Halloween - the real thing

We had a great day. It didn't rain. YEAH!!!! My kids got tuns of candy and had a blast. Hope everyone else had a great day. Enjoy the pictures.

Must get more candy!! The kids were all about getting candy this year.

My kids loved handing out candy to all the other kids. They wanted kids to come to their house now.

Halloween Preview

The girls don't have school tomorrow so they got to dress up today. Lauren is a kitty and Amanda is a bunny. Tomorrow we will add face painting.

Showing off their tails.

So cute!!

Colin wanted to show me his leaf. I have no idea why this photo won't rotate. Sorry.

I tried to get a picture of Andrew but he wasn't wanting that today.

Pumpkin Carving

We had decided that tonight would be our pumpkin carving night and when we woke up we realized someone had taken MY pumpkin. There were four pumpkins and the person only took mine. I wasn't very happy so I went to the store and got a bigger pumpkin. The kids each had a little one to color and then Lauren helps design the face for Daddy's pumpkin.

The kids got sharpies and old t-shirts and were told to have fun...

and fun they had.

Lauren helped clean the innards out but Colin wanted nothing to do with that yuckiness.

Their finished masterpiece.

I was so excited to use a drill on my pumpkin. Cheryl did this last year and I have seen some cool stuff in magazines. I was just going for fun not a masterpiece. The kids wanted to help, of course.

My finished project. I put it on my back porch until Halloween. I don't want to have to buy a third pumpkin.

Weekend

Lauren spent the night with my parents and then headed down to Alyssa's soccer game on Saturday. They had a blast. She loves being with her cousins. Apparently there were a few baths and some clothing changes but all was well.

Saturday morning at Grandma and Papa's.

Aubrey and Lauren are all bundled up with GeeGee. It was cold in the morning.

The star of the trip.

GeeGee got the girls these great trick-or-treat bags. Thanks GeeGee.

The girls spent hours outside with the sidewalk chalk. This is why they needed a bath.

All clean and ready to head home.

While Lauren was gone we had a quiet day with just Colin. We ran some errands in the morning and just hung the rest of the time. Colin was a little upset and kept asking if we could go find sissy. I was a little shocked. They seem to fight so much when they are together but it's nice to know there is love.

Thank you Dad, Mom, Cheryl, and Lonnie for giving Lauren a great weekend. She was very tired Saturday evening but also very happy.

Spirit Day with Popcorn

Today was spirit day at Lauren's school and after last month when I was worlds worst mom for not know about the popcorn, I was ready. We ordered shirts and I put lots of box tops in her backpack. She was ready and really cute. Her class won the spirit award again and got a button and the school mascot for their room.

Amanda and Lauren, so cute with their shirts. If the shirts look a little weird it's because I photo shopped out the name of their school.

YEAH!!! for popcorn.

Colin wanted his picture taken also so I did. Anytime he wants to smile I go for it. He loves his new shirt from Mimi and Papa. He is so proud of the trike on the shirt.

Fall Festival and More Leaves

Last night was the first Fall Festival at Lauren's school. I helped in the donut dangle for a bit and then went around with my family. It was basically a carnival. It seemed like everyone had a good time and there were lots of people so I called it a success.

For anyone who hasn't realized it yet I LOVE fall pictures. I love the colors of the leaves and it makes for great shots. (if your kids cooperate) We picked up Aaron from work today and then headed to a park with lots of trees and leaves. The kids were pretty good sports about the whole thing. We bribed them with playing at the park and then dinner at their choice. They picked McDonald's, of course. It is all about the toy, but they both ate all of their dinner with no complaining so it was worth it all. On the drive home Lauren said that today was a great day. That made me smile.

Magic Growing Rocks

Lauren and Colin received a package from my aunt Betsy yesterday and in it was magic growing rocks. Lauren loves anything that is crafty or does something. I read the directions a few times to make sure I understand. After all it did say for ages 10+. Lauren loved the whole process.

Starting out. They started to grow after a few minutes.

After about 10 minutes.

After about an hour.

We put the second set of rocks in after 6 hours.

This morning after the rocks were all grown.

Very cool project.

Lauren was so cute about the whole process. She kept saying mom it says to watch your rocks grow. So she would sit and watch them. Thank you Aunt Betsy for this fun rock growing kit.

Happy New Year?????

So I am trying to do my 2008 scrap book as a digital one that I can upload and then get printed. Tonight I was playing with my new year layouts. I'm not sure I love them but have learned to just do them and not change them to much.

I took Lauren for her eye doctor appointment today and all is good. She has worn glasses for almost 5 years now. She is so great with them and I am so thankful that all she has ever needed is glasses to fix her eyes. Colin stayed with my in-laws today and had a blast. He loves to play with his Papa. Thanks guys.

Cute story about my little boy. We pray every night before bed and usually both the kids pray but tonight Colin just wanted to go to bed. He was in bed a few minutes and then calls for me, I open the door and he says "Mommy I need to pray." So very cute and wonderful to know that at such a young age he still gets the importance of prayer. Smile:)

Number 100

This is my 100th post and I don't have anything interesting to share. Today was a cold and rainy day so Jen and I took the kids to our favorite pizza place to burn some energy. It was an enjoyable afternoon. The kids played, ate, and Jen and I could talk.
I did make some updates to my blog. Change is good and I get bored with seeing the same stuff so I did some updating. Let me know what you think. I love comments.
Thanks again for all of you who read me blog. I know I enjoy reading my friends and families blogs. It's a great way to stay in touch with everyone.

Just For Fun

So for anyone who has been reading my blog for more then a week has probably realized I've been doing some scrap booking pages to post to my blog. My sister inspired me and I have been having some fun with it. These two pages are just for fun with some pictures I took last week.

Leaves, Pumpkins and Goats

Yesterday was so beautiful that I decided to try to get some pictures in the beautiful fall colors. These are a few of the good ones. Colin didn't want anyone to touch him or be by him. Very hard for pictures.

We headed to our annual family pumpkin patch trip today. It was cold but everyone still had a nice time. Colin still loved feeding the goats. Such simple joys.

My Kids

I'm trying to do a scrapbook page for each of my kids today. Here is Lauren's. Check back later if you don't see Colin yet.

Happy Birthday

Today is my Grandma's 80 th birthday. Happy Birthday Grandma. You can have some cake and eat it too. It's your special day so enjoy. We love you and are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Today was my first time volunteering in Lauren's classroom and I had a great time. I just cut out 104 turkey bodies, beaks and gobbles but it was great to just see what she does. Jen and I will be sharing the duties on Wednesday. One will volunteer and the other will have the boys. So great to have a friend to share this with.

Sucker Fun

We stopped by my Grandma's house to deliver some stuff and she had suckers for the kids. Once again they were a HUGE hit. Both children ate lunch and then devoured their sucker. Thanks again GeeGee.

Party Weekend

We celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday this weekend with a weekend of fun. My aunt and uncle came up from the south on Friday and were able to spend a nice few days with us. Cheryl, Lonnie and girls came up on Saturday for the party.

The girls love getting into Grandma's dress up box.

Feeling the love. This is Colin's usual reaction to Cheryl.

Cute girls!

Papa took the girls on a yard cart ride. This is always a hit.

The birthday girl. Cheryl and I made a digital scrapbook and then printed it. It had memories from all 5 grand girls and pictures from the past 33 years. We also had the great grand kids make her pictures. She loved the book.

Blowing out the candles. We didn't put all 80 on.

The family photo. It looked great on the camera and then we realized that Alyssa is cross eyed. Oh well it's still a cute shot.

Dancing Pumpkin

Today was Lauren's first field trip as a kindergartner. We headed off on a school bus (this was Lauren's first time on a moving bus) to the pumpkin patch. There were 26 students, 20 parents and her teacher and her helper. We took an entire school bus just for Lauren's class and then the other class had about the same number of people. The weather was great for this time of year. It was cold but clear and dry. The kids got to play and then head out to the patch. The pumpkin patch was a field of mowed, dry grass with pumpkins scattered about. There were no vines to trip over and no mud to fall in. YEAH!!! Lauren came home clean. WOW!! After we got our pumpkins we got to feed the goats. The goats were loving all the attention. While Lauren and I were on our field trip my dad was watching Colin for me. Thank you Dad. They headed to a home improvement store and the park. Colin had a blast and Papa seemed happy also. All in all a great morning.

On the bus!!

Lauren and Amanda

Lauren with her pumpkin.

Mom is this too big??

The goat actually has it's tongue sticking out. There was lots of sanitizing today.

This afternoon was dance and I finally got a picture and some video. Lauren told me that she didn't like tap because she had to do it in a certain way and not just see how much noise she could make. Today we got there a few minutes early and Lauren got to put her tap shoes on and make as much noise as she wanted. She seemed to like tap more once the teacher started instructing her on how to tap.

I was in the front row and Lauren could see me taking a video so she always looks at the camera. She really is trained very well.