GC Fall Festival 2024

Adorable little pumpkin spice latte & donut girlies today, in another pair of matching fall dresses we still had from last year. Addie is very into these magnolia bloom thingies, and thinks she needs one as a photo prop whenever she sees them.

Oh, and both girlies are wearing their new boots we got them yesterday. Emmie’s are new from the Bealls Outlet, but Addie’s are actually thrifted from Kids Pointe, but still in really great shape, practically new.

Donuts before morning church, since Mommy had the morning off from singing or serving anywhere, so we had a slow, “late” morning, arriving at the normal time with everyone else instead of super early.

It was of course another great morning at church. It was nice just sitting in the chairs in the congregation rather than onstage, being led in worship instead of leading. We had a super quick lunch, and super quick run into Walmart for face powder & Sudafed, and then ran home to get Addie down for her nap. She fought me on it pretty hard again, but I did eventually win the battle and I got her to sleep.

While Addie napped, Jeff and I worked with Emmie on two different little DIY craft projects. The first and easiest was a red microphone to go with her costume for the fall festival tonight. That one was my idea, so I took care of that one for the most part. The second project was a little pumpkin character contest for school. They could choose an artist, scientist, book character or something else I can’t remember. She came up with the idea to do Matilda all on her own, so we all came up with ways to make it work, and all did little parts of it. I was also proud of us for using supplies from my giant treasure trove of craft stuff I’ve been hoarding forever… We did a great job working on it as a team, and it turned out so super cute! (Final pic at the very end, since I forgot to take a finished pic earlier this afternoon.)

I snuck in the shortest 10-minute cat nap after our activities, and then we got ready to head back to the church for our annual Fall Festival. Tiny Baby Sister requested to be Elsa this year, which was perfect since we already had the dress. Cutie Big Sister wanted to be Taylor Swift again, so she’s Taylor from the Red Era, with the red mic, red heart glasses, the same t-shirt she wears during the concert (or one of the 3 that rotate) that, and it was her idea to bring the little gray cat like Taylor has too. And both of them look absolutely adorable!! And we had so much fun doing all the things and riding ponies and eating snacks and collecting some candy.

I also got a matching shirt and sunglasses to coordinate with Emmie, and one of her little friends designated me as “Taylor’s Mom,” so I liked that 🤣

Emmie and her little bestie Daisy ran around together all night like they were too cool for their mama’s, while Sarah Beth and I mostly just followed them around trying to keep up with them. But they were really sweet and had so much fun and wore themselves out.

Addison had probably like four bags of this popcorn, or maybe more… maybe it was more like the size of a large movie theater bucket by the end of the night!

Bo and Megan and their whole GC kids team (and all the rest of the volunteers tonight) did a great job with this event. I know how much work these events are to plan and coordinate, but everything was great tonight. There were so many new faces on our church campus tonight, and it seemed like everyone had a great time.

We went to dinner at Culver’s with Grammy and Papa after the festival, and the girls just loved their extra time with their grandparents. Addie was Papa’s little buddy tonight, following him around the restaurant and cuddling up to him at the table, and Emmie was Grammy’s girl, as usual.

Phew, everyone was so exhausted by the time we got home, and it was definitely time to immediately get started on the bedtime routine. We did manage a relatively easy bedtime, which was good because none of us had the energy or patience for hoopla.

After getting the girls down, I remembered to snap a few pics of Emmie’s cute “Matilda” pumpkin so I could share them withe Grammy, and also post here obviously. She made the little book herself, and drew the face on the pumpkin. Daddy helped a lot with the hair and the bow, and devised a little cardboard piece to stabilize the book, hidden from behind. I had the idea to set the pumpkin on this giant tomato can I had been saving (you never know when stuff like this might come in handy!), and the whole thing was just so cute, and I was so proud of her idea and how we worked together to bring it to life!

Definitely need some good rest tonight after such a fun, busy day. Gotta go put my feet up now for a while and watch some YouTube videos on the couch with the hubby.