Black Friday Baby

Somehow we ended up at one of the busiest malls in Charlotte on Black Friday.  Maybe it was that crazy Five Guys mystery shop that was paying $13 plus reimbursement in the food court, but never-the-less the kids and I ended up at South Park today!  They were such great troopers (especially since this was our second round of errands today) and really made it fun to start our Christmas shopping.

Thanks to a gift card from Aunt Cherry they were able to get a treat from the Krispy Kreme stand at the food court as a reward.  Here's to a super fun holiday season!

Thanksgiving 2019

We are so thankful to be able to spend the day with our family in Mebane today.  Although we were missing Great Grandma, who was wary of making the long drive from her house, it was still such a blessing to spend the holiday with my family. Sara cooked an amazing meal and we feasted until we could feast no more.  The kids had a blast playing together and are already anticipating the Christmas holiday when they can have more time to spend with each other.  This holiday we have much to be grateful for!

For King & Country Concert

Tonight Dave and Preston traveled to Greenville, SC to see a For King & Country concert.  They had a blast, but it was a super late night as they arrived home just before midnight . . on a school night!

JMR Basketball

Savannah sporting her new practice jersey

This girl . . . after many many training sessions, seasons of recreational leagues, trying out for the team last year, and lots of practice . . . she made the JMR girls basketball team!!!  I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see her skills develop this year.  Now I just have to figure out how to manage so many practice pick-ups and away games, especially once soccer starts.  Yikes!

Friends & Football in Clemson

Preston had quite the unusual birthday party invitation this year . . . for Dylan's birthday, he chose a few friends and took them to the Clemson game!  Mr. Powis was a brave man taking all of these 10-year-old boys to Clemson for a home game, but they had a blast!  The party favor was a Clemson sweatshirt.

The Braces are OFF!!!

Just last week we were in for a regular orthodontist visit. When the hygienist came out she said "we're all done" to which I replied "great, how long before we come back?"  To which she replied, "no, she's all done with braces!" I'm not sure who was more excited, me or Savannah, but it was a super happy day!  Due to crazy schedules, today was the first day we could get in (they only remove braces at 9 or 9:30am) to get the braces removed. It was a pretty quick process and look at those beautiful teeth!!!

Savannah was super excited to bust into her gift from the orthodontist . . . popcorn!

Greensboro Soccer Tournament & Family Visits

Our family was able to see Preston's first win of the season!

This weekend Preston had his first true travel tournament, requiring us to stay in a hotel out of town.  Thankfully, it was in Greensboro so we took advantage of the time between games to visit lots of family!  We took a chance that he would not have to play first thing Saturday morning and decided not to stay in the hotel on Friday, but to drive up Saturday morning.  Of course, when the schedule came out we had an 8am game. :(  However, due to the extreme cold, they postponed the game to 9:30am. That made our morning easier, but then messed up our family visits.  Never fear, we still got to see everyone!

After the first game (which they WON!!!), we picked up BBQ for lunch and headed to visit with Great Grandma, Pawpaw, and Mark.  We headed back to soccer for the second game, which they lost. After the game, we decided to make the trip to visit Aunt Cherry in Raleigh. She is not doing well and we were all so thankful to be able to see her and get a hug!

After a visit with Cherry, we headed back to the hotel in Greensboro for some long-awaited pool time with the soccer team.  We ordered Dominos delivery and ate super late after a long exhausting day.

Pool boys in the elevator

Unfortunately, the boys lost their Sunday game too, but we still had a great weekend.  So thankful for at least one win and also a chance to see all of our family!!

Saturday Fall Festivities

Our Saturday fun started with the PSE carnival this morning.  Thankfully we went early and the lines weren't too long.  After enjoying that for a bit we went home for lunch and then ventured out again to Hall Family Farm.  Dave has been wanting to do the corn maze and this was really the first weekend day that worked for us.  

We set a personal record in the maze finishing it all in just under an hour . . with only a few clues from the "all knowing maze wizard". It was much more fun this year with a clue theme instead of trivia that we had no idea about.

We opted to skip our annual funnel cake since we had all overindulged on Halloween candy.  We made it home in time for the Clemson football game too.  What a fun way to spend Saturday together as a family.

Halloween Delayed

Due to crazy storms and rain our neighborhood decided to delay our block party and trick or treating until today.  Savannah was quite disappointed that her group of friends couldn't join her on Friday as they had coordinated costumes, but we still had fun in our neighborhood! Preston was a hotdog and Savannah was Pooh bear. We enjoyed lots of pizza and then ventured out for tons of candy.

Anna Kate was able to join us, which made Savannah happy . . . and Ben came after flag football too.  So although it was delayed and Dave couldn't go with us because of month end, we made the best of it!