Twenty-four days? Really? Wow. I guess it’s been a MINUTE since I last blogged. I was thinking to myself earlier, “I haven’t sat down to write in such a long time – a week and a half, easily.” Uh, nope. It’s been since OCTOBER 21ST! And even that wasn’t a legit blog post. Wow. Were you scared? I’m sorry. Mama didn’t mean to abandon you, loyal readership.

Here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to.

Girl Scouts! Dude. I’m a Girl Scout leader. ME. I’m in charge of a whole, darling little troop of Kindergarten Daisies, and I looooove it.

It helps that two of them belong to me, and it also helps that every single girl in the troop is adorable and delightful, and I’m so looking forward to all the things in store for us this year. So, yeah. Three Girl Scouts in the house. Holla!

Speaking of Girl Scouts…we had a Halloween Dance for all the Girl Scouts at our kids’ school, and guess who the awesome, amazing, kickass DJ was? You know it. DJ Pauly Paul. Those kids (and their parents!) didn’t know what to think when they walked in and saw the whole gym bumping, with music videos projected across the whole gym ceiling and all the walls lit up with lasers and lights. It was unbelievable. Mallory’s troop hosted the event, and I’m trying to find her a “My Dad is the DJ” patch for her vest. Haha! The little girls have “My Mom is the Leader” on their tunics, so why not?

Here’s another fun thing that happened recently – my nephew Casey stopped by for dinner one night while he was in town. My kids LOVE Casey so much – he always spends the bulk of his visiting time wrestling around with them, tickling them, chasing them, etc. They eat it up. Here they are with their big cousin, Casey.

And here’s Pabi with Casey – they are special buddies, those two.

Here’s another big thing that’s kept me busy the past few weeks – well, the prep work and the eventual clean-up, I should say. We had a big old huge Halloween party for the kiddos! It was so much fun! Pablo and Mallory wanted a birthday party with their classmates and other school friends, and it just didn’t pan out for whatever reason. So Mallory approached us about having a Halloween Dance Party, and I thought it was a stellar idea. We decked out the whole basement in spooky Halloween decor and Paul video mixed a whole playlist of Halloween songs and grade school favorites. (Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber were played A LOT. Like, A. LOT.)

We literally had almost 50 kids here at one point. It was CRAZY. My parents came over and my dad had the most awesome amused/terrified/overwhelmed expression – it was like trying to make your way through the club on the weekend, except everyone was four feet tall and under. So much fun! Our poor play structure, though. I thought it was going to give way! One kid brought Paul a BOLT – I wonder what that fell out of?

And over and over again, parents said things to me like, “You’re so brave!” and “How are you dealing with all these kids?” I guess I’m finding my niche. Those years of having four kids in diapers prepared me for the life I lead today! Seeing a bazillion kids running around insane didn’t bother me a bit – I love the chaos. What the hell is wrong with me? Obviously I’m not right. But then, I don’t think anyone else in my family is quite right either. Have y’all seen the electric chair man Paul built? We scared the pants off of so many parents at the party – good times; good times. More than a few of them called us TWISTED. What?

My little ones don’t think he’s scary – here they are posing with him on Halloween night!

Pauly and I took the kids out trick-or-treating while Kayley stayed home to pass out candy and scare people with the electric chair man. She wasn’t mean about it, though – she only scared middle-schoolers and high schoolers – they’re the most fun to scare anyway!

Man, I just looooove Halloween. I’m sad the month went by so quickly. I just finally (tonight!) packed away the last of the Halloween decorations, and I was sad to put them away. But do you know what I love? YO GABBA GABBA! (I know this isn’t news to you.) And last weekend, I took my kiddos to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

Look how HAPPY they are!

And check this out; it’s amazing. I was barely coming off my Yo Gabba Gabba high when I saw this super cool window sticker on a minivan in the parking lot at the supermarket. Naturally, I had to snap a picture so I could try to track one down for myself. How freaking cool is this?

I snapped the picture and headed into the market to do my shopping. Then! Lo and behold, the lady behind the sticker was loading her kidlets into her van when I came out of the store. I marched right up to her and told her how cool her sticker was and … you won’t even believe this, for reals… the lady I met is the sister of Christian Jacobs, creator of Yo Gabba Gabba – and she’s AWESOME and friendly and bubbly and we have kids the same age and she lives right in my ‘hood. What? WHAT? And we even have a mutual friend. (Hi, Becca!) I was so danged starstruck, I can’t even tell you.

And then, I got to spend Arin’s birthday with her (and her whole posse) and it was soooooo much fun. I so rarely get an evening out with my husband, and I really love it when we get to go out and kick our heels up a little. We spend every waking moment adjusting training wheels and shampooing dirty heads and correcting homework and playing Candyland – it’s such a refreshing change to get out there in the world and hang out with GROWNUPS! And spending time with my favorite girl Arin is just the icing on the cake. I love that chick.

Isn’t she beautiful? I’m so blessed to have such wonderful friends. And hell, to have such a wonderful life! It’s busy, and we never have enough clean clothes, and my kitchen floor is ALWAYS covered in Cap’n Crunch. But wow – it’s so much fun, too. Really. Fall has kicked ass so far and my kids and I are SO EXCITED for Thanksgiving and Christmas – it’s going to be epic. You know what they say: kids and Christmas go together like peanut butter and jelly. And I promise not to disappear for the better part of a month again, okay?