Happy Halloween

 Sir Logan, Sir William and their (not so ferocious) dragon, Caleb with princess Amber and bumblebee Avery- all ready to go trick or treating!  We went out early this year (5:00 sharp) to beat the heavy rain that was forecasted that evening.  Our street is the perfect size for candy collecting, enough houses to be fun, not so many that we have candy for the whole year. The boys loved being knights this year and were happy to put on the full armor of God as they went out into the world.  I loved that we got to discuss each piece and its meaning for our little men of God!

Sir William

 Sir Logan

 Logan, Amber and Will

 Me and my sweet little dragon

 With neighbors, Grant, William and Preston

 Will sorting and organizing all his goodies

Logan picking out his favorites

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God." Eph 6:10-18

Fall Fun!

 We're getting into the fall spirit at our house with pumpkins and of course, skeleton jammies.  And when you're five, you can wear said jammies while you paint your pumpkins!  This fun activity, painting with   paint, occupied them for over an hour.  Yay for creative time outdoors and no one getting into trouble!

Next, we prepped our big pumpkins for carving with Daddy.  This is the first year we've cleaned out pumpkins in advance of carving night.  Let me say, this is the way to go!  The boys enjoyed leisurely scooping and grossing out over the slimy innards of our pumpkins, with no rush or impatience to get to the carving!  Plus, when Daddy got home, all we had to do is design and carve the perfect pumpkins.  Which, of course, included one scary pumpkin and one silly pumpkin.  

Logan and his yucky stuff:

  Will getting into the scoop:

We got to try our costumes out for a practice run at my work again this year.  Logan, Will and Caleb joined Kate and Ben in trick or treating the offices inside Princeton Outpatient Rehab.  Yummy snacks and candy were on the agenda for this Halloween trial run! 

Fall Family Night

The boys' preschool hosted a fall family night and open house.  The boys were so proud to show us around their classroom and point out all their beautiful artwork and projects. We loved getting to see their room, friends and chat with their awesome teacher, Mrs. Melissa.
My handsome guys standing by the class family tree:

 Logan looking for his pumpkin

 Will showing me his collage art

 Getting into the dress-up stuff!

We are thrilled so far with our choice of pre-K program and school. The boys have transitioned so well to this new school and are loving it!  We are blessed by their teacher and sweet friends to play and learn with.  Thankful for God's provision and guidance in their early education. It's bittersweet watching them grow up, just trying to be in the moment and enjoy each step along the way!

Super Daddy

Happy 35th Birthday to our Super Daddy!! We love you so much and think you are our super hero!

  Celebrating at home:

 And with the Morrow family:

 Cousins trying to get a sneak peek of the super hero cake!

Caleb decided he was past done, so he turned over and fell asleep in the crook of his daddy's arm.  (And stayed that way for half an hour!)

 Happy Birthday to you!! We love you!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Fall is the perfect time for an outing to YMCA camp Hargis and the pumpkin patch.  Will and Logan's 4K class had a great day playing and learning about pumpkins!  Mommy got to attend as a chaperone and enjoyed watching those two in action with their friends.  The classes rotated through several stations: animal petting area, tee-pee story time, ball toss, hay ride and a lesson on pumpkin farming. After all the stations, each class cooked hot dogs over a campfire and had a picnic lunch together. Lastly, we ended up at the pumpkin patch where each child was able to pick a pumpkin to take home. They had a blast being outside with their friends.

Top Row L-R: Colin, Joseph, Emma Kate, Renna, Sarah Beth, Hannah Beth

Bottom Row L-R: Caroline, Harleigh, Gracyn, Tate, Will, Logan

 Mrs. Melissa with her 4K class

 Will, Gracyn, Tate and Logan at the petting area

 Logan

 Will, Hannah Beth and Sarah Beth

 Getting ready to hear the "Pumpkin Patch Parable" in the tee-pee

 Pumpkin Ball toss

 Sweet Brothers

 Snugglin up to Will on the hay ride- this was their absolute favorite part!

 Logan

 Will and buddy Joseph

Learning about pumpkin farming

Logan

Will

And we were the absolute last ones to leave because W and L had to scour the entire patch to make sure they found the biggest pumpkins.  (They were all smallish, but we'll let them think that they got the big ones!!)  A fun day was had by all! 

October Sky

Introducing the latest Daddy Day project, the boys' first model rocket! They were so excited to put this rocket together and paint it with Andrew.  They could hardly wait to launch it.  

 Lucky for us, Andrew thought it would a good idea to build a launch/command center.  So... the boys had a safe spot to view the inaugural launch of their red rocket.  The neighbors even came out to witness it.

Thankfully, the launch went off without any issues and the rocket flew safely straight up into the air. 

 I wish I had snapped a pic of it in the air!  It went high above our neighbors' roof, so cool.  A great memory for my little guys! Thank you for the creative project, Daddy!

A Fun Visit

 My sweet friends Amy and Sarah came to meet baby Caleb! We have been planning this visit for months, trying to coordinate everyone's busy schedules with kids, work, etc, and it finally came together! I was so excited to see my girls, we were long overdue for some catching up and girl time.  Sarah now lives in the Atlanta area not too far from Amy, so they carpooled on over to Birmingham together.  A much quicker trip than our last flight out to Corpus Christi, Texas to meet Sarah's twin babies in 2010.

Sarah and Caleb

  There was lots of snuggling and passing Caleb back and forth!  He didn't mind the extra attention at all...

 Amy and Caleb

We did a little local shopping, had lunch, then back to the house for naps (baby and big girls, too!) Daddy was sweet to take the boys all day Saturday for a special boy day. They were gone literally all day- like 8am to 7pm! They had a blast at the warehouse building model rockets and a launch/command center. Needless to say, they were worn out when they got home. The girls enjoyed dinner out at my favorite restaurant, Firebirds. It was so nice for all us mommies to have a few hours to leisurely dine, chat, and not worry about anyone else! Especially, the sitting down to eat part with no one wanting what's on your plate and not getting up five times during the meal, yes, a perfect night! I'm so thankful for these sweet friends and the time we had together. So blessed to have had them in my life for over twenty years, crazy! Looking forward to our next get together- maybe at the beach with no kids at all!