Staceroo and Her Zoo: Spooktacular October (October 2017)

There are so many awesome things about October. When else can you see a poop imoji next to his brother, candy corn imoji, at the store? Hahaha. Also, below is Kate on the day she decided to dress like a candy corn for school. See the resemblance? Awesomeness.

So, what else is Spooktacular about October? Let me think . . .

1) Awesome food and awesome friends over General Conference weekend. Some of our friends from Kentucky were down to visit the beaches and stopped by to see us as well. It was so good to catch up and chat the night away!

2) Dress up days at school. The girls had a ton of dress up days in October - and it wasn't even Halloween yet. I guess it gave you time to brain storm and try out multiple costume ideas.

Lise on Hippie Day

Hat Day

50's Day

3) Youth Neon Dance. One of the things I get to do when working with the youth is to attend the stake dances. This one was at the Niceville building and we were in charge. Thanks to my creative counterpart in the other ward, other leaders, and Pinterest we put together some awesome decor, refreshments, a DJ, and BAM! an awesome, glow in the dark dance!

The highlighter markers were very addicting!!!

4) Crock-tober. I am always looking for an easy, yummy, nutritious meal to feed my family (that they will actually eat!) Plus, I was so ready for it to feel like fall that I just wanted to start cooking fall-ish, even if it was still in the 90's outside. So I got on this facebook page that was posting a crockpot recipe a day for the month. They were not all a success, but I did find a couple we liked.

Stuffed Peppers - Bombed! I had such high hopes for these. They had so many good ingredients and were so colorful and yummy looking but ended up tasting . . . like cardboard. Oh well, next!

Beef and Broccoli - Score! This tasted super yummy and fresh (Broccoli added in at the end). Yum!

5) Finishing off a strong XC season. Aly kept improving her time over the whole season with not one injury. Yay!! Also love the great friends she's made along the way.

6) Testing Water Samples at the beach. Kate got to go on this special field trip as part of the gifted program at school. They gained experience with the scientific method alongside high school students. Fun (and educational) day at the beach!

7) Binge watching Stranger Things with my hubby!

8) Karate Graduations. Moving on to blue belt. Woot, woot! Love the purple belt tie.

Black Belt Weapons graduation. Kate has passed off bowtie sorenshu and Shishi nokun (sp?)

9) School pictures that I never buy, but think look cute all the same.

10) Making snuggle blankets for the new babies born in the battalion with the FRG ladies. Obviously with my serious lack of sewing abilities I was not much help here. But it was still good to get together with the ladies.

11) Ward Campout with my family. This was a really fun time with other families in the ward. S'mores, hanging out by the fire, kids running around in nature or hanging out in a hammock. What's not to love? (Other than the mosquitoes, that is. :p)

Kylie's gotta have her s'mores!

Love, love, love camping with my hubby. And love that he keeps us outfitted with all the gear we need. I had many a comment on my headlamp. Oh yeah, we're hard core baby!

Love this picture. The flash on my phone threw Chris for a loop. Hahaha.

12)Watching Kylie twirl at the Niceville Fall Festival. She is such a cutie out there!

Love the small town feel and the fun activities this town puts on!

Lise, being "such a girl" at the petting zoo

Love that my 15 and 13 year old will join in the cake walk to get their own cupcake.

13) Horse rides and cotton candy at the Group Fall Festival

14) Awesome Halloween Costumes. Aly rocked her "White Trash" costume with a "white trash" bag. Kylie flip-flopped back and forth between a witch and Hermoine Granger. Lise was the perefect "Where's Waldo" and Kate pulled off being a mime fabulously. (Next year Kate says she wants to turn herself into a helicopter and be a Kater-copter. Can't wait to see that!)