Hello Luggage!!: October 2010

Friday, October 22, 2010

Fall Festival!

We went last week and participated in the Fall Festival at church. They had a Chili Cook-off and a Cookie Bake-off. We brought a big pot of our White Bean Chicken Chili and it was a hit! Not the big winner... but sooo yummy! Chris and Miah judged the cookie contest and were so stuffed after tasting all the offerings! After dinner, we played all the fun games they had set up. The kids got lots of treats and lots of sugar and were super happy! Yay! It is finally cooling off a bit and feels like Fall here, which I totally LOVE. I can now pull out longsleeved shirts and sweaters!! :)

Miah devouring a mini donut on a string!

Bean bag toss with Jilli

Jess helped the Young Women paint faces and enjoyed that. Jilli got a rainbow on her cheek and a flower on her hand! So cute!
And yes. That is my belly. :)

Starting to show at 19 weeks!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Field Trip to Stone Mountain!

Our 2nd Annual field trip to Stone Mountain was a great success! We headed out early Friday morning for our favorite event of the year!! We had a super fun time meeting up with a whole bunch of GCA families again this year. We actually found Jessica's teacher in all the people! It was great to meet her face to face. We hear their teachers online all the time, but don't get to see them! We lunched in the pavilion amidst the chaos that is GCA before heading out to see the sights. We loved exploring the park again and, of course, had to hike to the top of the Stone Mountain!! I was a little slower this year, but I made it and Jilli led the way again with her abundant energy!! I am amazed every time at how far you can see from the top. It's gorgeous! It was perfect weather for the climb- sunny, low humidity, at around 75 degrees with a great breeze. We brought water and sunscreen and really had a good time. At the top, Chris bought an ICEE from the snack bar and we devoured its icy goodness... mmmmmmm! After the hike, we drove around the park and found a 100 year-old covered bridge that we had to take a few trips across. It reminded me of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow... Spooky! We took lots of pictures! Enjoy!

At the bottom...

On the climb!

Miah found a leaf with an exclamation point cut into it

Chris and Miah in a tree

Kiddos!

Yet another tree to climb!

Pretty girl!

At the top in the Visitors Center

The refreshing Icee

Blue goodness

Mmmm

Naptime...

Lots of puddles from the rain we've had lately

Jess and Jill

Still running

Coming down

Almost to the bottom!

We made it!

Ice water for Jilli

The covered bridge

Spooky!

So pretty!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Mistletoe State Park

We went on a field trip to Mistletoe State Park last week! It was a trip sponsored by the kids' online school - Georgia Cyber Academy or GCA. It was an awesome trip. Chris took some leave so he could come too! The kids learned a lot about the woods of Georgia and also learned about birds of prey. The park ranger took us on a 1/2 mile "hike" through the woods to see the different types of trees. She told us the difference between White Oaks and Red Oaks and also filled us in on the history of the Sweetgum tree. I guess the first settlers here would use Sweetgum branches as primitive toothbrushes! Yep. Gross. After the "hike", we drove to the beach house to learn about birds of prey and dissect an owl pellet. YUMMY! The kids were a little grossed out, (Chris was a lot grossed out since he did all our dissecting!) but they found some cool mouse bones inside and it was interesting and something they don't often get to do! I had to step outside for some fresh air and to get away from the eww yuckiness of it all... Not my cup of tea right now!! At least they weren't dissecting frogs soaked in formaldehyde or something... It really was a great field trip and the weather was nice and overcast with a little drizzle - perfect temperature though. I found it quite refreshing!
We love GCA!!

A berry

Cupping their ears to hear like animals do

Chris doesn't use sissy sticks to dissect... He uses his SOG knife. :)

Jess teamed up with some other 7th grade friends she made to dissect their pellet.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Webelos Overnighter!

Jeremiah and Chris went on a camp-out last weekend to fulfill some requirements for Webelos Scouts. They had a blast getting dirty and building fires, fishing and eating burnt camp food! :) Jeremiah and Kyle (the only other Webelos in our ward!) learned a lot of great skills and hopefully Miah will be ready to earn his badge soon!

Miah and Kyle

Clean-up duties

Chris' fire!!

Fishing... Didn't catch anything and the Park's fishing contest was won by a five year-old girl... :) Hee hee!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Balloon Fest 2010

We went out to the Hot Air Balloon Fest this year and had a lot of fun watching them float off. Jillian kept saying she wanted to go up in one... I knew that had we actually had the opportunity to put her in a balloon, she would have FREAKED out! They loved watching them blow up the hot air balloons (only two were left on the field when we got there!) They also loved the big, inflated Ford truck! Miah wished it was real... Can you imagine! Huge! I was glad it was overcast and a bit breezy so I didn't feel quite so awful standing out there. Jess was babysitting, so she didn't get to come, but she really liked getting paid! She's an awesome sitter and I am really lucky to have her around 24-7! They had a Polo game going on while we were there too! That was really cool to see. It's amazing that they can hit the ball with those mallets from horseback! Quite the talent! The sky was gorgeous and it started to sprinkle a bit on us, but luckily no real rain. Overall- a fun night!