Sort of Halloween

When we got home from soccer last night, we found a note on the mailbox saying that due to the expected rain our neighborhood was trick or treating Friday night.  Since the kids were worried about getting rained out Saturday, they were glad we were going to get to trick or treat but bummed that John would be at work and miss it.  

 We hadn't carved our pumpkin yet, so we took care of that this afternoon while Annie napped.

 Ben and Mollie Grace drew the face and I carved it.

 Preparing a pumpkin full of candy to sit by our front door since no one would be home to hand it out for trick or treaters.

 Woodstock, Snoopy, and Rarity (from My Little Pony).  Annie kept telling people she was a duck.

 Our neighbors invited us to trick or treat with them and their church friends (who happen to be in our CC group).

Spider ring

I didn't get a picture before we headed out because the kids were so excited to get started, but I was Peppermint Patty from the Peanuts gang to go along with Ben and Annie's costumes.

Rain, Rain

It's been raining for several days now, but that hasn't slowed us down much.  Thankfully, Ben's soccer game was cancelled yesterday evening since it was pouring.  It also gave us a chance to eat supper with Louis and Kathy Young, who were visiting family near Tupelo and drove over to visit with us for a couple of hours.

 Sunday afternoon we attended a FedEx family picnic.  There were several fun activities like pony and train rides that were unavailable due to the rain, but there was still food (under a pavilion) and a face painter, photo booth, and bouncy house (under a big tent).

 The dancers were encouraged to dress up for class this week.  We used Annie's Pinkie Pie skirt (there's a pink pony tail on the back) over Mollie Grace's pink leotard and sprayed her hair pink to create a My Little Pony costume that she could easily dance in.

Modeling Waffle House hats with Kathy.  We all enjoyed seeing Kathy and Louis but were a little sad when those couple of hours with Hattiesburg friends were over.

One last dress up day at CC -- PJ day.  This week I took their picture inside the front door because it was raining.

Busy Week

This has been an incredibly busy week.  Every day on my calendar had something written in (a few days had two events) along with our usual schoolwork, housework, and neighbors coming over to play.

 On Wednesday, Annie had her two-year-old well child check up.  She's showing off her band-aid where they drew blood.  I have no idea what she weighs.  I couldn't hear it over the screaming.  You have never seen someone throw such a fit over standing on the scale.  Their weight is probably wrong anyway.  They eventually held her on the baby scale while she screamed and tried to jump off. Trying to measure here was nearly as bad.  The doctor was concerned by her height so I held her arms down and he held her legs and measured her again.  She was three inches taller than the nurse measured. The entire appointment was very dramatic but she is healthy and growing.

 We finally erased the Bible verse left by the former owners on the kitchen chalk board.  Mollie Grace drew this giraffe.

 Annie is showing me the "marker chalk."

 Mollie Grace built this enormous cake on her bed during nap.  I let it stay up for a day or two but eventually told her that she had to make her bed.  Ben took this picture of her before she knocked it down.

 Ben was their to record the knocking down of the "cake" as well.

Our science curriculum includes lots of hands on activities.  On Wednesday we went on a nature scavenger hunt by the neighborhood lake.  It's an on-going scavenger hunt because there are some things we won't find until spring.

 We found 12 of the 30 items including this "flock of bird."

 Mollie Grace brought along a walking stick (plastic golf club) for our nature walk.

On Thursday night I didn't take any pictures but Ben had a soccer game.  He scored his first goal on the season.  He's mainly played in a defensive position this season.

Today we met up with our CC friends for a fall party.  

 I wasn't prepared for acrylic paint so I stripped Annie's clothes off and turned Ben and Mollie's shirts inside out.

 Mollie Grace with her double named CC friends --  Lucy Kate, Sarah Grace, and Annaliese.  Annaliese is not a double name but it's still a mouthful and I feel sorry for their teacher trying to keep all that straight.

Our front entrance is very colorful right now with two sets of painted pumpkins.

Pumpkin Patch 2

A few more pumpkin patch pictures that I got from a CC friend.

Pumpkin Patch

We went on a field trip today to Cedar Hills Farm with our CC group.  We went on a hayride, found our way through a corn maze, fed farm animals, rode a train, watched a pig race, chose pumpkins from the pumpkin patch AND the battery on my camera was dead.  I took a few pics with my ancient flip phone.  I'm hoping to find pictures of us on Facebook that the other moms took.

 Waiting for the Pigadega 500.

 Pig race.

Ben and Mollie Grace loved playing in the corn.

Mollie Grace had a hard time choosing a pumpkin and it was time to get back on the hayride by the time she decided so I didn't get a picture of her with her pumpkin.

Annie's 2nd Birthday

Annie turned 2 on Saturday.  She was excited about her "Elmo party."  

 Annie got dirt for her birthday!  She loves to dig in the dirt and there is really nowhere to dig in our new yard so we filled the sand box under the swingset.  Mollie Grace drew a smiley face in the fresh sand before Annie saw it. When she was playing in it this afternoon she was calling it "Annie's beach."

 Of course everyone wanted to play in Annie's dirt including our neighbor, Silas.

 Elmo cupcakes.