Girls Trip

For my mom's 60th birthday, my sisters and I planned a girls weekend away at Lake Oconee. We planned it for the weekend before Thanksgiving. Leah was able to come up to spend the weekend with us and it was so nice. We met Saturday morning at Becca's house. Leah and I hadn't actually been to her house before so we piled in their pick-up truck, four deep, and she took us on a tour of their property. They live out in the country and it was so pretty out in the woods. 

After checking everything out at Becca's we headed to Madison. We lived in Madison in the 80's so a lot has changed since then. It was so fun though to be able to tour it as tourist and people who knew their way around. This plaque below is for the restaurant that used to be in that building. We ate there so many times when we lived there because there were not really many other restaurants around.

How gorgeous is this courthouse?? It is on the corner of the square downtown. The blue sky behind it was gorgeous too that day. It was cold but so pretty and sunny.

After spending time downtown we drove around to all the places we wanted to see outside of town. This was the house we lived in. It has been refaced and has an addition to the left. That picket fence wasn't there when we lived there but the memories all still live on there. I skinned my knee falling off my bike in front of this house a couple of days before third grade started...I was wearing my jellies and tried to stop my bike with my feet on the ground instead of the breaks...going down hill. We drove our four-wheeler around the backyard so many times I wouldn't be surprised if there was still a path in a circle out back. Leah taught me how to dribble a basketball on that driveway when she was four...I was five. My dad and I were playing baseball in the front yard and he told me to "keep my eye on the ball"...the ball hit me in the eye...done! That top left window was mine.

This was the first baptist church we went to. It seems so much smaller than when we were little. We got Life Savers from a man named Bobby Hawk at Christmas time at those front doors and saw a live reenactment of the crucifixion on Easter morning out in the field to the right. My mom taught aerobics classes in the building behind here and we ran around with all the other kids on the sidewalk while that was happening. One year the Easter Bunny gave us new Bibles and my parents told us not to write in them. That very day, my Sunday school teacher highlighted a verse in my new bible for me and I didn't know what to do!

This was my preschool...it was called Play School. Surprisingly, I have several memories from there too but they are more spotty and might be more stories told than memories. I do have memories of what it looked like inside though. I remember singing Wheels on the Bus and our teacher had set up all of the chairs in a line to pretend we were on the bus. I remember playing house with my friend Davin. I remember running in that field behind there with Becky and going home from school with her a lot.

After our walk down memory lane we headed to the house we had rented. We went back out to Walmart to buy some food and a movie to watch. We watched Bad Moms on Saturday night. It was funny but a little vulgar. It was nice to just sit and watch a movie together though.

Sunday morning we slept in and then got ready. Tommy's family always has their Thanksgiving the Sunday before Thanksgiving and this year they wanted to have a baby shower for Becca and Tommy as well. So the four of us headed to lunch...it was about an hour away. After the shower we headed back towards the lake and stopped at an Antique Mall to look around. We didn't find anything but we enjoyed our stroll through it all.

I had to snap a picture of Becca looking so cute against this beautiful brick wall.

The sun was setting as we were leaving. A few miles down the road, Leah and I saw this row of train engines that were all different colors and the sun was setting just perfectly behind them. We got my mom to pull over so we could take some pictures and check them out. Unfortunately we only had our phones to take pictures with and they just couldn't capture the beauty we were seeing with our eyes.

Sunday night we ran by Walmart again for another movie, The Choice. Of course, we cried through it and I realized I had never actually read that book. Then we found Madea's Christmas (Tyler Perry) at the house and watched it too. It was funny!

The next morning my mom had to get up early to head back to work. The three of us got ready slowly  and took a few last pictures of the lake that we hadn't capture before. After our quick pictures we headed back to Becca's house.

But first we stopped at Farmview, a restaurant/butcher/grocery store, for breakfast. The breakfast was amazing and we got this huge cinnamon roll to share because it looked so good. We each only ate a bite or so and Becca took the rest back to Tommy. It was delicious though and I am trying to figure out a way to get there again for another one!

How cute is this place? I wish my house looked like this barn turned restaurant!!

We got back to Becca's house and then Leah and I both hit the road to head home. We had a very nice and relaxing weekend. I don't know the last time the four of us were together...alone...but I am so glad we got to make those memories to celebrate my mom's birthday!

Thanksgiving parties

This week was full of Thanksgiving parties. Wednesday Hayes's school had a Thanksgiving show and then feast afterwards. I snapped these pictures while recording the show so they are not great. They looked so cute up on the stage and he did a great job.

The feast was a yummy turkey lunch. We got to visit with a couple of kids from his class and see some work they had been doing.

All of the feathers on this turkey are from the kids in his class. I left him home with Lance one Sunday afternoon and told him to get his feather decorated and he refused. He had no desire to do it. That Monday morning, I sat him down and had him stick some stickers on the feather and then we wrote some things he was thankful for on it. He was so silly about doing his homework!

Thursday Sam's class had a Thanksgiving day. They had five or so stations they rotated through. Hayes did one station with him making teepees out of paper plates but that was all he wanted to do.

Another station was making these turkey cupcakes and then getting to eat them (at 9:00 in the morning!). This was the station I worked at and I loved getting to meet he sweet little friends.

Today Reese's class had their party. Her teacher wanted it to be a pie party and they watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I was so busy serving up pies that I forgot to take any pictures in her class!! Of course Hayes was with me so he was enjoying spending time with the big kids. It was also PJ and reading day for the whole school. Now we get to enjoy sleeping in and having a week off of school!!

To make up for lack of pictures from Reese's party, I will link back to my favorite Thanksgiving song yet!

Legoland

The Saturday after Sam's birthday we took the kids to Legoland at Phipps. Sam loves legos and we thought this could be fun. (It was his turn to bring home "Chipper" the class dog so we had to snap a quick picture of them together before heading in.)

We got their just before it opened and were ready to make our way in.

As you first walk in there are a couple of things that explain how legos are made.

And then there are a couple of rides.

And a 4-d movie.

I think Sam enjoyed it but we were not overly impressed. We were in and out pretty quickly. We had a busy day ahead of us so we were back in the car heading home by noon. I'm glad we were able to check it out though and see what it was all about.

Sam is SEVEN!

Sam turned seven on the 9th. It was a school day but he was up bright and early. He actually woke up around 1:15 in the morning. His light turned on and it woke me up. When I went in his room to ask him if everything was ok he said, "I'm going to go ahead and get dressed." I told him it was only one in the morning and he needed to sleep a little bit longer.

He is definitely our kid that gets the most excited for his birthday and he can not wait to open his presents. So before Reese and Hayes were even dressed he opened his gifts.

He has become interested in Pokemon cards and has been asking for some for a while. He had about ten before his birthday but saw a huge pack he wanted. I don't even know what Pokemon cards do or are for but he loves them. He got a pack of about 60 cards and a notebook to keep them in.

He is also really good with legos and we got him a big airplane hanger set with several airplanes. He loved them and was done building it all so quickly.

I made them chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and we sang to him. Birthdays on school days are always so crazy! I wish I could keep them home for their birthday. Instead, I go eat lunch with them at school and take donuts to their class to celebrate.

Luckily he had the day before his birthday off because of election day. Lance took the day off to take care of some things like drivers license renewal, etc. Since we were all home, we took the kids to see the new Trolls movie (so cute!) and then we went out to dinner.  The kids are giving themselves troll hair in the picture below.

Sam casually mentioned to our waiter that his birthday was the next day and they brought him this huge, amazingly delicious piece of cake! It was so big we didn't even take more than a bite each and we saved it for his actual birthday.

Things about Sam:
-He has learned how to blow bubbles with bubble gum. If he chews bubble gum during baseball, it totally distracts him.
-He learned how to whistle...when he first learned this it was all he would do. He whistled all the time, everywhere!
-He came home one day from school knowing how to tie his shoes. And he taught himself!
-He always has a best little friend in his class and he always has a good friend that is a girl in his class. The past three years the little girls have all looked very similar but this year she breaks the mold.
-One afternoon my friend had the kids at the playground while I had teacher conferences. She said as they walked up to the playground all of a sudden all she could hear was a group of girls squealing Sam's name. She said he was such the ladies man. When my dad went to have lunch with the kids for grandparents day he said he wanted to be Sam's wingman. He said every single little girl that walked by said, "Hey Sam (sounds like Say-um)!". And he is so funny when they do this. He gets so shy, blushes and looks down at the ground while saying hey. He is obviously a sweet friend to these kids but I think when we are around he gets so embarrassed.
-He pushes Reese and Hayes's buttons!
-His teacher said he is so sweet in class.
-He made it in to the gifted program. They did some testing in K and then seeing his scores from the CoGat test he qualified. I was working in the library at their school one day and the Target teacher walked by and said "Oh good! This will save me a phone call." and told me he was qualified to start Target after the Winter Break. The Target teacher has been pulling some first graders out of class once a week for 45 minutes during this first semester. With some of his sweet little friends from his K class, they built a birdhouse. The teacher told Reese that his groups project was the only one to stay standing and resemble a birdhouse. We are so proud of him and I can't wait to see how he does in this class!

Hayes is 4!

Hayes celebrated his birthday on the 1st. This is the first year that he was super excited about his birthday. He counted down the day for weeks. Once it was closer to his birthday he would wake me up each morning saying, "Mommy, only four more days until my birthday!" and every morning he had the right number in the countdown. I kept telling him I was going to cancel his birthday so he had to stay three but he wasn't having it.

We usually try to decorate the kids rooms whether with balloons or streamers for their birthdays. This year we just decorated a corner in our upstairs hallways because Hayes comes in to our room every single night and climbs in to our bed. We didn't want any other disturbance during the night.

He was so excited to open his birthday presents. He had been asking for a monorail so I found one on Amazon. He could not wait to play with it!

Lance got it all set up for him before he left for work and Hayes played with it all day. He LOVES the Disney monorail.

A few things about Hayes at age 4:
- Anything before this very moment is "yesterday". He will say, "Remember yesterday when we went to Disney World..." and it will have actually been a year ago or "Remember yesterday when I ..." and it was actually that morning.
-He still can not say his G (guh) and K (kuh) sounds...G sounds like D and K sounds like T. Some times he can say the R sound and sometimes it sounds like a W.
-He loves to play and has an amazing imagination...much more so than either of the other two did.
-He would stay outside all day if I let him.

A story I need to put on here so that I remember...
One afternoon we were all at home doing things around the house. I was making dinner, the boys were playing, Lance was working from home, and Reese was playing in her room. A couple of times Sam walked through the kitchen saying "Where is Hayes?" but I didn't think anything of it. I just figured he was playing some where else or going to the bathroom. After about the third time I looked up at him and asked, "Do you really not know where your brother is?" and he said no. So we started calling Hayes's name. We were going up and down the stairs, in and outside with no response. All four of us were yelling his name. Reese officially starts to panic and is crying and saying "I just don't know where he is!" Lance starts walking the trail from our house to the baseball field calling his name. I am running around the house now that Reese is panicking. I ran up the stairs inside and yelled "Hayes just answer me if you are inside!"...nothing. I go back outside to look some more. This was about twenty minutes of us all starting to freak out. I was about start calling the neighbors when Sam came outside and said he found him. He said Hayes just walked down the stairs inside the house.  I sat Hayes down and asked him where he had been and he said he was hiding under his bed. We had all been in and out of his room but none of us looked under his bed. At first he was just smiling and laughing but I told him to look at his sisters face and see how upset she was that we couldn't find him. Then you could tell he started to feel bad. The next day I asked him, "Hayes, did you hear me when I was screaming your name inside and asking you to answer me?" He said yes he did hear me. I asked, "What were you thinking when you heard me saying that?" and he said, "I was thinking NO!". As some of our friends said, we didn't know whether to hug him or spank him. I just gave him a good lecture and made him apologize to Reese, Sam and Lance and then we had to leave for baseball. That boy has been the source of many heart attacks in this house!

Halloween 2016

We had another fun year with Halloween. Reese and Sam were able to dress up for school but Hayes was bummed his school didn't dress up. He couldn't wait to get home and get in to his costume. Months ago, Hayes watched Mickey Mouse's Three Musketeers and loved it. He decided then that he wanted to be a musketeer (or "Mouseketeer" as he says). I wasn't sure how I was going to find a costume but it turned out to be easier than I thought thanks to Amazon!

How precious is he??

Reese chose to be Rey from Star Wars. That turned out to be a pretty popular costume this year but she rocked it and looked super cute.

And Sam was Iron Man. He had a character parade at school a month or so ago and I told him if we were buying a costume for that then he had to be the same for Halloween. He was happy to oblige! The mask ended up staying home but the muscle went with him!