Halloween and such

It's been nearly a week since Halloween, but I haven't had the time to sit down to post the pictures. It was a nice evening, not so cold that kids everywhere had to ruin their costumes with coats. I remember that experience- it just puts a damper on the whole evening. We didn't exactly go overboard with effort this year with the costumes. Amelia decided she wanted to be a fairy princess, so we raided the dress up drawer in her dresser and came up with a passable fairy princess. Turns out she was one of about 1007 fairy princesses this year.

Shannon wanted to be a hunter, which was easily enough pulled off with some camo and one of James' hats. We passed a trick-or-treater on the street who said, "Hey, it's a little huntin' dude!" Avery sported Bob the Builder, recycled from when Shannon wore it two years ago. Avery pulled it off better than Shannon did, as he filled it up pretty good and looked more like Bob. Several people commented on how cute he was. Elizabeth had an elaborate costume- a shirt that said, "Baby's First Halloween" with some candy corn on it. Mimi brought it last month when she came to visit from Texas. We went all out, that's for sure.

My mom came up to go with us to the Fall Family Festival at church. James had to take care of a group at camp, so he couldn't go with us. We went to the subdivision beside the church first and the kids trick-or-treated for the first time ever. Rumor had it that this year they were doing tickets you turn in for prizes at the church event instead of candy, so we went to get our sugar stash first. The kids thought getting candy from perfect strangers was awesome.

Thanks Windmill subdivision residents, for letting us borrow your neighborhood and for giving us candy!

Avery tried his best to have all of his candy eaten before the evening ended.


Our traditional yearly Halloween photo with the Hicks. The first year we did this there were just two little kids in it and Shannon was a baby. The next year there were four. Now there are seven...whew! Forget having everyone looking at the camera. It's just not possible.

More friends. Looks like one of the mommies could have worked a little harder to get everyone lined up. But as we have learned from the previous photo, why try too hard when no one's going to look at the camera anyway? It's like herding cats, I tell ya!

Mom ended up staying through Tuesday since Dad was out of town. I also think she was tired of hearing me bellyache about not being able to get anything accomplished. I had one of those weeks where I felt like my to-do list was weighing heavier than usual and I was frustrated at not being able to make a dent in it. So thanks, mom, for the kid diversion! I spent no less than 7 hours in front of the computer straightening out my check book and credit card statements. It was FUN!!

I did get to have some actual fun too, thanks to having the help. Last Saturday Greg and Nicole Holcomb from church came out to the barn to ride horses. Nicole's request for her birthday date with her dad was to ride Taffy, her favorite horse from camp.

Greg and Nicole on Jasmine and Taffy.

Nicole and her sister have been coming to Strong Rock off and on since we opened in 2005. She mostly learned to ride here, and Taffy is her favorite. Might I just say that she's my favorite too- a relic from my childhood! I got Taffy when I was 13 and she was 12. She went through all of my hormonal junior and senior high years with me, as well as four years of college (she went too- she didn't finish her degree though), and then moved with us to Alabama and then back to Georgia. She will be 34 in January, which is roughly equivalent to 102 in people years. Talk about some good genes! She is AWESOME, and if I had a barn full of Taffys (two decades younger) I would be the happiest riding instructor ever. Doesn't she look good for her age?

Let's see, other stuff this week...Andrew Wilhite's fourth birthday party on Saturday, church on Sunday, a riding lesson for me on Sunday afternoon, then fun with the checkbook pretty much all day Monday. Last week we didn't get to see James too much, since we had a group at camp all week and he had to take care of them, including most of their meals. We also had a group this past weekend, and will have another one this weekend. It's nice to be busy, and God keeps providing somehow even in the midst of economic issues.

Oh yeah, another thing we did Friday, on Halloween. Doctor visits for everyone! Amelia had her well check up back in August, but Friday the boys had their four and two year ones, and Elizabeth had her four month one, though she's nearly five months old. Here are the stats: Shannon is 39 pounds, 40 1/2 inches (75th and 60th percentiles), Avery is 35 pounds and 34 3/4 inches (95th and 65th percentiles), and Elizabeth is a whopping 17 pounds 11 ounces and 25 inches (95th and 50th percentiles). No wonder my arm is breaking and my back hurts!! Elizabeth got vaccinations, and the others all got flu shots, including Amelia. Awesome. Actually, they did pretty good. The only unusual thing was an extra long nap out of Elizabeth, which wasn't a bad thing at all.

James and I got a date night this week too, thanks to Mindy Cook, who stayed with Amelia, Shannon, and Avery Tuesday evening. We took Elizabeth with us since we've yet to give her a bottle. I didn't think Mindy would appreciate having a crying baby! So James, Elizabeth, and I went to Chili's in Gainesville, then to see Fireproof. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it! Elizabeth never cried, but because she now makes a growling noise just for fun I spent about 3/4 of the movie standing by the exit door with her. I thought she would fall asleep but she saved that for about two seconds after I put her in the car seat. Oh well, it was a night out, those are rare, and it was enjoyable! Thank you very much, Mindy.

Wednesday morning we went to gymnastics, then to the Cleveland Park. I brought a picnic lunch and the kids and I enjoyed some great weather. I propped Elizabeth up in one if the baby swings and she thought it was a lot of fun.

Here's what we did today- playgroup at Burt's Pumpkin Farm!



It's starting to look like we never see James...guess I need to start getting the camera out more in the evenings!

We went on a hayride and had a picnic by the creek. Us, and about two dozen yellow jackets. The weather was warm so I guess they were having one last hurrah.



We enjoyed our morning with friends, and ended it with friends too, with dinner at Rebecca's house.

I leave you with a final photo, one taken while my mom was here over the weekend. Avery "dressed" himself.

We love shiny stuff!

Bye!