a pretty chill week, crocktober, changing leaves

 last monday i met up with my old co-worker bridget for lunch in st. paul. we went to an indian restaurant, and it was really good. i hadn't been out for indian food in ages. thatcher took this cute picture of winnie. she always has the best sleeping positions and spots. 

in the afternoon, we had a tile guy out to price out the tile portion of the rebuild of our bathroom. i'm glad things are moving along, but it's painfully slow. in the evening, the kids and i went to durant and cheryl's for dessert and to catch up with them. thatcher stayed home as he's been feeling under the weather after all of his travels. 

tuesday was work, gym, errands, walking winnie. i crammed all of that into the morning because it rained hard all afternoon and evening and it was quite cozy! 

wednesday was the same routine. i told you this week was very chill. ashford had zoom piano in the evening. thatcher and i are adjusting to dark evening walks with winnie these days. but on the plus side, i can look inside people's windows. haha! 

thursday was the first day of october (!), and again, much of the same. i probably don't need to break down all my weekdays in these posts, but oh well, why stop now ;)

friday morning i prepped pulled pork in the crockpot for our block's annual 'crocktober' party. this was our second year attending and it's really fun. there's lots of good food, desserts, and drinks of all kinds. it was a beautiful (dry!) night for it. the only downside was winnie was going nuts barking in her crate because she could hear it from inside. we brought her out for some of it, but we also wanted to relax and talk to people, so it wasn't ideal. we ended the night sitting in front of our next door neighbors' firepit in their driveway with a bunch of neighbors. winnie snuggled up on our laps.

this was from my walk with winnie earlier in the day, the trees are getting so pretty. 

a perfect fall night

saturday morning azalea and i headed to mall of america to look for a homecoming (or HOCO as the kids call it now) dress for her (as well as new jeans and sneakers). i hoped to only be there for a little while, but 3.5 hours later we were still going strong. ha! but we found everything on our list, so that was good. we got some lunch in the food court as well. the rest of the day we hung out at home, ran some erands, and made spaghetti for dinner. thatcher went out in the evening to his friend mike's house, and winnie and i settled in to watch 'when harry met sally' (one of my favorite fall movies). she fell asleep on me which was the sweetest. 

sunday morning thatcher made us pumpkin pancakes - i dream of those all year. so good. the kids had been asking to go to 'spirit halloween' so i took them and we got a few things for the yard. they set up decorations in the yard and i walked winnie, cleaned the house and ran errands. 

thatcher worked on our soon-to-be rain garden all day. thatcher's parents came for dinner, and we made grilled chicken tacos and an apple dessert. yum. 

this week/weekend is homecoming at the high school, so that will be fun. halloween will be here before we know it!