Pumpkins

We invited out Greek friend over to learn the fine art of pumpkin carving this year - they don't have Halloween in Greece, so this is all new to them.  Savannah decided pumpkin guts felt yucky this year, so she made a glove out of a ziploc bag!

Here is little Faye...she just dug right into her pumpkin!! And here are our finished projects -- silly face, scary face, alien& kitty cat

sorority row trick-or-treat

Last year we missed trick or treating on sorority row because we were in Disney, but we made it this year!! Luckily, we arrived early. It got very busy very fast. Savannah was a vampire this year (complete with fangs, which she abandoned quickly because they were getting lipstick on them). Gage went for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. He wanted Raphael, which I had to order online because the stores were sold out. Luckily he didn't notice that his mask was brown instead of red, like Raphael's!!  Much to Mommy's chagrin...it was also VERY long. I wanted to cut it off, but the darn thing came with "turtle feet" which Gage refused to part with...so...I had to (yuck!) SEW.

 

 The kid just walked along to all the sorority houses and the girls loaded them up with candy

 and more candy

 and more candy

 Our turtle got too hot with his mask on, so he had to hand it off to Mommy to hold

 

Although "Scara" (which was the vampire name Savannah gave herself) said that she could keep on trick-or-treating despite the long lines, our turtle was tuckered out and needed a ride back on Daddy's shoulders.

pumpkin patch

We enjoyed a beautiful day at the pumpkin patch yesterday.  First stop..the giant pile of hay bales!

Love her smile in this one

 And just love this one of the two of them!

 sliding was a lot of fun!

 

 and climbing to the top was pretty fun too...

 next up...hayride!

 Someone was happy :-)

 

 And then...the pumpkin patch!  Gage went searching for the biggest one, Savannah went searching for the perfect one, Daddy went searching for one with a cool twisty stem, and Mommy took one that the kiddos decided was a good one for her.

 Gage found a keeper!

 Savannah's was pretty heavy, apparently ;-)

 And Gage hung out on a pumpkin while Savannah & Daddy roamed around the field checking things out.

 Next up...the corn crib!

 

 

 

 

 Corn maze! Okay, it was fun, but it took all of 2 minutes and they made it so you could NOT get lost. No dead ends. What kind of corn maze is that?!?!

 And finally....petting animals!  Savanah was like the "bunny whisperer" - bunnies were running away from other kids like crazy. But not here...she had several bunnies who just happily snuggled up in her arms.

 Gage was VERY excited to hold a chicken.  They both did so well holding them gently.

 This little chick, however, decided to roost on Savannah.  She stayed that way forever!  Again, while other kids were chasing squawking chickens around, Savannah was just happily hanging out with a chicken on her arm!

How are these kiddos growing up so fast?

Obstacle Course

I dragged a bunch of crap out of the building to make an obstacle course for the kids.  They had to throw a ball into a bucket, crawl under a rake that was on saw horses, jump over pool noodles, run around some pinwheels in the ground,  run up and down the tractor ramps, and launch a stomp rocket. And on top of that, as each one ran through, the other one manned the hose and pretended to be the water dragon by spraying water at the course. It was all fun and games until they started fighting over who got to be the water dragon. Game over, kiddos.

 

Indian festival

Moundville held it's annual Indian festival this past weekend. We learned our lesson two years ago. This year we went early (8:30) before it got hot and crowded. Moundville is ordinarily boring - a big area of these mounds, which were all built by Indians. We also skipped the chief's mound entirely and started with the kids tents this year

We got our faces painted (we = gage and I), and they made she'll necklaces (they scrape them on a rock until a tiny hole appears and add string and beads).

We also threw corn cob and turkey feather darts through the deer target.

 Notice Savannah had me braid her hair "Indian style" before we left for the festival.

We are some big snow cones. Gage dropped his after 5 minutes, but lucky for him he has a nice sister who shares hers.

We made headbands too!

And we bought a Few goodies. Gage got this eagle who he named firebird. And savannah got a bunch of little things - worry dolls, a necklace, bracelet, etc. She whispers all of her worries to her worry dolls at night, kisses the bag they came in, and puts them under her pillow. She says it works and has been offering up a worry doll or two to me every night because she knows I'm worried about the fall festival!

And, we watched some really neat Indian dancing. This was a hoop dance. It was amazing what he was doing -- and so fast.  The kids really loved him!

Mid-week sleepover

After reading books before bed, I asked gage to please not cry if he wakes up tonight because I'm really tired and want a good night of sleep. I told him he could come to my bed, but no crying. Savannah told him that he should go into her bed is he wakes up, and they decided they should just sleep together to begin with. So, here they are. A little mid-week sleepover :-)

Litter critter

Gage was studying the earth last week at school. On Friday he came home with this cute litter critter. We have been 'feeding' him litter since then :-). We also sing the much beloved litterbug song a lot lately ("we're not litterbugs nosiree, we're not litterbugs nosiree, we pick up out trash, you see"). we've been singing that song for years!!

School days

Last night the PTO hosted a math night so parents could sit in the classroom and do a math lesson. The days of memorizing math tables is over and conceptual math is here. Savannah got to show me the 'games' she plays in school. But, they are not really games- they area to lessons with manipulatives (they practice math with their hands). They learn pre-geometry concepts by finding how many ways they can fill in a shape outline with different colorful shape tiles. It was really interesting. But, math night doesn't often draw a big crowd, so our crazy principal said if 100 kids showed up with their parents she and the asst principal would kiss a pig. We had about 350 kids, I think!!

Before mrs sellers kissed the pig she made a big show if putting lipstick on , and then putting mr. Potato head lips in her mouth. The kids went nuts :-)

This is savannah and coach Campbell, whom she adores. He was her gym teacher but is transitioning to asst principal.

Here's a peek at what her school looks like. It's a fun place, isn't it? As you can see- we were the last ones there!!

Even this morning she was still abuzz about the piggy. She said she's going to make mrs sellers a card to thank her for being such a fun principal layer today.