Happy Halloween!

Okay, I'll be honest here, I don't like Halloween.  Never have really.  So, this year, I really debated what to do.  Of course, our girls think Halloween = Candy, so they very much want to participate.  But, we were traveling all last week, so we couldn't participate in any school events or weekend events; Monday night (actually Halloween) is a school-night, and our neighborhood typically isn't much for trick-or-treating (though that changed a little this year).  I really didn't want to buy some expensive costume that they may or may not wear again when I didn't think we would do much. 

Well, enter Publix.  I heart Publix.  What a great store.  Since we needed to go to the grocery store anyway (we'd been out of the house for 10 days), I was pretty excited to see that they offer trick-or-treating in the store from 4 to 7.  The girls couldn't wait to get dressed up in costumes we already have and join me at Publix.  Ryan helped them get ready; Lily was adamant that she would be Tinkerbell (same as last year, so the dress doesn't fit quite as nicely as before), and Mia wanted to be Snow White.  Aren't they cute?

 Well, when I got home a few minutes later, Mia changed her mind and really wanted to be Tinkerbell too; unfortunately, we only have one costume available.  However, then I suggested she be Minnie Mouse which is what she and Lily dressed as two years ago.  She was so excited!  So, we got her changed and ready to go again.  Lily asked several times "where is my Minnie Mouse costume?"  She couldn't believe that she had outgrown it, and Mia was wearing it! Again, aren't they cute?

 Lily really wanted to fly like Tink; she tried several times!

 Mia insisted I call her Minnie for the rest of the night.  Here she is practicing her curtsy.

We went to Publix and it was pretty neat.  They had 6 stations set up where they handed out candy, painted faces, etc around the store.  The girls were very happy to put more candy in their buckets!  Their favorite station was the very last one which offered little ice cream cones.  This was a fun (and practical) way to trick or treat!

The girls loved seeing all the trick-or-treaters coming by; they helped hand out the candy and admired all the costumes.  Here they are hanging out on our front porch for a few minutes while I got dinner ready.

 I tried to make a somewhat fun dinner since we didn't do a whole lot to celebrate.  When I told the girls were were having Spiders for dinner, they were both quiet for a second and then said Ewww!  I thought this turned out pretty cute...ravioli with bell pepper legs, chocolate chip eyes and a marinara sauce web.  Pretty tasty too.

 We took the easy route for dessert and made Tollhouse Halloween sugar cookies.  Yummy!

Overall, a pretty low key Halloween for us which was perfect.

Samford Homecoming

We left the beach on Thursday afternoon to go up to Birmingham.  It was our 10th reunion at Samford; how in the world is that possible?  We knew a lot of our friends were coming in town too, so we were excited about going.  We arrived at dinnertime on Thursday evening and met Josh and his life-long friend Jimmy at Giano's.  It's a little deli-type restaurant that has been around forever.  Ryan and I ate there a lot during college; seriously, a lot.  Delicious food at very reasonable, college kid can afford, prices.  When we walked in, the owner smiled really big and said "I haven't seen you guys in awhile; do you live around here anymore?"  Yep, he remembered us after all these years.  That felt good.

We had planned on having our annual family pictures made Friday morning, but unfortunately, they got rained out.  Hopefully we can reschedule them soon.  Instead, we went to the McWane Center which is a kids' science museum.  It was pretty neat, and the girls enjoyed most of it.  It was really crowded with Friday school field trips, but there was still a lot to explore.  Both girls loved the grids that they could press their hands or face against and see their impression.  They also liked the little aquarium area; Mia was the first one to pet one of the little sharks that swam by!  We took pictures but they are on a different camera that I can't currently find the connection cord for.  Whoops.  We also had lunch with Josh and Amy at Milos.  One of our favorite things about returning to Birmingham is visiting all the yummy places we used to frequent while in school!  It's fun to reminisce about lots of memories at them.

Saturday morning arrived, and it was a beautiful day.  We were so excited to head to Samford and join in the festivities.  The day started with a parade.  We had front-row seats which the girls loved.  They really enjoyed watching the cheerleaders and dance team go by.

 Both love music too, so they were thrilled to be this close to the band.

 Not too surprising, they were a little captivated when Miss Samford and Miss Jefferson County rode by in their "vertible" as the girls call it.  They could see the tiaras on both of their heads, so they assumed they were in the presence of royalty; this is a very big deal to little girls!

We happened to be very close to the end of the parade route.  The girls thought this was fantastic because as all the organizations rode by, the college kids pretty much dumped at the girls' feet their bags of candy they had been throwing out during the parade.  The girls were thrilled with their loot!  Here they are with Mr. Beeson enjoying a lollipop afterwards.

 Our whole family with Mr. Beeson.

 Looking up the corridor at the beautiful library.  The girls love books, so we walked them around inside.

 They were very excited to meet Spike the Samford Bulldog mascot.  Lily has a little stuffed Spike that my mom gave her as a baby; she loves it.  Well anytime we are around town and Lily sees a picture of Uga (the University of GA bulldog mascot), she says "There's Spike!"  She has no idea that UGA has a bulldog mascot.

 Presidential hopeful Herman Cain also stopped by campus for a visit.  He was in the middle of a 2 day tour of Alabama, so he came by for a meet and greet.  We didn't meet him (the line was really long), but it was neat to see him for a few seconds and cheer him on.

 Of course, the best part of the day was catching up with lots of old friends.  We ran into a lot of former classmates, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters.  It was so fun to catch up with everyone and meet all the kids (there are a ton of them!).  It's amazing how things like email and Facebook make you feel like you are keeping up with people, but when you sit down face-to-face, you realize how much of their lives you are missing out on.  It was really great to reconnect with so many people over an outdoor lunch.  This is a picture of several of my Zeta Tau Alpha pledge class friends.  I think Claire came the furthest, from Dallas, TX, but only a couple of people still live in Birmingham; I am glad so many made the trip!

 Saturday night, several of the sorority sisters met at Moes Original BBQ for dinner.  We reserved a private room which was so helpful (great idea Tay!).  The kids had a lot of fun getting to know one another and playing together while the adults enjoyed catching up too.  Here's a picture of most of the kids who were there that evening.  Future Samfordites maybe?

 Another round of pictures; everyone's husband was taking a picture at the same time so it was like the paparazzi had come!

On Sunday, we went to church and then enjoyed lunch afterwards with the family.  We came on back home to Smyrna after that.  We had been on the road for 10 wonderful days, but I have to say, we were all glad to be home.  Our weekend in Birmingham was a fantastic way to wrap up our vacation!

Fantastic Gulf Shores Trip

This past week is one of my favorite weeks of the year.  For several years in a row now, our family goes to down to Mom and Dad's condo in Gulf Shores with our best friends, the Henderson Family.  We have a great time enjoying the beach and our friendship!

Our family left Friday, the 21st, after we picked up the girls from school.  We ate a quick bite at Chick-fil-a, and then we hit the road.  The girls slept most of the way and then we watched a movie.  It was a pretty easy ride down.  We went about 4.5 hours and then stopped at a rest stop for about 20 minutes to stretch and take a break.  We arrived in Gulf Shores about 7:00 EST so we were all hungry.  We went to The Hangout which we love; not only is the food pretty good, but they have a huge sandpit that the girls can play in while we wait.  After dinner, we hit the grocery store and then headed in to the condo.  We were all pretty tired, so we unpacked quickly and headed to bed.

On Saturday, we decided to take care of some errands.  By that, I mean we went to the outlet mall.  Ryan and I were both looking for a few items we needed, and I cannot resist the Carter's outlet.  It makes me very sad that Lily is in their biggest size and won't wear them much longer!  After a little bit of shopping, we went to the movie theater and watched the re-release of The Lion King.  It was a little darker than we remembered, and both girls were a little scared at different points, but overall, they enjoyed it; they love going to a theater!  After the movie, we finished up our shopping and headed back.  We stopped at the condo's playground for a little while which the girls loved.  We went home, ate some dinner and enjoyed this beautiful sunset.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  We saw several of these during the week.

 I promised the girls that after sunset we would bring out the Glow Wands that Grandpops and Grandma Jan had sent in their Halloween package.  They changed into their pajamas, and then had a lot of fun on the balcony with their wands; this picture was taken right as the sunset was starting, but it got a lot darker and the wands showed up great.

 On Sunday, we relaxed and just had a great day being a family; we are so blessed!  We finished out the day with some rocket popsicles.  What a fun treat!

 Mia always loves a good popsicle!

 The Henderson family came in very late on Sunday night; in fact, we were all in bed and didn't even hear them arrive.  When we got up Monday morning, this was the sunrise that greeted us.  Okay, that's an exaggeration.  This was the sunrise that greeted Ryan and the girls; he let me sleep in so I only saw it in pictures (yea!).

 The kids couldn't wait to start playing with one another.  They always have such a fun time together.  They immediately set about playing Lily's Bearenstain Bears game while Brian cooked pancakes for everyone.

 Soon after breakfast, they all gathered around the Explorer; all the kids loved this!

 The rest of our trip was pretty much spent at the beach.  I brought the camera out on two days, but I don't remember which ones.  So here's an overview of the things we did while I had the camera:

Heading down to the beach; they couldn't wait to get there!

 Sea shell collecting was a major activity this week; we brought home a bucket full.

 The other fun activity was "run out of the ocean screaming as loud as possible whenever a wave comes."  They played this a lot.  That's the nice thing about going to the beach this time of year though; there's virtually no one else there, and they aren't close by so the kids' screaming doesn't disturb them.  Love it!

 Beach beauty!

 Lily and Parker are such sweet friends.

 Such a great little boy!

 We adore sweet Macey!

 Lily was thrilled that Ariel came to the beach too.

 This was the weather we enjoyed all week; absolutely gorgeous.

 Brian enjoyed making several drip castles during the week too; the kids had fun helping him.  They also loved it when he buried them in the sand.

 Brian also put his sand-skills to use in building a tunnel for the kids to crawl through.  It's a little hard to see here, but that's Mia with her feet on the right side and her head coming through on the left.  Lily was a little bit tighter of a squeeze coming through; she said it's because Brian forgot she was 5 and only made the hole big enough for kids 4 and younger.

 We all enjoyed the Ladderball set Ryan bought at Wal-Mart; what a fun game!

 Kickball and Soccer with various size balls were hits too.  The kids could have run up and down the beach all day!

 According to both girls, their favorite part of this trip was flying a kite with Daddy.  We bought a little dinosaur kite over the summer and never had the chance to fly it, so we brought it down with us.  They absolutely loved getting to fly it!  Look at the happiness on Lily's face!

 Mia got a little help from Daddy; she loved it too!

 Love this picture!

 Of course, we needed to take snack breaks every now and then.

 On our last night (Wednesday night), we prepared makeshift s'mores for dessert.  We used graham crackers, Nutella and marshmallow fluff to make them; pop them in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds, and you have some pretty yummy s'mores!  This was definitely a crowd-pleaser all around!

Our family packed up and headed out on Thursday afternoon for Birmingham.  The Hendersons were able to stay until Saturday.  Once again, this was such a fun trip with great friends.  I can't wait for next year's trip!

Pumpkin Patch

I love Fall; it's my favorite time of year.  We went apple picking for the first time last year and loved it.  Unfortunately, the orchards in Georgia are all way up north, and they are only open on the weekends.  We simply don't have a free weekend this month where we can take a day to drive up and pick...oh well, maybe next year.  Another fun thing to do in the Fall is to go to a pumpkin patch.  Again though, the really fun ones are well over an hour from home.  Well, on the way to school this morning, we passed a local church that had their pumpkin sale out front, and Lily made a comment about how fun it would be to go visit.  So, after Ryan and I got home from work, we all changed clothes (it was a beautiful day out today) and headed on over.  It's about 8 minutes from our house which is much more doable.  The girls loved it.  So, it wasn't a whole day filled with family fun, but it was a great way to spend a little time playing together on a gorgeous day before dinner!  Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

The girls loved walking and running all around looking at and touching all the different pumpkins.  They really liked the big ones, the green ones and the very bumpy ones.  It is all so fascinating to them.

Lily is getting so tall!

 Mia is a growing girl too!

 Loving being around the pumpkins.

 The cute little pumpkin.

 We girls pretended to be scarecrows and a dog.

 Hanging out with another scarecrow.

 Finally we picked out our prize pumpkins to bring home to decorate; we're not going the jack-o-lantern route this year, and they were very excited that they would get to decorate their own pumpkin.

 Markers and stickers...let the decorating begin.

 Lily showing off her multi-faced pumpkin.

 Mia displaying her marker creation.

 What a fun evening!

Lily's Check-Up

Lily had her five year old check-up last Friday.  Ryan took her and said she did very well.  Since I wasn't there, I don't have a whole lot to say, but I want to document her stats from her visit, so I can remember them down the road.  So...
-41.4 pounds (60th percentile)
-42 inches (40th percentile)
-86/60 blood pressure
-20/30 vision
-Passed her hearing test (yea!!!)
She asked me before going if she was going to get a shot.  I didn't want to lie to her, so I said yes, the flu shot.  Well, she was able to take the flu mist instead (which she said tickled and tasted funny), but she had to get the next dose of the MMR vaccine, so she ended up with a shot anyways.  She later admitted it only hurt for a minute.  She liked showing off her Bugs Bunny band aide.  Nothing too exciting to report; we have a healthy girl!