Elf on the Shelf Friday

Mr. Elf has arrived!

We found him Thursday morning (December 1st).  He arrived in a hot air balloon!

He brought the boys an Advent calendar (they've never had one before) and left a note.  He said he was excited to be back, reminded everyone not to touch him, asked the boys to be good, and promised not to go in their rooms (Carter and Rylan are completely freaked out about the possibility of him entering their rooms when they are sleeping).

This morning Mr. Elf had already gotten himself into a bit of trouble.

Somehow he got himself stuck in a balloon!

I'm sure this isn't the only crazy thing Mr. Elf will do this year!

Big South Fork

The boys had the week of Thanksgiving off from school again this year.  We decided to visit Brian's family for the week this year (last year we went to DC for a few days before Thanksgiving).  On the way, we took a day to hike in Big South Fork.  Then we spent the night in a hotel in Knoxville (which the boys LOVED) before driving the now shorter haul to Raleigh on Sunday.

We've been wanting to take the boys hiking in BSF for awhile.  Carter has technically been there before but it was before Rylan was even born.  We had hoped to camp there for fall break but Brian got too busy with work and we stayed in town.

Our first hike of the day was to Twin Arches.  It was COLD on Saturday - low 40s, overcast, and very windy.  It was 80F only a day or two earlier so it felt extra cold.

We bundled the boys up and they did okay (Gray's hands were only a little frozen since he was stuck in the backpack).

We had Charlotte with us and the boys (including Gray) were super excited to walk her.

I'm in a picture for once :)

Before hiking to the bottom of the arches, you have to cross on top of one of them.

The big boys pretending to be freaked out about being on top of the arch ...

South Arch:

Somehow we'd never explored this crack at the backside of South Arch that goes all the way through!

We continued down the Twin Arches Loop Trail for awhile to checkout some cool rockhouses.  They were all different and huge.

We backtracked after awhile and returned to the Twin Arches.  This is North Arch:

By the time we got back to the trailhead, we had hiked about 2.5 miles.  We ate a packed lunch in the car as we drove to our next stop since it was so windy at the trailhead and we needed to thaw out.

Our next stop was an arch just off the road as you enter Pickett State Park which borders Big South Fork.  Here are Brian and the boys standing on top of Natural Bridge:

Before moving on we found a letterbox in the small cave behind the arch.

Our last stop was to Hidden Passage which is a one mile out and one mile back trail.  Brian and I had never been to this area of the park before.  The leaves were especially thick on this trail!

The boys found this arch just off the trail.

Hidden Passage:

The boys were tired after this (as was Charlotte - she never gets that much exercise any more!!!) so we headed to the hotel in Knoxville.  We had a great time showing the boys Big South Fork and look forward to bringing them back again soon!!!

Recent Pictures

Some pictures from late October and early November ...

The Brentwood YMCA had their annual fall festival on the last Saturday of October. I couldn't find any information about it this year and thought that they weren't doing it but found out that morning at Carter's soccer game that it was indeed going to happen.  So after soccer, we headed over for inflatables, a "train" ride, and free pizza!  Gray loved riding the train with his bros!

Carter had a birthday party to go to in the afternoon but first I took the boys to the Brentwood Library to see a production of "The Great Pumpkin" by one of the local middle schools.  Since it was a couple of days before Halloween, the kids were encouraged to wear the costumes!  The little guy is hiding in the tree and is at least wearing a Halloween shirt!

Gray thought this should be his seat before the musical started ...

The middle school kids did a great job and my boys enjoyed the songs that were all sung to the tune of Christmas carols.

My dad visited around Gray's birthday for a couple of days on both ends a trip up to see his family in Milwaukee.  He got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with Gray since the big boys had school and Gray didn't take long to warm up to him.  Gray even learned to say his name and there was constant yelling for "Mike! Mike! Miiiiiike!"

Rylan has been loving on Charlotte a lot lately.  Carter has always paid more attention to her and talks about how much he loves dogs.  But Rylan has recently been asking me to take his picture with Charlotte all the time.

A couple of weeks ago, our school had their mother-son event at Above All which is a trampoline place with a large Ninja Warrior type section.  Carter and I couldn't go to the event when he was in kindergarten because it was just a couple of days after Gray was born and then last year he had strep throat.  I didn't see Carter most of the hour we had to play (he was in the dodge ball section most of the time) but Rylan hung with me the entire time, sweet boy.

I also snuck Gray in with us since Brian was still working :)

Carter lost his 4th tooth (finally) on November 12th.  We were at El Sombrero and it was barely staying in.  It was freaking Carter out and he didn't want to eat.  Brian told him to twist it a little and Carter finally did and it popped right out!

Carter also freaked out about us taking a bandaid off that he'd left on for a week because he was so scared it was going to hurt.  We "battled" him for 15 minutes (there were tears) before Brian finally just ripped it off without warning.

Happy Birthday Carter!!!

Happy birthday to our amazing eight year old!  We love you, Carter-man!

Veterans Day Parade

On Friday, Suzi and I took all our boys to the Veterans Day Parade in downtown Franklin.  Before the parade, we went to Merridee's Breadbasket for breakfast.  I had never been there before and it was awesome!  Gray's croissant was the best I've ever tasted - and that was my go to breakfast whenever I've traveled in Europe.  I had a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit ... yum!  The biscuit itself has ham and cheese in it.  It was so good.

After breakfast, we headed to Main St to claim our spot.  We had about 45 minutes to kill but luckily the boys entertained themselves without getting too crazy.

The parade lasted about 30 minutes.  There were a lot of high school marching bands and old cars with veterans sitting in them.  The kids wished more candy was thrown out (they all got about one piece) but still had fun.  Gray may have enjoyed it the most.  He screamed out at each new thing.  Mr. Shy eventually started waving at everyone too.

Frist

Last Saturday, Frist had their free Family Day.  I took the boys there (and then to a birthday party) so Brian could have a day to work on his "new" car.

The temporary exhibit at the museum is "Samurai: The Way of the Warrior" which was really cool. There were suits of armor, helmets, swords, and more.  Plus there was a seek and find to find creatures in the art on the helmets, etc.  Perfect for my boys!

Then we headed over to watch the play "The Stonecutter" which was put on my Wishing Chair Productions.  They also do the puppet shows at the downtown library.  Carter really enjoyed the play, Rylan got a little bored, and Gray fell asleep :)

Next we headed upstairs to do the crafts.  The boys made origami samurai helmets, Edo boxes, and nobori warrior flags.

Before heading out, the boys spent some time in the ArtQuest Gallery (the permanent kids area at the museum where the kids can do watercolor paintings, print making, and other hands-on activities) and went to a storytime where they told The Story of the Peach Boy.

We love taking advantage of free activities!