Busy Week: Vampires,Birthdays,Eggs, Fall Festivals and Pink!

My book club met this week and in honor of Halloween we read Bram Stoker's Dracula.  We all unearthed our inner vampires for the occasion except for Lisa who dressed as the patient Renfield in the insane asylum.  

Me getting a sampling of some tasty blood.  As you can see I went all out with the makeup and I had vampire teeth too.  Well, when I came out of my bedroom all dressed up Addison looked terrified.  So I started singing and doing a silly dance and saying, "See Addison, mommy is just silly."  Addison covered her eyes and shook her head and kept repeating, "Not silly, not silly, not silly."  I am sure I completely traumatized her.  

Kristen and I had some dinner with friends the next night to celebrate our October birthdays.  Much less makeup required :)

Amelia had her Egg O Naut project this week.  They had to design a ship to cushion their egg and then launch it into the air using an air compressor to see if their egg could survive.  I love my little scientist.

Amelia's Connections class.  They have so much fun together and get to do lots of extra math, science, research projects together.  We LOVE Connections!  They are all 3rd graders but Amelia is such a little pip squeak!

Amelia and Ms. Flowers setting up her launch.

There it goes!  70 feet!!  The kids also got to say some kind words about their egg after they cracked before they put them in the "morgue."  "It was a good egg, I was proud of him."  So cute.  Amelia even let Addison help her countdown and pull the launch string.

Fall Festival at Luke's school, The Children's House.  Addison and Alex, hamming it up.  These two little terrors will be at The Children's House together next year:)

Luke doing finger print leaves on his tree.  I took lots of pictures because it was Luke's last Fall Festival. I tried to hold back the sniffs and tears.  Look how big he is!

Bobbing for pumpkins.

Each kindergartner gets to make a scarecrow that looks like him.  I love it!

Proudly showing his bird feeder.

Luke's kindergarten class.  We love fall festival!!!

Luke leading all the little monsters.  I can't tell you how many mother's of new three year olds came up to me and said, "Are you Luke's mom?"  They each had a story of how much their little boy or girl loves Luke.  All the little three year old girls follow Luke around and say they are going to marry him.  He is quite the big man on campus this year!

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk 2011!

Look at the salute by Addison.

Our friend Jay once again donned his whole pink getup because he reached the $5000 mark for fundraising!  Way to go!  

Fall, Fun, Fellowship

It was our church picnic this weekend.  It was great to visit with everyone and let the kids run around and play.  The kids had plenty of games and a bouncy house to keep them busy and with a cookout and the yummy results from the dessert contest; the adults were kept busy too.  

Little kids but BIG faith :)

BINGO!!!

Amelia and Luke built themselves a clubhouse and it was really cute.  It said, "Do not enter, Ask Amelia or Luke.  Thank you, The Secret Club"  It also said, "The Club Members: Amelia, Luke, Mckenzie, Hayden, Gina, Lilly.  No one else please."  So polite.  Then on the back they wrote, "Honorary Member: Mrs. Joanna"  My neighbor!  I don't know how my neighbor got in but not momma!  The kids and I also participated in Coastal Cleanup this weekend.  We collected five bags of garbage which included, one flip flop, a visor, and a bird feeder!  

Coastal picnic

The kids were off of school for Columbus day so why not a picnic on the island?

Beautiful day on Deer Island.

Luke showing off shells he collected.

Tulsa Trip

We recently flew to Tulsa to visit with Grandpa Steve and Grandma Donna.   Grandma, Grandpa and I all share October birthdays and Grandpa and I even have the EXACT same birthday.  They always travel to see us for all the family birthdays but we thought we would head up there this year.  The kids were super excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and had a fun time giving lots of hugs and kisses.  Although we couldn't quite get Addison to stop spanking Grandpa Steve as she would tell him, "Stop that you" and then she would run away laughing hysterically.  Who knows what goes on in that crazy girls head???

Me and Dad. B with our birthday cake, yummy, yummy.

We decided to take advantage of the pretty weather in Tulsa and had a fun zoo day with the kids.  

The rhinos were quite active and were rolling all over in the mud.  Addison said, "That rhino needs a bath from his momma."

Amelia playing on the train.

Luke scaled up the climbing rock faster than anyone, he is quite the little monkey.  King of the rock!

Oh the joys of a six year old boy...checking the statue for boogers.

The petting zoo is always a big hit.  Luke with his winning smile.  Love this boy.

Amelia would stay and pet animals all day, she was in heaven.

Gross.  Addison wouldn't stop kissing all of the animals no matter how many times we asked her to stop.  Seeing as she is the third born we eventually thought, oh well, she'll survive.  

I love this shot of all my little monkeys.  We had a nice visit in Tulsa, lots of puzzles, Uno games and coloring time and special time with Grandma and Grandpa.  We also visited Dave and Busters which of course Stephen enjoyed as much if not more than the kids.  Nothing like spending $50 on games just so the kids can turn in their tickets for a prize that would have cost $1 at Walmart!  We flew home on a later flight so the kids were a little amped up after the whole weekend.  While waiting for our connecting flight the kids were running around and getting too wild.  Addison was about to hit Luke and Stephen and I both said, "Addison, stop!"  She turned toward us and YELLED through the airport terminal, "I NOT DOING ANYTHING...I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!"  You can imagine all of the laughter in the airport and Stephen and I just shook our heads and cried for the tween years.

Just play!

This moment, right here, is the reason we don't put our kids in a bunch of after school activities.  It is the freedom to do what kids need to do, play.  The big decision each day revolves around choosing to ride bikes to get snow cones, go play at the beach or take a ride on the rope swing.  No hurry up, do your homework we have to get to soccer, gymnastics, dance, etc.  After the kids have been in school all day the last thing we want to do is haul them somewhere else and let someone else enjoy them while we sit on the sidelines.  This probably sounds judgmental and I don't mean it to.  I do not judge that other people enjoy extracurricular activities, we just don't; not yet.  I know the day will come when the kids will choose activities and friends over spending time with their parents but I certainly don't want to rush that moment.  Right now they always choose us so we choose to choose them.  And besides, it's more fun to build sand castles !

Another gem with my kids; just add water.  That is the magic ingredient if anyone is fighting, add water by squirt guns, beach, bath, pool, magic potions in a bucket; doesn't matter, just add water and everyone is smiling again.

Buried mommy up to the shins!

Sink or Swim

One of the fun things about our public school system is 3rd grade swim.  All the 3rd graders take swim at the local YMCA for 8 weeks during P.E.  It is a big rite of passage and they all look forward to it.  Amelia being goofy at her swim graduation.

Showing her 'bobs.'

Backstroke, good form Mimi!

Jump to the middle of the pool and then tread water for a minute and then flip over and float.  

I had a normal, cute, everyone smiling shot but couldn't pass this one up.

Cutie patootie.  

Fun Weekend

Friday Night we rode our bikes down to front beach and let the kids have fun in the sand while we watched the sunset.  Our neighbor, Gina, came along for the fun:)  Coincidentally, Gina's last name is Bosco which has been quite confusing for all of Ocean Springs who calls us the Boskos, so now the Boscos and the Boskos live across the street from each other.  So, the kids called us the Bosko Bike Gang.

Saturday Morning brought Amelia's first tennis tournament!  They had about 20 kids in the 10 and under category and Amelia played three matches.  She did great and had such a fun time learning to play "real" matches.  It was an unsanctioned match so it didn't go on their official record.

Amelia and Anna getting the lowdown on scoring.

Good backswing Amelia!

Shaking hands to say good match while giggling the whole time.

Saturday night meant camping out in the backyard.  Look at all my loves smiling right at the camera.  

My little man.

We watched the sunset in our backyard after the tent was set up.

Getting the fire ready.

Addison cruising in her Dora jeep.  After campfire time and jeep riding, Addison and I went inside snug in our own beds while the big kids and Daddy faced the great outdoors.  They made it until about 2:30 am when Daddy's allergies kicked his booty and the camp out moved inside to the couches.  Oh well, a fun time was had by all.