Halloween Drawings

Ben has been hard at work honing his drawing skills.  When he has a free minute, he'll find a table and some blank paper and start coloring away.  His marker of choice would be a permanent marker or Sharpie, but I have since explained that those tools might not be the best drawing instruments for a four-year-old boy.  Lately, he's been getting festive with his pictures as you can see with his Halloween-themed drawings.  He had me label them appropriately, after he had determined a purchase price for each of them and written the numbers in the top right corners.

Cartwheel Queen

Ever since the Summer Olympics, E has been fascinated with gymnastics. Her goal has been to teach herself how to do a cartwheel.  Well, she has perfected this move and does it throughout the house and all over the yard. 

As her upper body strength improves, she's also gotten much better at her handstands. 

 

I must admit that I'm quite proud of her.  I never learned how to do a cartwheel and I don't think I ever would have considered teaching myself.  Well done, Eleanor!

 

Pumpkins from David

Last night when Thomas and I came home from a sneak preview of Steven Spielberg's new Lincoln movie, we found these three pumpkins at our front door, courtesy of our sweet next-door neighbor David. Let me introduce you to Bug Man, Crazy Cat and the Bride of Frankenstein.

 

This afternoon, Ben begged me to take a picture of the pumpkins in the daylight and you can appreciate all of David's artistry.

 

Getting some Halloween surprise from David always signals to the kids that Halloween is indeed drawing near! 

Ben at School

I finally sat down the other night to take a look at Ben's Pre-K class Shutterfly website.  His teachers have done a great job capturing moments in the classroom that parents might not otherwise hear about from their children.  I always find it comforting to see my kids with smiles on their faces while they are at school.  Here are some of the pictures of Ben that I found on the website . . .

Ben was Star of the Day on the first day of school.  Here he is sitting in the star's seat.

Here are some more pictures of Ben on his first day of school . . .

  

Ben was thrilled to have his buddy Charlie in his class.  

 

(Ben and Charlie have been in the same class since their first year in the Preschool at the young age of 1.) Ben's class visits Ms Jo, the music teacher, a few times each week.

Ms. Jo taught both Eleanor and Hayes in years past, and she loves the Carroll Family! When doing classwork, Ben sits at a table with four other children 

and the class helped their teacher celebrate her birthday earlier this month.   

Ms. DeLong, otherwise known as the "Letter Lady", has started to visit the classroom each Monday to introduce the "Letter of the Week."  Here she is on "S" week.

Ben has mentioned going to the school's library and playing on a computer, but I had no idea what he was talking about.  This picture has clued me in to what they've been doing in the library. 

Finally, the fire truck from the nearby fire station came to visit the Preschool last week.

 

I look forward to revisiting the Shutterfly site in a few weeks to see what else Ben has been doing at school. 

My Name is Hayes

Hayes came home from school the other day with this flower in his take-home folder.

I, frankly, was a little surprised to see that he did not mention a sport in either of his "I like to . . ." petals, but do see that he is playing baseball in the center.  As a parent though, I can't be too disappointed with his "I like to read" and "I like to learn"comments. 

Like a Teenager

Ben attended a superhero-themed birthday party of one of his classmates this past weekend.  He came home with a very cool Flash Gordon cape, a yellow mask and a superhero dog tag.

   

He hung the dog tag around his neck to show Thomas and quickly declared, "I look just like a teenager!"

Pumpkins & Apples

The day after we returned from Lake Guntersville, the older two kids were still out of school.  We took advantage of the "free" day and drove up to Elijay to visit Burt's Pumpkin Farm and BJ Reece's Apple House.  As I look back at old pictures, this trip turned out to be an almost exact repeat of the trip we took in 2010, except that time Thomas was able to join us. 

Our first stop this year was Burt's.  Thank heavens we visited the farm on a Tuesday.  On weekends in October, this place turns into an absolute madhouse.

 

We captured our traditional photo amongst the pumpkins

 

before we started to fill our wheelbarrow up with gourds and colorful pumpkins.

   

Once the wheelbarrow was full and I could not push it anymore, I knew it was time to move on.  The next stop along Georgia Highway 52 was BJ Reece Apple House, our usual pick-your-own stop. 

  

This year, the apples that were ripe for picking were the Rome Beauties and the Golden Delicious apples. 

 

Our two "pecks" were full of apples when the kids had had enough.  It was time to start our drive back to Atlanta and ponder all of the baking we were soon to do!

Lake Guntersville

For Fall Break this past weekend, we drove across state lines to Alabama's Lake Guntersville with the Evans Family.  The week leading up to heading out of town on Friday was crazy with Thomas being named to a new job at the bank.  My good intentions of being organized and packed in advance flew by the wayside, and I scrambled Friday morning to get the car packed and on the road at a reasonable time.  In my hurry, I forgot my camera . . . so the two pictures I took all weekend were taken with my phone.

On waking up Saturday morning, this was the view out of nearly every room in the lake house.  

Though the weather was not great, it was hard to complain when we spent three days in this setting!  When we were not inside watching football by the fire (the cool temperatures arrived at the lake at the same time we did), we were outside watching the kids swim in the pool (yes, even in the cold), playing corn hole or football or kickball or keep-away.  We also made two quick trips out on the lake but found the wind chill to be disenchanting.  All five of the kids did jump into the lake, and Eleanor even had a chance to tube.  Thankfully, the five kids got along swimmingly which helped make the trip be both restful and relaxing . . . and just what we all needed!

Walk to School Day

A week ago Wednesday was National Walk-to-School Day.  Eleanor and Hayes donned their "Bee a Walker" t-shirts before heading out the door to walk to their respective campuses.

 

Hayes, Ben and I joined Hayes's class in walking to the Primary Center together from one of his classmates's home near campus.  Eleanor and Thomas met up with some of the Beaverbrook crowd and walked up to the Main Campus.  Since the weather was great, as it rarely is, the school estimated that 800 children walked to school! 

Ben's Self Portrait

Yesterday, Ben brought home a self-portrait he had painted in class.

 

This painting appears to be Ben's first of himself as I can't find a record of any other so I wanted to mark the occasion.  He was quite proud of his work and especially his blue eyes and blond hair.  

Handbells at Church

While Hayes and Thomas were busy walking on the field at the Braves' stadium with fellow Cub Scouts on Sunday, Eleanor donned her red choir robe and played chimes for the first time in front of the church at the 11:15 service.

 

Eleanor was nervous before the service, but the time went by so quickly that she did not give it much thought once she was standing in front of the congregation. The children played two short chimes/notes at the beginning of the service, and then they were done.

Can you find Eleanor in the red-robed crowd of children?

Cub Scouts Trip to Turner Field

Sunday was a big deal if you are a Braves baseball fan.  More than 50,000 fans were in attendance to see Chipper Jones play in his final regular season home game before he retires.

(The Braves have made the playoffs this year so Sunday's game was not Chipper's last ever in Atlanta.)  As an added bonus to the day's festivities, Cub Scouts from around metro Atlanta were invited on the field before the game.  How did this impact us?  Hayes decided this fall that he wants to try Cub Scouts . . . so on Sunday, he put on his Cub Scout outfit for the first time

and went down to Turner Field to join the other Cub Scouts from around Atlanta.  Before walking on the field, Hayes's nerves started to get the best of him.  He instructed his father not to take any pictures of him.  That instruction (that was obviously not followed) explains his attitude in these shots. 

 

  

Thankfully, his senses came to him mid-walk, and someone was able to capture a shot of Hayes and Thomas on the field. 

I look forward to hearing about Hayes and Thomas's Cub Scout adventures throughout the year.  This event was a great way to kick-off the experience!