Happy Halloween

Happy 70th Birthday - Wordless Wednessday

Halloween in the Neighborhood

On Sunday our neighborhood had its first Halloween party. I helped plan the event because I am on the recreation committee. We had a lot of kids show up and a few dogs. We invited people to bring their craved pumpkins for a contest but no one took us up on the offer.

We did have a professional face painter who was awesome. She stayed busy for two hours.
We babysat Colten on Sunday while Mark was running the marathon. If I was more organized, I would have dressed Colten up for the party.

This pirate was there just for the cookies and candy before going to Cubbies.


Our neighbor from across the street came in her Cat in the Hat costume to help us. She is a former preschooler teacher and her own children are now adults. She was a perfect helper for us and the kids love her. Can you see the mom in the back? Her husband painted her face so she would look like a cat.

One of my neighbors suggested decrorating the treat bags (I know just like the MOPS event). Here is the end of the line for the costume parade (I know I have no creativity - I just copied the MOPS event).

I was trying to take a picture of this cool Spider Man (and Lydia with her lollipop) but I also captured Colten covering his face. He loves to do this. Another mom came up and asked me about it because she was very concerned. I re-assured her that he just likes to that and that he can uncover it whenever he wants. Check out Michelle's post from the end of August; he is a pro at this game now.

I really hope this will be annual event. If so, I hope to dress up next year.

Fall Fun One Month Later

We went back out to Cox Farms on Friday for a birthday party. It was a wonderful party for a four-year-old friend. Her mommy made “Happy Birthday Meals” for all the kids – a paper bag, with each kid's name on it, containing four chicken nuggets, a cheese sticks, apple slices, pretzels, and a drinkable yogurt. That seems like the perfect little kid lunch. My kids loved it! She also had pizza and pasta salad for the adults. She made dirt cake and ordered a Thomas cake for the birthday cake (she wanted to make the cake but her daughter wanted the one from the grocery store).

It was just one day short of being a month since our first trip this fall to Cox Farms. I have to say that one month of gross motor development made a huge difference for Lydia. I think the motor learning from the first trip also helped her. I saw two major areas of improvement. The first was her ability to go down the slides sitting up by herself and keep her legs together so as not to get a foot stuck on the side or flip herself around or over. Second, she did much better walking up the hills to go down the slides. I still carried her some just to speed things up but she took a lot fewer falls walking up the hills and over ditches and other uneven ground.

I did have to go down behind because she didn’t always slide to the bottom of the slide and it also took her awhile to stand up and get off the slide on her own – mainly because she was in no hurry to do it. So, I went down behind her and gently “crashed” into her (which she loved) and then picked her up and carried her off the slide so the person behind us could go.

My parents were already planning to come up this weekend to celebrate my dad’s 70th birthday. They always leave before sun-up because they are so excited to see their grandkids. I asked them to just meet me at Cox Farms since it is on their way to our house. It was a big help to have them at the birthday party and for just playing at the farm. My parents thought it was a good value for $9 a person because there is so much to do (even though they didn’t go any slides). My mom said that her favorite thing was the hayride because there is so much to it.

Nanna and PawPaw on the hayride.

Every time the tractor gets "stuck" in the water and this farmer comes up to help "pull" the tractor out of the water. My kids crack up over this but it scares some of the kids.

There are all kinds of wooden cartoon characters to look at on the hayride but my favorite is the Invisible Man.

It was a little cold on Friday. I didn't think it was cold enough for gloves but Wesley insisted on wearing them all day.

We call this the "L@keside Slide" after the big slide at the now closed park in Salem, VA. I took this picture of the Wrights.

My kids are rather fearless. They are not afraid of the slides or the hayride or anything at Disney World but they are terrified of the goats. Well, they like the goats when a fence separates them. We bought cake cones filled with goat food for a $1 a piece and then went inside the goat pen to feed them. The last time the goats quickly took Wesley's cone away so my dad and held the cones for Wesley and Lydia this time. They still hated the goats pressing up against them.

Wesley actually started crying. He told me on the way out to the farm that the goats would scare him again and make him cry again. I realize that most moms would have just skipped the goats but I was hoping that things would be better this time around. Also, Wesley gets over stuff like so quickly that I was willing to try it again.

Lydia with her favorite character.

Wesley and Hunter.

The kids loved playing on the tractors.

We didn't stay as long as we did a month ago. We left about 3:30 (an hour earlier). The kids were asleep within minutes.

The Blanket

Lydia has a special blanket that she sleeps with it. Really, it isn't a blanket but a sleep sack wearable blanket. She likes to hold it, wrap it around her like a scarf, and lie on top of it.

Yesterday afternoon she started screaming for her blanket but I try to let her have it only in the crib. She was more than happy to get in her crib and snuggle with her blanket even though it was over an hour after naptime.

I washed the dishes that had piled up in the sink and after I turned off the water I heard both kids upstairs having a great time. This is what I found when I went in their room: both kids in Lydia's crib having fun jumping around and being silly.

I hope Lydia was not taking any lessons on how to get out of the crib.

Boy/Girl Differences - Wordless Wednesday

Dress Up For Fall

Saturday was the MOPS Harvest Festival at our church. Michelle and I are in charge of planning the special activities again this year. We love our "job" but it is stressful at times. Mainly I worry about everything going well and everyone having a good time. I pray that the events are a blessing the moms and their family.

My wonderful husband set up the moonbounce by himself. He was not very happy with me at the time and one of friends got to witness this marriage-tester. Thankfully Barry helped him take it down so that part wasn't so bad.

Lydia wore Wesley's frog costume from two years. She did say "no frog" several times as I was putting it on her but she got used to it. She has another costume that she will be wearing at another event but I was afraid it would get messed up on the playground and in the moonbounce. The kids enjoyed painting pumpkins. Thankfully Lydia didn't notice that she wasn't really painting; she was just happy to have the brush.
This isn't Wesley's real costume but, again, I was afraid his real costume would get messed up. Both kids have matching costumes that are a little too big for them but they look great!

The kids decorated bags that they used to collect treats during the costume parade. I didn't get any good pictures except I got great pictures of Hunter but Michelle isn't revealing his awesome costume to the blog world yet

This little froggie didn't want to be held. She wanted to get down and play. We should have put her in a monkey costume. On the playground (for elementary school aged kids). She figured out to climb a big arcing ladder. The problem was that she kept slipping on the second rung from the top so someone had to catch her every time. Once while both parents were distracted with cleaning up and taking down the moonbounce another mom had to catch her. Sometimes she is fearless (but not in the moonbounce).

Sweetness

Today Chris was asking me if I wanted another baby. We aren't planning to have another baby but we do talk about it sometimes.

When Wesley heard Chris ask, "Do you want another baby?" he immediately said, "I don't want another baby."

Chris asked, "Why don't you want another baby?"

Wesley said, "I want this baby" and pointed to Lydia. Then he said, "I want to keep her for a long, long time."

Secret Santa for Health - A Good Cause

My very good friend Nancy has a heart of gold and she is helping out a wonderful organization in Kenya, Lwala Community Alliance. In July she hosted a screening of the documentary Sons of Lwala in Plano, Texas. The screening raised money for the non-profit organization.

Here is a little information on the documentary about the two extordinary brothers who opened the medical clinic in Lwala.

Milton and Fred Ochieng’ are two brothers from Kenya whose village sent them to America to become doctors. But after losing both parents to AIDS they are left with a heartbreaking task: to return home and finish the health clinic their father started before getting sick. Unable to raise enough money on their own, the brothers are joined by students, politicians, and a rock band who launch a fund raising drive among young people across the United States. Sons of Lwala follows Milton and Fred on their incredible journey as they find a way, despite all odds, to open their village’s first hospital.

Here is an AP article about the clinic.

Now, Nancy is organizing a Secret Santa for Health to benefit the medical clinic in Lwala.

How does this work? If you want to sign up, email Nancy here. You will need to give her $10 via check or paypal (you can work that out once you email her). Your $10 donation will support the medical clinic in Kenya by providing aids testing for ten people. She will pick a Secret Santa for you and you will buy and send a gift to the name you receive and will get a gift from the person who receives your name. Nancy has a short questionnaire (that I will put at the bottom of this post) for you to fill out so the person who gets your name will know a little something about you.

Nancy has a couple gift-giving "rules":

1. Please make your gift in some way health-related. You can be creative with this one, physical or mental health, etc. Healthy snacks, books, anything that strikes you as health-related, so we honor the medical clinic in Lwala.
2. Without having to spend a lot of money, just try to make it a gift you'd be happy to receive. This can easily be done in the $10-$15 range, right? It sure could for me!

Yes, this seemed a bit complicated to me at first but now I get it. My friend Nancy never does things the easy, boring way like I would. Instead she wants to get everyone involved with this organization that has stolen her heart and she also wants everyone to have fun doing it.

Here is the Secret Santa for Health questionnaire (you can include your answers when you email Nancy):

Name
Address
Blog website if you have one
Favorite colors:
Favorite scents:
Favorite treats:
Healthy habits I already have:
Healthy things I'd like to try/learn about:
Anything else your Secret Santa should know

Seven Random Things

I was recently tagged by Naturally Caffeinated Family for seven random things about me and I decided to play along.

1. I am starting to be addicted to technology. My husband is an early adaptor so he usually gets the gadgets as soon as they come out. At first I thought a lot of these gadgets were silly. I didn’t see the value of TiVo when it first it came out nine years ago; now I can't watch TV without it! I sometimes use a GPS in my car. I even keep a GPS watch attached to my double jogger so that I can make sure I keep a good walking pace. When I listen to music at home, I listen via Rhapsody which is awesome. I LOVE my iPhone. I need to get off the computer at night and try the Wii.

2. I enjoy getting up early. Well I don’t always like the getting out of bed part, but I like drinking coffee and having my quiet time before my children get up. I also have a better outlook on things in the mornings. Ideally I would like to sleep from 10 to 6 but often on work days I am sleeping from 11 to 5:30 which isn’t quite enough for me.

3. I love to cook (when my kids aren’t screaming and/or whining). I love R@chel R@y and her 30 minute meals. I also love recipes from Southern Living and Sweet Pea Chef and Pioneer Woman.

4. I am terrible at team sports and anything that requires eye hand coordination. I took a tennis class eight years ago. I wasn’t the worst player at the beginning of the class but I was the worst player at the end of the class; everyone else improved. I was decent at swimming and running in school.

5. I love to read. Since having kids I have read so many parenting books. I am still looking for the perfect one (besides the Bible, of course). I also like fiction.

6. I would like to travel the world.

7. I am an only child and have somewhat overcome my Only Child Syndrome (it’s all-about-me issues). Actually, I think I still struggle with the OCS sometimes.

I tag
Michele
Nancy

Wild Horses - Wordless Wednesday

As Seen On TV

A few weeks ago, I was watching J & K + 8 while I was on the elliptical machine. The episode showed the family vacationing at the Outer Banks. They went on a cool off road adventure to see wild horses. They put their little kids in their carseats in the Land Cruisers. I realized that we could do the same with our little kids so I hit rewind on the TiVo so I could see the name of the company. I googled the company in Corolla and we made our plans.

Since we had the kids with us we couldn't take the open top Land Cruiser. We took this one. I have always liked the Land Cruisers and it was fun to ride in an older one (1989 model). The guide drove a slightly newer model and he had five passengers with him. It is a little cheaper to ride with the guide but of course Chris wanted to drive off-road. I also wanted him to drive; maybe next time I will drive.

We drove up the road a mile or two and then got on the beach when the road ended. Four years ago we rode on the beach with one of Chris' coworkers in his 4 X 4 pickup. Before we got on the beach, Jody let some of the air out of all of his tires so the tires would widen out instead of sink in the sand. A lot of people miss this step the first time they drive on the beach.

Our Land Cruiser already had low tire pressure so we were good to go. Driving on the beach right at the waters edge was an amazing experience in itself. It was such a beautiful day.

We stopped for this photo op. Had the kids been looking at the camera and not rubbing their faces, this might have been our Christmas card photo.
Before looking for the wild horses we had fun going over sand dunes. The guide told Chris that he had to "floor it" to get up the dunes. Well, it is probably a good thing I wasn't driving because I would have been overjoyed to follow his directions. Chris didn't "floor it" the first time and we had to back down the dune because we didn't make it up. The second time, he followed directions and we made it to the top.
This was the view at the top. Most of these houses in this area are rentals but you have to have four wheel drive (and low tire pressure). They have electricity and cable, well water and septic tanks. No roads can be built in the wild horse sanctuary.
After this photo op, we spent some time on the "roller coaster" - up the dune, down the dune, up another dune and back down while doing a figure eight. The kids laughed and laughed in the backseat in their carseats.

The guide told Chris he could go as fast as wanted. Again, it is probably a good thing I wasn't driving. Chris let off the gas at times when I wouldn't have which may have caused problems or maybe not. I might post some video of this later in the week. It made the whole "adventure" worth the cost for Chris.

We also went through this rather high water. That is our guide in front of us.

We saw a total of twenty-six wild horses. Some were in people's yards or under their houses.

When we stopped to look at these horses Lydia said "happy, happy" several times! This little foal was five weeks old. Isn't she beautiful?
The horses weren't afraid of us and often stared at us as we stared at them. They know that the humans can't mess with them.

It was time to leave so we went back out on the beach to drive to the road. It was such a beautiful day and so much fun driving (or in my case, riding) on the beach that it would have been enough just to be on the beach, but we were blessed to see four horses on the beach!

We stopped to take pictures of them and just watch them. We left our kids in the car (as we stood beside of it) because I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep them out of the water.

The little kid who owned these buckets got scared and ran over to his parents. These two horses look like they rolled in the sand, don't they?
I love this photo. The fisherman was obviously not there to see the horses.
If I had an SLR camera I could show you photos of the horses swimming in the ocean! They walked past us and we just watched them. When they got a little ways down the beach, they went for a quick swim. It was so cool to see that.

This was one of the best "exercusions" we have done while vacationing. We were very happy with the whole experience. I loved everything about it - especially that we got to share an "adventure" with our little kids who also loved it.

After returning our Land Cruiser we went to a local seafood restaurant based on a recommendation and had a good lunch. The kids loved the popcorn shrimp.

When we got back to the beach house, we spent a little bit of time on the beach while Lydia begged, "Night Night! Nap!" I am not kidding. She had fallen asleep for about 15 minutes or so on the tour and she didn't nap on the almost hour drive from Corolla to Kill Devil Hills like Wesley did. I wanted to go play on the beach so I took her with us even though she really wanted a nap. (We finally had great beach weather.) She liked playing in the sand and at the edge of the water but she did lie down a few times on the beach towells. She was so happy to go to bed at 7:00 that night.

A Windy Day

All the kids started playing together again on Saturday morning.

After Chris and I walked for about 5 1/2 miles, we had an early lunch and then took the kids to the beach. As we were getting to the beach some of our friends were going back to the house because they were a little cold.

Lydia was very happy to play in the sand with the toys. It was about 75 degrees but very breezy. I felt warm from the sun but cold from the wind which almost made me feel like I had the flu. At first I was trying to just sit on a towel and relax but I was too cold. I had to get up and do jumping jacks and start running in and out of the water (just up to my knees).

This guy in the picture was enjoying the wind. He was on a surf board and he was using a kite to glide across the water and jump the waves. I think it is called kite surfing. He was going so fast.
Wesley tells us he is cold all the time except when he is in the water. He had a great time running in and out of the water and pouring the cold water over his head.
I did take Lydia in the water just to get her feet wet. She loved it! Notice that I am still wearing my long sleeve shirt and my skirt-cover up. Everyone was tired after playing at the beach. Wesley took a three hour nap and Lydia and Chris slept for about two hours while I blogged and talked to people.

Here is a picture of Janie and Monica. Their husbands have worked together for 20 years. The ladies are pan frying soft shell crabs for dinner. Don't they look cute?

For dinner we had salad, steaks, crabs and shrimp, hushpuppies and some sides. I wished I had realized what a great place the loft was for taking pictures before half the food was gobbled up.

Here is a photo of two of Chris' coworkers who are getting ready to crack open some crabs (see how many). I usually bum some crab from them because it is too much work for me. I don't like having to work that hard for food. The first time I met the guy on the left (about 11 years ago) he cracked crabs for me. I had never had crabs like that before and Chris doesn't really eat them so his super nice coworker helped me. They are all very nice.

Once Wesley discovered the "hammers" he was all about "bamming" the crabs. They gave him a leg to whack. This kept him entertained for awhile.

Here is an over head shot of one of the tables eating crabs.

I played Mexican Train again Saturday night. One of the guys actually played with us. I think he liked it but he did spill my drink in my lap. I was just happy that I wasn't the one who knocked it over. Sometimes I am a complete clutz.