Fall in Georgia

I was driving up the hill on our street to take Natalie to a friends house, when I saw the afternoon sun bursting right onto a tree with beautiful fall colors - surrounded by evergreens and trees that hadn't turned yet. I thought it was so cool and beautiful that the sun had a concentrated beam aimed down the hill to this one spot. By the time I got back to grab my camera and take the picture the brightness of the sun wasn't as strong - of course, but still a beautiful fall view.

Girls Party!

This past Saturday, Alyssa had her birthday party with her friends. She decided to invite just girls and make bath jam and room spray. The girls had a blast.

Once the bath jam was mixed and put aside to set, they made room sprays - with either lavender or green apple fragrance.
The kitchen smelled like a combination of lavender and green apple the rest of the day!

Alyssa picked an ice cream cake for the party. I must admit that it was one of the easier cakes I've made, no baking or frosting needed.

The party turned out so well. Once the girls had cake and opened gifts they had a little while to play and I got the kitchen cleaned up before parents came to pick up their girls. Robert took the boys to work, came home in time for cake and then left with the boys again. So, it was a great 'girls only' afternoon. Alyssa couldn't wait to take a bath with the bath jam - one Saturday with the cherry, one Sunday with the orange!

Sure, Make Me Cry!

I just got back from running errands. When Logan started fussing at the first stop, I knew it wouldn't be the best run of errands - but, I've dealt with that before.
At our third quick stop, we were at Hobby Lobby picking up some supplies for Alyssa's school project. We were in line, behind a lady who had a price check issue, and Logan had seen something and wanted to go there. While I tried to calm his fussiness and hold his hands to keep him from hitting me, I had a rare experience. The lady in front of me was apologetic for the wait and the couple behind me was so nice and sympathetic and giving me words of encouragement that I just could not keep it together and tears dripped out.
Sure, make me cry by being so nice to a mother trying to calm and comfort her fussy child in a line at a store. I'm so use to people glaring and making huffing noises under their breath that I didn't know how to handle the kindness shown to me today. Thank you.

Should I be concerned?

Today, I came downstairs after drying my hair and found this . . .

I guess we didn't hide the Halloween candy well enough. Does it make it better that the chocolate candy was on the very top shelf?

. . . And yes, after the kids pick out 10 pieces of candy, all the rest gets put into categories (chewy, chocolate, lollipops/suckers, other - like smarties, etc.) and bagged. Is that an indication of OCD? or do my messy counters and cupboards negate that theory and I'm just weird?

One more note . . . in watching me write this post, the pictures reminded Logan (who is in my lap) of the candy and he has brought me Smarties to open for him. I obviously haven't moved the candy yet.

Birthday Girl!

I didn't have Alyssa go to school on her birthday, yesterday.
OK, so everyone in the district got school off on Alyssa's birthday - yea, election day!
People vote at some of the school buildings, so the district makes election day a student holiday and inservice day for the teachers.
So, Alyssa got to sleep in and pick her birthday breakfast of French breakfast puffs and scrambled eggs. We opened gifts at breakfast before Robert went to work.

I got a babysitter for the kids and took Alyssa shopping and out to lunch. After playing the rest of the afternoon we had a birthday dinner of Robert's pizza (the crust was made two days in advance this time and really good!) and cream soda. We sang Happy Birthday and had white chocolate curl cake and ice cream (the curls didn't really work, but still tasted good).

Before going to bed, Alyssa said it was the best birthday yet.
Happy Birthday Alyssa!

The Halloween Post

This is a bit late in posting, but we did have a great Halloween.
We went to our friend's neighborhood this year. They had a neighborhood party with a costume parade, pizza, hay ride and then trick-or-treating. Alyssa was a girl from ancient Greece (using Natalie's costume she made for a school project), Natalie was a detective, and Jake was a knight.

(on the hayride)

The girls (our friends have two girls Alyssa and Natalie's ages) went together . . .

. . . and the boys (they have one Jake's age - you would think we planned it, but we only met them since being in GA) went together.
With all the activities before hand, Jake tuckered out really early. Once the girls were done and candy given the once over, we went back home. It was 9pm by the time we got back, too late to go to a few neighborhood friends houses - next year. But, the kids had a great time.
You might be wondering about Logan. He had not taken a nap that day, which meant he would have fallen asleep on the way over and been cranky the whole night, plus he doesn't like people in costumes. So, Robert got candy duty at our house - keeping Logan with him, who fell asleep early.
Anyone still on the sugar high?!
We hope everyone had a great Halloween!

. . . And with his BARE HANDS!!

Robert has been clearing a lot of the privet in our woods, opening up the area between the larger trees. We went for a walk through the woods to see how much he had done. One thing about clearing away the undergrowth is that you can find all the dead trees.

This was one, about 40 feet tall, that had already rotted quite a bit. Robert started pushing on it and ended up pushing it over. The look on Logan's face of awe was perfect. The expression loudly saying: "My dad just pushed over a huge tree with his bare hands!! He is amazing! He must be the strongest dad in the world!! That's MY dad!!"
Major cool points awarded!