Happy Halloween!

We had the best Halloween night!  My sweet little Wendy, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell had tons of fun tonight and I was loving chasing them around the neighborhood as they ran from house to house to get more candy.  

Christy had all of us over for pizza before trick-or-treating and the kids loved playing and eating together.  Her husband always sets up a margarita table along with the candy so that they have treats for the adults, too!

When it was officially time to take off for trick-or-treating the kids were ready to go!

Hudson spent the first part of the evening not a happy camper, but once he got to ride with Jake in his "Batmobile" he was thrilled!

When Hudson got to start the real trick-or-treating he was LOVING it.  He has been carrying his little pumpkin bag around for the past two days so getting treats to fill it up tonight at each house was the icing on the cake.  

 Harper was super excited about all of the candy she was getting and loved walking house to house holding hands with her BFF, Reece.

Handley and Avery were really into it this year and went running from house to house as the younger kids tried to keep up.  

As soon as we got home (way past bedtime) I let them dump out their candy and check out their loot.  We all ate WAY too much candy this evening, but Halloween only comes once a year, so I just turned a blind eye and let them have at it!

Party Day

It was a two party kind of day.  Handley's class Fall party was today.  Gigi was sweet enough to come meet me at Harper's gymnastics class so she could bring Harper and Hudson home while I went off to the school for Handley's class.  

It was pretty much the same set-up as Harper's party yesterday.  They had Chick-fil-a nuggets for lunch, played a few games and did a couple of crafts.  The main difference though is that Handley's class only has 9 students so it was a much calmer atmosphere.  

She was excited to wear her Wendy costume today and did NOT want to take it off this afternoon when we got home.  I take that as a good thing and it makes me happy since I spent so long making it. 

Handley and Grace, aka Wendy and Rapunzel 

***It's no secret that we like to match or coordinate in our house and the same holds true for Halloween. We went with a Peter Pan theme this year.  Handley had seen Peter Pan at the Fox with Gigi this summer and really wanted to be Wendy.  Harper had already talked about being a fairy and we had a green fairy costume so that worked perfectly for Tinkerbell. I could not find a Wendy costume anywhere though and all the Peter Pan costumes for Hudson were too big so I ended up making hers and Hudson's. I can't wait for them to all dress up together tomorrow night!

This afternoon our playgroup had a Halloween party and the hostess, Deanna, did an amazing job.  She goes over the top and the same was true today.  As we walked in there was a "spooky" room for the kids to explore.  There was a haunted house covered with spider webs made out of big boxes and inside were light-up spiders. She also had a strobe light blinking and lots of orange Halloween (Christmas) lights in there.  The kids LOVED it.  There were also crafts and tons of goodies to eat and drink.  

Reece and Harper hard at work on their craft.

 

We love all of our sweet friends and feel so lucky to be able to do such fun things with them all!

Harper's Fall Party and a lesson learned

Harper's Fall party at school was today and the kids all got to wear their costumes.  She was really excited to dress in her fairy (Tinkerbell) costume and have me attend her party.

She looked super cute and had fun.  They had Chick-fil-a nuggets for lunch, did a pumpkin sticker craft, played pin-the-nose on the jack-o-lantern and pumpkin bean bag toss.

I was very thankful to my BFF, Jen, watching Hudson for me so that I could be at Harper's party.  Hudson had tons of fun trying to keep up with his buddy, Parker.

This afternoon was especially quiet at our house because Handley went home with her friend Grace after school.  This was the first time she went home with a friend straight from school, so a pretty big day for her.  We had such a busy and exciting morning getting to school that I forgot to remind her to be on her best behavior at Grace's house and to use her manners.  I had to just rely on the fact that I have been telling her those things for 5 years now and trust that she would make me proud.  She ended up staying for dinner with them at Chick-fil-a and when they dropped her off I got a great report.

While Grace's mom and I were chatting downstairs the big kids ran up to the playroom for a little bit.  Next thing I knew there were tears because someone had gotten hurt.  I went up to check on them the playroom was a mess.  And, so were the kids.  They all had stamps ALL over themselves.  Not a huge deal, except that these stamp pads are supposed to be used on paper and did not wash off in the bath tonight.  Handley was seriously regretting her decision to cover her arms with stamps when I reminded her that she was wearing her Wendy costume tomorrow for her class party.  Good thing it's cold and her arms will be covered with long sleeves under her costume.  I have no idea who the ring leader was and couldn't get a straight answer from either Harper or Handley, which makes me think they were all in on it.  Either way, we had a long discussion tonight about making good choices and doing what you know is right, because I know for a fact that they know those stamps are for paper only.  Lessons learned by all of us.  They won't stamp their skin again and I won't give them a chance because those stamp pads are being moved out of the playroom supplies.  If it didn't happen today, I'm sure Hudson would have discovered them before long.

How 'bout them DAWGS?!?!?

Tonight we had SO much fun cheering the DAWGS on as they defeated the Florida Gators.  I love that the girls get really into the games and are super excited about our team.  Hudson even said his version of, "Go Dawgs, woof - woof" repeatedly tonight.  We are raising them right! My mom and I snapped these pictures quickly with our phones as we were celebrating right after the win.

We spent the morning at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for the Scarecrows in the Garden exhibit.  Companies, schools and organizations all over down decorate and create scarecrows and they are displayed all throughout the gardens.  It's fun to see how creative people can be and all of the different scarecrows.  Trey and Stefanie joined us this morning, too and Harper was glued to Stefanie's side the entire time.

There just happened to be a lot of children's activities going on in the Children's Garden portion of the gardens and the girls loved it.  They got to play games like pumpkin bowling, get their hands painted with pumpkins, make owl hats and check out dried gourds.  All of that on top of the play areas already there made for an exciting morning.

Reading their maps and figuring out which way to go.

The girls wanted to pretend to be scarecrows with one of the displays. 

We spent the afternoon playing outside and enjoying the cooler fall weather before cheering on the Dawgs and grilling out steaks for dinner.  It was a pretty fantastic day.

Mimi and Dadaw are here!

Harper's class was studying the farm this week, so yesterday they got to dress up like farmers.  I thought she looked so cute!  I drew freckles on her cheeks with eyeliner and all day she kept calling them her pickles instead of her freckles. 

While that was pretty exciting for a Thursday, the most exciting thing was when we got home from Handley's gymnastics class and Mimi and Dadaw had arrived.  We've been waiting for them to come all week and were so happy they were finally here.

Today I kept Handley home from school so she could spend time with them.  We spent part of the day at Northpoint Mall and had all kinds of fun there.  The girls got to tour through the American Girl store and Mimi was sweet enough to let them each pick out one thing.  Harper got a little dog for her doll and Handley got a cute Halloween outfit for hers.  The kids rode the carousel and played at the indoor play area.

Tonight my cousin, Bryn, came over for dinner.  She is SO sweet to my kids and they just adore her!  She painted the girls' nails and then played hair salon with them, which they loved. She stays really busy with work, but I'm hoping we can start getting together more often.