Trick-or-treat

Pure joy is how I would explain Handley's trick-or-treating experience tonight.  Each time she would get candy she'd turn around and was so happy I thought she might explode with excitement.  

This morning when she woke up up she told Mimi, "Tonight when it's night-time we get to go on an egg hunt!" Ha! Wrong holiday, but she knew something fun would be happening after dark.  The girls had been practicing saying "trick-or-treat" all week and Harper knew that she'd be getting candy after that phrase.  

The first few houses Harper was hesitant to go to the door and kept crying, but as soon as she saw the bowl of candy she turned the tears right off and dug right in.  By the end of the night her bag was so heavy it was dragging behind her.  Handley was a pro and herded our little crew around the street to each house.  

We were lucky enough to be able to trick-or-treat with our friends Addyson, Avery, and Dylan tonight and that made all kids happy.  

Everyone had such nice manners and they were great about saying thank you at each house.  At one house the person handing out candy gave Handley a huge handful.  She handed some back and said, "I really just need a few."

All night I heard, "This is SO much fun!!!!  I love trick-or-treating!!!"  The huge smile did not leave her face all night.  

Before trick-or-treating we watched the UGA game with Trey, Stefanie, Mimi and Dadaw.  The girls were so happy to have everyone here with us.  

Barnes Mill Fall Festival

This morning was our neighborhood's fall festival.  Several of the other moms and I have been planning it for a few weeks and it was a huge success!  We had perfect weather and a huge turnout.  The girls were happy to have Mimi, Gigi and Papa there for the big event.  A big thanks to them for helping with the girls while I was busy "working."  

Ready to go!

The kids all paraded around our playground in costumes and then everyone enjoyed hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch followed by lots of yummy treats.

Parading!

One of the other highlights of the day was the dad's potato sack race.  The winner got a GIANT 5 foot  teddy bear.  All of the dads were a little reluctant to participate at first, but the ones we convinced to race really got into it!  I'm happy to say that Robby did not win...I would have had no where to put that giant thing.

Handley noticed that this scarecrow had a sunflower on it's hat and wanted her picture with it. 

Carving Pumpkins

We had such a fun day yesterday. Since my parents are in town they got to come with us to Handley's gymnastics class and after gymnastics we took them to our favorite lunch spot, The Bakery, as Handley likes to call it.  Everyone enjoyed their lunch and special treat before heading home to spend some time outdoors soaking up the gorgeous fall weather.  

After nap/rest time we started on our pumpkins.  Every year I want to do something a little more creative than the regular jack-o-lantern face, but somehow we always run out of time and just end up doing something simple.  I decided I wanted to try carving a Georgia "G" in one of the pumpkins since we have a big game today.  Handley wanted a castle for our other big pumpkin.  I wasn't quite up for that challenge so she suggested a flower to match her costume.  That was something I thought we could pull off.

Harper took the job of removing the pumpkin seeds very seriously, but Handley wasn't as thrilled with touching all the goo.  With the help of Mimi we got our pumpkins ready to carve and I'm so happy with the way they turned out.

After dinner it was dark enough to light them up and both girls were so excited to pose beside our pumpkins.

Pre-school Halloween Party

Today was Handley's pre-school Halloween party.  The kids got to wear their costumes and they all looked so cute.  This year Handley is a sunflower.  Harper is going to wear Handley's old bumble bee costume and I when I was trying to come up with something for Handley that would go with a bee I thought of a flower.  I found a sunflower princess costume online for $50 and decided I could make my own version for much, much less.

Handley was thrilled that I would be able to attend her party without Harper (thanks to Tiara to keeping her) and that it would "just us" as she likes to say.  They had a pizza lunch and also a jello/candy corn dessert that was a hit!  After lunch we had planned several stations for the kids including a sticker craft, making orange and black beaded bracelets, playing pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern and digging through spaghetti "worms" for treats.

 

Spaghetti worms

The best group shot I could get. 

Handley with her teachers, Mrs. Nina and Mrs. Gloria. 

Halloween Fun

After getting back in town late Monday night we spent Tuesday getting ready for our playgroup's Halloween party.  The kids had snacks, did a craft, and played their little hearts out.

Some of the kids ready to party

These 3 have been friends since they were only a few months old.

Aren't these cute?  My friend Christy made them and the kids loved having cookies with their names on them.

On Wednesday Handley's friend Grace invited her to bring-a-friend-day for her ballet class.  It was also dress-up day.  Handley has been asking me when she is going to do ballet again so she was super excited. She decided to wear her Aurora dress-up outfit and although the skirt kept falling off of her she did great during the class.  When we left she asked me when she would be signed up for ballet again and I promised her that after Christmas I would try to get her in the class.

On the way home from ballet Handley told me that Grace had picked her to be her friend at ballet.  She also informed me in a very matter-of-fact manner that if someone picks you to be their friend that you are their friend forever so she would be Grace's friend forever.  :-)

In Loving Memory

In loving memory of my grandfather

December 4, 1929 - October 22, 2010

This week we attended my grandfather's funeral.  He was such an incredible man, a wonderful father and an amazing grandfather.  He was caring towards everyone and a true southern gentleman.  He and my grandmother would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary next week.  We loved him very much and he will be missed greatly by all of us.

A day full of Birthdays!

Handley just loves birthdays!  She loves everything about them and is always really excited when we have a birthday party to attend. Today we had two parties.  The morning party was for her friend Charlie.  Charlie was celebrating his 3rd birthday with a fire truck party.  A REAL fire truck showed up at the party and all of the kids were just beside themselves with excitement when it turned the corner with flashing lights and the siren going.  Each of them got a chance to sit in the driver's seat and take a ride around the neighborhood in the truck.

This evening was Dylan's 1st birthday.  We like to joke that Dylan is Harper's boyfriend.  She sure does love him and is happy to get to play with and hug on him any chance she gets.  He had a jungle animal themed party and it was fun for everyone.  The weather was perfect and we all enjoyed playing outdoors, good food, and cake!

Face Update

Handley's face is still pretty beat-up.  It's a lot more red today, but she's a real trooper.  Her teacher said she got lots of attention today at school and every time someone asked what happened she would go into the whole story.

Not a great picture, but you can sort of see how it looks today. 

Tonight we had plans to visit with Jen for dinner and our friends Erica, Grace, and Bonnie ended up joining us.  Those little girls just ran around, giggled, and played all evening long.

A few funny things Handley has said recently:

- While looking at cars at a dealership last weekend Harper kept pointing to all the balloons and saying "boons."  They were tied on every car and Handley said, "I think they are having a car party here."  To her balloons = a party.

- I asked her to remind me of something later and she said, "OK, I will because I have a good remembery."

- I told her to help me find something and she said she could because she had a "good smelling finding nose."  Just like a dog, I guess?