Arrrgh Matey!

Almost forgot to include a photo of us together on Halloween night. Our entire family dressed up as pirates. Dale's "tattoos" were courtesy of Grace and a sharpie. My personal favorite is the hangman on his forearm. I'll take an "a" please. And that's a real goatie he grew in just for the occassion. Only thing is his beard is naturally blond and he of course wanted it darker. So he asked to use my mascara...ha...I don't think so. So he used the next best thing...black shoe polish. It was definitely dark...for a very long time.

Halloween

Racing the rubber duckies
Yeehaw Cowboy!

Jason, Libby, and Addison on our hayride

Literally swinging from the rafters

We've done a lot of activities this Halloween season. We took the kids to a really cool farm about an hour away that had the corn maze with a ton of other fun activities. They had a barn full of hay with ropes tied to the rafters...crazy but fun. They had a corn cob gun, hayride, pumpkin patch, cow train, and even funnel cakes! Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment. My brother Jason, his wife Libby and my cute niece Addison joined us for the day.

Trunk R Treat

So I participated in our church Trunk r Treat this year. I actually dressed up and decorated my car. If you know me well, you know that's not too hard to believe. Our family LOVES Halloween! We lived in Florida last Halloween and they are crazy there. Full on theater level props on their cars, stake level chili cook-off, EVERYONE dresses up...you get the idea. Well, I was thinking the same here, not so much. I'm the ONLY adult dressed up. Several people had to do a second look and someone even called me "Sister Sparrow". I can at least say I had a really good time and wasn't lacking for conversation.

Party in the Hood

Bobbing for Apples
Our 1st & 2nd place Chili Cook-Off Winners

Donut on a string...hilarious!

Tristan the pirate

Tons of good food...check out our ballot box...it was official!

Yes...I know it's a been a LONGGGGG time. I've been busy.

I'm the Activity Committe chair for my neighborhood HOA....aka "Sucker". (I'm the only one that'll do it.) Well, we don't have too many kids in our neighborhood (probably around 20 tops) but I still needed to throw a party that interested both adults and kids if I was hoping for any type of turn out. Hence we successfully threw our 1st annual Savannah chili cook-off/halloween kid party. I've included a few pictures from the event. We had about 60 people attend. Not too shabby considering we only have 49 houses in our entire neighborhood. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We had some fun games for the kids. I did a "ghost hunt" (lollipops dressed up like ghosts hidden through the backyard), apple bob, donut on a string, and my best creation...the cupcake walk! We had about 9 chili contest entries and a mother/daughter team took 1st and 2nd place. The entire event was exhausting, but it's all worth it if everyone has a good time.

Big "G", Little "o"...Go! Go!

Grace cheered at her first game Saturday morning in Mauldin. It was super hot but the girls kept upbeat and kept the crowd excited. We've only mastered about 5 cheers so far so they repeated a few throughout the game, but I don't think anyone noticed. It was fun to watch them and then to also see the pee-wee teams play. The boys looked like bobble heads running up and down the field and then they'd slam each other. I was definitely entertained.

Hang Ten Dude!

We had a really fun experience the week before school started. We took the kids to Folly Beach, right outside Charleston, SC, to a surf camp for autistic children called Surfers Healing. It's a non-profit organization that brings professional surfers to various coastal towns to surf with autistic children. It was pretty incredible and both of our kids had a blast. Grace got up on the board basically everytime but Tristan wasn't so sure of it. He suctioned himself to the front of the board each run but finally felt comfortable on his last one and stood up. Too cute. He's mimicing a lot more these days, which is fun to see. The pictures speak for themselves.

Back to School

Grace on her first day of 2nd grade

It's been awhile since last I posted. I think preparing for the first day of school took over, but now I'm back and did I mention free?!! Yes, I love the first day of school. Summer vacation for the kids is officially over and MY vacation begins. Lazy days. LOL Ok...maybe not "lazy" since I still have to get up at 5:30am to get the kids ready for school. Yep...that's no typo....5:30am..and it's pitch black outside. Ugh. Gone are our 9am wake-up's. Tristan's school is about 20 minutes away and he's the second pick-up on his bus route at 6:25am. Again...it's still dark outside. It seems criminal to put my child on a bus that early. Let's not forget how much my neighbors "love" me when this loud bus comes through the neighborhood with its flashing strobe light and "beep, beep, beep" everytime it backs up to get out of our culdasac. I can say I'm not making new friends in the neighborhood for it. I did have one neighbor tell me it's basically her alarm clock. Ummm...you're welcome???