Memo, Mail, and Me

The first Monday in November—how quickly October disappeared. We arrived home from Chicago on Friday. The trip didn’t turn out exactly as I planned or hoped. I was sick every. single. day. we were away. First a cold, then a virus that put me flat on my back for 2 ½ days. Fortunately Tracy and Adam soldiered on with not only two children to care for, but me as well. Yesterday was the first day I felt 90%, although I did muddle through the first few days we were there, and the last several days. The project box I so carefully packed was never opened!

Being with Hannah and Caleb was a delight, however. They both have changed so much since June when we last saw them. Caleb is the perfect big brother, entertaining Hannah, and thoroughly enjoying his first year in public school. He has a fabulous teacher in a wonderful elementary school located at the end of their street. He was the Star Student of the Week while we were there.

Here he is dancing for Hannah.

Hannah was crawling everywhere when we arrived, and by the time we left had figured out how to get up the stairs. It’s amazing how fast she is.

Caleb and I made Halloween cookies.

Halloween turned out to be totally awesome for Caleb. He couldn’t wait to get to school. We were invited to his classroom for the party and then to watch the school parade. Hannah’s day care also had a parade.   Caleb appeared as Flash, and Hannah wore the same pumpkin costume Caleb wore for his first Halloween. Although Hannah smiles constantly, she only napped for 24 minutes on Halloween so was absolutely exhausted by the time we took photos.

Caleb went trick or treating with friends before dinner, and was just thrilled with his stash.

As usual, the stack of mail was huge when we returned. Most of it was holiday catalogs, but there were two pieces of happy mail. The first was the November Simon Says Card Kit. It’s particularly beautiful this month with elegant embossed papers and an oversized stamp set with an accompanying die. I have lots of cards to make in the next few days so I was happy to see it.

Botanica also arrived. I preordered it months ago, and am so delighted to finally have it in my hands. Janine Vangool, who is also the publisher of Uppercase, is such a talented woman. Her creativity knows no bounds! I’m quite sure this will be a source of inspiration for both papercrafting and sketching for many weeks to come.

The one outing I had before the virus hit was to the Botanic Gardens. I posted a few photos from there for the 5 in 5 meme, but I’ll be back shortly to share some more.