Weekend Fun Recap: October 3-5

I am late to recapping our weekend fun in part because there was so much of it and also because October has brought the return of admissions essay season. (I’m an editor in real life.) I love getting to read the creative essays high schoolers write and help their ideas shine. And I’m enjoying the slightly cooler weather and the opportunity to bake all things pumpkin! (Even if that can be a polarizing choice, as I share below!)

Family Game Night

We kicked off the weekend fun with our usual family game night. It was my middle kid’s week to pick, and she went with Disney Trivia. The kids decided they wanted to play on teams, but they also wanted to use the easier kid-focused questions rather than the harder version. My middle kid worked with my husband, and I paired up with my oldest. Turns out, they didn’t need our help to answer the kid questions, particularly as they know more about the ins and outs of Disney Junior than we do. So it wasn’t the most fun for my husband and I, but at least the game moved quickly with only two players! Next time, we’ll make them go for the harder questions so they might actually need us and our experience.

Anniversary

Believe it or not, Saturday marked our 17^th wedding anniversary. For some reason, that seems like a much longer time than 16 did. But we got married in 2008, and I triple checked the math, so I think it’s right. We got engaged in November 2007 and decided to get married the following October because Disney would be cheaper.

But of course, we had the UGA football schedule to contend with. (My husband was willing to prioritize the wedding over football but wasn’t sure he’d be able to convince any prospective groomsmen to do the same.) Lucky for us, the first Saturday in October 2008 was a bye week, so we claimed it as our date and chose our venues based on what was available that day. I’m thankful for the beautiful fall weather we enjoyed and for our amazing honeymoon to—you guessed it—Disney World.

This year, we didn’t get a Disney getaway to celebrate, but we did go out to dinner. And the chocolate cake we got for dessert pretty much made up for the fact that we weren’t at Disney. We did not, of course, take any pictures (why am I like this?), but a random teen told us we looked great, so I will ride that compliment for the next six months.

Oh! And we stopped at Whole Foods because it was close to the restaurant, and I finally picked up the Alec’s Pistachio Crunch Ice Cream that I’d been wanting to try since I put together my summer fun list. It is SO GOOD. Top tier ice cream for sure.

Cookie Bake-Off

On Sunday, we had a church picnic for the kids’ ministry volunteers that included a cookie bake-off. My middle kid helped me make a batch of Half Baked Harvest’s Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. They disappeared so fast I didn’t even get to try one, so I assume this batch came out as good as they usually do! I’m sorry to report that the cookies came in fourth in the bake-off, as pumpkin wasn’t a favorite with some of the judges. But I’ll let my empty container speak for itself! Grab a jar of pumpkin butter from Trader Joe’s and give these a go.

Reading Recap

I really enjoyed reading Kelly Bishop’s memoir The Third Gilmore Girl. Of course, I knew Kelly from her iconic portrayal of Emily Gilmore, but I didn’t know much about her time on Broadway or her personal life. I enjoyed learning about her life and how she ended up in Stars Hollow, and it was gratifying to read how much she loved the show. I also learned that she’s going to (spoiler alert) show up in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—I’ve been faithfully watching an episode a week, as promised, but she hasn’t shown up yet! Something to look forward to!

Little Golden Book

Since I’ve already shared about the Gilmore Girls Little Golden Book, this time I’ll go with I Am COOKIE. I bet Cookie Monster would have given my pumpkin cookies a blue ribbon—if he didn’t eat the ribbon first. You can preorder this Little Golden Book for the cookie monster in your life.

How was your weekend? What’s your go-to cookie recipe? Are you for or against pumpkin in your baked goods? Let me know in the comments—I love hearing from you!

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