jump in my car and run and errand of make a quick return to Target when necessary and the list goes on.  So when I got the chance to get out of my house without both kids for HOURS I jumped at it.  So off to Monday Night Football we went.  I mean really who is going to turn down all the free beer and food you can eat before the game and then seats only 10 rows up from the players? Thanks for the season tickets Mom and Russ!  

Anyone know who this fella is?  Just think blockbuster.

This was Mom's good luck wand.

Football Addict

If I thought that the amount of football watched in this house was bad before this year has reached an all time high.  Adelaide officially knows the different between the sports being played on the tv and which teams you yell for on which day.  Saturday is Go Tennessee and Sunday is Go Jaguars - RUN RUN RUN!
Normal nap time is 1:00 in our house which is rough when that is also game time.  You would think this crazy 3 year old would hit major meltdown when we take her to the stadium at that exact time, but the opposite happens, she yells at the players and jumps up and down until she literally passes out in the 3rd or 4th quarter.

Local Attractions

Living in North Florida is an absolute blessing.  We have the perks of living in a touristy area without it interfering with our everyday lives.  Traffic does not include lost Disney World patrons or nuts trying to find the beach.  With that being said we are only a short drive from private beaches and days spent strolling through the oldest city in America, St Augustine.
So when we need a quick little escape Grant and I load the kids in the car and make our 45 minute commute to the great tourist trap.  It doesn't happen often, maybe once or twice a year depending on how many visitors we get that year.  This time around I was tired of being on the "bubble" which is what we call the area we live in and needed a quick escape.

Family fun day was a little cloudy so please excuse the dark photos.

The Things We Buy

My assumption would be that most three year old little girls like to spend their money on frilly items or arts and crafts.  Not my little Adelaide.  We took Adelaide to the Dollar Store and gave her $2 to spend on whatever she wanted.  We didn't come home with a hair bow or a Barbie, instead we brought home one pack of football cards and another pack of baseball cards.  

This should be no surprise to those who have played with her recently because her obsession is with anything that resembles a card and of course books.  So now we know what Adelaide spends her "dollars" on and I am glad that they don't take up a lot of space.  All of this would be perfect if we didn't have to hide Grant's thirty year old baseball card collection which makes Adelaide go wild.

I hate fruit

I have never been a fan of fruit or vegetables, in fact in the fruit department I pretty much eat apples and bananas.  Lately the one fruit I really can not stand is cantaloupes.  Yes, the fruit I hate so much is haunting me.  A few posts ago I wrote about the cantaloupe growing in my body that was unwanted and unhealthy, but I was relieved that it want away on its own.  Unfortunately things didn't stay that way.  I spent most of October in and out of my GYNs office checking on my cantaloupe and finally on Monday, October 31st I was able to get it removed for good.

The plan was to check into day surgery at 5:30 am for a 7:00 procedure.  I was going to have a cyst removed from my left or right ovary (it was so large they weren't sure which side it was on) during a one hour laparascopic surgery and be home by lunch.  Of course things haven't been easy lately, so the procedure did not go as planned.

I did show up at 5:30, checked in and ready for surgery.  At exactly 7:01 I remember looking at the clock in the operating room while I took my first few breathes of the happy gas to put me to sleep and then I was out.  At the time my only thoughts were, 1. they should knock you out before you get to the room because this looks nothing like Grey's Anatomy, 2. the operating tables are really small, 3. can't wait to see the girls in their Halloween costumes.

Fast forward a few hours later and I kind of remember coming to in the recovery room, but all that I really remember was my throat hurting, feeling nauseous, hearing "too much excitement and loss of blood", I was grabbing at the oxygen mask on my face and that was it.  I passed back out and then a while later I actually woke up enough to speak and ask where everyone was and what happened.  

Long story short is that I did not have a cyst on my ovaries, it was a fibroid on my uterus and after three hours of surgery they could not fit it through the laparascopic holes because it was so big and they couldn't cut it apart because the doctor didn't know if it was cancerous or not.  So after all of that time and work I ended up with an open surgery.  My throat hurt from breathing tubes that I had while in surgery and I was now being told I wouldn't go home for a couple of days.

This was not the way I expected my Halloween Monday to go.  Thank goodness for the support from out friends and families who stayed with the girls, made sure to get them to all of their Halloween activities, supported me in the hospital so that Grant could get back to work and spent the night on our couch so the girls didn't have their whole routine disrupted.  

Two weeks later and I have just had my last check up appointment and I am in the clear.  No more growths, surgery, drugs, pain or anything else that went with this trying time in our lives.  I will have a nice little scar on my abdomen, but the doctor did a great job stitching me up because there shouldn't be too much of a mark.  I had 15 staples and two holes from the surgery, the doc says I am a great healer which is allowing us to get back to a normal life.  

Most importantly I received my final pathology report and I am CANCER FREE! Oh and thanks to Aetna for paying my $73,000 medical bill.  

With everything that I have said in this post I hope that everyone will now understand my hate for fruit...