Friday, October 30, 2009

Pumpkin Path

Thursday, Kalyn's preschool celebrated the excitement of Halloween by creating a fun and not-too-chaotic Pumpkin Path. The day begins by allowing the kids to dress up in their costumes. Let me just say that there were tons on princesses in Kalyn's class. The teachers decorate the walkway out in front of the church and the kids (and parents and any siblings) file through the path and collect candy from the various teachers. It is a lot of fun and give the parents a chance to hang out with their kids during the school year. They come away with lots of candy (as if they won't be getting enough as it is)and they can't wait to dig in to see what they got!!

Kalyn and her church friends - Callie and Ansleigh (her whole class is full of little blond-headed girls)
Xander's ready to go!!

Kalyn and some of her classmates - Avery (Snow White) and Grace (Belle)

A-walkin' we go down the path - and stop to get candy from Kalyn's 2-Year Old teacher, Ms. Julie

Here, we picked up candy from her current teacher - Ms. Bernadette (she was also Trinity's 4-Year Old teacher) - we love her and Ms. Lisa

Candy from our beloved music teacher, Ms. Brandi


"What did you get?"

We love our preschool director, Ms. Susan. She is just wonderful and has been wonderful to our family since we joined the preschool family 4 years ago (and before that).

Pumpkin Carving

The week, we set aside some time to carve our family pumpkin. Craig did a wonderful job of making sure that each child had a very special part to contribute to the carving. No, he didn't hand them each a knife and say, "Go at it". He just made sure each left their own mark on our pumpkin.

Kalyn drew the eyes.
Xander drew the nose.

Trinity drew the mouth.

The scraping out of the insides was a bit messy (as usual) and not too enjoyable for the kids. Xander was all about the napkins for his hands. After a while, we got it all out. Well, they got it all out. Okay, so more honestly, the kids got out about 10% and Craig pulled out the rest.

Craig did a wonderful job with the carving!!

Isn't it the cutest? We love fall festivities!!

She's Lost Another One

Our family was not the only thing on the move this weekend. One of Trinity's teeth was too. We kept having to remind Trinity to get her fingers away from her wiggly tooth. We asked a couple of times if she wanted Craig to pull it, but we were nixed each time. Sunday night, Trinity tried to pull it herself (she pulled the last one). She twisted, turned and pulled (a little). Unfortunately, it stayed put.


Monday night, Craig and the kids sat down on the couch to do their bedtime routine while I was at handbell practice. Xander went to sit next to (or onto) Trinity and BANG! His head hit her mouth and (you guessed it) the tooth came out. The agony of the loose tooth was over. However, I hear rumors of one more loose tooth, so we may be revisiting this moment sooner than later.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Another Camping Trip

This past weekend, we loaded the camper back up (actually, we never really fully unpacked it) and headed back up to Lake Lanier for another weekend in the outdoors. Since we had enjoyed the location so much the first week, we were excited about returning. We checked Trinity out of school a little bit early and got on the road.

This group was a little bit different than the last group. We had three other families from our church and one family of our friends through Auburn. We had a total of 11 kids, 10 adults and lots and lots of fun.

All the kids - except without Bryce and Dawson


Since Xander seemed to be having fun on his little bike on the last trip, we asked Craig's parents to get him a new big-boy bike for his birthday. (Craig's parents really enjoy getting bikes for the kids and we hadn't had a chance to see them for Xander's birthday. So, we just bought the bike and gave it to him saying it was from them.) He's still figuring out how to actually pedal, instead of just be pulled along by the nearest adult, but he had a fun time. He was just as excited about his bike helmet "with the fire on it".

By Sunday morning, Xander was getting a bit creative about how to ride a bike.

Two of the other kids, Riley and Owen, also had their bikes on the trip. The key was that their bikes had their training wheels off. Now, let us see peer pressure working for the good. Within about an hour of seeing that, Trinity asked for her training wheels to be taken off. She did extremely well for her first two-wheeled riding. She took a bit of a spill late Saturday afternoon, but we were really, really pleased with her. Kalyn didn't want to be left out - she asked for her training wheels off too. We tried, but realized that she needed a bit more balancing skills before they come off for good. We were proud of her trying, though.

Go, Trinity!!!

You're almost there, Kalyn!!


Weatherwise, it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, it rained a bit on Friday night. Fortunately, it was mostly after the kids had gone to bed and infringed only on the adults-sit-around-the-fire-time. The fire was a bit shaded by a tree, which made for fairly good cover for a while. We did get the chance to enjoy a few smores before we decided to go for cover. Friday night was filled with Steele's stories of his time in the Navy. I can honestly say that I cannot remember the last time my sides hurt from laughing so hard. They were amazing stories!! Plus, hearing it with Steele's personal humor and editorials made them priceless. Saturday was simply cool and cold all day. The sun was out and when you found yourself standing in the sun, it was just perfect.


There were games of tossing the frisbee and kicking the football. The biggest threat was the newly-risen water line. Craig made quite a few saves of the toys! The kids had tons of fun playing in the sand at the playground. We remembered all the sand toys that we had forgotten at the last trip, which made the sand much more fun. They played freeze tag and Marco Polo all around the playground. We went on lots of walks around the campground. Kalyn had been given an assignment from her preschool class to go on a nature walk and gather things she found in a plastic bag. What a perfect weekend for that homework. She picked up leaves, acorns, sweet gum balls, berries, rocks, flowers, various fungi and a huge, mammoth mushroom. (I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I forgot.) By the end of the day, I had given out a few more bags for the other kids to keep their treasures in.

Sand play

Heading out on a nature walk

Checking out what's in the lake - that's Trinity, Xander, Owen, Kalyn and Riley (left to right)

Frisbee play


Really, what's a camping trip without wonderful, glorious smores? Yumm - it's my favorite part of camping.


Saturday night, we made dinner for the campers - our camping staple of rice and chicken, bread and a new dessert - apple cobbler deluxe. We love cooking in the dutch ovens! Craig's become a master at it!

It was a perfect weekend. We had great friends around. We enjoyed being together as a family. What a blessing to get away and relax for a bit!!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

What A Difference

Last weekend, we returned to Lake Lanier for another camping weekend. We were excited to return, but did not expect what we saw. Let me remind you what it looked like on our first trip.
October 9 ~
Check out where the drop off and the roots of the tree are - we stepped down to get close enough for fishing.

Here, the group also stepped down onto the sand to do some fishing.

Kalyn and Xander walked out next to the red tree to throw rocks in the water during our walk.
October 23 ~

No more stepping down, unless you want to be in the water.
The sand is now covered in water.

The red tree that Kalyn and Xander were throwing from - is the one surrounded by water this week.


The leaves were just beautiful. I love seeing God's amazing artwork in full display.



We also got to see some breathtaking sunsets and Craig saw a gorgeous sunrise while reading Psalm 37 ~
"Commit your way to the LORD; in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."

How amazing is the God we serve and worship?!?! I love it when He ties everything we are going through and experiencing all together (which is a completely different blog that I need to type up.)

Friday, October 23, 2009

Berry Patch Farms

The last few years, we have taken an afternoon to go to a nearby pumpkin patch, Berry Patch Farms. Monday was a completely beautiful day, so we took some time to head over to the pumpkin patch. The sun was out, the weather was nice - it was just perfect. Unfortunately, we arrived after a number of the pumpkins had been purchased, so the patch was fairly bare. However, we had a good time and found some cute gourds to bring home.



The kids checked out the animals before we headed out to the patch - there were pigs, a calf, a turkey and other cute farm animals.
There was too long a wait for the wagon to make it's way back, so we just walked to the patch.

What three cuties! (We -okay I- actually rolled a few pumpkins together to get a "group pumpkin shot.)
Xander contemplates the meaning of life - or checks out his shadow.

First pumpkins, soon hurdles.

Whatever Trinity does, Kalyn has to try.

Xander plays drums (of course).

Kalyn had a great time picking out her favorite little pumpkin.

The kids check out all of the little gourds.

Our last kid picture before we got onto the hayride to head back from the patch.

A great family outing on a perfect fall afternoon!!