Halloween

I know I'm really late posting about Halloween, but this is literally the first chance I've had to sit at my computer for longer than ten minutes. So that being said, forgive me if this post sounds a bit disjointed as I'm going to cram everything into it!

  I made the kids some treats for school. 

  I made s'mores like I did last year and some Jack-o-lantern juice (thankyouverymuch pinterest!). They were fun to make, but drawing the faces on those water bottles was a pain!

The Friday before Halloween I took the kids and one of their friends to the Exploreum for their Halloween night.

Doesn't Audrey look thrilled at having her picture taken?

  Kylie and her friend had their faces painted of course. They also made those nasty looking "scars" on their arms. Lovely eh?

The next night I took the girls to Bellingrath Gardens for trick or treating. It was actually kind of cold (rare around here!) so we kind of hurried through and didn't get many pictures.

And of course on Wednesday we went trick or treating. Personally I'm glad it's November because I'm starting to get tired of the costumes! 

Down on the farm

On Friday I went with Audrey's class on a field trip. They had an awesome playground and Audrey made a new friend.

 

Then she had her face painted for a pow wow.

  Then went into the tee pee to learn about the Sioux indians.

Then it was time to meet some animals. Oddly enough even though my child is terrified of animals, she went into the stall with this huge steer. This animal was huge!

Last but definitely not least it was time for a good old fashioned hayride.

   

Girls day out

The past few weeks have been really busy with school and activities. When I realized that Saturday the girls and I didn't have anything planned we decided to have a little girls day out. We headed downtown to play at the Exploreum first. 

Searching for the one in a million yellow bead

Playing DJ

Coloring pictures of sea life

 We purchased a family membership last year for Christmas and I have to say it has definitely been worth it! The kids love to go there and play and the fact that it's actually educational is a huge bonus!

Learning about volts and watts

Making a light with batteries

 After the exploreum we decided to walk around downtown. We went to the fort where the girls let their inner pirate come out.

 Then we decided to end things on a sweet note with a trip to the candy store!

 

We had a fantastic day and are already looking forward to doing it all again soon.

 

Fun Run

This past weekend Audrey and Sophie participated in their first ever race. It was our schools annual fun run they have before the fall festival. While they were far from being in first place I am still incredibly proud of them for participating. 

 

Oh boy....

Isn't it amazing how when you decide to make a change in one room of your home it tends to affect all the other rooms in your home?

We recently acquired a new (to us) bed for Kylie's room. I in my blissful ignorance thought I would just get my husband to take the old one out and pop the new one in. Piece of cake right? Umm, not really. Even though they are both full size, the new one is HUGE! The frame is so large that we are having to rework everything in the room. Wish me luck because I really think I'm going to need it!

First day of school 2012

Today my girls started a new school year. They were so excited and ready to go, but I was just not ready. Not only did the summer fly by, but I'm a little sad because this is Kylie's last year of elementary school. Yes, I know I'm a big ol' sap, but they are my babies and I just can't help it. I tried taking a few pictures of them before they left, but they didn't turn out that great. I'm still going to share them though! 

Audrey, my third grader

Kylie, my fifth grader

Sophie, my first grader

 Their teachers seem really nice so I'm crossing my fingers we'll have a really great year. Sadly none of the kids have any of their friends in their class this year, but I'm hoping they'll use that as an opportunity to make new friends. Have any of your children started back to school? If so how was their first day?

Storytime

I have always had a love for reading. My mother always bought my brothers and me books and some of my fondest memories of my childhood are of her reading to us. When I started school and learned to read on my own it was like a new world opened up for me. I drove my family crazy because I would read everything from billboards to cereal boxes. I remember going to the library and being so excited because I could check out as many books as I wanted and just sit in my room and read all day. 
I still love to read and luckily my kids are little bookworms too. All three of them can read on their own, but I still read with them every night. When Kylie started reading chapter books I remember being kind of sad because I thought our storytime days were over. For a few months I would go read to Audrey and Sophie while she read on her own. One night I went into her room and told her that even though she was reading so well I still wanted to read with her. I thought she would roll her eyes and protest, but she surprised me by saying, "fine with me." She's ten and a half now and we are still reading every night. 
This afternoon I told the girls that we needed to go through their books and try to put them in order. I buy them books all the time, but when Christmas rolls around I like to buy them a lot of books to give as gifts. I was hoping that by sorting the books now I could see what we had so I could avoid buying duplicates. 

This isn't even half of the books!

It took us a few hours, but we finally muddled through and are now *somewhat* organized. There were many "Ah, I remember this book!" moments while we sorted. It was also bittersweet because I had them set aside some of the little board books they've outgrown to put away. And no, I am not getting rid of any of them. I am going to put them in my attic to share with my future grandchildren.