Fun Times

It's been a fun-filled week for us. Monday and Tuesday I subbed, and we did our normal routine on those 2 days, for the most part. Wednesday, the kids went to school, and I went shopping for the party supplies for their class parties. I ended up going to 4 different stores that day to find everything! Sam had play practice after school, we came home, he did homework, and I fed Avery. Then we went to the Trunk or Treat at our church. We had a chili dinner (Avery doesn't like chili), played some fun games, decorated cookies, and then trunk or treated. The kids all thought our trunk was scary. LOL! It's amazing what a few spider webs, a flashing strobe light, and a scary music cd will do. Anyway, it was lots of fun, and the kids loved it. Some pretty funny costumes too. :)

Yesterday the kids got out of school early. Once a month, they get out half a day for a teacher planning day. It's weird. Anyway, we went and met some playgroup friends at McDonald's. Avery LOVED playing with these 3 boys that he has known for a LONG time now, but never really has played with!! Kids are weird! He has known them and seen them pretty often for like 2 years, but they were alwasy shy around each other and pretty much did their own thing. Well, this year all of them have started some form of school, and I guess that is what they needed because they played like they were best friends yesterday! It was funny and cute. He can't wait to play with them again. Sam played Hide and Seek with one of his playgroup friends, and then he actually recruited other kids, that he didn't know, to play as well. He doesn't do that either. It was a day of new things for them! After that we went to Wal-mart to try and find the last things I needed for the party. Once again, I couldn't find everything. No where in this town had any pumpkins! I knew I was waiting too long, but I didn't have time because I was working so much, but who knew pumpkins would be completely gone! Anyway, I drove to one pumpkin patch, they were closed up, then drove to our favorite place, and thankfully they had a few left! We came home and I started working on the fun snack for the parties. It was supposed to take 15 minutes to make the snack, but I needed 2 batches, so let's say 30 minutes. Ummmm, over 2 hours later and I finally got done! Argh! I HATE making things like that. Why do I do it? It looked easy though, and I knew it would be yummy, but for real! 2 and a half hours for something that will take them 2 minutes to eat. I did that for thanksgiving last year and the same thing. If it can't be done on the computer then I shouldn't do it. I am not crafty! Stupid Goblin Grub! Sam tried it, and he LOVED it, so at least it tastes good. Anyway, we were planning on going to the Trunk or Treat at the Y, but the stupid treat took so long that we didn't make it. :( The kids took a bath, I put them to bed, and then got to work on getting all the party stuff ready. I had to clean out the pumpkins, YUCK, find another game (cuz I never could find parts of one of the games)and get organized. AJ had a meeting after work last night so it was just me and the boys last night. Oh yeah, and I did all that work for the stupid treat and then ran out of gummy worms. The package said I would have 25 worms in each bag, so I got 2, which meant I would have 10 EXTRA worms, but no, they didn't even have close to 25, so I had to have AJ pick some up on his way home. Stupid treat!

This morning I finished getting everything together, and I am excited to do the party now. Last night I wasn't! They are going to love it though! Thankfully, this year I just had to plan and organize Sam's party. Avery's teacher's are doing everything for his. What in the world am I going to do next year when I have to do two though?! I go all out for them, yes I am weird, and I know I don't need to, but I do anyway, so trying to do two, most likely on the same day, is going to be insane. Oh well, I guess that is what I thrive on. I am an organizer/planner/do it yourself person. At least I can take a load off their teachers for that little bit. :)

Anyway, we are doing a Halloween Obstacle Course for Sam's class. I think it will be our best party yet. Yea! We have had most of the same kids in his class every year, so each year has to be new and different. :) It will be cute seeing Avery's class doing stuff too. Well, it's just about time to go, so I better get off here for now. I am sure I will post pictures and more fun stuff in the next few days, since it is Halloween after all!

Happy Halloween!

Fun Website for Kids!

Go check it out. :)

Moshi Monsters

Halloween Has Begun!

I know, I know, it's been too long. Oops!

I subbed a lot this week, and just didn't have time.

Last Saturday we got the boys their costumes. They have been dying to wear them and yesterday was their chance. Every year our city holds a Halloween in the Park day. We have gone every year since Sam was 2. We love it! It is our favorite thing that Smyrna does. It's a big festival thing where all the kids dress up, and there are a million booths set up by different companies in Smyrna. Each booth gives out candy, some have games, some have contests and many give away lots of free stuff. Yippee! They also have a hayride, inflatables, food, a haunted hay ride, costume contests and more. The boys couldn't wait to go, but we had a fun birthday party to go to first.

It was their friend Isaac's birthday, and he had his party at the park. I was freezing the whole time, but the kids were fine and had lots of fun. They even got to hit two pinatas, and Sam tried white chili for the first time and loved it. Avery ended up getting something thrown at his eye right before we left, and he cried and cried forever. It really hurt him. :( So we had to leave a bit early, but they were excited to come home and get ready.

Here are some pics of the fun.


Here are the boys in their costumes. We had TONS of comments on their cuteness and cool costumes. :)


Harry Potter Sam


Yoda Avery


With Taylor on the hayride.


Sam with the coolest costumes. He LOVED getting a picture with these guys, especially when the big, scary one grabbed his head! :)

We met up with Lindsay and the kids played and had fun. Then Sam decided to enter the costume contest. He didn't win (all unique, home-made costumes won), but he thought it was cool anyway.


We ate dinner there, and then stood in line for the haunted hayride. The kids played frisbee while we waited in line (yes a free gift we got from one of the booths) and they made some new friends. Although one of them thought Kinley's name was Kimberly. That was pretty funny.

Anyway, we all LOVED the haunted hayride. It was a great way to end our fun day.

After that, the kids weren't tired of each other so we went to McDonald's and let them play. It was a long fun-filled day!


Now, let me tell you what terrible thing happened to me this week!

I teach Relief Society once a month at church. (Relief Society is a meeting for just the women in our church. We also have Sunday School where all the adults are combined together, and Sacrament where the whole family meets and we hear from speakers as a congregation.) Today was my day to teach. Well, Friday I opened my lesson to finish it up, read through it, and get everything printed up and ready. I had worked on my lesson for 6 hours at this point. Well, I printed all my assignments and quotes out, and got everything ready. It was getting late, so I decided to read through it the next morning instead of doing it that night. I left it all there and went to bed. The next morning I got up and I realized my lesson wasn't up on the screen anymore. I asked AJ what happened to the computer. He didn't know. I tried pulling up my lesson and it was gone! Apparently the computer had done an update during the night and it had closed my window and made me lose everything! The worst part was that I had printed everything else I needed for the lesson, except the actual lesson! It was TERRIBLE! I am a planner, I can't do things at the last minute. I don't even know how!!!!! Also, I was going to be gone all day, doing all that fun stuff with the kids, and I couldn't back out of that after I promised them, and it wasn't their fault. So anyway, I had to do my whole lesson over at 11:00 last night. Of course I couldn't remember everything, so it cut my lesson short, but I did it today, and I had enough participation that I ended right on time. I was totally freaking out though, and it was terrible, and that better never happen again!!!!!

Today they also did a Primary Program during Sacrament (Primary is what we call the children's classes). All the kids sat on the stand and sang and had parts to learn. Avery looked bored the whole time and didn't sing a word, but he did great on his part, and even had it memorized. Sam did great, adn knew his part well as well. It was all very cute. :)

Anyway, that was our weekend. I am subbing a lot again this week, we have the class Halloween Parties, a church Trunk or Treat (it's tons of fun if anyone wants to come let me know, it's on Wednesday), Halloween Night, and then another birthday party on Saturday. Fun for us!

Fun Run

Yesterday was Sam's Fun Run. I was worried about him, since he does have pneumonia right now, and told him it was ok for him to walk, and that it didn't matter if he only got 5 laps. Well, he gets out there and I remind him, but he says he wants to run. He ran the first lap, got back to me, and I could tell he was already dieing. He needed his inhaler, so we did that, I told him to walk, but no, he takes off running again. Argh! Anyway, everytime he came around he looked worse and worse and was having a hard time, but he kept saying, "but I want to keep going, I want to run!" Anyway, he had to rest a couple more times, walked a little bit, but he mostly ran. He did 25 laps!!! That is the most he has ever gotten, I think, all with pneumonia. Crazy kid! We had to do his inhaler again after he ran, but he was doing much better after several minutes of resting. He was very proud of himself, even though he freaked me out. LOL!

He also re-auditioned for the school play and he made it, again! :) He is the 2nd Little Pig. It is a comedy about the Big Bad Wolf going to Trial. He loves his part and is SO excited!

I have been at school all day, every day this week, plus doing a lot of work for the PTO when I get home at night. It has been a crazy, stressful week, but thank goodness it is over. Now, today, I will be playing catch up. My house is a mess and we have NO food. I go shopping once a month, and I was supposed to go last week, but it was Fall Break, and I can't take both kids because I have to push two carts through the store, etc. Since I didn't go last week, we are an extra week behind. For real, we are totally out food. I HAVE to go shopping today. The other night I tried to make 3 different things, before I finally found something that I could scrounge together to make a meal out of, and even it had to have 2 different types of noodles, because I didn't have enough of one kind. LOL!

Anyway, next week seems much more calm. The next 3 weekends are filled with Birthday parties. Halloween is coming, and I have nothing ready for that, not even the kid's costumes!

OK, I better got make my shopping list!

Fall Fun

This week is Fall Break for us. Yes, we get a whole week off from school in the fall. Interesting, I know, but the kids love it.

We didn't do anything on Monday, at least I don't remember if we did. :)

Tuesday we took Sam to get his shot. We have decided to get his shot here in Smyrna so we don't have to do the 35 minute drive each week. We will miss the people at our allergist, the kids LOVE them, but it is getting too much to drive that far, especially when Sam gets so car sick. So we said goodbye to all of them, they were very sad, but we will see them for his allergy check-ups. :) Then we went to get the boys haircuts. It was POURING rain, and it took us forever to get there, but we made it. We haven't had rain for a LONG time, so the skies made up for it for two days.

Wednesday our best friends, Julie and kids, came up to visit. The boys had been waiting for days for them to come. All 3 of them are best friends with the 3 of us. They moved an hour away this summer so we don't get to see them much anymore, which is sad. :( Anyway, we spent the night playing and watching Presidential stuff. LOL! They spent the night, which was fun.

Thursday AJ left early in the morning for a long camping trip. We played some more in the morning and then took the kids to McDonald's. It was a terrible McDonald's so we didn't stay long. Then we went to the park by our house for a little bit. There were wasps EVERYWHERE. and you know how much I LOVE wasps. Um, NOT! We didn't stay long there. :) Then we went to the Pumpkin Patch. Lindsay joined us there, so it was just like old times. The kids had lots of fun, and I finally took some pictures. When we left there Julie and the boys had to go home. They left, we ate dinner, and then my quartet came over to practice. We learned 2 new Christmas songs and worked on our other 2 songs. It is going well. I just wish I didn't sing so loud! They always have to tell me to be quiet! I don't try to be, I just sing! Sigh....

Today we went with Lindsay to the zoo. We saw some other friends there that I hadn't seen in a while, so that was nice to talk to them a bit. Hi Angel! :) Again we got bombarded by bees and wasps. Yuck! Why can't they just pollinate without having stingers and being scary?! LOL! We stayed for 4 1/2 hours and then ended up going to Lindsay's for an hour. Nothing much tonight. The boys have been playing the Lego Batman game, and loving it, but it is due back tomorrow, so they are busy playing that. :)

Anyway, the boys loved Fall Break and it has been pretty relaxing, which is a good thing, because next week is BUSY! We have a thousand things going on at school, all of which I have to find volunteers for. Ahhhhhh!

Here are some pics of our Fall Fun!

Free Handbag!

Go to this site and register to win a free handbag. Help them launch their new site!
www.handbagplanet.com

Fundraising Time!

Hello Family and Friends!

Sam has started 3rd grade and he loves it! His teacher is great, he has cool friends, and he is on the "big kids" side of the school now. But, as you know starting school means starting fund raisers, and the time is now here! Sam is doing a Walk-a-thon to help raise money for his school. They have asked us not to go door to door and to only receive donations from family and friends or people they know. Anyway, we wanted to see if you would be able to help him out.

The students will walk or run as many laps as they can in 30 minutes. The pledges can be done per lap or as a flat donation and the money is tax deductible. If you are able to help will you please let us know. If you would like to make a flat donation we will accept the money now, and we have to turn all money in by October 27. If you would like to do a per lap donation that will be collected after his run on October 16th. Please help if you can, Sam and the school will really appreciate it!! The great thing about this fundraiser is that all the money goes directly to the school, there is no middle man or merchandise to sell. Thanks for your support!

Thanks!

Again

Sam has pneumonia now. I took him back for his follow up appt today to check on his asthma, etc, and it has turned into pneumonia. He now has 2 inhalers and antibiotics to go along with all the other stuff they gave us on Monday. He has to go back in 10 days to check on him again. Poor little boy. He just feels bad. He is so tired of feeling yucky all the time. He is now getting car sick all the time, even the 3 minute drive to school. He feels like throwing up all the time. He gets infections constantly. He is on a million medicines all the time. Just about every day he asks me if they can ever make him better. :( So sad. As soon as he gets over this bout of sickness I am going to make a long appointment with our new ped and beg her to please find whatever is making him sick all the time. We keep going to the doctor, they can't help or feel nothing is wrong, then we get referred to another doctor, same thing happens, get referred to someone else, and on and on. He's had surgeries, medicines, x-rays, CT's, preventives, lots of tests, so much stuff, but no relief. :(

Good news- it's fall break! The boys are excited!

Oh, and I have been soooo tired this week! I went to bed at 8:30 last night! 8:30!!!! That is beyond weird, 11:00 is usually early for me. I am going to bed right now, and have been ready for an hour. Weird.

Smart Boy

So I subbed for Avery's class today. I have been trying to stay out of there so it could be his own thing and he could get used to being away from me. Today went fine though, and he didn't hang all over me or do things he wasn't supposed to. I am subbing in there again tomorrow, so we will see what happens on Monday when I am not in there. He is very attached to me, so this is a test. :) Anyway, it was nice to see what goes on in there each day and to learn all the kids in his class, etc.

He gets out of school earlier than Sam since it is a pre-k class. So at the end of the day, after all the kids had left, we were cleaning up the room and getting it ready for tomorrow.

Avery said, "I never get in trouble, I ALWAYS do the right thing. " I thought that was funny, and of course, didn't believe him (he is a crazy kid after all), but then his other teacher (he has two) said , "Yep, we never have to worry about him. He is good." Probably because he has been at school since he was born and knows what to do. :) I am glad to know he does well though. I thought he would be my one to get in trouble. Hopefully that will continue.

Anyway, after that he was helping Ms. Shelley put the "center" cards (little cards with their names written on them, that they move during the day to show which center the kids go to)back in their right places. He picked up one of the cards and said, "Is this Carter's?" It was. He picked up another one and said, "Is this Mya?" It was! I couldn't believe it. I asked him how he knew (there was no way to distinguish them) he said he read it!!! I mean, I know he knows the letters and the sounds they make, but to read names like that, I couldn't believe it. How smart is he?! He explained how he read them, and he knew. Crazy! He picks things up so quickly. I guess I will start practicing reading with him now, instead of sticking with the letters and sounds.

Today was dress up as your favorite character day. Avery was Spider-man. Sam was Harry Potter, of course. Sam won the best costume in his class! He did look just like him, if I do say so myself. :) All of it was homemade, except his Harry Potter glasses. I just took different costume pieces and made them into Harry Potter. Anyway, he got to go to the office and get his picture taken and stuff. Pretty cool. He was excited. He did audition for the school play and made it. BUT they did not have enough people audition and will be having another audition after Fall Break, so he has to do it again. He loved it and did well. I can't wait to see him in it!

I guess that is it for now. Bye!