Party At The Page's House

Just the girls

Pawpaw with his two cuties

Granny with Savannah

Today we ventured to Burlington for a family Halloween party at my brother's house. It was so much fun seeing all of the kids together and playing. Savannah was a little unsure of her uncle in that crazy costume and cried when Pawpaw tried to pick her up in the scarecrow costume, but once they took off the scary outfits, she had a blast!!! Kristin did an excellent job and even had a pinata filled with the best candy for the kids to bust. (I'm still feeling a little sick from all of the sweet tarts, runts, and nerds.) Anyway, here are some pictures from Savannah's second Halloween party.

A Day Filled with Friends

Savannah's Clemson Cheerleading costume

Here's the gang: (top left) Caroline, Cole, Kailyn, Bryson, Caden, Savannah (bottom left) Anna Kate, Ethan, Jack, Caleb, Kathryn

Decorating the pumpkins

Savannah attended her first Halloween party today! She and 10 other of her friends were invited to Jack's house for a huge party. Elizabeth (Jack's mom) did such a wonderful job with the decorations and pumpkin decorating theme. Everyone had a blast, even the mommies who had a chance to talk while the kids played!! Enjoy these few pictures from the party. I had tons more to post, but a certain little unnamed boy was just wearing tights in most of my play room pictures and I promised his mom I wouldn't put them on the blog!

Sara and Savannah

After the party, Sara, who couldn't make it to the party came over to play with Savannah. The girls too had a blast as they played the entire afternoon together. I'm amazed at how well they kept each other company. They followed each other around, laughed A LOT, and played hard!

How blessed we are to be part of such a great group. I wouldn't trade any of my Bible study girls or their kids for anything. It is so much fun to journey through this stage of life with these women!

Fast Paced Life

Things have been pretty busy around here lately. Between four mystery shops, a pot luck lunch, church, and everyone needing extra tutoring I haven't really stopped to breathe since Saturday.

Savannah and I did enjoy lots of time outside yesterday which was tons of fun (except for the multiple whelps she has now from bug bites). She's starting to get into the sidewalk chalk, but always ends up walking over to Mrs. Marlene's house to visit. It was quite funny yesterday as she insisted on going up to the door and waiting for Mrs. Marlene to come out. I know our precious neighbor is really busy as they're heading to Europe for three weeks this Friday, so I didn't want Savannah bothering her. However, once Mrs. Marlene saw who was at the door she of course wanted Savannah to come in . . . and she walked right in, headed for the nice comfy recliner, and pointed to the TV. Mrs. Marlene sat down and Savannah climbed into her lap just in time to watch some Sesame Street on the big screen TV. What a treat!!

Then it was back to the crazy fast paced life with tutoring until 8:30 last night. I have to tutor just as late tonight too. :( Thankfully, after tomorrow things should slow down a little . . . and then there's always wonderful WEE school on Friday to look forward to.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that our new fish Fred is now dead.

New Activities

Savannah coloring for the first time at home

Her first piece of artwork!

Lately I've started to worry that Savannah is being deprived because I'm not a very creative mom. I mean even though I stay home with her all day, I just can't force myself to come up with little games and things to keep her occupied. I just don't have the patience or creativity to think of things to do with her . . . and remember I'm a math teacher at heart so that's my excuse for lack of creativity.

This week, however, I have been encouraged and helped by my Bible study girls. They have been circulating ideas of things to do with our kids that are out of the ordinary. I have to admit that I haven't tried one yet, but at least I have a resource when we're desperate this winter. What I did do though was go to Target and get some things that may occupy Savannah for more than 1 minute at a time: big, washable crayons and some sidewalk chalk. Yes, I know I'm terrible because I didn't already have those things, but I think we're just now to the point where everything (just lots of things) doesn't go straight into the mouth.

So, let me recap the afternoon for you.

* I give her some crayons with a brown paper bag.
* She refuses to color unless she's sitting on half of the bag which is cute and all, but that limited the coloring space so our carpet now has lots of marks.
* Then once I thought things were going well I turned my head for a minute only to find that she had started to color our couch with the black crayon. Hats off to Crayola, it did clean right up with only a wet rag!!! Whew.
* After she lost interest we decided to do some sidewalk chalk outside.
* She made one mark and then found some trash to eat off the pavement.
* Creative playtime OVER!

Here she is making her one mark.

I'm done mommy, now what?!

Car Issues

I know I should be thankful that we have two cars that run well and are in great condition, but boy is maintenance an aggravation. Just last week I took the Highlander in for an oil change and ordered the '08 tag stickers for both of the cars. Then we realized Dave was past due an oil change so he took his end at the end of the week. Of course they recommended that we have about 6 other services done to the Accord, but Dave wisely decided to wait.

I called Compact Cars yesterday morning to clarify what we really should have done. This is a great little shop that works only on Hondas and Acuras. It's run by Christian people who are honest and are tons cheaper than the dealerships, even with Dave's Sonic discount. They said the majority of the services probably really didn't need to be done, but that the timing belt was due for a change. Ouch. That's a pretty big expense, but since we plan to keep the car awhile, I scheduled it for later this week. They said that they could check it over for all of the things that might need servicing while they were doing the timing belt.

Well yesterday, literally minutes after scheduling the timing belt for the Accord, I was driving to aerobics and my check engine light came on. Oh no! Just what we need, NOT. Anyway, Dave volunteered to switch cars today so he could drive mine in and have it checked to see what was wrong. All day I prayed that it would be something minor. Dave called right before tutoring to tell me that they had mistakenly left some hose off after the oil change and that it was fixed . . at NO CHARGE!!! Isn't it amazing how God handles even the smallest details of our lives?! I'm so thankful that Someone who sees the full picture is in control.

Fabulous Fall Weekend

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch yesterday and Savannah loved it . . . that is until it was time to leave. She had a blast picking up pumpkins and carrying them all around (always two at a time). She even took a roll completely over one. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

I finally captured Savannah feeding her baby on camera. After she fed the baby, she then tried to feed me and Dave with her little bottle. The last picture is of her crazy tights. I love them, another consignment special! If only all weekends were as laid back as this one has been.

I Love Fridays!

Friday is wonderful WEE school day. I dropped Savannah off this morning and took off without looking back (amazing how things have changed). Since the weather is so awesome I decided to do a long run in the neighborhood around our church instead of aerobics class for a change of scenery. It was incredibly peaceful and fun to reminisce as I took the same route that Dave and I used to run before we were engaged. Then it was off to do errands and some quick house cleaning. I have to add to my savings at Lowe's Foods . . . the grand savings for two days of triple coupons is $144.70 with only spending a grand total of $6.73!! Every time it's hilarious to watch the cashier's face when she says the total. I LOVE IT! This past trip they ended up paying me to take groceries, literally!! :) I must say that we are completely stocked now. Both our refrigerator and freezer inside are packed as well as our extra freezer outside.

Here are a few pictures

of Savannah in her

new fall outfit . . . see her face now? Wait until tomorrow when she sees all of the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch! I think she's tring to pull the stem off in the picture on the right.