Happy Halloween!

What a great Halloween! I really, truly enjoyed Halloween with the kids this year. I've enjoyed it every year, but mostly because I loved how cute the kids looked in their costumes. This year was fun because the kids actually enjoyed Halloween.

Halloween was actually a week long this year starting last Sunday. We went to trunk-or-treat with the Mallory's at Drew's sister's church. That was cute. People decorate the trunk of their cars and hand out candy. Tripp was a little nutso walking from car to car, but all-in-all it was fun. Kids got a lot of candy!

Tuesday night we went to Kroger for their trick-or-treating Halloween party. It was a little lame, but I do give them props for trying. It was raining pretty bad and everything was inside. My guess is that they set some things up outside on a normal night. They had a haunted house that went through the deli freezer. Justin was scared and wouldn't go through. I carried Tripp and Anthony held Sophie's hand all the way. It was cute. Older kids were screaming through the haunted house. The actors (um, employees) did a good job not jumping out and scaring the little kids. When we were at Kroger today grocery shopping, Sophie asked if we could go back into the freezer lol She has a good memory! They also did some face painting, decorate your own cookie, and gave out candy.

Friday was trick-or-treating and Halloween party at the kids' school. They had a ball! Since the parties were at different times depending on the classroom, I went up and hung out with Sophie for her Halloween party and John went up for Tripp's party. The kids really loved having us there. So much so that I had to bring Sophie home with me at lunch. She was crying and carrying on and I couldn't bare to leave her. She took a nap and I worked. They also got to walk around to the different classrooms and trick-or-treat in their costumes. It was very cute!

Finally, the real thing today! The Mallory's came to trick-or-treat with us and to watch the UF vs UGA game. I won't say who won (Go Gators!!!) so not to tick off my UGA friends, but I was a happy camper. It was hard to get the guys away from the football game and it was getting late (and Tripp was oh so ready to go!) so Holly and I started off with the kids. The guys met us a few minutes later. It was a little bit chilly, nothing like the cold weather of Halloweens past. Not only was it chilly, but it started to rain. It rained earlier in the day and stopped so I thought we would be in the clear. Nope. It started pouring rain just before we left. Some kids and parents just kept trudging through the rain for candy - actually some parents came to the door with bags while their kids sat in the car (really????) - we waited for the rain to slow. It did. We took off.

Marly, Sophie, and Tripp had a great time! I wish we had gotten some video of the night. I need a new camera for that. I lost my little video camera. This was Tripp's first Halloween as a walker. Last year we pushed him in the pink car and Sophie was very hesitant to walk up to doors. This year Tripp thoroughly enjoyed walking from house to house, up the stairs to the door, and getting the candy (and grabbing more if the opportunity arose!). Sophie loved every minute of the attention and playing the big sis, let me walk first role. Tripp was in awe of the older kids in costumes. He was priceless tonight, it was like he was in his element. And, Sophie. Sweet Sophie. She just wanted the candy. Candy, candy, and more candy ... and sneaking a piece to eat here and there ... that girl has a sweet tooth! Marly is like a pro. She went house to house, getting her candy, walking down the steps, and moving on to the next house. Well-behaved as always! Sophie and Tripp always enjoy their time with her. She's like another member of the family.

All-in-all this was a fabulous Halloween. The kids loved it and I loved it. Oh!! Wait!! I didn't mention the costumes. Tripp was Spiderman with muscles. It is honestly one of the cutest costumes I have ever seen. In the beginning he wouldn't put the mask on, but by the end of the week he was an old pro and kept the mask on for us. All the parents who saw him loved the costume! I let Sophie pick out her own costume this year. She picked a pink Spidergirl costume that was super cute. That's why I picked Spiderman for Tripp. Well the costume didn't fit well and had a hole by Tuesday so I purchased a new costume for her. She wanted to be a butterfly. I was looking so last minute for a costume and just could not find a butterfly so I settled on a fairy costume that had big wings .... or so it did on the cover of the package. What a sham. When you see the costume, you won't see any wings ... that's because they are so small you can't see them. They're there, they're behind her back. I was so annoyed by that. Of course, Sophie didn't seem to mind. She loved her star light wand and her light up skirt. She was happy with her pitiful butterfly costume. Marly was Little Mermaid. She had a red wig, not sure where it went. She was adorable and the red wig was a hoot!!

Halloween 2009 was the best yet!

Quote of the Day

The self is not something that one finds. It is something that one creates.

-- Thomas Szasz (1920-) American Psychiatrist

My sweet baby boy

Have you ever taken a picture of your baby and thought "Wow! This is quite possibly the best picture I have ever seen of my baby?" I have! Once with Sophie ... the picture is posted somewhere in this blog. She looks like an angel in the picture. Now I have one of Tripp, too ... man, isn't he the sweetest most precious thing you've ever seen? I just want to squeeze him. I'm submitting this picture to baby Gap for their model contest. If he doesn't win, well then there is no justice in this world! ;-)

Fall is here!

It's the changing of seasons here in Atlanta. My absolute favorite time of year is fall. I mean seriously, can you really find anything wrong with fall?

1. Weather is cooler
2. Windows are open
3. You can play outside with the kids and not break a sweat
4. There aren't so many nasty flies trying to get in the house
5. Holidays are just around the corner
6. You can burn those yummy holiday candles
7. Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks
8. Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks is almost here ... hooray (as Sophie would say!)
9. Lots of days off work - 1 bank holiday in September, 1 in October, 2 in November, and 1 in December ... it pays to work at a bank!
10. Most importantly -- college football returns!

Nope, fall is perfect!

When I first moved to Atlanta, September was my favorite month because it was the sign fall was nearing. Septemeber weather was always a welcome relief to the schorching August heat. Now it seems like fall doesn't hit until October, so I'm debating about whether or not I should change my favorite month. Hm. September does offer some great things - start of football, Labor day (bank holiday!), and some possibility of using the pool without freezing water ... eh, that's not enough. I may just have a case to change my favorite month to October. I'm still debating.

In honor of fall, I have changed my background ... and I promise to post more often. Happy Fall Y'all!!

Yellow River Game Ranch

Gabby and Jason and their 3 beautiful kiddos (Haylee, Mya, & baby Jace) were here visiting from North Carolina over the weekend. Gabby and Tara have been best friends since junior high school back in their Florida days. I love Gabby and her family and I always look forward to their visits.

We needed to get the kids out of the house and take them somewhere fun. It literally had been raining for like a week. As you can imagine, a house with 6 kids (8 if you include Anthony and Summer) is just crazy. Tara suggested that we go to Yellow River Game Ranch. It's a bit of a hike to get there since it's all the way down by Stone Mountain, but it was a fun trip. All types of different animals just roam around and eat out of your hands. Except for Tripp's hand - he didn't share much. He wanted to eat the food himself instead of sharing with the animals. No worries, it was carrots, graham crackers, and animal crackers. It looks like all the animals are behind fences, but they aren't.

The big animals - the puma, buffalo, pigs, bears, goats - they were caged, but the rest were not. So what was left to roam? Hmm .. deer, chickens, peacocks, squirrels, turtles, rabbits. I guess there were less free-roaming animals than I realized, but just the fact that deer were hanging out with us was cool. Especially the sweet baby bambis! The place was stinky, but pretty cool. For the most part, the kids were really good. Tripp kept trying to go under the rails and through fences, but what else was to be expected? I should also note that we were there right smack in the middle of nap time so towards the end the kids were antsy, but did much better than I expected. They all had a very good time and we made some nice memories. It was truly a nice family day!

Sweet little baby deer.

Sophie and Daddy feed a big deer.

Tripp is snacking ... shouldn't he be sharing? I love this picture so much! Notice the deer in the background licking his lips. Hmm ... what would taste better, the carrot or Tripp? lol

Notice that Tripp is eyeing the carrot. lol They had fun feeding the deer. The deer were so gentle and friendly. They followed us down the trail for a while. Pretty neat.

I didn't know you could actually feed a squirrel. Don't they carry rabies? Eek! Cute anyway.

These donkeys were begging for food. They weren't neglected, I promise!

Staring at the tall goat in amazement.

Tripp finally decided to share "his" food.

Interesting nursery lol

Well hello there Mr. sheep!

This is what you call a feast!

As Sophie was running away from the bear cage she said, "I'm not scared!" Yeah, ok. lol The bears were cool. We were throwing apples into their cages and they were catching the apples right in their mouths.

All the kids

North Carolina

We took our annual trip to Sapphire Valley/Cashiers, NC with the Mallory's last week. It's our 2nd year going there and we really enjoyed it. The Mallory's have turned into our vacation buddies and it really is a wonderful thing. Drew and Holly are such a great couple and nothing bothers them. Everyone just goes with the flow and it makes the trip very enjoyable. I always look forward to our time with them. Of course Marly is just a precious girl and I'm so glad that Sophie really enjoys the time she spends with Marly.

Last year Tripp crawled for the first time while we were there. This year he was running around like a maniac. Last year Holly was pregnant with Presley. This year baby Presley is 3 months old and got to spend a few wonderful days with her grandparents. Last year Sophie and Marly barely spoke to each other but ran back and forth in the family room to the front door. This year they didn't stop talking to each other and did everything other than run back and forth to the door. Last year the boys watched football and drank a few brewskis. This year, that didn't change :-)

Holly and I enjoyed about 2 hours of time together without kids. We went to Family Dollar and Ingles - oh my what a fun time! lol We did by a few toys for the kids for Christmas as well as some toys to keep them busy in the condo. We got all the ingredients so Drew could make his famous chili. Man, it was yummy!! The boys had to stay home to watch the kids and by the way they were acting when we got home you would have thought we'd been gone all day. Holly and I had fun, really, we had fun at Family Dollar!! lol

There was an awesome city park that Holly found this year just down from where we stayed. I have no idea how we didn't find it last year. The kids loved playing at the park and even loved walking through the two nature trails. We also did another hike up Whiteside Mountain. Kids did very well and walked most of the way up. Down was a different story, but I will say that's okay because it's easier to carry kids down than up. Sophie and Marly loved looking for colorful leaves. Sophie was mesmerized by the rocks. Some had little specs of silver in them. They were very pretty! So pretty that Sophie felt like she needed to keep a pocketful ... which I forgot about until I saw a 1,000 little pieces in my dryer. *sigh* At least we didn't have to pay for a souvenir. lol The view at the top of the mountain is beautiful. My new blog title picture is from the top of the mountain. For those of you who liked the picture that was originally there, the new one that replaces it is in the same location, just one year later. It's amazing to look at the pictures side by side. The kids have really grown! The last day we were there it was rainy so we took the kids to the game room and the miniature golf course on the property. Kids had fun at both places, even playing mini golf in the rain.

It was a wonderful trip and we had a great time! Drew and Holly, we can't wait until our next vacation :-)

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