Pumpkin Carving

I would be remiss if I did not discuss our 2010 pumpkin carving. Early Halloween afternoon, the kids and Dad stepped outside to the front steps to perform the annual ritual. This year, the kids decided to go simple on the actual faces but added some finishing touches of their own creation. Here is Eleanor's pumpkin with a tiara and glitter shoeswhile Hayes grabbed some watercolor paint and added the blood effect to his pumpkin's mouth and nose. Ben did not get his own pumpkin this year, but I bet he will next year, and I can only imagine how he'll want it to look.

Go Cool Beans!

Before her soccer game on Saturday, Eleanor made up a cheer for her "Cool Beans" soccer team. Once we arrived at the field, she shared her cheer with her teammates. Then, while taking a rest during the game, the girls sitting out made a pyramid while saying E's cheer:

Kick, kick
What do we do?
Pass, pass
What do we do?
Kick, kick
What do we do?
Score!
Go Cool Beans!

Self-Portraits in Chalk

Mid-week, Mimi and Papa arrived for a visit. With the beautiful weather we were graced with, grabbing some chalk and heading outside sounded appealing. Papa traced all three kids' bodies with chalk and away they went, filling in their silhouettes. Here is Hayes . . .and Eleanor . . . Even Ben was interested in getting in on the portrait action. We also made a hopscotch court and tried playing the game, though Ben kept plowing through the squares while his siblings were trying to jump. Unfortunately, rain came the next day and cleared the driveway so we will have to recreate all of our projects on another beautiful afternoon.

E's Prayer Request

This fall, I'm participating in our church's Intercessory Prayer Ministry. One hour a week, I sit in a room at the church and pray for all of the prayer requests that have been submitted by members or friends of the church. Much to my surprise last week, I came across these few prayer requests . . . In a million years, I never would have thought that I would have seen a request from my own daughter! I immediately grabbed my Blackberry and took this picture, just so that I could remember what she said. (The boy above Eleanor's name is the little brother of the girl below E's name. They all wrote their requests as part of their education about the way the church works. )

Her requests read as follows: I hope that my family will not make mistakes. I hope my dog will stop having accidents in the house. I hope that my older brother will be nice.

Later, I asked her what mistakes she was thinking of when she made this request and she said, "Like when you make a mistake when you are cooking." Luckily, God has heard E's request regarding Baxter's accidents because those have stopped. I'm not sure why she said "older" brother instead of "younger" but it could just be a simple mistake. All in all, though, I'm proud of her for submitting her requests as many kids in her class were not brave enough to do so.

Most Favorite Thing in the Whole Wide World

Driving home from school the other day, Hayes asked from the very back seat, "Mom, what is your most favorite thing in the whole wide world?" I fumbled with an answer and eventually said, "You know, Hayes, my most favorite thing to do is travel. I love seeing the country and the world." He thought for a millisecond and then responded,"That's my most favorite thing too. I really want to see Washington D.C." I ran with this thought and told Hayes that we just might have to take a trip to Washington next summer. If we have kids interested in traveling, they definitely have some interested parents!

Christmas Wish List Already!

Yes, Hayes's Christmas "Wish List" has already been completed. He decided that he wanted to ask for 15 things. He also took some creative license when he put a few items on his list. Some of these items he made up, with the thought that they SHOULD exist. For example, when he asked for a "Spiderman rake," he is asking for it because he thinks there should be such a thing in some store somewhere. Another example would be "Star Wars games." I have no idea if there is such a thing as a Star Wars game and neither does he, but if there is, Hayes wants it. Finally, he offered up a quick "cookie" poll for Santa on the bottom as Hayes wants to make sure we put out Santa's favorite cookies on Christmas Eve - "M and M! or sugar!"

Walk to School Day

On Wednesday, Eleanor and I participated in her school's semi-annual Walk to School Day. With E's move back to the Main Campus this school year (2nd - 5th grade) from the Primary Center (K - 1st), the walk to school is possible again. (The Primary Center is a few miles away from our house while the Main Campus is about a mile away.) E was ready and rearing early Wednesday morning and had plenty of energy to make the trek. Once we got to school, our neighbor Mrs. Djuric, who had smartly remembered her camera, snapped a shot of the girls. Here are Maddy, Francie and Eleanor before they head into school for the day.

Trouble-Causing Two-Year-Old

This little guy can sure cause some trouble. Remember these beautiful pumpkins we picked out last week at the pumpkin patch? Well, in a thirty minute time period outside last weekend, Ben grabbed some permanent markers E was using and decided to add his own color to our pumpkins. (All the while Dad and Hayes were playing baseball in our yard and did not seem to notice this extra-decorating going on.) All of the orange pumpkins ended up looking like this one. In addition to adding some extra color to the pumpkins, he found four sand art projects that Eleanor had just completed at her school's Jamboree. What became of them?

Some affirmation

This weekend, Eleanor wanted to make a Hollywood movie camera out of some brown boxes. In the middle of that project (which was never finished), she diverted to this brief self-affirmation. Just in case you were interested . . .

NFL Poster

This poster came with our NFL Preview issue of Sports Illustrated. It's home is now Hayes's room. It lists each and every NFL game this season, grouped by Sundays. He studies it daily, often multiple times in a day. On any given Sunday, he can tell you each and every NFL game scheduled for that day.

We tested him on Sunday, as we were wondering whether or not he was really absorbing the poster's information. Our neighbor, a big Saints fan, asked Hayes who the Saints were playing, what time and where? Without hesitating, Hayes answered,"They are playing the Cardinals." Then he continued with, "I think they are playing at 4:00 and I think it's at the Cardinals' stadium." Our neighbor confirmed that Hayes was 100% correct.

Nothing like having an NFL game schedule right at your disposal in the form of your son!

Another new hairstyle for E

This afternoon, Eleanor and I spent an hour or two at her school's annual Jamboree. She came home sporting these colors for the rest of the afternoon and evening. (Luckily, they came out easily in just water!)Regarding Eleanor's two pigtails, she's now moved on from the single pigtail to the pair. She made this hairstyle switch yesterday afternoon at the Georgia Tech football game. Instead of watching the actual football game, E spent the time letting her cousin Anna style her hair. Anna put E's hair up in pigtails, and that is the way Eleanor has worn it ever since!

Fun with the leaves

Fall has finally officially arrived in our yard. We have leaves everywhere, and Ben has enjoyed spending some time raking, throwing and jumping in them. Ben did not realize that part of the fun of raking leaves came at the end, when you jump in your pile. Eleanor had to show him what to do
before he tried it on his own.

Apples & Pumpkins

Since the kids were out of school for Fall Break and Dad had Columbus Day off of work, we decided to head up to north Georgia to pick some apples at Reece Apple House and find some pumpkins at Burt's Pumpkin Farm on Monday. First, we hit the apple orchards. The last time we visited Reece's, Ben was just a few months old. I think I can safely say that he enjoyed picking apples today. The weather could not have been nicer . . .
and the kids were actually getting along.
Because we were picking apples late in the apple season, the only two varieties remaining to be picked were
the Rome Beauty and the Arkansas Black. We packed up two large bags of apples and then headed down to road to Burt's.
We have visited Burt's a few times in years past, though I don't believe it has ever been as crowded as it was on Columbus Day. Luckily, we knew the drill and got in and out quickly.
The boys kept asking to rest, and it was hard for them not to sit on some of the large pumpkins.
After Hayes picked out a huge pumpkin, it was Eleanor's turn.
I added a few colorful pumpkins to our mix . . .
and then we were ready to head back towards home with a car full of apples and pumpkins.

Halloween Decor "Competition"

As I've mentioned in a previous post, Hayes has been really into Halloween decor this year. He keeps rearranging our interior decorations and has been begging to take our outside decorations up a notch.

As if he needed any more reason for his Halloween fervor, Hayes has decided that our half of the street is having a "Best-Decorated Halloween House" competition. Prior to Sunday afternoon, he had not notified any of our neighbors about this competition, but was constantly discussing the current "standings." He claimed that our next-door-neighbors were in the top position while we were in fourth place.

Our position changed later that afternoon after Dad treated Hayes to a trip to our local Spirit (Halloween themed) store. What did they come home with? 1. A bunch of cobwebs, including some glow-in-the-dark variety. 2. Two glow-in-the-dark skulls to frighten anyone off of our front steps. 3. One scary gravestone.
4. Hayes's favorite purchase . . . the skeleton ghost.

As soon as Hayes and Dad had placed all of the new decorations in their proper places in the yard, Hayes told our neighbors, who had walked over to check out the spooky decorations, that we were now in first place in his self-created competition. Once they learned of the competition and realized that they have a few more weeks to displace us from the top, they started brainstorming as to what they could do to decorate. Hopefully, Hayes will stay on top of our decor, and keep us in the top position until Halloween!

Georgia Tech Football

All three kids expressed an interest in attending Georgia Tech's game against Virginia on Saturday. Dad decided that he would try taking all three and join Grandmommy and Granddaddy at the game. To encourage the Yellow Jackets to a victory over the Cavaliers, Eleanor decided to make a banner that she aimed to hold up in the stadium during the game. What she did not consider when making the sign was the visibility of the colors (specifically the yellow) she chose to write with. Here is what she said on her banner to the Yellow Jackets:

Go GT! Buzz Buzz Sting Buzz Them! Rule the Stadium! Beat Them!

Even though she's not a huge GT fan, she sure let the team know that she was behind them.

"More Halloween"

I took Ben on a walk yesterday morning, and I was ready for some peace and quiet by the time we got home. Throughout the walk, Ben was obsessed with seeing Halloween decorations. In his ideal world, every house in the neighborhood would have something Halloween-y in its yard. Unfortunately for us, we have some neighbors who have not yet caught the Halloween spirit. When we walked by those yards without any decorations, Ben would ask me, "Mom, where's more Halloween?" Early on in the walk, I would respond with an encouraging, "Keep looking, Ben. Some more are coming right up." For the latter half of the walk, when his constant questioning of "Where's more Halloween?" had grown slightly tiresome, my positive outlook had faded. My realist side started showing through, as I started to respond with, "I don't know, Ben. They might be all gone." "I don't know" is never a good-enough answer for a two-year-old so he really kicked his, "Where's more Halloween?" questions into high gear. Towards the end of the walk, he asked that question at each yard, even if the yard had decorations. He just wanted more, more more!

Hopefully, as we draw closer to Halloween, more of the houses in the 'hood will get into the Halloween spirit, and I can have a more peaceful walk with Ben.

Halloween "Arranging"

Hayes has been a big help this year with unpacking our Halloween decorations. He has taken great pride in placing them in his desired spots around the house. Last night, he decided to move some select pieces of our decorations/pumpkins in front of the TV, right where we could not miss them. He was so proud of his work that he asked that his picture be taken of him in front of his "arrangement." When Ben saw Hayes posing, he ran over and copied Hayes, in typical Ben fashion.

E's Fortune Telling

Eleanor came home from school one Friday with a fortune telling creation. I fondly remember making these myself back-in-the-day and for you historians at home, nothing about them has changed. You start off by selecting one of the four color options.The fortune teller, in this case Eleanor, then spells out your selected color while simultaneously moving the paper squares a time per letter. Next, you pick a number. Eleanor then moves the four squares again as she counts up to the number you've selected. Finally, you select another number out of four and hidden behind that number is your fortune. My fortune this day was"You will be the best kid soccer gole (goalie)."

A quick inventory of all of the fortunes you might receive via this fortune telling creation gives you a great insight into the mind of a second grade girl. Here are the eight that Eleanor came up with:
1. You will be awesome!
2. You will have to have a candy today.
3. You will know your +, -, x and ÷ facts.
4. You will have a boyfriend.
5. You will be the best kid soccer player.
6. You will be the best kid soccer gole.
7. You will have over 14,000 silly bandz.
Last, but definitely not least . . .
8. You will not have lice.