Happy Halloween!!!

This will be the first year that I will attempt trick or treating with the twins. I was really excited about it. Didn't know how they would do or if they would understand that walking up to random houses brings candy filled buckets on Halloween. James had to leave for work tonight so he took a quick nap and assisted me in the trick or treating process. Not sure how I would have managed it without him. So glad he would experience it. I took advantage of the holiday and managed to get creative on a couple of meals...

Breakfast

My artistic pancakes.

Lunch

Jack-o-lantern grilled cheese with ghost shaped chips I found at Aldi's.

Getting ready for "Dinner", that would be trick or treating.


Waiting on Mommy and Daddy to finish getting the car loaded up.


We got tired of waiting for Mommy and Daddy and decided to take a walk around the house. Mommy and Daddy started yelling "GET BACK OVER HERE!" I am glad we decided to not listen because guess what we found????

A CAR!! And it is OUR size! Never mind that the seat was filled with rainwater, and that this is at our neighbors house. The one I called the cops on not too long ago. We probably shouldn't be hanging out on their toys scattered all over their yard.

After a wipe of the chicken's (Anthony) butt with a towel to soak up the rain water we were off. Our first trip was to church to see all of our friends. We ran into "Miss Sissy" on our lap around the lobby.


Then we headed over to the 4H fairgrounds for their costume festival. I was quite impressed with the set up. Many sponsored tables giving out candy. The "BaaBoo Cruck" (Bubble Truck) was there, and the Floyd Co. police was giving out hot dogs. SCORE! Now I don't have to worry about fixing dinner.

We ended up being the clog in the slow moving drain of people trick or treating in the building. We was at the head of the line with NOBODY in front of us and about 200 kids behind us. Anthony first had to check out what costume the person handing out candy was wearing, determine if it scared him, then lift up his chicken arm to hoist his Elmo bucket up in the air to get his candy. Quite a lengthy process. There was probably about 50 different booths to trick or treat at in the line, and our little Chicken was causing a hold up.


"Well THAT was fun but my bucket is only half full. I hope we are going someplace else."


"Hooray, Papaw's house! Hey is that dollar for me?"


The clown suit did not affect the attitude one bit, notice the hand is still on the hip.


Victoria did a great job showing her brother and sister how to trick or treat. Love this pic of her!


I would have to say my fondest memory of this Halloween was Addison dropping her trick or treat pumpkin in the water running along the side of the road and quickly apologizing to it "Oh I'm sowwy Punkie Pie" I can't believe she dropped it and didn't get one piece of candy wet. Now that takes talent.

James left for work and the kids and I enjoyed the evening of candy, popcorn, and an episode of an old "Mo Cosmy" (Bill Cosby) that I had on DVR of a Halloween episode. The kids were great! They cuddled and didn't fight one. Everyone got to pick out a piece of candy. Anthony realized that Sweet Tarts taste good with 'Ca'corn (popcorn) and Victoria realized that Mom wasn't joking when she said "Don't put your mouth on the end of the pixie stick, the candy won't be able to come out." Such a nice time. I hate James left to drive the night away on 2 hours of sleep but so proud of him for helping and the sacrifices he makes for our family. He is the best!

Kindergarten Halloween party

Unfortunately didn't happen. I got a call around lunch time to tell me that Victoria threw up and I need to come and get her. No fever at all and she8 was fine other than being devestated that she missed her Halloween party. I really think that she just got over excited and her nerves got the best of her. Took me back to
4th grade when I got the Chicken Pox on the day of the Halloween party. I have been scarred for life. lol.

After some observation and a nap I concluded that she was indeed not sick. We packed up some mac n cheese and headed to the annual Pines pitch in dinner. I planned this a little better and gave Victoria a pep talk so that she didn't freak out and end up under a table like she did last year when the Elvis impersonator came out. Still the same guy as last year. Mid 70's, knew about 3 words to each song, and was highly entertaining to two 2 year olds along with their big sister who was in the mood to dance. Anthony was sweating from his "moves", and every one of the grandmas and grandpas that were eating their scalloped potatos enjoyed the extra entertainment that they provided. Victoria did great and even went up and said bye to The King. Still haven't figured out what the freak out fest was about last year with her and Elvis. Not a bad dinner, and the kids had a good time.

Things you learn on a Kindergarten feild trip...

-Montgomery farms is NOT Huber's! A small pond, 4 goats, 2 pigs, 1 pony, 5 chickens, 2 mangy dogs, some benches, and 5 port a pots, not my idea of field trip fun.

-"holding it" till we get to the closest convenient store isn't as good of an option as I thought. They too have a port a pot.

-Drizzling rain only adds to the humor that can be found in a place that markets themselves as "Montgomery Farms...not your normal family farm" So true, so true.

-Mrs. Anderson has her hands FULL with 27 children in her class.

-Jay Jay NEEDS to be tattle tailed on! That kid's is obnoxious and has ears that don't work.

-You could possibly get beat down by a Kindergartner, the size of a linebacker, for unknowingly trying to take the seat the she is saving for her Dad on the hayride to the pumpkin patch.

-Pigs smell just as bad as they did when I lived across the street from my Papaw's pig farm in my childhood, even if it is just two of them.

-119 Kindergartners and parents covered in mud + one hay ride = everyone coming off of the wagon looking like a scarecrow.

-Brewer, Victoria's crush, isn't really that cute. She could do better. :)

-The Kindergarten teacher are slightly unorganized and I will never send my child on a field trip alone. Mrs. Anderson lost a kid for a few minutes. Things are not like they used to be when I was in school where the parents were in charge of a few kids and their own. It was a free for all! Glad we were someplace where our group was the only ones there. It could have been a disaster otherwise.

-Getting to go on my child's first field trip was awesome and I had some great photo opps.



Victoria in the corn box making snow angels



Down the slide we go!



Victoria with her little friend that lives in our neighborhood. She is leaning on the boy that they are both in love with, Brewer. Erica and I teased that all girls school is in their future. The obsession with Brewer has already caused jealousy in their new friendship.



Loved having time with Victoria to myself! We always seem to have a good time when we do.

A jam packed weekend

Wow did I am exhausted. I just made it back in from our second whirlwind trip to the zoo for the Halloween trick or treat. It was much colder and an impromptu trip so we prepared as best as we could. I ended up carrying Addison from the from the bottom of the hill up because we only had the umbrella stroller and Anthony claimed that even though it was pink. Picture us truckin our way through the crowd Anthony dressed as a clown this time in a pink stroller with butterfly wings behind him because I had ripped them off after trampling over Victoria because I couldn't see past those adorable dumb wings.

As you know we went to the zoo last weekend so we were aware of what each booth was passing out and that the line comes to a complete halt as soon as you go into the trick or treat area because everyone and their brother wants a pic with Shrek. We couldn't care less so under the ropes we go to cut through the line. My back was screaming and calling out to mom ahead of me with the pink strollered clown "This is the coloring book booth just go past we have a ton of them at home!" On we went. Our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard. Such fun.

This weekend started with us spending the night at Mom and Dad's for a change of scenery. We headed out last minute to my nephew's senior night at Salem. We didn't want to pay admission price to enter the gate to sit in the cold cold rain so we opted to stand right outside the fence and jump up and down like crazy people trying to get my sister's attention as she was waiting to walk with Tyler down the track during half time of the football game. They were laughing so hard at us. We didn't really blend into the crowd. Addison was having a meltdown and she wanted nothing to do with the plastic doughnut, and baby doll we brought to keep her occupied. We ended the night with popcorn and movies until Grandpa arrived and beamed from ear to ear to see the surprise of the grand kids at the door to greet him.

On Saturday Addison broke out in a small viral rash. No fever or any other symptoms so we just kept an eye on it. We packed up the kids up and headed out for a drive to see all of the beautiful colors of the trees. I took Victoria to all of the places that I grew up. We went into Mull's store and got some 25 cent candy and even headed over to Elk Creek in Scottsburg to watch the water. All of us were car sick by the time we got home from the winding knobs but had a really good time.

After another inhaled lunch Dad offered to watch the little ones so that Mom and I could take Victoria to Fort Vallonia days. I couldn't believe what they cram in the stop sign of a town. You blink you miss it, but there were people parked in fields everywhere to get to it. It was a bunch of food vendors, flea market booths, and people deciding to have a yard sale because everyone in the 5 closest counties were there. You would pass a hot dog vendor, a booth selling cell phone accessories, and then a table of used shoes and pot and pans that someone decided they didn't need anymore that day. We found Victoria a pair of gloves to keep her hands warm in one of the booths. The only problem was that they were adult work gloves what were bright green. They barely fit her hands and she looked like a tree frog walking around with these green Arsenio Hall fingered gloves. They did the trick thought we didn't hear of her talking about her hands being cold anymore. Then it happened, we found it, the homemade kettle corn. I am not a huge fan of kettle corn but when they give away free samples I am not one to pass it up. DELICIOUS!! We purchased a bag, let me rephrase that, a 2 foot long bag and headed for the car.

Dinner and a little more snacking and we headed home. Victoria decided to get rid of her dinner all over my front seat on the way home. God took care of us, I had pretty much everything that I needed to take care of it in my car because of our mini vacation to mom and dad's. I had all of my baby wipes to clean, I took Victoria out of the car along Hwy 60 and had her take her pants off, there she stood with cars coming left and right shielded by my door with her red long sleeved shirt, panties, white socks and black Mary Jane's. At this point I was cracking up and thinking about our McDonald's trip with Anthony. I got the car cleaned out trash went into the plastic bags that we had our dirty clothes in and I wrapped Victoria up in Addison's blanket and we made finished our drive home. Victoria and I was cracking up the rest of the way. Good thing for heated seats on her bare little legs.

Such a great weekend. I feel bad because James's weekend has been horrible. Please pray for him, it seems like the harder he tries with this owner/operator thing the more things blow up in his face. Everything on the truck is falling apart and he even had money stolen out of his wallet this weekend. He just can't seem to win.

New recipe by Victoria Craig

"Oh my gosh mom I have to tell you about lunch today!" Victoria was beside herself today when she got off of the bus. "Pirst' of all I DID get a vegetable so you would be proud of me"

So here is the riddle I give to you...

What do you get when you cross one "huge chicken nugget", on top of "pasta sticks", with a little bit of "some sauce", and some "Popperjohn cheese"?

Apparently Grant Line Elementary, and Victoria's version of Chicken Parmesan. I was very hard to drive while listening to her version of what the amazing dish was that she ate today. I haven't seen her that excited since we took her to the zoo for the Halloween party.

Not to my name , but to YOUR name be ALL glory.

I have spoken several times about my time in Large Group and how much I just love it! I was allowed the privledge of sharing my story of my passion for serving in the Early Childhood department. My testimony is about 29 minutes in along with Chris Harper, or local missions minister.

Pursuing God-Serve-10-11-09 from Northside Christian on Vimeo.

Things left unsaid...

Wow I guess I have been really busy. I have had many wonderful things to blog about and just haven't gotten around to it.

I could blog about...

-The "Green week" that Victoria had at school, meaning that her behavioral card stayed on green all week long (first time since school started)

-The wonderful time we had at the hot air balloon race at IUS to celebrate.

-The great Monday night that Leslie and I had last night playing with Halloween makeup. I was in creativity hog heaven.

-Our trip to the zoo for the Biggest Halloween party!

-My love for this time of year, and everything that it has to offer. The colors, hot apple cider, pumpkin pie or anything else that requires whipped creme, speaking of hot chocolate sounds really good! :)

-I could talk about how nice it was to have a date with my husband at our best mans daughter's wedding at Kye's. That place is beautiful! We checked out the new Steinert's for an hour or two to check out the band. We left around 11 and found it to be hilarious. Times have changed. LOL!

I will however post some pics when I get more time.

Imagine..

-Imagine if you will Anthony getting upset with Mommy because she took away his really cool big boy cup with a lid and straw at McDonalds.

-Imagine Anthony getting so upset that Grandma and Mommy look at each other and know what is about to happen.

-Imagine Grandma make a mad dash for a tray and Mommy grabbing a stack of napkins to hold under his mouth.

-Imagine Anthony "getting rid of" the dinner he just ate.

-Imagine Mommy opening up the bathroom door and pushing him, highchair and all, into the bathroom.

-Imagine Anthony eyebrows down in complete confusion about the situation, looking at me as though I had lost my mind.

-Imagine me standing him up and stripping me down on the sink and the look of the woman walking in witnessing me doing this and having to walk around the high chair.

-Imagine Anthony walking out of the bathroom on his own wearing only his diaper and black tennis shoes with his chest puffed out and proud. "Im naked at McDonalds!"

-Now imagine us leaving the McDonalds having to walk all through the dining area, all of us wearing long sleeve shirts and pants holding hands and Anthony bringing up the rear in his diaper and black shoes. We exit the building and out into the parking lot we go. I am very surprised that we didn't have a wreck with the people in the drive thru straining their necks trying to see the show that we were putting on.

I had to share some pics of last weekend at church. I was able to facilitate as Farmer Sissy and teach the kids about how on the 7th day God rested. We have been on a 6 week series with the kids teaching them everything that God created in Genesis. To celebrate the end of our Creation unit the kids got to wear their pajamas to church as so did all of the volunteers too. Talk about a time saver when you just have to slip on your slippers and leave to go to church. My friend Crissy grabbed some pics of me with Addison and some of me as Farmer Sissy with the kids. Even some of our puppets dressed in pj's to celebrate the weekend.