Halloween!!

Annual (though we may have skipped a few years!) pumpkin carving party! This is definitely a dad & kid's thing, I love to snap pics but something about pulling the gunk out of the pumpkin creeps me out. They have a good time being creative together.

 Finally, Halloween is here! The kids were so excited as always and my little flamenco dancer and SWAT team member helped me to get the house and yard prepared for our annual Halloween neighborhood get-together. We have a "healthy" meal of hot dogs before going out to collect lots of sugar ;) Everyone brought a lot of yummy food this year and it was a lot of fun! Love that the adults always get into the spirit also. You can see our Halloween trail in the background of the first few pics, we worked hard on that and add a few things to it each year. I'll try to take a few pics of that before we take it down this year.

Twin Day and Family Visit

Sophie & her friend (and our neighbor) dressed alike for twin day at their school. Have I mentioned how much I love our neighborhood? The kids have such good buddies and I love looking outside and seeing 10 kids running around the backyard! Sometimes I know all of them, sometimes not. ;) 

 Grandma & Aunt Connie came to visit, and we celebrated Grandma's 80th birthday a little early since we wouldn't see her in November. We had a good time and enjoyed the weekend together.

The Very First Time The Ice Cream Truck Visited Clamshell Avenue

Here are the kids and some chickens. I can not believe that Ben was 4, Sophie was 18 months old and Jay Patrick was around 15 months when we moved here 7 years ago! It's hard to believe these kids have been playing together for that long.

My birthday celebration at Leo's with some good friends. Thanks for organizing , Christina! What a fun night.

So the kids have been waiting for the ice cream truck to come down our street for a very long time. It's really kinda sad, they'd hear the music (that LOUD, loud music) play right by our street and they'd come in, madly rush around and gather money and rush out only to wait.and wait. at the end of the driveway. But this time they actually saw him coming, and along with every other kid in the hood, started jumping with joy! As you can see , the guy was pretty busy and probably made a fortune.

Fall Stuff

The kids enjoyed one last swim earlier this month. I did not even put a toe in - it was way too cold for me. 

I love that they still have sleepovers! I believe this was the night that Ben kicked Sophie practically off the bed. Come to think of it, this may have been the last time they had one... maybe she'll forget about it soon. ;)

Y'all know I have to post some of my feathered babies! The rooster has had some run-ins with me and Rod, so we'll see how long he stays around.

Sophie had a stay-and-play afternoon at her school and they did face painting.

Here's Ben with morning hair and all! He told me his teacher just had a birthday and he wanted to make her a card. I thought it was cute to see him put a lot of time and effort into it. He LOVES his teachers and can't wait to go to school every day. Sophie is the same. I'm really thankful for that. I had wonderful teachers growing up, but wasn't ever too psyched about going to school like they are!

Mumford & Sons concert (in a parking lot-weird) in New Orleans. I'm a little excited! It was a great night & really nice to get away with Rod, if just for a few hours.

We love Shaggy's in Biloxi and went there one Sunday afternoon. Yummy food, pretty view.

That's my girl! Football day at her school.

This lovely sight awaited me when I went out to open the chicken coop. I of course freaked out and called everyone I could think of to see if it was anything poisonous, then I whacked at it a few times with a very dull hoe and probably succeeded in only giving the thing a headache. Ahhh, the fun things you encounter when raising chickens.

Sophie & her friend/neighbor/classmate do homework together sometimes. They get out the white board, pointer, the whole 9 yards and I just hope that enthusiasm carries over into high school.

I just have one thing to say today...

      GO GEORGIA!!!!!!!

Labor Day Weekend in Ft. Walton Beach

We had a fun getaway to the beach with our good friends, our kids' ages match up perfectly & it made for a great weekend. I'll let the pics speak for themselves!

A rooster, boat ride and sleepovers

Ok, so all of these things didn't really coincide, but I'll start with the rooster. Prince Charles' job is to watch over his 9 ladies and he thinks he's pretty tough. Except at night when I try to pick him up & he runs behind the hens and hides. He's one of the 3 chickens we raised since egg-hood so it's been a lot of fun to see him change from a tiny just-born fluff ball to a huge 6 lb. rooster. So anyway, as much as he might not be thrilled by it, we try to hold him every few days to keep him semi-tame.

So I think I mentioned that we sold our boat? Well, our friends asked us to go to Horn Island with them & we jumped at the chance. Our kids agreed when we made it clear that we were going in their boat, not ours! (At this point the people who bought our boat hadn't picked it up yet.) We've had some not-so-relaxing experiences on ours, needless to say. Anyway, our kids match up perfectly in ages & interests & in about 5 minutes, they had all conspired to build a fort, AKA junk pile, near our lawn chairs. It was a beautiful day and we were all grateful for a good experience in a boat with great company.

I'm including this because I want to remember how much the kids enjoy sleepovers! They'll go through stages where they want to sleep in the same bed for a week or two, and I love going to check on them right before I go to sleep and seeing them snuggled up together.