Carter's Fall Party

As room moms for Carter's class, Lauren and I got to organize the fall party that was today.  Ms. Denise didn't really have any direction for us - she didn't care when we did it or what we did.  We ended up doing a morning party from 9:30 to 10 am.  We had planned on doing breakfast, a craft, and game.  Unfortunately we didn't factor in enough time for things like washing hands and very slow eaters so we only had time for food and the game before the kids had to go to library.

Last night I made a "Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin" game.

When we went to Lucky Ladd Farms this weekend, I picked up a dozen small pumpkins for the kids to decorate as the craft (Lauren bought a bunch of fall stickers).

Since we ran out of time for those, we sent them and the stickers home with the kids to decorate later.

That probably worked out fine since we didn't realize the kids had painted similar pumpkins earlier in the week that they brought home today!

We did an online signup and had the other parents in the class bring in the food and plates/napkins.  Lauren also brought Munchkin doughnuts which were a huge hit!

Campbell and Carter ...

Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin was a hit.  I heard several "this game is so much fun!"

Here is Sophie (Lauren's daughter) pinning her nose ...

And Carter doing his (he had one of the closest ones) ...

I had fun getting to be in Carter's classroom (this was the first time I've ever gotten to volunteer - they keep the parents pretty much out of the rooms at our preschool).  And Carter was super excited that I was there (which was really cool).

Mall Trick or Treat

The weather here is horrible today.  It is rainy (which isn't so bad) but EXTREMELY windy.  We actually just had a tornado watch issued for the rest of the evening.

Luckily most of the neighborhoods around Franklin decided yesterday to postpone trick or treating until tomorrow.  We are planning to go to Missy's house tomorrow night and trick or treat with her kids.

Around midday today, this is what the hourly forecast looked like for tonight ...

So (like the rest of Franklin) I decided to take the kids to the mall to trick or treat tonight.  Most stores were handing out candy from 5 - 7 pm tonight.  I was knew it would get crowded so the boys and I headed over about 20 minutes early.  Since only a couple of stores were starting to hand out candy early, we wandered around a few stores until close to 5 pm.  Brian surprised us and showed up then and we hit as many stores as we could until the crowds got to be too much.

I love the Christmas decorations in the background :)

I think we trick or treated about 20 minutes before it was just too much for us (I think a lot of stores were almost out of candy too!).  We ran into several friends from school though and the boys enjoyed it.  And we got lots of good candy :)

Library Trick or Treat

Yesterday I met Missy, Suzy, and Fabi at the Brentwood Library for storytime and some trick or treating.

Rylan, Hutch, Andre, & Luke:

This may have been the only 15 seconds that Hutch didn't hate the horse costume!

There were 4 stations for the kids to visit and get treats from.  It wasn't much, but the boys still had fun!

Afterwards we went to the playground across the street.  Then Suzy, Ashley, and I put the kids in strollers and walked 6 miles while they napped.  It worked out perfect because Rylan got in a nap before speech and I wasn't fighting to keep him awake for it!

Artwork

Carter is really starting to enjoy drawing.  I was starting to wonder when that phase was going to start!!!  Here are some of his latest works ...

Our house, with detail at the lower right of our dining room:

A t-rex going hunting:

Kids trick or treating (going up steps to a front door with decorations hanging on the porch):

"Farmer Rylan" (2 versions):

Rylan and I brought home coloring sheets from storytime last week.  Both boys are getting better at coloring.  Carter colored all the puppets correctly based on his memory of them.

Rylan is definitely better than Carter was at his age at coloring parts of a picture rather than scribbling one color across the entire page.

Recent Pictures

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago.  Rylan gets up so early that he sometimes falls asleep on our drive to school (at 8:45 am!!!).

Rylan's last soccer practice of the season ...

My mom visited us last week.  While Carter was at school on Wednesday, we went to the downtown library for storytime.  It was a really good one with a very dramatic reading of "Green Eggs and Ham".

Afterwards we went to the Adventure Science Center until we had to leave for Rylan's speech session.  Shooting off rockets is always fun!

The story at chapel last week was about Adam and Eve and family.  This is what Carter drew for "God Made the First Family".  Carter told me that this is Brian and I getting married.  In the box is Brian, me, and the boys and Carter is also the person outside the box (not really sure about all that).  Brian is the one that looks like he's wearing a skirt - those are actually pockets according to Carter :)

Ms. Denise put this thank you not in Carter's school bag last week.

Charlotte always lays on her bed in the bonus room with us when we are reading the kids their books before bed.  Lately Carter asks me to take his picture with Charlotte every night.  This time, Rylan joined him.

Yesterday the boys went to a party for one of Carter's classmates at Pump It Up.  The birthday girl is Maddie who is sitting up front.

At hip hop class last night, the kids got to wear Halloween costumes.  Carter used one of the superhero costumes we got on clearance at Target last year (I got several costumes for about $1-2 each and the boys use them for dress-up all the time).  He had to pose in a flying position for me :)

This morning Rylan pretended to read a book to Carter.  It was really sweet.

Today Rylan gave his teachers the books we collected for his classroom during our Fall Book Drive.  Even though the teachers had submitted a list of books they'd like to the ministry, they acted so surprised when we gave the books to them this morning.  They were so excited!

For show and tell this week, Carter's class gets to bring in anything related to the season.  We had almost an hour to kill between Carter's speech session and Lil Sluggers for Rylan so we played at the playground and walked around Crockett Park collecting leaves.  Carter and I glued the leaves to paper tonight and then he wrote the names of the trees they came from.  His handwriting is getting better and better and he also finally has the desire to write (and not just one or two words).

Lil Sluggers - Carter

Carter started his Lil Sluggers class on Friday.  Once again, he's on the blue team.  (I need to get Carter some new athletic pants - his only pair that fit are blue so he's VERY blue right now!)

Carter's class is at 4pm on Fridays and there is one other class going on at the same time at Crockett Indoor Arena.  He is taking the Majors II class which is for intermediate/advanced 4 year olds.

Carter's coach is Amber and they did a lot of the same things as the Majors I class Carter took earlier in the year with a new drill or two.  I took a few videos of Carter playing.

Fielding the ball and throwing it ...

Running around some cones to field a ball ...

Batting practice ...

Halloween Footprints

Two years ago I did ghost footprints with the boys and this year I did Frankenstein footprints.  Look at how much bigger their feet are after 2 years!

Pumpkin Decorating Party

Missy had a pumpkin decorating party at her house on Monday.  She invited over 5 families and we had fun letting the kids mostly run around outside while mixing in Halloween activities when they slowed down!

I brought over candy corn rise krispie treats (so easy to make and kids love them!).

And I also brought along supplies to do a craft.  Monster Footprints!

Each kid brought along a pumpkin and Missy provided the decorating supplies.

I helped Rylan and let him just do whatever he wanted - he had very little direction.

Carter had a little more of a vision and my mom helped him.  I've been told his pumpkin is wearing a football mask.

The finished pumpkins drying before taking them home ...

After lunch the kids decorated cupcakes that Suzy had brought.

Rylan didn't want to decorate his -  just eat it!

Yum!

A group shot with all the pumpkins.

Top Row: Will, Andre, Chase, Hutch, Luke, Carter, Rylan

Bottom Row: Maddie, Cole, McCabe

And a group shot of the pumpkins :)