Halloween Fun!

Yesterday was Harrison's Halloween Party at school. He has looked forward to it all week long, and that made getting him up this morning so much easier!! He and his classmates painted Halloween shirts to wear for the party.

Here he is with his friend Casey in their cute t-shirts waiting for the party to start.

Playing Ring Toss and Fuzzy Ball Toss (I don't know the technical name for tossing a fuzzy ball into a small bucket!). Harrison scored and won a sticker!

Musical Chairs--a favorite! Harrison got out the very next round!

They then rotated classrooms and made a craft in the next classroom. He was really concentrating on making his Halloween bracelet just right! They then got to eat some yummy Halloween cupcakes, popcorn balls, and juice.

Harrison and his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Spears. We absolutely love her and all that she does for Harrison!

All in all, it was a great party. We are now looking forward to dressing up and getting LOTS and LOTS of candy tonight!!!!

I Love a Parade!

On Friday, Caitlin and her 4th grade class participated in her school's Book Character Parade. Each class chose their favorite book, and all the students dressed up as characters from the book. Caitlin's teacher chose The Three Little Pigs, so she decided to dress up as a pig. We found a pig nose and tail and made the pig ears from a headband she already had at home. She said it was fun seeing how the kids in other classes dressed for their book character.
Here is her class getting ready to march in the parade around the football field.

And here is the parade itself...

The Apple of My Eye

After school yesterday, Harrison and I along with my friend, Nakita, made the trip to Scott's Apple Orchard. Oh, the deliciousness that we found!!! There were so many beautiful apples to see!
We also HAD to get an apple cider slushie! And what a deal...they were only $.75!!!! (Of course it is a small cup.) But what joy in my mouth!

Then we had the hard decision of picking our apples.

We finally settled on a Pick-your-own bag so that we could get a good mixture of all the delicious apples. Just seeing all this makes me want to go back again today for one of those slushies!!!

Party in the USA

I mentioned in an earlier post about an adventure that Caitlin had last Friday night. She was lucky enough to travel to Birmingham with our friends, Laura and Todd, and their daughter, Taylor.
They found their seats at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center...

...got even more excited than on the trip down (if that is possible!)...

...because they were there to see...

MILEY CYRUS!!!!!!!!!

Apparently she was awesome in concert because Caitlin yelled and screamed the entire time and almost didn't have a voice on Saturday morning!

I feel as if I am passing the concert-going torch on to my daughter! Kinda weird feeling, I must say.

If You Take a Teacher to the Pumpkin Patch...

My class went on a Field Trip to Lyon Family Farms in Taft, Tennessee, today. It was a gray day with lots and lots of mud, but it was wonderful to be outside especially since we have had so much rain lately. I loved, loved, loved being with this great group of first-graders! I prayed and prayed last summer over each and every name on my class roll, and God truly answered my prayers with such a wonderful class! We had such a fantastic time together learning in God's classroom. We got to go on a hayride to the pumpkin patch so that we could pick our pumpkins.

Which pumpkin to pick?
Then we were off to the petting zoo area.

The goats were in dire need of some attention!
After that we heard a story from Mrs. Martha about pumpkins.

She even fed us pumpkin seeds!

Finally we made our way through the corn maze.

Look at all that yucky mud!! The maze then opened up to a fabulous playground where we played for a LONG time.

It was such a fun day as evidenced by 2 smiling teachers who were allowed out of the classroom for a day...

How thankful I am for my job, my teacher friends, and my great group of first-graders!!

Pumpkin Carving

We have 3 big, beautiful pumpkins that have just been waiting to be carved into jack-o-lanterns. We really have not had a chance to carve them, and we didn't want to carve them too early for fear of them rotting--not a pretty sight! Finally last night we had the opportunity to dive into our pumpkins as a family. First Daddy cut the tops off, and Caitlin and Harrison scooped out all the yucky goo.

We saved the pumpkin seeds for roasting. Yummy:)
Then Daddy set to work carving the patterns that the kids had picked for each pumpkin.

And here are the finished products...

Scary Face, Pumpkin looking through the Window, and Mummy

It was a fun time even if the kids stayed up way too late (isn't that what memories are made of?).

Back in Time

On Monday, we celebrated the 50th Day of School. We dressed as if we were in the 1950's, listened to 50's music, learned about popular fads in the 50's, and had Moon Pies and RC Cola for snack. It is always so much fun to dress up for these fun days, and the students think it is a riot to see their teachers dressed so funny!

Here I am with my best boy before leaving the house. He's doing his best Fonzie imitation from "Happy Days."

Here he is in my classroom with the King of Rock 'n Roll himself! Who says Elvis is dead?!?

And these are the 1st grade teachers plus a couple extra teachers who donned their best 50's wear for the day! We had so much fun showing off our pretty poodle skirts and dancing to the fun music. Too bad we had to go back to dressing "regular" the next day!

A Little Service, Please

For Sunday lunch, we had the best waiter in town...

...who just happened to serve up the best macaroni and cheese around!

You've Got a Friend in Me

Last night we kept Alex for our friends, Todd and Laura, so that they could take Caitlin someplace special (more to come on that adventure later!). It was definitely different having 2 little boys in the house! There was plenty of action going on right up until bedtime. First, we treated the boys to dinner at Red Robin.

Sorry it's so yucky! This was taken with my phone.
When we got home it was play, play, play! Lots of action figures, swords, and light sabers were involved plus a little bit of dress-up.

Buzz and Woody to the rescue!
Then they got to watch a Scooby-Doo movie before bed.

Who says we can't be friends even though we like rival football teams?!?

An A+ Kinda Day

Yesterday was Report Card Day, and Caitlin had the best one she has ever had!!!! Just look:

Yes, that is STRAIGHT A's!!! We are so very proud of her! Because if you didn't know it, 4th grade is H-A-R-D! We give all the glory to God and his wonder workings in her!
Harrison got a progress report as well, and his didn't disappoint either! He gets S for Satisfactory, P for Progressing, and N for Needs Improvement. Well, except for tying shoes, he had S's!!! Talk about smart kids. And since they had both worked so hard in school, we did our usual treat for supper. And lo and behold! They both agreed on going out for pizza. I guess miracles will never cease!

Here she is....Miss Straight A's!

And here is my smart Pre-schooler not wanting his picture made AT ALL!!

So, all in all, we had an awesome Fall Day at our house!

Fall Festival Time!

On Saturday, we attended Caitlin's Fall Festival at Monvrovia Elementary School. We got there at 4:00 right when it opened so that the kids could play on the outdoor inflatables before it got too terribly cold. But that didn't help much! The kids weren't cold at all while jumping, running, and playing, but the moms and dads froze out there!! But it was well worth it to see the smiles on their sweet faces.

Caitlin and her friend, Kaleigh, racing.

Harrison loved the moon bounce.

Harrison also got to participate in a Tae Kwon Do exhibition. He loved it!! I think that a white uniform might be in his future.

They also got to try to make a hole-in-one to win cool prizes. Too bad neither of them follow in their dad's golfing footsteps!

Cute picture of Caitlin with her two best friends, Kaleigh and Camryn.
We had so much fun at the Fall Festival, but we were all worn out by the time we got home Saturday night. Thank goodness it only comes around once a year!

Ma-Ma's Birthday Dinner

We celebrated my Mom's (Ma-Ma) birthday last weekend at Outback. It was a fun, but crazy time spent with my parents and my sister and her family. We laughed and laughed together!

And the kids had fun just being together!

Can you tell Harrison absolutely adores his cousin, Daniel?

Afterwards we went over to my parents' house and ate birthday cake together. It was a fun celebration. Happy Birthday Ma-Ma!

Technical Difficulties

I am so very, very sad!!! Our Internet at home has been down since Thursday night, and it has pained me not to check on all my friends' blogs! I didn't know what anyone had been up to until I got to school extra early this morning and could log on to my computer here in my classroom. Anyway, after spending nearly an hour on the phone with an AT&T customer service technician on Sunday afternoon, we found out we will be getting a new modem shipped to us by Tuesday (hopefully!). I have pics of my Mom's birthday and just some fun weekend activities to share with y'all.

Fall Break Trip to Gatlinburg

Last week for our Fall Break Vacation, we travelled to Gatlinburg, TN with our very good friends, the Mayers-Tim, Shannon, Delaney, and Annie. The week started out with beautiful weather, but we had to deal with a little bit of rain and thunderstorms during our stay. We didn't care because we were in such good company! Also there is so much to do and see in Gatlinburg that it didn't dampen our spirits. We rented a cabin WAAAAAY up in the mountains (it was a long and winding drive to get there!). We could see a long way off in the distance from our cabin. It was a beautiful view! The leaves on the trees had just started changing colors which made for gorgeous scenery. This was the view from our porch plus a snapshot of Shannon and me enjoying our time off with our families.

We also had fun doing some of the touristy things like:

checking out the fake black bears, posing with all the fall scenery, and riding the Ober Gatlinburg cable car.
We took a hike one day...

...followed by a picnic lunch in the forest.

And one night we went out to eat at Bennett's, a famous BBQ restaurant in downtown Gatlinburg.

Caitlin took this picture of us. I thought she did pretty well, don't you?

One night Tim went out to the trash cans and spotted a raccoon. Well, that raccoon wanted so badly to come into our cabin.

I snapped this picture right as everyone was shooing me back into the cabin. We definitely didn't want a mad raccoon trapped inside with us, but I wanted a picture of that raccoon! It's amazing what we'll do for a picture for our blog!!
We had such a good time in the mountains, and it was sad to have to come back to our "real" life. Oh well....there's always next year!

Sneak Peek

Can you tell what we're going to be for Halloween?!?
This is Caitlin's....
...and this is Harrison's...

Hint: If you were around Cornerstone Sunday School back in the day, just remember what Thomas and Kim were for our very first Halloween party!

Trouble

I got in trouble with the Big Man today! This is how he woke me up:

Randy: "Do you know what I do when I coach football?"

Me: "Is it time to get up?"

Randy: "I checked out your bloggy thing and saw that you wrote I was Offensive Coach for the 7th grade. Do you know that is a pee-on job? I don't do that! I am the Defensive Coordinator for the 7th grade! Could you fix it?"

Me: "Well if I could get my feet on the floor first, I'll be happy to fix it."

He even stuck his head back in the door after heading out to get tires for his car to remind me to change his coaching job on my bloggy thing! So...if you go back to this post, you will see that I have changed his job to say that he is the Defensive Coordinator for the 7th grade team at Monrovia Middle!

Pumpkin Patch 09

On Saturday my friend, Shannon, and I decided since it was such a beautiful day to take our kids to Tate Farms Pumpkin Patch. It was a gorgeous day indeed! And since the Madison Street Festival was going on at the same time plus Fall Ball, it wasn't as crowded as in past years that I have been there. This is Caitlin's 10th year to visit the Farm, and Harrison's 5th year---we've been taking them since they were babies! And of course, it's always much more fun when you're with friends.
Posing before entering the Farm--Harrison did NOT want to have his picture made! Can you tell?

Playing on the cool playground they have set up there.

Our "Children of the Corn" This is where they wanted to spend the majority of our time! Not the petting zoo or on the playground, but in the corn.

The hayride to pick the perfect pumpkin. It was so bright and sunny that I couldn't get a picture of Caitlin where she wasn't squinting or covering her eyes!

And look who we ran into....the Lingo's! It was a surprise to see some of our other friends there too.

It was such a perfect day--not too hot and not too cold, not rainy and not windy. I wish all Fall days could be just like this one!