Happy Halloween 2013

Our Jack o Lantern

The master carver with his "helpers"

Cute fairy and frog

The Neighborhood kids - minus the babies that came late

Neighborhood kids at Mrs. Derollo's for hot chocolate

This year the kids had a blast celebrating Halloween!  Dave started the holiday the weekend before with another master pumpkin carving . . . thankfully this year's design was pretty simple since things have been crazy at home lately. :)  As the week went on the kids grew increasingly more excited awaiting the big night where they could trick or treat and get lots of candy. 

So on Thursday after art camp, we rushed home just in time for the annual block party.  After eating pizza the kids raced up and down the street trick or treating and then walked over to the next neighborhood (with daddy of course) where Mrs. Derollo was waiting with full sized candy bars and real homemade hot chocolate.  If you look carefully in the picture above you can see her with all of the kids!  What a great way to end a fun night.  Now if only I can stay out of the loot!!!

2nd Grade Challenge Run

Getting some pre-run instructions

Run!!!

Mrs. Baker's Class Picture

Girls enjoying their popsicles

As second graders, students have to run 10 minutes in the challenge run.  They have been practicing hard and were so excited to see how many laps they could get in this time!  Savannah ran 7.5 laps in 10 minutes, which is pretty good!  As usual, after running they get water and popsicles and then have a big dance party before going back to class.  What a sweet group this is!

A Little This and A Little That ~ Catch Up!

Wow!  I have really neglected the blog lately!  Things have just been crazy with my new job, Fall consignment stuff, and trying to keep up with things around the house too.  Anyway, enough with the excuses, here is a glimpse into our month of September via pictures from my phone.

9/5 ~ 3 Potatoes and a Pickle

When leaving BiLo one day Preston saw this in the parking lot.  He said "uh oh mama, somebody dropped their groceries.  There's 3 potatoes and a pickle."  Clearly we don't eat many raw vegetables in our house!

9/6 ~ The kids and I (and daddy) worked hard on this US puzzle

9/13 ~ Where is Preston??

Okay so this was super doubles week at Harris Teeter.  Preston really wanted to help me push the cart so I let him.  I turned around when he started whining "mom, how much more stuff do we have to get?" and this is what I saw! You can see his little legs, hands and the top of his head. :)

9/13 ~ Preston's first ice cream truck purchase

What a great Friday afternoon treat!  We were playing inside and heard the music from the icecream truck.  Preston decided to purchase his own treat with his money (mommy had no cash) but Savannah decided to save her money. :)

9/15 ~ Baskin Robbins Treats

We decided to go out and enjoy daddy's last birthday coupons.  We all ate more than our share of Baskin Robbins and the kids even wore a lot of it!

9/27 ~ Preston still LOVES his John Deere tractor from PawPaw

And who doesn't love this amazing weather!?!  Our family is certainly enjoying lots of time outside lately.  And it's October already . . .

Sonic Family Picnic

Preston signing his own waiver form

After church today we all headed to Charlotte Motor Speedway for an afternoon with Sonic Automotive.  They had a huge company wide (okay, Charlotte wide at least) picnic complete with tons of games, sporting events, catered lunch, face painting, sno cones, a photo booth, bouncy houses, a dunk tank, and on and on.  When we first got there they made us all sign waiver forms . . . even Preston.  How dumb is that?  I said to the lady, "he's FOUR" and she said it didn't matter he had to sign his own name! 

Each dealership was represented by a different color of T-shirt, Ford was navy blue.  They also were competing against each other for some pretty cool prizes.  The dealership with the most points at the end of the afternoon won a suite for an upcoming Nascar race. Second place won an entire movie theater rented out just for them.  Of course Dave's dealership won because they had about double the employees/family members than any other store there. :)    

The kids loved their laser shooter and bumble bee balloon animals

Photo op with the Lug Nut



One of their favorite bouncy houses

Savannah the tiger

 It was a super fun afternoon for everyone.  We enjoyed lots of traditional carnival games like the sack race, egg toss, and egg race.  There was so much to do and I think we all went home with full bellies and completely exhausted!



 

 

More Soccer Fun

Preston finally met his match with pink #9

Watch out, I'm going after the ball!

4 WEE school friends

Preston continues to talk about playing soccer all week and we usually have an ongoing countdown until the next practice/game.  Savannah, Dave and I love watching the "game" and continue to admire Preston's skills on the field.  He scores at least 2 or 3 goals every game and continues to be Mr. Aggressive.  This Saturday the opposing team actually had 2 of his WEE school friends on it, which made the morning even more fun.

Tidbits from the Second Grade

Savannah is very cautious in revealing a lot of information about things at school.  She will tell me a few things and gladly answer all of my questions about her day at school, but it's Dave who usually gets the most interesting information about the second grade.  So, at night as Dave and I lie in bed we compare notes . . . which usually gives us both quite a good laugh.  This is what we have gathered so far:

1) If you copy someone's work (as the girl next to Savannah did to her) you lose 7 tickets
2) If you lose more tickets that you have your punishment is to walk laps around the blacktop at recess
3) Second graders don't have recess on the playgrounds because they are so far away in the cottages
4) There is very little equipment/toys to play with on the blacktop at recess
5) Generally #4 isn't a huge problem because kids are being punished with #2
6) Savannah is a good problem solver.  She tried to strike a deal with the girl that keeps annoying her in line . . . "I'll let you play with the playground ball that my mom sent in if you'll stop touching me in line."  The girl agreed and Savannah has decided that if she breaks the deal, she's submitting the issue into the problem box at school.

to be continued . . .

Happy 40th Dave!!!

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy!

This weekend we celebrated Dave's 40th birthday!  On Saturday I arranged for a sitter and surprised him with a dinner out uptown.  Originally there were 10 of us attending, but as the week went on the number decreased to only 5, but we still had a great time with the Fulmers and Susan.  It was so nice to enjoy a dinner out sans kiddos. :)  Then Sunday night we also enjoyed a dinner out at Dave's restaurant of choice, Fuddruckers.  After dinner we came home to enjoy a Marble Slab ice cream cake and gifts.  I think the kids probably ended up having more fun that we did since they got to enjoy a long night with a sitter, dinner at Fuddruckers and ice cream cake too!

I am so thankful for the years that Dave and I have spent together.  He has taught me so much about being patient and continues to lead our family by always choosing the right way, even when it's not the easiest.  The kids adore him and I couldn't be more thankful for a man who steps right in after a long day at work to put on his daddy hat and give this mama a break!  Here's to many, many, many more wonderful years together.  I Love You!!!