The Holidays Have Begun!

Wow time has really gotten away from me!  I blinked and November flew by and it's almost Christmas.  Here's our November recap!

Early November meant a school holiday for Kate - Election Day - since the schools were the polling places.  Anna Clare, however, had preschool that day so Kate and her buddy Maggie got to enjoy Creating Artists for Tomorrow.  The only place on earth where little kids are given paint and told to paint anywhere.  Anywhere!  The entire interior and exterior of this house were covered in paint.  Needless to say they had a ball!

In the mid November Kate skipped school for the first time.  We went to the Georgia Aquarium with Kate's Texas friend Emmie and her mom and brother one Friday morning.  Everyone had a great time!  The whale shark was Kate's favorite (not the shark in the picture I took).

Close to Thanksgiving Kate had a little play at school where she played was a Pilgrim woman.  She and her friends had a great time singing the songs they practiced for so long up on the stage!  Later that day we ventured into downtown for dinner and an impromptu horse and carriage ride.  

Though we didn't shop on Black Friday, Kate and I did go to see Disney on Ice!  Kate loved getting dressed up, going into downtown and, of course, seeing the princesses ice skating!  

The very end of November brought much needed first haircut for Anna Clare and a trim for Kate (who is growing her hair out).  Finally no more straggly hair and rat tail for Anna Clare.  Yay!

Before

After

After

After

Before

And last but not least, we got our Christmas tree up in November!  It was a busy month with even more excitement in December.  Another post to follow soon!

October Wrap Up

Picture Day!

Anna Clare had her 1st school pictures taken in October.  I haven't seen the proofs yet but she certainly looked adorable in her sweet purple dress!  I just loved this bright purple dress with Anna Clare's blue eyes. And she was definitely excited!

So proud with her backpack and her lunchbox!

So it seems to me that we've seen Kate go from being a little girl to a kid in the last few months.  After only a few weeks with the balance bike I bought her, she now rides her bike without training wheels!  Plus she's now mastered the new scooter she got for her birthday.  She's quite zippy on both - she likes to go for walks (she rides) in the neighborhood.  Heck, I may be running behind her pretty soon!

(P.S. I'm studying how to use my "big camera" and really like the faded out background in the close up of Kate.  All thanks to being motivated to take good pictures when our photographer canceling on us a few weeks ago!)

Just a few random cute shots. 

Kate & Maggie - with "the babies" - how sweet!

Halloween Festivities!

So I think that Halloween activities for kids fall right behind Christmas!  There are activities happening for weeks before Halloween finally comes along.  Its almost as if there's an unspoken challenge to parents to see how much use they can get out of their kid's Halloween costume!  

Anyway, Anna Clare had a little party at school the week of Halloween.  They paraded the kids up on stage one by one to share their costume, then played little games, and finally went outside to hunt for "ghosts" on the playground.  What a great simple idea for little ones - the ghosts were dum dums wrapped in a kleenex with black dots for eyes.  Simple and cute!

Halloween day meant a Storybook Parade for the Kindergartners.  From what I can gather they paraded down the 1st grade hall then did some trick or treating in the other classrooms.  Personally I loved the Storybook character idea.  I found some super cute pictures online of little girls dressed up like Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, Olivia and even Emily Elizabeth from the Clifford stories.  Emily Elizabeth was my pick but Kate vetoed me and chose Pinkalicious.  I will say it was a fairly easy costume - all stuff we already had plus one DIY touch with the star wand.  I only wish parents had been invited to watch the parade but we weren't.  Oh well.

Halloween evening kicked off with a neighborhood party at the clubhouse.  Many of our neighborhood friends were there - including many of Kate's Kindergarten buddies.  It just made me so happy to see Kate running around with her friends from school, who are also neighbors.  I can already imagine these kids growing up together!  (I only wish I had gotten a picture of all of the Kindergarten buddies together.)  We chatted, ate hot dogs and chili, and drank a few beers.  Then we trick or treated!  We walked the neighborhood with the Simrils (Maggie's family) - even the babies were troopers and stayed out until about 8:00.  By 8:30 we were shutting down the neighborhood as we seemed to be the last ones out!  All in all I think it was the most fun Halloween we've had in a long time!

Photo by Kate!

Hopefully my next post will NOT be a post about snow.  Happy Fall!

It's Fall Y'all!

(My sincere apologies for the title of this entry.  I just couldn't help myself.  This is something I saw on a sign once or twice in Texas and I can't seem to get it out of my mind!  And somehow, to me, Texas is still NOT southern.)

So now that the weather has finally cooled off we have been venturing out and visiting some of the pumpkin farms, apple farms and small towns in the area.  I'll pick up where I left off in my last post - after Anna Clare's field trip to see the happy cows at Happy Cow Creamery.



First stop, in late September, was Denver Downs Farm.  This large family farm near Clemson was a fantastically fun place for everyone to play!  It was really beautiful out there - and super fun too!  Denver Downs included a "giant pillow" for some really high bouncing, a super tall slide that we all enjoyed (Kate enjoyed this the most!), 12 feet tall bales of hay to run across, dancing, a hayride, and of course a pumpkin patch. The absolute highlight was the biggest corn maze anyone (or at least anyone that lives in this house) has ever seen!  If it weren't for the checkpoints found in the maze, the map and the loud music to follow back to the exit we may still be in there!  All in all it was a super fun day for everyone.  

Denver Downs!

Kate at the bottom of the slide.

The girls on top of the giant pillow!

Off they go into the maze.

Kate had Fall Break this past week.  Because I had been so sick with allergies we decided to skip our planned trip to Boone.  One of Kate's days off from school the girls and I joined our mom's group friends at Nivens Apple Farm.  Although the apples had been picked over by the time we got there the kids enjoyed the pumpkin patch, farm animals, play area and hayride.  It was another fun day for the girls!

Both girls in the tube.

Naturally Kate found flowers to pick!

Finally, after a long week of working in the yard for Brett (perhaps a separate post to follow with lots of pictures!) we decided to skip town today.  Greenville is super close to the North Carolina mountains - another reason we love it here!  Today we headed for Brevard.  It was such a pretty drive - not quite an hour and a half each way.  The drive itself was really nice, past several parks, small towns, hiking areas & way too many boiled peanut stands (why Brett likes those slimy things is beyond me!).  Once we got to Brevard we discover a sweet mountain town with shop and restaurant lined streets.  We walked, we shopped, we even found a great spot to eat where Max could sit with us on the patio and be pet by every passer by!  We all had a great day but Max was the superstar - everyone wanted to meet him and give him some love!  He was in heaven.

October has been and will continue to be a busy month.  We still have several Halloween events to go - school parties and character parades.  Hmmm what book character will Kate be at school?  Stay tuned to find out!