A day at the farm

On Sunday afternoon, we went to a local farm for a birthday party. We had the best time, and the weather was perfect--seems like it's gone from summer to winter in our area lately, but the weather was nice on Sunday. The kids had the best time on the hayride, shooting corn from the "Corn Cannon," racing rubber ducks with water pumps, riding 4-wheeled pedal carts, jumping in corn kernels, riding in a cow train, and picking out pumpkins-whew--I'm telling you--lots of fun stuff at the farm! Here are some photos from our fun day:

On the hayride...

Shooting the "Corn Cannon"...
Riding the cow train...
Picking out pumpkins... (we ended up with $32 worth of pumpkins; 2 large and 5 small)

A fun day at the farm (and a new family photo for my profile!)...

Thanks Lily for a great time at your party!

Our baby is NOT a baby anymore!!

Somehow I blinked and my baby is now four years old!!!!! We've been telling her all day about the day she was born. Here are a couple of thoughts from a four year old...

1. She's concerned that she was born at the hospital--I assured her that all babies are born in a hospital.

2. She insisted that she wouldn't be 4 until her birthday party started (despite the fact that her party was at 12:30pm and she was born around 8am).

Here are some pictures from her party:

Look at the gumballs--she's pointing to a pink one for her and a blue one for her brother

The look of excitement--anxiously awaiting lots of toppings to come her way on a lazy-susan in the middle of the table.

Cupcakes too--you can see Belle in this photo from her pull-a-part cupcake cake mentioned in the last post.

Check out this sugar straw. You should have seen the looks on the kids' faces when they got a mouthful of the sour sugar--oh wow!

Great-Granddaughter of a Baker

Here's what every girl dreams of...a Barbie cake--the one with the doll in it with the iced-cake dress!! Here's how the dream came into being at our house--I took Eour girl shopping for birthday cakes for her 4th birthday. I told her she could pick something for her school snack and something for her birthday party on Saturday. So...she choose a Princess pull-a-part cupcake cake (with a light up princess) and a Barbie doll cake. I was thinking ok...sounds good...then I got the price list---put on the brakes!!!!! The pull-a-part cake is $32 and the doll cake is $42 (plus tax of course) and only serves about 10. Ummm...I'm really all for having a fun birthday, but there's NO WAY I'm spending $74 on cakes!!!!! So here's the solution--buy regular cupcakes with fun rings and sprinkles for her school party ($6.99 for 12 cupcakes), buy the pull-a-part Light-Up Cake ($32 for 24 cupcakes) for the party on Saturday, and buy icing to make a doll cake at home (~$10 for food coloring and icing).

Our had the best time making her own cake (her great-grandfather was a baker you know--so...it's in her genes)! It was much more fun than buying one at the store too! Check out the photos:

The Inspiration Cake from Publix: The doll is in the cake--ready to start icing!Her skirt is iced...now for some detailing:Look at the look of concentration--she said she's making "bouquets."Here's the finished product with the proud Birthday Girl!!! It's hard to believe she's going to be 4 years old on Saturday!

Have you ever...

Have you ever seen those books where there is a small part of a picture shown...then you try to guess the whole image? Well...give it a try...here's the 1st image:



Now...here's the whole picture.




Did you guess it??? If you're still not sure what you're supposed to be seeing, then let me help you out. Those are our boy's school uniform pants with a hole in one knee (and a faded-out-spot on the other knee). In other words...kiss $25 good-bye...and get to buying some new pants for school!

Friends, Part 2

So...for my last post...I was talking about friends that we don't see often....add to the list our visit last weekend. We met our college friends, Brad and Caroline, and two of their three kids for lunch. They were in town from Charleston for the GA/Vandy game--Go DAWGS!!! We had a nice visit and got somewhat caught up on the news with everyone (the best you can with 4 adults and 4 kids at the table--or in the bathroom--or around the table--or in their Daddies' laps--you get the picture). Here are some of the fun shots of the day--minus the mommies...I have editing rights to the photos you know--that's a lesson to take more than one photo!
The kids...
Here they are again:The Daddies: Our girl loves her brother...most of the time!

Friends

Tonight our friends, The Boones, stopped in town to eat dinner with us on their way home from Disney. We don't see them extremely often, but you would never guess it based on the hand holding, laughing, joke telling, and smiles we saw tonight! Here's a picture of the kids after a rowdy dinner together.

I can't resist a good craft project!

I love this time of year! The kids and I can't wait to look at the Halloween merchandise in all of the stores. Today I went looking for some ribbon, and came home with the following: 4 spools of ribbon, 5 colors of acrylic paint, 1 can of spray paint, a new paint brush, and some card stock. I'm not sure what I'm creating yet, but I couldn't resist materials for a fun Halloween project!!

Fresh Fall "Hay" (that's what the kids call pine straw)!!

So...today we went to buy some pine straw or "hay" as the kids call it. The bushes on the side of our house all died. :( We never really loved them because of their coloring, but...they were better than no bushes. Anyway...today, Hubby (with help from our boy) ripped out all the bushes and put down fresh straw. Our girl cried because I wouldn't let her go "help" by swinging on the swing set...she's been sick this past week and is still coughing. Check out the photos of the "helpers."
Looks like helping to me...
Here's our girl holding her marshmallows wanting to go "help." She was ok when I told her she could help me put out Halloween decorations inside the house.OK...so here's the funniest story of the day: Hubby was edging the driveway and walkway after laying the straw. He was wearing his headphones to block the noise of the edger. So...our boy ran to the car and came back with his headphones to wear while he was working!!!! (Notice...the cord is just dangling--not plugged into anything!!) So cute--wants to be like Daddy!!!!

We also bought pink paint for our girl's room today. She's been wanting it painted, and we told her she could get it painted for her birthday! Hubby put a sample of the pink paint on the wall, and when she went to look at it...she said, "why didn't he paint the rest of my room?" It's not your birthday yet, girl...give Daddy some time!

One reason I'm a Kindergarten teacher...

Where else can you wear costumes to work? This week is Homecoming Week at school. Each day the students and faculty dress up to show school spirit.

Here's a photo of our boy and me on 50s Day...the Kindergarten students didn't even understand what the 50s were!

Three of the Kindergarten teachers...Fun!!