Halloween High Part DEUX

Breakfast this morning consisted of a sausage link and a Hershey bar.

This is definitely a breakfast of Halloween Champions!

MayKayla, Karson and Kaylee at the "Fall" Party at Plano.

Karson has finally made some GIRLfriends this year. I'm sure she had a few last year too, but she seemed more interested in playing with the boys. One day last year, I was walking with Miles and noticed her class out on the playground. I decided to swing on over for a visit. Karson was playing imaginary baseball with a group of boys. Her playdates last year included Logan, Nathan and Jameson (and she was invited to their mostly boy birthday parties). So, I was super excited this year when Karson came home and told me all about Kaylee and MayKayla. We were able to spend some time with MayKayla last Monday when the kids were out of school. We're hoping to get together with Kaylee soon. I could certainly use a little CALM around the house with some more little girl playmates =)!!!

Karson has become close to at least one boy this year. His name is Dakota. Ms. Kolzow told me that the two of them are close and work really well together. I have NO idea who the other two boys are, but the one in the glasses was really wanting me to take his picture. He said, "we need a picture of the two Spidermans."

Karson and Cody playing the Mummy game. And, Karson carefully stringing all her candy necklace beads. Looking forward to some Halloween fun this afternoon!!!

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The is TOTALLY off-the-subject, but I must blog about it. I had one of those unexpected laundry moments last night. UGH. Occasionally, the kids will leave stickers on their shirts or have something in their pockets but rarely is it a big deal to clean up. Last night, we went to the 10 K Pasta Party where I purchased TWO BRIGHT ORANGE meal tickets. I unfortunately left them in my jean pockets while washing my white load last night. My oh my, the orange dye was EVERYWHERE mainly targeting some of Karson's shirts and attacking my jeans. It was AWFUL. I've Oxi-cleaned, lemon juiced, Shouted, baking soda-ed and nothing seemed to work to well. This morning, I decided to do bleach on the pure white items and had success. However, it's the non-solid-white items that I'm stumped with??? How do you get dye out of blue jeans, cream shirts and patterned white shirts??? Laundry woes =(.

Halloween High

The sugary filled fun has officially begun. The kids were out of school on Monday. I tried to come up with some "projects" for our time together. I decided to make my famous roll-out iced cookies. These cookies take two days to prepare (mainly because the dough has to be good and cold). I whipped up the dough on Sunday. Monday morning, I was Betty Crocker--flour everywhere, cookie cutters, rolling pin, and COLD dough. The kids were more excited about ICING the cookies than eating them. I mean, REALLY, why do we even need the cookie =).

Later that afternoon, we decided to carve our pumpkins. I bought one of those booklets that came with a seed scooper, mini saw, spooky eyes, patterns and a crayon. Our pumpkins were a bit to small for the faces to look good, but we sure had fun carving them!

Wednesday night our church hosted its 1st Trunk or Treat. Church families are just the best, aren't they! I especially love Community--sure, you're thinking, well, you should, your husband is the minister there. And, that's true. BUT, the main thing I love about our body is the things we do for the people in that area of town. Our church is located in the heart of some of the poorest areas in Bowling Green and with that comes some REAL unfortunate children. I love that we have things for the kids like our block party, movie nights, and now a trunk or treat. We also try to financially help a lot of people in that area with their bills, providing them with Thanksgiving meals and Christmas goodies. I know lots of churches do those sorts of things, but we tend to draw a lot of that type of crowd mainly because of our location. It was nice seeing all those children come and participate last night--who knows, it may be the safest place for them to trick or treat.

All of our church trick or treaters, and Ms. Windy our wonderful leader!!!

The ol' Deaton Spooky Tattoo Shop.

And, a picture of our sweet family!!! Happy Halloween!!!

My Girl is 7!

I don't know who gets more excited about my children's birthdays, them or me? Birthdays are the most SPECIAL days when you're a kid (and a Mommy). More than anything, I want my children to know how special they are and how happy we are celebrating their life. I asked Karson what she'd like to do for her birthday this year. I'd suggested taking her to OpryMills and going to the Rainforest Cafe. She told me, "Nah, I want to go to Imagination Station." When I mentioned to her that we could do GloGolf, see an IMAX movie, venture into the Aquarium and or go to Build-A-Bear, she immediately squealed with joy and chanted, "Build-A-Bear!"

I was all over town today--teaching at EEP this morning, picking up donuts at Great American afterwards, grabbing a few gallons of milk at Kroger, picking up the boys at Meme's, filling up my gas tank, dropping the boys off at Emmie Lou's to play, racing home to get a shower, speeding over to the school, balancing all my birthday goodies in my arms and walking into an anxious 1st grade classroom at 2:40. Let me just offer this advice up (from a teacher's perspective), if you're going to bring in birthday goodies--especially if those goodies have to be store bought--don't waste your money on those bright, neon cupcakes. The kids WILL NOT, I repeat, WILL NOT eat them. Sure, they may lick some of the icing off; but, rarely, do I have a kid at EEP that will actually eat the entire cupcake. Bring in something like cookies, a cookie cake, snack cakes, brownies, donuts or something of that nature. You can guarantee all the kids will eat them.

All the kids sang to Karson and many of them made her the cutest pictures and wrote Happy Birthday on cards. It's sweet how much kids enjoy celebrating with their friends on special occasions.

Since it was a school night, we had to leave immediately after school. Shannon and Elizabeth joined in our fun tonight (I bought the girls matching BFF shirts in Destin so they could wear them). My mom also came for some girly-time fun!

Karson, being the planner and all, had already got online and chose her animal. I was happy that she chose the Autumn Bear. It's the cutest and will look superb with our fall decor (especially when she gets older and doesn't like it anymore).

Stuffing and fluffing the bear, kissing the heart and making a wish. I would've LOVED this place at her age and secretly love it now. Anyone want to go there with me on my bday?

Elizabeth chose the Spooky Kitty which was purple and super cute for the fall too.

The girls bathing their freshly stuffed animals. They were serious about getting them clean =)!
Selecting the perfect outfit is tough at BAB. There are many to choose from. Karson chose pink flip flops, a Hello Kitty tank, and corduroy skirt for her bear. Elizabeth chose a princess outfit complete with sparkly gold headband for her kitty. Meme purchased costumes for the girls' animals. AND, the animals, of course, needed matching cell phones to call each other on.

We finished out the evening at Rainforest Cafe. I love this place (minus the food). I have actually been to a real rain forest in Costa Rica but don't remember it being quite as cool as the one at Opry Mills. And, no trip to the mall would be complete without a visit to Claire's Boutique. Meme bought Karson a bag full of Claire's goodies for her birthday. Karson's room is like a mini-Claire's. According to Karson, it was the best day ever. Those words sure do make me happy when the birthday is over. Life sure is grand and so is BAB!!!

Oh! What a Beautiful Morning

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow

The corn is as high as an elephant's eye

And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky

Oh, what a beautiful mornin',

oh what a beautiful day

I got a beautiful feelin'

everything's goin' my way

All the sounds of the earth are like music

All the sounds of the earth are like music

The breeze is so busy it don't miss a tree

And the little ole willow is laughin' at me

Oh, what a beautiful mornin',

oh, what a beautiful day

I got a beautiful feelin'

everything's goin' my way!

This might as well been the theme song to a perfect day at Jackson's Orchard with Isaac's preschool class. What a fun time we had pickin' pumpkins, racing through (or climbing on top of) the hay bales in the maze, sliding down the ultra fast slides, weaving through tires, watching a goat fall =), eating some cookies and apple cider, picking apples, etc. The weather was awesome, the company superb and the perfect 1st field trip for Isaac.

One SUPER Saturday

Dear Pooh Bear,
You've had many nicknames during your short life Milesie, Milesiepooh, poohsie woosie, poohsie and now Pooh Bear. You entered our hearts during President's Day weekend in 2006 when the pregnancy test came back positive. My parents joked each time we moved, we got pregnant (and this was certainly the case as we'd just moved to Plano). We had Karson who was three, Isaac who was barely one and you on the way--our family was growing quicker than we had imagined. I've been fortunate enough to be around many children (especially over the last 6 years at EEP), and you are one of the most mild-mannered, easy going kids I've ever seen. You take life as it comes. You love being entertained but can entertain yourself. You love attention but take a back seat most of the time for others. You know how to be patient, take turns and share. You admire your brother Isaac more than anyone. You love being in your underwear all the time. When you want clothes on, it's usually a Buzz Lightyear costume. You've watched the movies "Tide and Seek" and "Monster Blood" so many times, you have the episodes memorized. You potty trained yourself this year. You love sleeping in a bunk bed. You love calling Pops on the phone. You learned how to drive the Powerwheels Jeep by yourself. You could play with Power Rangers, the Hulk, & super heroes all day long. You HATE getting your hair washed and usually ask multiple times throughout the day "do we have to wash hair tonight?". I can hardly believe that I will be registering you for preshool next spring. It doesn't feel like you should already be three. You're such a special boy. I love hearing your little footsteps in the morning run down the hall as you climb into bed with me. We love you so, so much. Happy 3rd Pooh Bear!!!

Love - MOMMY

We celebrated Miles's 3rd birthday with family at McDonald's this afternoon.

I've never seen McDonald's busier on a Saturday. I thought 2:00 p.m. would be a good time, and we'd avoid the lunch crowd. Apparently, the lunch crowd comes in at 2 =). It was WILD, LOUD, and super fun!!! Miles wasn't in a good or bad mood, just kind of indifferent. I'm not sure if he understood what was going on, but he did blow out each of his candles individually.

I decided to start piggy backing birthdays in October. Since Karson started school, we decided to limit the huge birthday parties. Since the boys are still young and parties are still somewhat manageable, it works out great to celebrate Karson's when we celebrate Miles's. Hers falls on the 22nd.

My talented friend Larie made her this EXTRA special Powerpuff Girls birthday cake. I think it's the coolest cake ever. I found it online and Larie replicated it perfectly. She's the best!!!

Karson loves the Powerpuff Girls and spent every dime in her piggy bank to purchase Season One off of eBay. Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles have invaded our home.

Karson and her favorite pal Tucker.

This was a busy Saturday for Karson. (WARNING: bragging mother here): She started taking Super Saturday classes at Western for the Gifted Studies program. Her class is called Molding Monster Magic. It's based on the book "Where the Wild Things Are" and they are learning theater, acting techniques and all sorts of neat things. She loved it (thankfully--it's pricey for a 4-week session).

My old stomping ground Gordon Wilson Hall. I climbed three flights of stairs daily in this building, worked late nights on projects, took killer exams, and made some wonderful memories in this building. Climbing those stairs brought back a flood of memories. How ironic that my daughter is making memories of her own at GWH.