Photo dump

On Veteran's Day, James' school had their Fall Feast - which is basically a big potluck and the whole family gets to come spend the day at school. It is always a lot of fun and this year the weather was so beautiful and everyone was having such a wonderful time that instead of it ending at 1, many families stayed until 3!



 

At the kids museum down the street, there is a huge art room - which my kids will stay in for hours! They can glue and paint and make a huge mess without anyone getting in their way :)



 

James wrote his first official letter to Santa! "Dear Santa, I really want Lego with the polar bear. Love, James". Cant get any better than that! Now he just has a few weeks to wait...



 

Last week was really cold, the news even said we were colder than North Dakota! That just isn't right. The kids and I spent most of the evenings snuggled under a blanket on the couch watching movies... no one wanted to do anything in that kinda weather. Thanks goodness it is already back in the 70s!  

 

This is my weekly Costco shopping partner, Leila, and her daughter, Rachel. We take the girls together while our boys are at school and make a whole morning out of it. You know you are an adult when going to Costco is the highlight of your week!



 

I watched our neighbor's almost 2 year old boy last week. Madeleine was in love. She would take his hand and lead him everywhere. Poor kid didn't know what to do about it, so he just followed her lead!


 

Last week, Madeleine and I had to go to Hobby Lobby and get two big canvases for a project I'm working on, and decided to check out World Market right next store. Turns out they had a love seat that I just couldn't pass up... and of course this was all right before I had to pick James up from school! I ended up having to ask a friend to drive James home for me.



School pictures from James' second year of preschool at The Children's Schoolhouse

The little man that made me a Mama is growing up way too fast!

 



Photo dump

The weekend before Halloween, a friend of James and Madeleine had her birthday party - and it was Halloweed themed. Which meant all the kids got to wear their costumes! They loved it :)



 

Madeleine loves shopping at Costco with me... cant you tell? ;)



 

This is what James' face looks like almost every day when I pick him up from school. I know he doesn't eat dirt... but I have no idea how he gets his face covered in it!



 

We carved pumpkins - which officially started the countdown to Trick or Treating for James (does he look excited?)! I am a terrible carver, and John is even worse... so this year we ended up using cookie cutters. We let the kids pick out what they wanted and then we held the cutters while they swung a rubber hammer. It worked out actually really well! Much easier and faster - plus the kids got to help which  they loved.

 

 

My friend made us cupcakes last week, which was very nice of her - but turns out they were dairy free cupcakes. They were a little thick and hard to swallow!



 

We went with a friend to IHOP on Halloween and the kids got to make scary pumpkins! They thought it was the coolest thing. I was reminded though why I haven't been back to IHOP since college...



 

We have a new Publix by our house now, I love it! Madeleine does too because they have shopping carts that are just her size. And they actually hold a good amount of food so she usually gets to push the cart on our Publix trips :)



 

I love how she can still just fall asleep in the car. I wish someone would drive me around so I could take a nap!



 

There is this HUGE antique warehouse that John and I love to go to. That's where I get all my fabric and where we find all of our random things we use for projects or knick knacks. However it is so big that they kids get tired and bored when we go - so we have to bring the wagon and things to entertain them. John and I can literally spend hours there just walking up and down the aisles.



 

 

And since they kids are such good sports while we shop, we  hit up Steak and Shake for milkshakes :)



Halloween 2014

Have I mentioned how into dinosaurs James is lately? Everything is dinosaurs. All. The. Time. Somehow, Halloween was on his radar 3 months ago and he told me (and anyone who would listen) that he was going to be an allosaurus, which is his favorite dinosaur. To me, an allosaurus is basically a T-Rex. But to James, there are some seriously big differences. So finding a costume that could pass as an allosaurus (that wasn't obviously a T-Rex) became a three month journey. Fortunately, when we were in Ohio earlier this month.... we found one! And James has been begging to wear it every day since. He has been practicing his roar for months - and of course, there are different kinds of roars. Just ask him!

 

Madeleine, on the other hand, just wanted to wear a tutu. So she was the tooth fairy. Did you know that the tooth fairy roars too? Just ask her!



 

Check out that tail!



 

Demonstrating the proper way to roar.



 

Dinosaur kisses!



 

We only went Trick or Treating for about an hour, but that was plenty. Their buckets were full and they were so happy. We got home, they dug through their booty to find the best pieces and then they crashed hard!

 

 

Madeleine actually fell asleep before I could even tuck her in! She got her book, climbed in bed and while I was helping James, she fell fast asleep. I think that means it was a successful night :)



 

Happy Halloween!!

Its been a busy few weeks! One of our good friends and neighbors was on maternity leave with her second daughter, and so we were able to hang out with her a lot before she had to go back to work this week. Thankfully she only works part time so we still get to see her and her two girls often... but it was great just to meet up on a whim. This is her oldest Parker, who just turned 3. Even though she is almost a full year older than Madeleine, she will be in her class when they start school. They really love to play with each other. They are two peas in a pod.

 

Our town had a fall festival and James' school was able to get a booth to promote the school as well as our annual carnival... and to get kids (and their parents) to come by, we did face painting. And it took me over a week to get the paint stain off of my hands and nails. I looked like I had some fungus growing on them. I cant wait till I have to do it again at the carnival in a few weeks. Madeleine has a butterfly on her cheek - she was either thrilled or scared by it.



 

True sibling love, James sharing his milkshake at lunch :)



 

I threw a surprise baby shower for two moms are James' school a few weeks ago. It turned out really great and they were so surprised. Madeleine got to hang out with all the moms and some of the other younger siblings. She really loves to play at his school... she's going to love going next year!



 

Here she is with two of her friends that will all start with her next year. It is really cool to see this group of about 7 kids start coming to school as babies for their older siblings and watching them grow and become school kids themselves.



We went to Columbus last week, and it was a very busy trip - so the only pictures I took were of the kids playing out back of John's Dad's house... on the only day it didn't rain. I think they were just so happy to be able to run outside that they didn't mind me asking them to say cheese!



 

The kids love helping John wash the cars. I think they always end up with most of the water on them!



 

Our neighborhood had their fall festival last weekend, and it was a blast. Pumpkin painting, face painting, bounce house, games and a hay ride! It was a really good time for the kids. And they had beer and live music for the adults. Can't ask for a better Saturday afternoon than that!



 

Madeleine is now in a big girl bed... which has been an adjustment. She is constantly sneaking out of her room and into her brothers. James has been asking for a dinosaur room for months and we finally did it. It actually looks pretty awesome. But he couldn't sleep in his room the night we painted because of the smell, so we let him have a "sleep over" with Madeleine. After a lot of snuggling and giggling they finally fell asleep. They had the best time that night, but were so grumpy the next day that I think it will be awhile before they are allowed to have a sleep over again!



 

Rainy Sunday activity - James of course painted dinosaurs :)



 

I made a tutu for Madeleine's Halloween costume... and of course she's been wearing it constantly. There's a good chance it wont actually make it to Halloween! And yes, she is wearing a shirt that my mom had made for me with my school picture on it from way back in the day. It was laundry day! And yes, I used to wear a shirt with my face on it. Apparently that was cool.



 

Today we went pumpkin picking with James' class! It was a fantastic time. Perfect weather, lots of friends and many laughs. I love Fall.



Ocean Isle Beach

Last week we traveled less than 4 hours to the coast to Ocean Isle Beach. It's a tiny little island right north of the SC border and was so amazingly perfect. The water was warm, the sand was cool, lots of fun shells, and our condo door was less than 100 feet from it all. Can't ask for anything more than that. Oh and since we went after Labor Day, it was basically deserted. We had it all to ourselves :)



 

One morning it did rain, so we hit some surf shops around us and then decided to drive about 30 minutes to Myrtle Beach and checked out some of their shops as well.



 

They had this store called RideMakerz, which is basically like a Build A Bear but with cars. So the kids each got to pick a car and all the random parts - and then build it! It was so cool, James even got to turn his into a remote controlled car. Very fun.



 

John got into the sand castle building almost as much as the kids.



 

 

 

James loved to boogie board - that was probably his favorite thing to do. Or trying to body surf. The bigger the waves the better for him.



 

I can't even tell you how many shells there were. The kids collected so many we had to stealthily put more than half of them back every night. And we still brought bags and bags home with us.



 

 

 

My favorite part of the trip was watching the kids feed the birds. The seagulls came flying out of no where (and there's like 20 of them) and then the kids got all overwhelmed and can only think of one thing to do...



 

Chase them away!! And then of course they would want another piece of bread and it happens all over again. It was the funniest activity for close to an hour. I don't think I laughed so hard all week.



 

Whenever we got back from the beach, we would put on tv - and the kids were always so zonked they would just lay there and watch it. Even if it was the nightly news. It was fantastic!



 

This is after day 1 of shell picking... I think we brought 4 times this about home. No clue what we are going to do with them all but James was not leaving them behind!



 

James did not want to leave, not that I blame him. He basically sulked the whole way home which made it a much quieter ride than normal.



 

It was such a fun week for all of us, I swear the beach is good for your soul. Hopefully this past week can tide of all over until we can get back next year!