October

October rolled around. Emily came home from school with lice. That pretty much consumed our lives for ten days or so. We spent hours every day doing treatments on the poor girl and cleaning everything. Sheets come off in the morning and go straight into the dryer. She was constantly being picked and looked at by us. Here she is undergoing one of many treatments. I'm pretty sure she will permanently have dry scalp from all the lice shampoo we put on her every day. If you've ever had it in your house, you understand. It was miserable and the whole time I was pretty sure I had it as my scalp would mysteriously itch every time I thought about it. I never want to go there again.... her hair is in a bun or ponytail every single day since then.

I had my 10 year high school reunion. My best friend, Becca, and I planned it. We had tons of support from other alumni, but seriously... why did I do that to myself? We finished a crazy, busy month of September and dove into another whirlwind. It was a lot to take on but it ended up being really wonderful. We also had some friends get married, which is always a good time. Lots of Saturdays taken up by festivities.

 Then there was Halloween and all my dreams of sewing and making the girls' costumes shattered. Why would I torture myself with not having it turn out in the very little time I could give it? I wouldn't so I didn't. I bought an amazing peacock costume from Hissyfits. Thank you, consignment awesomeness.

Cutest peacock ever.

And our beautiful Belle... She wanted to be a mermaid for the longest time. Then it was fairy or a princess. When her cousin had this gem in her closet in Emily's size we jumped for joy- something else done for me without costing money or insane amounts of time and it was exactly what she wanted. win-win-win. She got to go a little crazy with my makeup too. It's so fun having an older daughter who loves to dress up, play with make up, and be such a girly girl.

We try to hang out with family on Halloween as much as we can. This year some family and friends cam over and we ate dinner and sent the dads out trick or treating with the kids.

The night ended like this. She wasn't quite up for the late night.

And so we finished October a little less sane but we were well-equipped to handle any sort of lice situation that came our way. We juggled a lot of activities and events. Some took a toll on Emily and she struggled through October trying to make sense of all the busy weekends and weekdays. People ask why I didn't take more pictures during this time. My real reply, as sad as it may be, is that I don't really want to remember it that way. We had a lot of hard days. I'm just so glad to be through it.