Drat!

I wanted to give everyone an update. My uncle Kevin came in second in the chili cookoff on Saturday...by one stinking vote! I told him he should demand a recount! Anyway, just wanted to offer an update of one of my ramblings the other day.

TMBITT: Punkin Patches

Today I am going to play the "take me back in time Tuesday" that my friend Shalina (http://www.mylifebehindthelens.blogspot.com/) started. This week is Pumpkin Patches Through the Years or as we like to call them Punkin Patches! I didnt pull out and scan all my old punkin patch pictures but I do have 4 years of digital (I love digital!) pictures to share. We're not punkin patch purists. Any patch works for us and most years we have to try out multiple patches. I'm not really sure why since they all have about the same stuff but since the kids love it if we have time we do it. I agree to it because what if there is a cuter photo op at the next patch? You don't want to miss that! So here it is Punkin Patches with my Punkins Through the Years!

2004: This was the year of the multiple punkin patches. It seemed like we were always heading out to find the very best one. We even went to a corn maze! Our first venture was to the church in Downtown Buford that has a patch every year. We had to wait until Daddy came home from work so it was late, but that didn't stop us!

The second patch of 2004 was up to the corner of Hog Mountain Road. Yes, that really is the name of it! Once again at night.

In between these two we did the corn maze, but without any cute punkin pics. This was back again at the church in Buford, but this time we brought friends. The O'Flaherty's were with us and it made for some interesting shots. Two 3 year olds and two 18+ month olds weren't easy to wrangle into picture posing!

2005: They were sooooo little!

2006: This punkin patch trip also included a punkin bouncy house, rabbits and pony rides. It is one of the girls' favorite punkin patches and they want to go back again this year.

2007: This year was a funny year for us. With all that we had going on, I realized on Halloween day that we had never been to a punkin patch!! So, ever resourceful, on the way to my parents' house to Trick-or-Treat we stopped at our favorite patch. Thank goodness there were plenty of punkins left as we jumped out of the car, posed for a few pics and jumped back into the car to fly down to my parents'. The girls thought it was funny that we had to make sure that we had proof that yes, we had been to a patch that year!

We've got punkins!

Punkins, punkins, punkins!! They were everywhere at Burt's Pumpking farm this morning. So were about 500 of our not so closest friends!! We got there early and actually got out of there before the crowd got too heavy. We got punkins, did the hayride and took a few pics. It was great! So now we have costumes and we have punkins. We are so set for Halloween its scary!! Get it? Scary? Cause its Halloween!!!

Whoo Hoo!!

Halloween costumes have been obtained!!! This may not sound like an awesome accomplishment, but if you think that then you don't know my two children very well!

We'll start with Belle who wasn't sure if she wanted to be Dorothy ("and not plain Dorothy, Mommy. I want bling on my dress." Yes, those were her exact words.) or Lucy from Narnia ("you could make me an outfit Mommy." This was after it was pointed out to her that there was no costume available for Lucy. Not too mention what an awesome seamstress I am....NOT!) We've gone back and forth on it. The Dorothy dress at Target "wasn't flashy enough". It was "too plain". And "with Jack in California there is no Toto; Stitch is too big". And shoes. "What if we can't find red sparkly shoes"? She "simply can not be Dorothy without red sparkly shoes". Then Narnia was watched....repeatedly, to see if she could figure out what she wanted to wear to be Lucy. We saw outfits at Target that I thought could be Lucy dresses. But, what do I know? I was told that "they DO NOT look like Lucy". This has been going on for weeks!! Thank goodness for Party City! We went there today on the Quest for Costumes. It was a little like Monty Pythons' Holy Grail without the Knights who Say Neep. And there with the sun shining on it like an omen (I think I heard angels singing "ahhhhhhhh") was the Dorothy costume with sparkly sequins on it. Belle stated that it was "PERFECT!" We even found a little basket with a stuffed Toto in it. Have I mentioned that I love Party City? Next it was on to Famous Footware who had SPARKLY RED SHOES ON CLEARANCE!!! But not in Belle's size. You wanna know how I knew it was meant to be? When we asked the salesclerk if they had a 13 in the back he answered "No, but there have been a pair of 13's on hold for over a week that you can have". Yes, it was a great costume experience and she is now ready for Halloween.

Now for Hayden, who had absolutely NO CLUE what she wanted to be for Halloween. It has been "What do you think I should be Mommy?" Of course every suggestion I had was shot down. "I don't want to be a fairy, a princess, a witch, a cat, a ghost." I even had her go online to look at costumes there. Another bust. Nothing at Target has interested her. Needless to say I was convinced this was going to be a fruitless quest. We arrive at Party City and go back to the costume aisle. If you haven't been in Party City during the Halloween season, let me tell you about the giant wall of costumes. You look at the pictures on the wall and decide what you want tell an associate the number and size, they relay it to the back and someone brings it out. A simple process, unless of course your 8 year old stands in front of the girls' section staring at the pictures without moving for 15 minutes!! You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. 15 whole minutes with only her eyes moving looking over the costumes. Belle had her costume by this point and her and Andy had moved on (you know the Toto quest and all). The whole time I'm throwing out suggestions "look how cute this one is; how adorable you'd look in this one; how fun this one is." Nothing. And then a little voice, "Mommy all of them make you wear makeup." My little tomboy was stumped finding a costume because in all the pictures the girls had on eye makeup and lipstick and she did not want to get a costume and have to wear that. Tugged on my little heartstrings a little once I realized what was causing the problem and I quickly let her know that she did not have to wear any makeup with her costume. Once that was cleared up, she perked up and found one that she had been looking at online and at the store (the girl in the picture had on bright blue eyeshadow, blush and bright red lipstick) and decided that yes that was the one for her. She is going to be half devil/half angel and no she won't be wearing makeup. She will however have a pitchfork and cute tennis shoes. She wanted sparkly silver shoes that she would never wear again but settled on white tennies with sparkly silver trim that she can wear again. And they were on sale!! And now she is ready for Halloween.

The Quest has been concluded. The grail has been discovered and it is good. Halloween can now commence!

A Semi-lazy day

I don't remember the last time that we weren't off and running in 50 different directions, so today was a nice change. Of course we had to cheer this morning which was interesting considering that in our squad of 6 + 2 mascots, 3 + 1 mascot were out of town and one had a bum wing. So for those who aren't mathmatically inclined; we had 2 1/2 cheerleaders (Hayden did a few cheers and lent her voice to the occasion but was having some pain) and 1 mascot. They did the very best they could. Which, as I like to tell the girls, is all you ever can do!

A little aside here: its always nice when you hear your words (the good ones at least) come back spouting out of your little ones' mouth. I was told the other day by one of the coaches that they were saying something about the team losing the game and Belle turned to her and said "We don't really want them to win, we just want them to do the very best they can cause that's the best you can do. And they did their best so we're proud of them!" Okay, so we DO want them to win, but it is nice to know that they are listening to what I say......sometimes!

But I digress. The game was doubly nice because my Uncle Kevin and his son Alex came out to the game since we were in Grayson which is where they live. The girls thought that was cool. After the game they were off for my uncle to defend his chili cookoff title so I'll have to see how he did. Anyway, I keep getting off track! After the game we came home and had......wait for it.......NOTHING SCHEDULED THAT WE HAD TO DO!!!! It was wonderful! I don't know how long it has been but every weekend it feels like we're running from one event to the next (hey you've seen the blog!) so it was nice to have a change of pace. Andy and I even got to watch a movie tonight! How awesome is that?! With 3rd grade football wrapping up next week we may get a few more weekends like this. Although, there are a few things I wouldn't mind putting on the schedule.......... ;-) I'd hate for anybody to get bored!

Another Fall; another broken arm

Yes, that's right Hayden broke her arm last night. She stayed at a friend's house last night and apprently fell off a scooter and broke her right forearm. I didn't find out about it until this afternoon when I went to pick her up!! I think Hayden didn't want me called because she was afraid I would make her come home and not spend the night. So instead we spent the afternoon at the Urgent Care getting xrays and a cast. She went with Buford green (imagine that!). The doctor is a little concerned that there is something wrong with her elbow too, but wants to re-examine her next Friday to double check. Hopefully that is just him being overly cautious and that's it. We'll see!

The interesting thing? Her cast is waterproof! Who knew? She can get in the bath and shower with it.

Another interesting thing? Her excuse for PE and recess says (and I quote): "no running, jumping or falling at recess". Does one really PLAN a fall? I told her she would not be able to fall at recess for a couple of weeks and she told me I wasn't funny. Personally I found it quite amusing. Maybe she will too once she feels a little better. We'll see about that too. She also didn't find it too funny when I pulled out my camera phone to take pics of her getting her arm casted. Maybe she broke her funny bone!! Get it?!?!? See I really AM amusing!

October 9th, 2008

Today is Andy's birthday; he turned 39. He keeps saying "I'm now only a year away from 40." I guess we'll have to make this a great year so that 40 is merely a blip on the radar....for both of us because I'm not so far off from 40 myself. When did that happen?!?! Only yesterday I was graduating from college and 40 seemed sooooo far off. Yet it is literally around the corner. But I digress, I'm so very lucky to be married to my 39 year old man. He is such a great husband and Daddy that I thank God every day for bringing him into my life.

Happy Birthday Andy! And I swear that next year when you turn 40 I won't make you spend your big day with a couple thousand of your closest Buford friends at Fall Festival. That's right folks, my main squeeze spent his birthday helping out at Fall Festival; watching the girls, helping me and even helping out at the class booth. How could I not love him? He is truly my best friend and my rock.