November Recap

Here is a quick recap of the rest of November. 

If it wasn't raining, the weather was beautiful for many days! We spent several days doing homework outside.

The football team Reese cheered for kept making it further and further in the playoffs. They eventually made it to the championship where they lost. On the way to one chilly game we stopped by Starbucks and Reese wanted a hot chocolate. She looked so grown next to Lance drinking her Starbucks.

We visited my cousin and his two girls. We couldn't wait to see them because it had been a while. They are too cute and we all had a great time visiting them and making a huge mess in the playroom.

We hiked at Kennesaw Mountain.

We have slowly removed all baby things from our house. We took the gate down from the stairs for the first time in almost 8 years. That was a little sad but a huge relief to move that out of the way.

Lance went to Reese's school to see her do a presentation for her Target class. They spent a while on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They had to write a new chapter with a new character and new candy. At the end they did a presentation for parents. They had to dress as their character (I am so glad she created a character that was easy to dress up as...some of the kids had tricky costumes).

After a couple of nights of sleepovers and playdates, the second day of Thanksgiving break I got the kids all dressed up and headed to have dinner with Lance after work. We knew Santa was there so we wanted to get Santa pictures out of the way. We had dinner at Rosa Mexicana and then headed out to see Santa. Well, it turned out that Santa had the night off and was not there. We had some unhappy kids!

Since we didn't get to see Santa we headed up to Daddy's office to get his stuff and we played around on the IT departments hover boards. Reese picked it up really quickly. They are fun but definitely hard to figure out.

This year was Thanksgiving at my parents house so we got there in time for lunch. We had a fun day visiting and relaxing.

Hayes was so tired he fell asleep right on the floor.

The next night Reese and I had a girls night. One of her friends was performing in the Nutcracker so we went to see the show. But first we had dinner. It is so much fun to me to get to spend one on one time with her. We have such great conversations and it is different than when the boys are around.

That Saturday Lance had tickets to the UGA v GT football game. We had a quick errand at Home Depot and realized they had a kids workshop going on so we checked it out.

And then on Sunday we celebrated Daddy's birthday!

Another thing that happened in November was that Reese ran for Student Council. They start this in third grade and each class has two class representatives (a boy and a girl). The class first narrows it down to three each and then those six have to created a poster and a speech. On the afternoon that Reese came home and said she was one of the top three, she went straight to her room and came up with this idea all on her own. Her slogan was going to be "Vote for Reese and You'll Have Peace" and then she wrote out different words for each of the letters in peace that described her. Their school mascot is a Pioneer and so they are always talking about Pioneer Pride, thus pride as the first word. The only word I helped her change was the A. She originally had athletic which is accurate but we decided that it didn't really help describe her ability to be on student council. On the day they had to give their speech on of the girls got too nervous and decided she didn't want to do it so it was down to Reese and one of her best buddies. In the end, Reese won the election and was super excited.

Sam is SIX

I blinked and it was already Sam's birthday. November is full of birthday's around here. We knew it would be hard to celebrate Sam's birthday a whole lot since it fell on a Monday. We decided to have fun Saturday night instead. After much discussion, we decided it would be fun to go see the new Peanuts movie and then dinner at Moe's afterwards. What we didn't realize was that it was opening weekend of the movie and after weeks of rain everyone in town wanted to see the movie as well. We thought we were getting there with plenty of time but ended up sitting in the second row!! I have never seen a movie that close before. Sam's best buddy and his family joined us and it was hilarious to see six kids sitting between the adults. The kids all enjoyed the movie. After the movie (and popcorn) we headed to Moe's to eat. And then I quickly remembered why we don't take six kids to a restaurant ever. Luckily we ate quickly and then headed over to Menchie's for dessert. Sam had a blast and that was all that mattered!

Today, Lance left a little later than normal so that he could let Sam open his presents before school. All Sam has asked for was legos...even after asking if there were other things he wanted he only wanted legos. So he got legos...and could not have been happier. He got three different Star Wars sets and then just a basic box of legos. He hated that he had to leave to go to school soon after that.

I met him at school during lunch and brought doughnuts for his class to share. After lunch his teacher asked me to walk back to their classroom with them so I could see them celebrate him. They are so cute! They circled up around the birthday boy and sang Happy Birthday to him in several different ways. Hayes loved every single minute of it and did not want to leave. We ended up staying so long that we just stayed and had lunch with Reese too.

That afternoon Sam did his homework faster than ever so that he could play with his legos. He played with them until it was time to take Reese to tumble and then came home and played some more until dinner. He wanted to have pizza for dinner so that is what we did while watching a show on the TV. We had a few left over doughnuts so we put some candles in those and sang happy birthday once again.

At six:
*Sam is definitely coming in to his role as the middle child. For so long I didn't really think of him as a middle child. I always thought of him as a little brother and a big brother but man has he figured out the middle child thing.
*He is super pesky to Reese and can fight with her like nobody else. I have learned that if I don't get in the middle of it and just let them fight it out they will turn around and start playing like nothing has happened. When they play together they do it really well.
*He learns the bossy stuff from Reese and then tries it on Hayes but Hayes doesn't take it. They both play really well together once I give Sam some strategies to make it work. For instance, Hayes was dying to play with Sam's legos but Sam did not want to share his new ones. We pulled out some old legos and it made both boys happy.
*He is still small (but I don't have stats). His pants are a 6 slim because the regular swallow him whole.
*He is a picky eater. Some nights I try to win at the dinner table and some nights I just let him make his own dinner. He would eat pizza and CFA all day, every day.
*He is doing so amazingly well in school. He has picked up reading very quickly and I have been so impressed with him. His teacher had a lot of really great things to say about him during conference week.
*He is still pretty shy in new situations but once he is comfortable he is a wild man.
*I think he is super cute and so snuggly.
*We have finally gotten him to stay in his room all night most nights.
*He is still an early riser and most mornings easy to get up for school.
*He is a really sweet friend and cares a lot about his friends.
*He is a homebody and would prefer to be at home over any where else.

Cheer Competition #2

Reese had her second cheer competition today. She was just as excited as the last time and maybe a little more nervous. They competed against more teams in this competition but still came out on top. After watching all of the teams in their division compete, I wasn't so sure they would win 1st place this time but they did! They were so excited and Reese had a blast once again.

Now we are gearing up for a half year program with our local cheer gym that hosted these competitions. Reese is really excited about the fun she is going to have. Her competitions will be in the spring and I can't wait to see all she learns between now and then. It is much more serious and competitive so I don't really know what to expect. I am hoping, if nothing else, that it is a great experience for her and she can meet some new friends.

Chocolate Factory

I got to go on a field trip with Reese's Target class to a chocolate factory. They read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over the span of a month or so, did many different projects related to it including writing their own chapter about a new character, and then got to go to a chocolate factory. They seemed to really enjoy it...who wouldn't love leaving with a bunch of chocolate treats??

Celebrating Hayes...again

Hayes got to celebrate his birthday at school today. His teacher sent me a couple of pictures of him in his birthday hat. He was so proud of that crown. We took doughnuts in and they seemed to be a big hit.

Hayes is THREE!

I just can't even believe that my baby is three. I have no baby any more...even though it is super easy for me to treat him that way. For his birthday, we decided to take him to Chuck E. Cheese after church to celebrate. Every time we drive by there he asks if we can go so we thought his birthday was the perfect time to go. And he had a blast!!!

He loved getting to open his presents and playing with everything. He has such an awesome imagination and plays in ways that the other two never did. He plays and talks with his toys and I just love to watch him.

So, the cake was in the halloween section at Kroger so it was at a total discount. I don't think we would have actually bought this cake but it tasted amazing! He thought it was so fun to have every one sing to him and for him to blow out his candles.

At three:

*Hayes is a total mess. He is a hand-full!! He is in to everything and doesn't really follow directions very well. We are obviously constantly working on that.

*He is a great helper. He loves to help do things around the house (of course, if it is his idea). He likes to help make his lunch, he puts his dishes away, and likes to help with the laundry.

*He has the sweetest imagination. He is so good at entertaining himself.

*He has a hard time waking up after his naps. He is extra grumpy during the next thirty minutes or so. I usually just let him watch a show on the iPad until he is over the grumps.

*As I was thinking about how much trouble he gets in to and how much it stresses me out, I had the realization that he is so full of joy. He really is so happy and full of giggles. I think he has a great sense of humor and I think he is going to quick-witted. 

*He has the sweetest voice that I love to record. 

*He is doing amazingly well at school and loves going. He calls his teachers by their last names only and leaves off the Mrs. part which cracks me up.

*He is full of love and affection. He loves hugs, snuggles, kisses, and being held.