The King-Lackey's Take on Fall!

Chris and I came up with a easy to complete fall bucket list of activities we'd like to do as a family. Here it is:

The King-Lackey Family Fall Bucket list

Hayride at saunder’s farm
Pick pumpkins
Carve pumpkins
Collect a pile of leaves, then jump in
Roast marshmallows
Corn maze
Pick apples
Make apple treats
Make fall crafts
Decorate for Halloween (inside)
Go for a hike
Trick or treat
Go to the experimental farm
Read Halloween books
Watch some Halloween special movies

    

    So far we have watched some spooky shows, like Spooky Stories (with Shrek and other DreamWorks characters) and the Bubble Guppies' Halloween episode. We've read some new "scary" halloween books I bought for the haunting season. And we've done some decorating around the house, mostly cutesy but some spooky, including decorations we made ourselves. Cadence has been interested and eager so far, which is great! 

      Our yard is just chock full of trees so the jump in the leaves activity was the first thing we did. Chris raked up a pretty big pile of leaves for Cadence to jump in. Cadence helped a bit, and then we took turns covering her and then Paul in leaves. 

We went to Saunders Farm for the first time last weekend. We had so much fun going on the hayride, the bouncing pillows, the petting zoo and the different mazes they have set up. And it was such a beautiful day, so sunny and warm. We had a blast! 

This past weekend we went to visit my side of the family for Thanksgiving. My dad, step-mother, and grandmother all got together at my grams new place and had a family meal. It was very nice to spend time all together. I wish my brother could have been there too. Ah well. On our way to Montreal we stopped off in St. Eustache to pick apples. That was pretty interesting for me; all the orchards in our area are "closed" for picking apples and have moved on to pumpkins. Also, last time I took Cadence apple picking, our apples were pretty tiny. These apples were HUGE. And plentiful! We walked away with a 20lb bag for a small amount of money. Win-win!

We've got some big plans coming in the next few weeks, Halloween being right around the corner. I am watching trick or treating videos on Youtube with Cadence to show her how we are supposed to do it. Last year she didn't really understand and she seemed scared with all the decorations. Cadence has also been showing signs of being scared of strangers so this year might also be a bust. That's ok though! Halloween isn't only about one night, or the candy. Its just a fun and silly holiday that we can celebrate any way she likes. 

We also had the great pleasure of being guests at two weddings at the end of September. The first wedding was of Chris's younger brother Ryan and his new wife Hannah. The second wedding was of an old high school friend Emily and her new husband William. Both weddings were just so lovely, and full of joy. We are both so grateful and delighted to have been invited to share in their special days. 

Lastly, our biggest news (right now) is that Cadence is more or less potty trained! She came home from daycare one day saying she just had to use her potty. Of course we let her, and ever since then she spends her days in her new underwear, and will soon be dropping diapers at nap time too! She's had a few accidents here and there, but overall she's doing amazing and we couldn't be happier!

The Official King-Lackeys.

Chris and I are MARRIED! FINALLY!

We were married on Friday, August 2nd at 6:30pm at Bean Town Ranch. We had a fair sized group of family and friends who came out to bare witness to our vows and then to celebrate with us afterwards. There was dancing, fireworks and a lot of really good food!

Now we are home just getting settled in, opening and unpacking the gifts we received and writing our "thank you" cards. In the mean time, here are just a few pictures to tide everyone over.

Cadence's room 2.0

I have been meaning to write a post about Cadence's newly redecorated room but it has slipped my mind! Chris and I had been talking about redoing her room for awhile, I really hated that ugly green colour and Chris was on board for some ideas I had. So about a month ago, I bought some paint and started the process. Here are some shots with details. I'm pretty proud of all the changes I made; I did about 99% of the work myself and nothing caught fire or broke. Go me!

Ok so you can kind of see here, the paint on the walls is this weird lemon grass colour, there is a fuzzy green carpet on the floor, and her furniture is a pretty dark brown.

In this picture you can see some decals I had put up around the room also, to suggest a jungle theme for the room. 

First to go was the green paint. I painted a chevron pattern with mint and grey on the cupboard doors. Then I mounted a "full sized" mirror from children'd Ikea, a wooden owl from Loblaw's new line of kid-friendly decor called Jump Kids World, a bear print from Barefoot Books, and 2 of the 6 fabric covered cork boards I created. 

These are some owl-themed curtains I sewed quickly with custom fabric I ordered through fabric.com. A hem around the edges and then I left a 2 inch pocket in the top to threat the rod through. 

Her sleeping area has changed also.

Here are some prints I found for free on Pinterest, as well as a name print Cadence received as a gift for Christmas. 

I bought a new longer carpet from Ikea, pillows we had from our old bed set that I recovered with custom fabric also. Some toys/ odds and ends Cadence already had. 

I looked around online for some new bedding, as we were planning on moving Cadence in to a twin sized bed. I didn't see anything I liked so I ordered some additional fabric and made my own. 

Here you can see the other 4 fabric cork boards I made, and in the middle is a family tree made custom for Cadence awhile back that I had printed and mounted. On the cork boards I have pinned all the cards we received for Cadence's birthday. There are some paper pompoms in the corner, also from her birthday. 

Over on this side we have her change table/diaper area. Her dresser, book case and medicine cabinet have all pretty much stayed the same. I bought a moon lamp from Ikea, the fox clock is also from the new line from Loblaws. Just a little paint, some new books and a new change pad cover completes this side. 

Finally, around the light I added a paper star and lantern I found at Michaels, Michaels has this section of their store where they sell decor items for $5 or less. I found the star and lantern there for less than $3 combined. I also found some scrap book paper and accessories that I brought home, cut circles of and then hung around her existing ceiling light. Looks really cool I think!

So there we have it! It took a week for the paint, and then another 2 weeks to put together and install everything else. I'm very happy with how it all came together, and so far the only negative effect was that Cadence can see herself from her bed and it scared her the first few nights. 

Let me know what you think!