halloween

The week of Halloween was busy as it always is. We kicked off the fun with the fall festival at church on Sunday, the 25th. Pocahontas and Captain America were very excited!

Their costumes were so much fun this year. Joseph was super pumped to be Captain America. Those little kid muscle costumes are hysterical. I had to buy the shield separately, but I mean, come on. How could I not?!

As for the little Indian girl... She really wanted to be Pocahontas and I could not find a single costume online that actually looked like Pocahontas - lots of Indian/Native American ones, but none exactly like Pocahontas. All the cute ones we saw were homemade. So what did I do? Make one myself? Of course not. But I did go to Hobby Lobby and pick up some material while over in Milledgeville while Joe was swimming one day. And then I got home and sent a message to a Facebook friend who embroiders. Turns out her mom can sew and she'd be glad to make little Hannah a Pocahontas costume. She was also very inexpensive. Score! Hannah and I were both thrilled how it turned out!

Hannah informed me that her hair did not look like Pochanotas', so I remedied that by ordering a black wig off Amazon. Throw in a turquoise necklace of mine and her turquoise Minnetonka booties (couldn't go barefoot!) and she was good to go.

Joseph's best friend, Weston, was also Captain America. They didn't know the other was. Can you believe it?!

Love those two. Captain cuteness is more like it...

Joe signed us up to take part in the trunk-or-treat again this year. We've volunteered our "trunk" four out of the last five years and we have always done something elaborate, me letting my creative mind have fun with themes (spooky candlelit ghost trunk, race day, under the sea...). This year there was too much going on, but we still needed to participate.

Enter the teepee from our playroom. Stick Pocahontas in there with her basket of corn (er, candy corn), and set some pumpkins outside.

It worked out just fine. And minimal clean up!

That Tuesday was "School Rocks with Mom" for the pre-K. I enjoyed every minute of being with my little guy, completely in his element at school. We made an adorable little owl, too.

If there wasn't enough going on, it was also Red Ribbon Week and each day had a theme. Thursday was jersey day as the kids "teamed up against drugs". We proudly supported Georgia Tech and Auburn. With all the Bulldog shirts, my kids definitely stood out!

That day was also Hannah's first performance in the Oratorical Club. Joe and I met her at a local nursing home and watched her recite her part of the grandparents program. Look at her in this outfit. I mean, really. Off to prep school...or Hogwarts.

Then we had class Halloween parties at school. Joseph's was Thursday afternoon, Hannah's was Friday. They both ate plenty of sugar.

Joseph also went on a field trip to trick-or-treat around the square downtown, as Hannah did last year. It is so cute watching all the kids in costume parade around the town square, filling up their treat bags. The businesses all take part and even dress up, too. The morning is grand fun for the little ones.

Joseph pulled off that little mum in my hand from a plant as he passed. He loves to pick me flowers - even those he is not supposed to!

fall fun

Now that October is more than half-way over (how can this be?), I'll follow up that last post with more fall fun.

The kids have spent countless hours in the backyard. Joe is training for the NYC marathon coming up real soon. We have attended high school football games both at Washington County and Brentwood (homecoming). I decorated for Halloween/fall, and the kids painted pumpkins.

A few miscellaneous photos...

I'm sure you can figure out who painted which.

In other news...

Joseph went on his first pre-K field trip and learned all about emergency vehicles. He did NOT like the loud sirens, but everything else was super cool.

Week before last, Joe and I attended Catalyst Atlanta, a Christian leadership conference, and it was AWESOME as always. This year's theme was "Awaken the Wonder" and was all about awakening God's people to live in awe of who HE is and what He is doing all around us. We heard amazing speakers such as Christine Caine, Brene Brown, Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Jeremy Cowart (very inspiring photographer), and Margaret Feinberg. The music was so, so good as always. David Crowder led worship Thursday night and let me just say...wow. The whole Catalyst experience. Wow.

KAOLIN FESTIVAL

Sandersville's main event, the Kaolin Festival, was the day after we returned home. The weather had been terrible, and it looked like the parade might be cancelled. But just before the start time, the rain stopped and the sun even came out for a while. Joe had a long training run scheduled that morning that he was working in around the rain, so I loaded the wagon and the kids into the car and set out for downtown.

It's a short parade, but we knew lots of people in it and Hannah and Joseph had fun.

GEORGIA NATIONAL FAIR

Following the long, Columbus Day weekend, we had more fun planned. Joe and I took the kids out of school a little early that Tuesday and drove to Perry for the Georgia National Fair. We had a blast! After we bought arm bands and toured through the fair, we watched the 4:00 show at the circus. I did not know until the day before that there was a circus even there. It was a bonus, and well worth the 1-hr spent there. The kids especially loved the acrobats.

The lines weren't bad at all as we had hoped when planning to go on a school-day afternoon. We got to ride a bunch of the rides, both kids tall enough to do anything they wanted to do. Like last year, Hannah was the fearless one wanting to ride everything. That's her and Joe at about 7:00 in the picture above.

Joseph was thrilled to be the driver in the bumper car.

We rode a couple of roller coasters, to Hannah's delight. Not so much to Joseph's. He would want to ride, agree to get in and buckled up, and soon after taking off regret his decision. He would have this look of uncertainty, followed by a panicked what-is-going-on look, on his face. I think it was the herky-jerky motions more than anything.

Robinson's Racing Pigs were a must and we did that following a break for dinner: turkey leg and roasted corn for me and the kids, corndog for Joe, and fries for us all. It's entertaining watching those pigs run around the track and swim in the race.

Before we left, we took a ride on the huge ferris wheel. This was the most exciting part of the night for Joseph. He sat real close to me, but thoroughly enjoyed himself as we circled around and around, admiring all the pretty lights throughout the fairground. Joe had to hold onto Hannah as she apparently wasn't afraid of the terrifying heights and kept trying to lean over the side to see farther.

After hunting down some fried Oreos, we headed home. Exhausted but with exciting memories dancing in our heads.


NUMBER 9, FEELING FINE!

My honey and I celebrated our ninth anniversary on the 14th. That day in Savannah was one of the prettiest I can remember, and we had almost identical weather here in Sandersville this year. Perfect temperature, blue sky, a true fall day in Georgia. It was just a typical Wednesday with work, school, and supper and small groups at the church. That night once we got home and kids were bathed, we lit our anniversary candle and waltzed to Moon River, our first-dance song (prompted by Hannah). Joseph took pictures while we danced.

CHLOE'S BIRTHDAY

My college dog and sweet Yorkie, Chloe, turned 14 yesterday (10/21). The kids had a great time over the weekend building a fort "for her" in their little clubhouse. I'm not sure how much she enjoyed it, especially when Hannah sent her sliding down the slide, but she cooperated and was loved on a whole lot!

And that's a wrap! Before I go, I will include these selfies (I am not a seasoned selfie-person, but will take one occasionally.) I was taken aback and felt a little weird when my smart little laptop synced with my phone and organized these in my computer under the category "selfie". I mean, really?

Left: Joseph and I waiting on Daddy and Hannah after church.
Right: One Sunday later, in the driveway with Hannah behind the wheel!

...As of about a month ago, I have bangs. Quite a change and I'm still figuring them out...but I like them!

halloween and other things

While we were on our way back from Joe's 20th reunion, Meme took Beauty and the Pirate to the fall festival and trunk-or-treat at the church. We hated to miss it, but they sure had a good time.

In non-Halloween-related news…

Tuesday:

The Red Ribbon Week theme was "cap off drugs" and Hannah added a hat to her uniform attire.

That day I also found this collection in the bottom of my washing machine:

Yes, those are nuts, an M&M, raisins, a rock and a hair pin. How I missed all that is truly remarkable. Another reminder to check those pockets, especially of one little three-year-old boy.

Wednesday:

"Black or shade-out drugs" was the theme for the day. Hannah doesn't have a lot of black, but she loves leggings and any excuse to wear her black boots. Then she added her fancy glasses.

Thursday:

I picked up Joseph from school and noticed he had a bump on his head, just above his right eye. It wasn't too terrible but it got worse with every passing hour.

When I asked what happened, he told me he "hit the fence" at preschool. I'm not sure under what circumstance that happened, but he had to have hit it hard.

Didn't stop him from riding his traffic up the street later on, though.

No slowing him down.

We did try to ice it a couple of times, but that was miserable. He was screaming, not staying still…and it was just not happening. Joseph is terrible about icing anything. No child likes icing boo boos, but Hannah was much better about that at his age. Joseph can make himself sick he gets so upset.

Anyway, he went to bed ok that night, but woke up around 4am and came to me crying and scared. His eye was swollen shut. Amazingly, by school it was looking a lot better.

Friday:

I met up with Hannah's class at the downtown square to go trick-or-treating at all the local businesses.

Above: she and her sweet ninja friend, Cameron. Below: the treat bag she decorated at school.

Meanwhile, Joe was at the preschool watching Joseph eat a lot of sugar at his fall party. Afterwards, they headed to the playground where I met up for games - and lots of candy!

Anything that involved throwing he was all in…

We were completely taken by surprise when he hopped on the swing and started pumping!

Not sure when he learned that! I think it was just last week Hannah was pushing him on the swings in the backyard.

Speaking of the backyard, I completely forgot to put our ghosts out until the last minute.

And this is their last year, the poor things. It was quite a production to just get two standing this time. I believe the two surviving ones' names are Scarlett and Lila…or Riley. I think the names changed at some point.

Halloween night we joined some good friends to trick-or-treat up and down Smith Street. We have several friends that live on that road and, with the houses close together, it makes for a perfect (abbreviated) candy-gathering experience.

We paused outside of my friend Deana's house for a moms and babies photo (we are all looking at the "real" camera):

Hannah was a hard-core trick-or-treater. She really wanted to go in a backyard haunted house (my fearless one) but it wasn't open yet. {Probably a good thing.} But when it came to going house to house, she was up at the front of the pack with her friend, James, always first ones to the door. Thankfully she remembered her manners and said thank you.

From Smith Street we went to a friends' house for our family supper club featuring the Pioneer Woman's spaghetti. Delicious! The kids had a great time running around together and the adults had a great time chatting (and enjoying the fact that the kids were mostly entertaining themselves).

I only have one picture from the night:

Joseph counted down the days until he would get to ride in the "ca-plice" car at Mrs. Kati's house. He talked about it constantly. And it did not disappoint. He let his sister drive for a while and then, once everyone else moved on to other activities and toys, it was his turn.

At one point, well after dark, all the other children were inside and Kati and I found him still driving the police car around the yard. He cried when I told him it was time to come inside, totally heart-broken and confused as to why I would so cruelly cut his playtime short. I caved and let him take one quick little spin and then Mrs. Kati asked him to park the police car - and the John Deere Gator - in the garage. On top of that, she let him close the garage doors.

He was in heaven. There is nothing Joseph loves more than opening and closing a garage door.

Except maybe driving the ca-plice car.

It was a fun night and a very exciting Halloween for these two little ones of mine.