Today was our playgroup Halloween carnival at Olde City Park.Rachel always does such a great job organizing our playgroup activities. 😊The kids played Find the Snakes,Corn Hole,Kiss Nana,Catch the Donut,Shoot the Ghosts,Pumpkin Candy Walk,and the most anticipated Pass The Bucket game.The kids love to trade out all their candy with the other kids.We grabbed a quick picture before we left, and then headed back home to enjoy our special Halloween treat from Nana.

1. Lucy’s preschool invited the dads to come to school for a Super Hero Donuts with Dad this morning. Lucy talked about his special day for two weeks! She was so excited when it finally came! She had a great time with Sam and especially loved her chocolate donuts. They were even able to take super hero pictures before Sam had to head to work. It was a great way to start her morning. Lucy got her class picture back today. I really wish their photographer would have gotten all the kids in the picture. Poor Je’nessa’s head is chopped off. At least Lucy is kind of smiling. Hopefully they’ll pick someone else to try for next year. While Lu was at school, the boys and I whipped out our chemistry kit and made Tin “hedgehogs”. It was super awesome! William was disappointed that he couldn’t keep it, but Mel Science gave a great explanation how fragile these crystals are and cannot be removed from the solution. So glad they did too, because William can be SO hard to convince sometimes. We will definitely be doing these again soon.

Today we went to the Farm with SELAH. The kids were able to feed lots of animals!And “milk a cow”.All was great until Lucy got carried away feeding the goat with her fingers and it bit her. She was so upset and kept saying how that was not very nice of the goat. Luckily there were games and other activities to distract her. And loved the bouncy balls! Lucy LOVED the bunnies! Would could not have asked for more perfect weather!Nice selfie bomb, Eve! 🤣The Farmer was amazing, and had a fabulous time with all the kids too!After a stop at Hurts Donuts on the way back, everyone was tuckered out! Khaliyah and Lucy traded places.

Today for chemistry, we made Tin Dendrites with our Mel Science kit. They were pretty awesome!The boys were fascinated watching these tree limb like structures grow off of the alligator clips. Even cooler to reverse the reaction and suck in the “limbs!” The paper clip was able to “grow” them too! Mel Science has really pulled my boys’ curiousity for chemistry. Alex had soccer practice tonight. While he practices, I usually take Lucy over to the park to play. It was so sweet tonight because Lucy was making Brianna a “birthday cake.” (Out of wood chips. 😉) She has to divide it just so, though, and make sure that Wendy and John had some too. She gave some to Peter Pan too, but she said he never got it because he was off looking for his shadow. This girl’s imagination cracks me up!Once Alex was finished at practice, I was able to sneak off to catch the end of Natalie’s football game cheering. I am still just amazed at how well she does! I am so grateful she made the team and has this opportunity to shine.

So hard to believe my oldest baby is now 20! Even harder not having her with us to celebrate her! I know she is doing the right thing, and making righteous choices for her life, but I still miss her Oh So Much! We sent her a party in a box, complete with cinnamon infused maple syrup, party decorations, and loads of sweets and treats.Lots of other people spoiled her rotten too. It was so nice that her P-Day was on her birthday so that we could get her email telling us all about it. I can’t wait for Christmas to come! I am so ready to talk Face to Face with her! I Miss her tons! Happy 20th Brie! We all love you so very much! North Carolina is lucky to have you!

This weekend we had the privilege of watching Miller and Quinn.  The kids LOVE when they come over. Grandma helped them make cupcakes, and the kids gobbled them up in no time.Before bedtime, Natalie, Lucy, and Quinn had a cheer exhibition. At least they wore themselves out!On Sunday, we took and had a picnic at the park. It was a GLORIOUS gorgeous day! It was very cool and windy to start with, but warmed up nicely as the day went on. The park had so many awesome contraptions to play on!Quinn and Lucy swung for almost an hour. The big kids enjoyed the zip line!This big saucer swing was also a blast! Quinn was unsure if it at first, but once it got going, she loved it.When Lucy started falling asleep, we felt it was probabl best to head home, since she and Quinn both still take naps.After a good rest and dinner, we had an evening dance party. These kids can sure dance. I think Miller has the best moves of all of them, but he doesnt like to be photographed in action. 😉I was so excited to find some of Natalie’s old leotards for Quinn to wear. She always want to play dress up with Lucy when she comes over, but everything is always either too little or too big.We danced until we could dance no more.This morning, we went to the Arboretum. Monday is kid’s day, so they had all kinds of activities going on around the gardens, as well as all the pumpkins for Halloween.It was beautiful! The weather was perfect and the kids were so amazed at how many pumpkins they had.This year’s Pumpkin Village theme was the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.It came complete with Dorothy’s house from Kansas……the witches castle & yellow brick road……and even the color changing horses and carriage from Munchkin Land.Quinny really wanted to get her face painted. The line was SUPER long, so we decided to eat lunch while we waited along the way. It was SO worth the wait!Quinn and Miller were SO excited!Their smiles were priceless!We finished up with the pumpkins and headed over to the children’s garden.Of course we had to stop and play in the water along the way.It was a wonderful day!

Fridays are always crazy with tennis, storytime, Park day, Scout activities, and what not. Today was no exception. Park Day was at Founders, but BOY was it HOT! The shade was the best place to stay. I loved that the boys were able to have an amazing game of Laser Tag, but was also super glad when everyone was begging to go home. We had a special night ahead, and needed to go to the store and Lu still needed a nap. Everyone gathered tonight at Laura’s house for a bbq and some rocket blasting fun. The Fowles and Goughnours brought their ignition rockets, and we brought out water bottle rockets.While the adults got everything set up, the kids built castles and tunnels in the sand box. (Not sure how much we left there when we left!) Once everything was in place, it was time for action! We realized that we didn’t have a proper battery for the ignition, so Brother Goughnour used his battery charger. Wow! It worked! The kids were all amazed, and had a great time finding the parachute man.We had used our launcher at a pack meeting a few months ago, and somehow it got broken. Brother Goughnour tried to help us fix it, but by that time it was too dark to see. We’ll have to fix it at home and try again soon. We all had such a wonderful night though. We should all sleep very well.

Pinterest has proved invaluable again at ideas for Lucy’s school snack. Today, Itsy Bitsies and Little Frankies are heading off to class.Little Frankie turned out looking a bit more like Om Nom from Candy Crush because I couldn’t find larger plastic cups with lids in any store. But oh well. I still think they came out adorable. Now to put them to the real test. 😉

Scary way to wake up! (Pumpkin Sticker Face! 🤣)Natalie was off from school today for Columbus Day, so we decided to go have a bit of fun. The kids all agreed to go to Going Bonkers.There were quite a few kids there, so Lucy wanted to roam outside of the playstructure most of the time we were there.I was totally fine with that! (My knees always come home with a million bruises after theses types of places.)The kids had a great time.We had to make sure we got back at a reasonable time since Lucy had dance class still. She is now in the Ballet,Tap, Jazz class with Miss Kristen, and doing FABULOUS! I was SO worried about her screaming and crying for me, but no such thing happened! She loves it! I am so glad our separation anxiety is finally leaving!I love that she can explore and enjoy her time on her own sometimes.

Today was our SELAH Family Picnic. I only managed to get one picture though because we were running around chasing kids, eating, or meeting all the other SELAH families. We met some fabulous people and it makes me so very excited to be part of this group. Alex made an instant friend from the start, then we barely saw him the whole time we were there. Lucy wanted to be one of the big kids. I am so grateful William kept her safe, but still allowed her to have fun with the older kids. (Maybe one day she will realize it’s okay being 2! 😜)