Halloween '08

I realised the other day that the bad thing about blogging is you say everything interesting (that is not offensive) within the first six months or so blogging.........and not many people read it then anyways.......and then you go to write a post and think "I am pretty sure I have said that at one point or another". For example, Halloween, I wrote my thoughts on this holiday last year with all the slutty costumes and glorification of gore and guts.

I thought I would have nothing much to say this year but let me tell you about our night anyway. We began by missing out on our morning activities because Annabelle ran a fever all last night. I had to get Kelly to sub my step aerobics class (that I was VERY excited about wearing a costume for and playing Thriller) and cancel the geography co-op class that I was suppose to teach. In turn, we missed the Halloween parties at both places. I told the boys that we would make up for it by trick or treating in another neighborhood along with ours. We got all dressed up and made the rounds in our neighborhood before dark so that Annabelle would not be too scared or cranky. It was a nice time to visit with the neighbors and the kids got a lot of yummy candy. Then Seth stayed with Annabelle and the boys and I headed to the Biltmore Lake community for our second round of trick or treating. That place was PACKED! I could not believe the amount of cars and people lining the streets. One house even had a haunted tour you could take. We parked and began the walk. The first two houses the boys deemed "too scary" to approach so we continued on to the next house where it appeared the DEVIL himself was in the yard staring us down. Then some guy in a creepy clown costume started chasing some kids through the yard with a machete. If you know anything about my boys, you probably can guess that they were pretty scared. I asked them if they just wanted to leave and they said yes....because I sure wanted to get out of there myself. As we hurried to the car we passed 4 or 5 adults in REALLY scary costumes that put the boys in tears.

Thankfully I had seen on the Kid Friendly Asheville blog earlier today that there was a fall festival at West Asheville Baptist Church and we still had an hour before that all ended, so we headed that way. It was wonderful! Caleb and Adam had tons of fun playing all of the games and hanging out with some of our favorite neighbors. That is what we will be doing next year for sure.

The best news is that Seth and I get to dress up tomorrow night and go a few places to hang out with some friends. I love to dress up. I love that Seth will dress up right along with me.

Adam's Birthday

I am always glad when Adam's birthday rolls around because I have been considering him that age since Caleb's birthday in July anyways. It just didn't seem right to say that Caleb was seven and Adam was only five. So now he is officially six years old. SIX AND SEVEN YEAR OLD BOYS. That sounds better.

We had his birthday party on Sunday at the Cheshire pool. It went well and he loved all of his army men and gear he received as presents. Emily was so helpful that day with the party. She helped me get everything set up and then swam with Lucie the whole time in the pool. The boys helped me make the camo cake last Thursday.

Annabelle spent the party trying to drown herself in the pool. She wouldn't wear swimmies (I didn't have the time to fight that battle) yet she was fearless in the water and would walk right down the ramp until she went under. Mimi almost jumped in the water a couple of times fully clothed to grab her! It was annoying so I sent her outside with Grandaddy to look at the horses. Thanks Dad! I am going to plan on getting to the pool with her very soon to work on this dilemma (unfortunately this will require me to get in). Emily was helpful with her too.

Hannah, Gray and Caleb

Gentry, Adam and Kiah

I do believe I need to say.......Adam is a ladies man. He loves the women.
I know, I know, we are dealing with this.
One of these days he will make a sweet, loving, cuddly husband to a lucky lady.

Sometimes I am afraid that Adam gets pushed aside in life since Caleb's personality demands so much more time and attention and because Annabelle is just younger and needs more than him. I am trying hard not to do this and I hope that it will help to just be aware of it. Adam is just a really easy, laid back kid. He is sweet and thoughtful, smart and funny, yet all-boy to the core. He still loves dirtbikes and is every comedian's dream because he laughs at EVERYTHING.



Annabelle spotted these "boops" in the top of her closet and set a personal record yesterday for the amount of time she kept a pair on her feet. She was so excited about them and kept running to the mirror to admire herself in them. cute, I tell ya.

Making Apple Cider

My friends, Paul and Amy, invited us to Bull Creek Ranch to make apple cider this afternoon so we just had to take them up on it. Bull Creek is one of the greatest places to hang out and the weather was just perfect for making apple cider and...



SWIMMING!

Yep, the boys decided to get in the pond for a little swim. They had a ball jumping off the dock and swimming in that COLD water! Annabelle and I enjoyed watching them from the shore.

The boys were very excited to be a part of the apple juicing process . They helped Amy pick the apples and then used the peeler to get them ready for the press. Paul and Amy were so sweet and let them turn every crank and try every gadget throughout the afternoon.

Annabelle and I ate lots of apples and enjoyed the finished product.

It was the perfect fall day, well, I don't guess swimming in a pond is considered a fall activity..... Unless you are Caleb and Adam!

I think I will give you a little break from videos and actually write a little something in this post. We had a good weekend. The boys all headed down to Bear Creek (hunting farm in south Georgia) on Friday morning while Annabelle and I hung out here at the house. I forgot to send the camera with them so we just have a few phone pictures of one of the many (50+ is what they reported) fish caught over the weekend. Seth said it was so cute to watch them fight the fish as they reeled them in. Their weekend was full of fishing, mule rides, campfires, visits to watch the dirt bike riders at a track nearby, and walks through the woods.

little boy heaven.

In complete contrast, Annabelle and I hung out with Lanie and Lucie doing all things girly like playing kitchen and dressing up. They came over on Saturday while Amie and Chuck went to the parade of homes. The only thing Lanie wanted to do was school with me, so I pulled out some of the books I didn't send with the guys and taught her some reading and math. It was so different to sit down and work with Lanie on her reading. The first and foremost difference was that she was literally begging me to do it. I know it has a little to do with the fact that I am her aunt and she doesn't have to do schoolwork everyday, but I think the main reason is just that she is a girl. Girls love to play school and playing school pretty much equals school. I can't tell you how many hours I spent making up little worksheets for Lorie and Leslie as a child. We went to school and then came home and either played house or school.

Most boys just aren't that way including Adam and Caleb. That is why it is so much harder to home school boys, yet that is also why it is such a great thing for boys to be home schooled. They need a different method that includes lots of physical activity and patience on the teacher's part. So y'all always be praying for me in this respect cause I tell ya, I need it. Then again, I do believe that it can be such a great important option for girls as well ............especially when they hit those middle school years and start to terrorize one another emotionally.


Oh and here is my disclaimer: I do not believe that homeschooling is for everyone by any means. I just think it is a really cool option that we have out there.

Lastly, we would like to say a big thank you to Aunt Leslie who sent the boys REAL marine hats and REAL dog tags (with their names on them) and REAL marine face paint for their Halloween costumes this year. They boys are so excited and Caleb has not taken the hat off without some serious convincing thus far.

ANNABELLE'S COLORS

Annabelle is very very interested in colors and talks about them all of the time lately. However, as the video shows, she doesn't get the concept yet. Normally she guesses a different (wrong) color for everything but she just started saying everything was yellow last night. It is nice to know with my previous experience that she will learn them in good time and I don't have to try so hard to teach her......unless she is color-blind.

A Full Week

Let's start with our wonderful Pigeon Forge trip Wednesday through Saturday of last week. Mimi and Grandaddy rented this awesome cabin for four days there for us all to enjoy. It was really incredible and came complete with a pool table, hot tub, air hockey table and indoor pool. We were in heaven! We went to Dollywood on Wednesday and enjoyed an almost empty park with crisp cool weather. Guess what! Annabelle actually rode the little rides this time. She said no at first and then changed her mind and walked into the gate at the pig ride and climbed right in with Lucie. It was the cutest thing to see the two of them have so much fun. The next morning Seth came and joined the older 4 grandkids on a "loafin' trip" with Grandaddy. Remember last trip when Grandaddy took them loafing and came back with that huge air soft machine gun? You can imagine the lasting impact that trip had on the boys so when they thought of another trip to Tennessee, they were just as excited about loafing as they were about Dollywood. I think they ended up going to some arcade and eating LOTS of candy for a few hours while Amie, Mimi, Lucie, Annabelle, and I spent the day at the outlets. Why is shopping so fun? Well, it is fun when there are sales, and there were a few there. I mainly just enjoyed hanging out with Mom and Amie.

The next day we woke up ate breakfast, had a birthday party for Annabelle all went to Dollywood again. It was Seth's first time there so that was pretty exciting. We rode all of the big rides this time around and ate big ol' turkey legs and drank ice lemonades and all that good theme park stuff. Then that night we ate yummy seafood that Amie and Chuck brought from there beach trip earlier week and enjoyed the hot tub.

My favorite part was all of the "Mimi time" I got...... especially while Annabelle and Lucie rode the kiddie rides over and over and the others rode the bumper cars. Mom and I just hung out and talked and watched and all. The cutest part of the day was watching Annabelle open her presents. She loved the stroller, babies, and sunglasses.





Then, we came home and Nana, Papa, Amy, Uncle Heath, Aunt Nicole, and Aaron arrived a little later that night. The boys had fallen asleep in the car and so we made them little pallets in our bedroom so that Uncle Heath and Nicole could sleep in their beds. However, BOTH of them got up the middle of the night and got into bed with them! Heath said that it was kinda funny but that the twin beds got really small in the end! The next morning they all headed to the Elk Reserve while Annabelle and I stayed home and cleaned house.



Then they went to watch Seth pitch and shut down the best team in the men's baseball league.


That night we cooked out and celebrated Annabelle again with another party. The boys especially enjoyed playing with Amy and all of the little treats Nana brought along for them as always.

All in all, everything was just too short and I wished it could have lasted longer.




















And now I have a two year old which I may try to write about tomorrow.