Monday, November 19, 2012

October and November Activities!

It's been a while again since I've posted!  Time to play catch up.... here we go....

Going back to Sunday, October 21st.  We took the kids to a local park that we just discovered.  They had a blast playing there.  We need to go back soon before it gets too cold!


Noah was holding these berries really still hoping a squirrel would think he was a tree.  :-)

Cutie Patootie!
That afternoon we had a playdate with the Rodriguez boys.  Good times!


At some point that week, we went to Yolo - one of the kids favorite frozen yogurt places - Kylie always gets chocolate!!  :-)

That Thursday, Oct 25th, I took the day off school to chaperone Noah's first field trip!  Before I left, I found a fun little friend on our front porch...


This field trip was one of the more exhausting things I've done in my life!  There were kids running all over the place.  I only had three kids to keep track of but that was more than enough!!  :-)  Everyone had a great time but I was quite ready when it was time to go!  We went to a pumpkin patch and went on a hayride, picked a pumpkin and just played and saw the sights.

'My' kids - Aubrey, Christopher and Noah

The corn pit - madness!!

Sweet boy

Noah's buddies, Preston and Drew
Noah and Benny

Love this one!!
And a fun surprise!!  We ran into Elizabeth and her mom, Jacque was also there chaperoning!  She goes to a different school but they just happened to be there on the same day.  Jacque and I were in prenatal yoga together with these two were in our bellies!  Crazy.


Noah's class with his teacher, Ms. Shaffer
The next day, there was a picnic lunch at his school.  Unfortunately, it had been raining so we had to eat inside but it was fun to come eat there.

In his classroom with his friend, Christian
That Saturday, Oct. 27th, Kylie's school had a fall festival.  It was such a fun time!  They had so many fun things going on. 
'Driving' the fire truck!
The clown's bird!  She was making balloon animals and letting the kids hold the bird if they wanted.
Face painting by Ms. Justine (she's the school-age teacher - she is his teacher when he goes during trackouts or if he goes to after-school care eventually.

So impressive!!!

Bowling with Mr. Cody - Kylie LOVES him

Time for some arts and crafts
Making caramel apples with Ms. Brandi - Kylie's previous teacher...



Ready to watch the magic show!

Kylie loves her friend, Rachael!


Time for the magic show
Noah got to help!
The kids got to pet the bunny afterwards
Immediately after the Fall Festival, I dropped off the kids at Nana and Grandad's house for the night so that we could go to our neighborhood (adult) Halloween party.  We had such a good time as always!  :-)

Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf (dressed as the Grandma)  :-)

Our hosts this year! - Cari-Anne and Conrad
A few shots of the whole room...


Me and Cari-Anne

Silliness with Stephanie and Cari-Anne

Kristy, Kirsten and Stacey

Crazy boys
And this is how the night ended.  :-)

Silliness with Kylie the next day
 Halloween was that following week and the kids were so excited!  Noah was some lizard character from Spiderman and Kylie was a unicorn (or I guess a Kylie riding a unicorn).  :-)  Kylie had been telling us for weeks that she wanted to be a 'unicornio' so that had to happen. Noah's choice for a long time was an owl but when I had a hard time finding that, I took him to Target and let him choose something and this is what we ended up with!! :-)




Before trick-or-treating, we went to the Hombergers' house for pizza with some neighbor's.  Eric dressed up like Clifford the Big Red Dog - too funny!!


After getting all fueled up, they were off for trick-or-treating!  They only lasted about 40 minutes or so. I was surprised.  When they said they wanted to go home, I told Noah, 'the more you trick-or-treat, the more candy you get!' and he said, 'But I have plenty of candy, Mommy!'  Smart boy!  :-)

 


Then when we got home, they sat on the porch and ate their candy while we passed out more to the other trick-or-treaters.


That night was the beginning of a very tough phase with Kylie - she decided, starting that night that she didn't want to sleep on her own in her room - or even be left alone at all!  We tried a whole bunch of different tactics to get her to sleep on her own but in the end, it just took time.  We *think* we are finally on the upswing but time will tell that as well!  In the midst of this, we ended up changing out her crib (that had been converted to a toddler bed) for a 'real' toddler bed.  We are hoping to get her a BIG big girl bed soon, too.

Her room rearranged

After eating dinner out one night with the Gebhardts
I went to a 'Pinerest' party where we made this cute wreath and a sugar scrub that is in the container with the reindeer on top.

Noah got this note from Addy!  So adorable - she wrote it to NOWA  :-)
That Saturday, Waylon and Noah went to the football game and Kylie and I had a girls day.  They also went to an exhibition game for basketball afterwards.  They had a great time and so did Kylie and I!  :-)  We painted nails and made pumpkin squares then took a nap.


Then we met Waylon and Noah at Nana and Grandad and visited with Phyllis and Clarence who were visiting from Myrtle Beach.  It was a nice night and I can't believe I didn't take any pictures at all!

That following week, we had plans to have the Rodriguez over because Conrad was out of town.  But then Cari-Anne got sick so I took the older boys for dinner alone instead.  They had a blast together and it was a nice distraction and change of pace on a weeknight!  The boys were roughhousing and Kylie just kept screaming at them, 'GUYS!! GUYS!!'  :-)


That next weekend, Grammy and Papa asked if the kids could come spend the night with them at the lake.  So Waylon and I jumped on that opportunity and spent the weekend trying to get some things done that have been put on the back burner.  I went through toys and clothes and Waylon worked on the cars and garage.  We got a ton done and had fun that night also - got to go to dinner with some neighbors and hung out afterwards around their fire pit!

Waiting for Grammy and Papa at an exit off 85

Doing the switcheroo

Enjoying a pretty fall day at the lake!

And us enjoying the fire pit that night!
Grammy brought the kids back on Sunday and spent a few more days with us. Noah was out of school on Monday so she took him to the Duke Lemur Center and then took Kylie to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences on Tuesday.  So much fun!!

Some cute pictures we got on Sunday afternoon after they got home....





Kylie at the museum
Tuesday night, we took Noah to karate and Kylie to her dance class.  She hadn't been too interested in participating at the beginning of class for the first several weeks that she'd been going but this time, she was a whole new child.  She had a blast and was right in there dancing away!  So adorable!



Grammy left Wednesday morning - here are the kids saying goodbye


This past weekend, we had Megan's shower - 6 days after her new baby, Tucker was born!!!!  He was 7 weeks early so it was a pretty big shock when we found out last Sunday morning, but he's doing great!  He's still in the NICU but is getting better every day and will be home very soon!  We didn't get to meet him when we went to visit in the hospital that week so we can't wait until he gets home and is ready for visitors to snuggle him!!  :-)

We had a great time at the shower and Megan and Dave got some really good (and much needed) stuff!


It was a book-themed shower and Jacque (Elizabeth's mom) made this fabulous cake!!!!! So cool!
Me, Megan, Megan, Anise and Jennie - this was the last of many showers we've all hosted together!  Lots of weddings and babies we've all been through!!  Love these girls.
And to catch us up completely --

Yesterday, Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah came over to celebrate Grandaddy's birthday.  Fun times as usual.