Fall Festival at the Y

We went to the annual Fall Festival at the Y today.  It was cold, but fun.  The kids spent most of the time in the bounce houses, but really enjoyed the costume parade, games, and hayride too.  

The highlight for Tyler was meeting a real policeman (even though you can't tell from his face), but he thought it was pretty awesome to meet Belle too, since Katie got to meet Rapunzel!

Although the colorful balloon animals were pretty cool too!

This week should be pretty fun.  Trunk or treat and a Halloween party at the kid's school and then of course the real Halloween!  I hope it warms up a bit!!!

Gentry Farm

This was our fourth year to visit Gentry Farm - it was one of their first outings when they were itty bitty and only a month old, and again this year it was so much fun.  I took the kids on my own this time since Lance had to work (he was upset and wanted us to wait for him but it is only open in October and I don't think we will have time next weekend), but they were really well behaved and we really had a great time.  This was the first year we did the corn maze and the kids thought it was really fun trying to find our way out, even if they did get a little worried for a bit that we would be stuck when we kept hitting dead ends! 

We did the hayride and saw lots of baby cows, and played in the barn maze, the country cafe, lincoln log land, tire swings, the log cabin playhouse, saw some animals, went down some slides, did the tire swing, and lots more but the hit of the farm is still the corn troughs.  They really love those things, and it seems like lots of other kids do too since it was the most crowded area with the most parent seating. 

We had an awesome weekend otherwise too.  A good friend came in town for the Vandy/Auburn game and the kids went to the drop-in childcare (I forgot about that great option and the kids enjoy it and it is a bit cheaper than a sitter).  We went out to Leipers Fork for breakfast this morning and really had a great weekend before a week that will be pretty stressful for me - this is our big playground build week at work - so it was much needed and appreciated.  The kids are getting along pretty well, lately and we are having a lot of fun with them too, despite the ongoing bedtime struggles!

Sneak Preview - Halloween

I had to take Katie to the doctor today - she has been having potty accidents and going every 10 minutes day and night, so I had to leave work early and had some time this afternoon before I had to be on a work call this evening.  Unfortunately, we have no answers for Katie's issue even though they don't give us our money back if they don't know what the problem is, but we do have Halloween Costumes!  Katie chose Tinkerbell and that has been at the top of her list for a while, but Tyler's choice kind of came out of left field.  He looked and debated for a while and finally decided on a police officer.  The problem is that after all of that time and finally getting to a firm decision I wasn't about to tell him that he had to change it up when they only had size 4-6 so it is a little big but we can make it work.  I wanted to go ahead and get the costumes since we might go out to the zoo Halloween this weekend and I am glad we did because they were sold out of all of their first choices and the place was packed.  Literally the first five things Tyler decided on - robot, alien, batman, ninja, Big Bad wolf - were gone!  So, here is a preview of how they will look on Halloween!

Busy Weekend

We were prepping for our garage sale on Friday night, so not much excitement - but we had a jam-packed  Saturday to make up for it!  We were up early to move stuff out of the garage.  Ray-Ray and So-So watched the kids for us Saturday morning while we manned the sale - which was a big help.  We didn't have as many folks looking for kid stuff (the bulk of what we had) as we hoped, but we did manage to sell some things and offered some things for free once the neighborhood sale was over.  We got a lot of stuff out of our garage, which is a good thing.  If we can get rid of the ping pong table (so sad) and put up some shelves we may have some room in there for a car, or more likely a kid activity area this winter.

I left Lance to manage the sale on his own while I took Katie to a birthday party.  She had a blast, it was a princess party with everything pink - cake, cookies, lemonade, even the popcorn.  Rapunzel made a surprise appearance, too, and sang songs and read books with the girls. 

We left the party a bit early to come home and meet Cousin Jack who graciously agreed to watch the kids while we went to the Florida/Vandy game tailgate.  Big thank you to Jack and Liz (who came a little later to take over for Jack) for helping out with K&T!  The game didn't turn out as we hoped, but it is always fun to be at a sold-out game and tailgating is great since it provides a rare opportunity to catch-up with friends, have adult conversation, and be a little social with someone other than ourselves!

We had plans to go to a family picnic for the kid's school but it was cancelled because of weather.  I have been looking for an opportunity to go to the pumpkin farm, but if we do get rain and thunderstorms (looking like it miiiiight miss us) that isn't a good option for today either.  We are watching for the rain right now (super windy) and I am being begged to go to the park and take some bubbles (and kites, but we don't have any and I don't think I am crafty enough to make them) so we are on stand-by until we know if it misses us or not! I am super stressed right now so I think a fun, cheap afternoon activity will do us all good - just have to get creative if  we get storms.  Maybe I can get the kids to help me organize the garage :)! 

Disney on Ice!

OK, so I kind of lied.  I promised there would be pictures, but they are on the computer at home and I am not there plus, there wasn't really an opportunity to get good pictures.  We did, however, have a fabulous time at Disney on Ice.  The kids loved it - Tyler pulled out my favorite new phrase of his "that was so awesome," and Katie agreed.  They "had" to sleep with their Ariel and Woody dolls the last two nights and Katie has begged me to find the Little Mermaid movie on TV and surprisingly (I didn't realize it was that old!) I haven't been able to yet.  We have a fun few weeks ahead with the highlight for the kids being Halloween.  We will take them sometime soon to pick out their costumes - Tyler wants to now be the Big Bad Wolf and unfortunately the catalog that he was looking at to pick that out is sold out of his size.  Last night, though, he said pirate so that should be easier to find!  Katie is still saying Princess, Tinkerbell, Ariel, etc. so her costume definitely won't be a problem unless she can't make a decision (very likely)!  

This weekend we are participating in a neighborhood yard sale.  We have no tables, no clothing racks and lots and lots of stuff - but even if we have to just set it out in the grass and say take it (although I hear that pricing it make things go faster because people think they are getting deals) then at least we will be making progress to actually be able to move around in our garage!  I don't know how we are going to manage trying to get ready for that this week (I am talking lots of stuff), but since it is already advertised and there will be others in our neighborhood having sales too we are motivated to make it happen!  Katie has a birthday party on Saturday and Lance (who is a garage sale newbie) is worried that I am going to leave him to deal with a ton of people, but I have assured him that 11:00 AM on garage sale days is not the busy time - it will be at 6:00 AM when we are frantically trying to get everything out of the garage, get the kids fed and keep them out of the way :)!  

We have a picnic for the kids school on Sunday, and I still want to make it out to the Pumpkin Farm sometime before October is over (but unfortunately they don't open until 1:00 on Sunday which means Lance can't go).  I have kind of given up on getting to go to the Auburn and Florida games, but we are still searching for a sitter (could use the service, but it just wouldn't be financially responsible at this point).  It's kind of funny because for the first time ever Lance and I were talking last night about the possibility of moving for a job if it was a good one for him (I am fortunate that my career isn't location dependent).  It was never, ever an option when we were younger and before we had kids, primarily because we couldn't imagine missing games :).  Now, though, we realize that it is going to be difficult even living in the same town as our teams, and this is before soccer, karate, dance, you name it, really kicks in!  Tumble Tots starts this week and Tyler, especially, is super excited.  The kids and I did play soccer in the yard yesterday, and I am now anxious to start them in that because they really had a blast trying to take the ball from me and kicking it in the goal and I know they (Katie) would like it even more against people their own size!  

Tumble Tots

Well, after much debate and trying to get the kids to tell us what they are most interested in, I think we are going to do the Tumble Tots class again starting next week through December 6th.  We'll re-group after that and decide if we are going to put Katie back in dance, if we are going to let Tyler try Taekwondo (he is fascinated by it and I think it would be good for him), or if we are going to put them in soccer.  We are mid-season for dance anyway, and Lance has loyalties to the school Katie was going to but they don't offer evening classes so we have to try to figure out if we can make it work with Lance working weekends and me trying to get tennis in every now and then.  Katie actually chose Tumble Tots when I asked her if she would rather do that or dance, and that works for me since it is 8 weeks for $65 verses $65 per month at dance plus required outfits and shoes.  I am sure Katie will change her mind and want to go to dance, but for right now she was tumbling all over the house this morning so I think she is excited!  The only problem is that it starts at 5:00 (why nobody offers anything for working parents I still don't understand) which means leaving work early and really pushing to get there.  I don't know if I want Lance to be able to help or not, since not as much free time means more business :) - but I am sure he will be able to get them on days that I can't make it work.

So-So and Ray-Ray are taking us to Disney on Ice this weekend and the kids are super excited.  At first they thought we were going to Disney World (and got to go on an airplane), but once we explained they decided this will be super cool too.  We really want this to be the year for Disney too though.  Everyone we have talked to has said that this is a great age for it, and to definitely do it before they get in school so you can go at off times that don't have to work with the school calendar.  We are not in a position to afford it right now, but once we get back on track (fingers crossed) we will start a Disney Fund!!!  We will try to make it out to the Pumpkin Farm this weekend, and the kids are having a blast preparing for Halloween in their class.  Next weekend what I knew would happen, has happened and it was predictably a disaster when I told Tyler - a little girl in Katie's class is having a princess birthday party girls only invited.  He is distraught - but we'll try to make it a special day for him too.  We had thought that it might be the Vanderbilt/Florida game (time was just announced) and Tyler could go to that, but it is now a night game which is really fun (and I hope Lance and I can find a way to go) but it is not really appropriate for children at night game tailgates, even at Vanderbilt!

Sorry for the wordy posts lately.  I will definitely try to remember the camera for the Disney show and the Pumpkin Patch!