Fall Break!

Fall break could not have come at a better time for all of us! Since Kevin and I are both teachers and we have been experiencing this new Tennessee evaluation system, we needed this break BAD!!! I do not think I have enjoyed any week out of the year more than I have enjoyed this week! We have stayed up late every night and slept in VERY late every morning. Most importantly, we have just enjoyed being together as a family. Here is a recap of what all we did this week:

Saturday- Our day started at Ava's early soccer game (Ok, this was one day we did not get to sleep in but it was still sleeping in compared to 5:30am.) Her team won their first win of the season! After her game, we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. YUM! Then we came home and Kevin painted the girls their very own soccer field in the backyard.


While Kevin was entertaining the girls, I fell asleep on the patio with Miley. This was the first of many naps to come this week!


Sunday- We started the day off going to church. Then we came home, took a nap, and I finished up some last minute birthday shopping for Elia.

Monday- I spent this day switching out the girls' clothes in their closets from summer clothes to fall clothes. Fortunately, Ava can still wear the clothes that Elia outgrows from the year before. Once closets were switched out, we headed to Elia's birthday party at the skating rink. (Insert a nap in the day somewhere.)

Tuesday- I took Elia shopping so she could spend her birthday money and all of her gift cards. She had so much fun and so did I! Then we played outside in the cove! The temperature had literally dropped 30 degrees from the day before!


Wednesday- We had our Halloween theme dinner and then we were going to take the kids to the corn maze. However, it started raining on our way there so we had to have a change of plans. Carol and I took the kids to see Mrs. Cockroft's Halloween lights. Then we drove through Starbucks to get a pumpkin spice latte and a pumpkin scone. YUM! Once we got home, the kids played Just Dance Wii. Then the girls built a fort in the playroom where they slept that night!


Thursday- We met Carol and her kids and Mandy and her kids at Incredible Pizza. We stayed for about 3 hours, and the kids had a ton of fun!


Friday- We went to the see the movie Dolphin Tale which was a very good family movie. Then we went to eat dinner at IHOP. This is normally not one of my favorite places to eat but we had a gift certificate for 2 free dinners. I got the cinnastacks, and they did not disappoint!!!

Saturday- We decided to go to the corn maze since we did not get to go earlier in the week. We met my Jason, Holli, Jake, Austin, Hannah, and Hannah's friends there. Then we came home and took a nap.






This week went by WAY too fast, but it was filled with so many fun memories! As I sit here about to start on my evaluation paperwork for next week, it is time to get back into the school frame of mind. Tomorrow, we start back with spelling words and multiplication facts for Elia and reading practice for Ava, not to mention the 5:30 a.m. alarm clock on Monday morning! However, it is still Saturday night so I will soak in every last minute I have with my wonderful husband and my sweet girls before we welcome the real world back into our lives!

Elia's 9th Birthday!

Elia turned 9 on Monday, October 17 and we celebrated with her party at the roller skating rink! It happened to be fall break which made it nice and not very crowded at the skating rink. We almost had the entire place to ourselves.

We started the day sleeping in and then we let her open her presents from us. She got a Smokey Pillow pet, a Tennessee sweatsuit, Super Mario Wii game, a Barbie she wanted, and a sister necklace from Ava.





Elia was so excited about turning 9 because that meant she could ride in the car without a carseat! I think she thought that was the best thing about the entire day!

Her party started at 5:00. She had a few friends from school, a few friends who happen to be family, and a few friends from the neighborhood at her party. Here is a picture of some of her friends who were there:


The skating rink had races (which I steered clear of this time) and the limbo. Reed was the Limbo Winner of the night! Go REED!!!


Then it was time to go to the party room. We had pizza:

We had cake:



And we opened presents:


Happy Birthday Elia!!!

October Theme Dinner!

This month's theme dinner was the most fun we have had with our dinners! Since it is Halloween, we did a "spooky" dinner. We started off decorating the kitchen with Halloween decor.

On the menu for dinner tonight included:

* Mummy dogs

* Ghost cookies

* Witches Brew Punch

We started off making the punch. First, we put gummy worms in ice trays. Then we filled them up with water and put them in the freezer to turn into "wormy" ice cubes.

Then we mixed 2 parts fruit punch with 1 part 7-up in a punch bowl. We added rainbow sherbert and our wormy ice cubes to top it off. Ava had fun mixing the punch together.

Here is the Wicthes Brew ready to serve:

Then we got the main course, Mummy Dogs, ready. We got hot dogs and cut them in half. Then we wrapped the dogs with crescent rolls. We baked them according to the crescent roll directions. Then we added ketchup and mustard eyes. Our mummy dogs turned out a little bug eyed but they were still yummy!

For dessert, we made ghost cookies. We started with Nutter Butter cookies, white chocolate almond bark, and mini chocolate chips.

We put the white chocolate in the microwave and stirred every 20 seconds. Then we dipped the cookies in the white chocolate and added the chocolate chips for the ghosts' eyes and nose. They turned out pretty cute!

Miley even had to get in on the act. We dressed her up in her Halloween pajamas!

The girls had so much fun with this theme dinner!

To add to the theme we are heading to the corn maze tonight! It should be lots of fun! Stay tuned for November's theme dinner next month!!!

Fall Favorites!

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I think I could make a list of 100 reasons why I LOVE fall. Of course, right now my favorite reason would be FALL BREAK!!! At least the break is giving me time to catch up on my blogging.

Here is my top ten list of fall favorites:

#10- Halloween: I am not a fan of the spooky and scary things that comes along with Halloween. However, I do love helping the girls pick out their Halloween costumes. Then of course there is trick-or-treating where you go to every house on the block for free candy. What could be better than that?

#9- Fall colors: Trees are at their prettiest when they have turned those deep yellow, orange, and red fall colors. It reminds me of our powerful and all knowing God and how He is in control of even the little things.

#8- Hooded sweatshirts: I love fall weather! I am definitely cold natured and I am ALWAYS cold. However, the weather during fall is my favorite. I love being able to put on a pair of comfy jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.

#7- Smores: Who doesn't love Smores? One of my favorite things about fall is sitting in the cove with the neighbors on a cool night, pulling the fire pit out, and roasting smores over the open flames! YUMMY!

#6- Maple Pancake Yankee Candle: This is one of the best scents that Yankee Candle makes. The only problem is that it is only sold during the fall. I always have to stock up so they will last me year round. They smell SO good!

#5- White Chocolate Candy Corn M&M's: Enough said!

#4- Black Friday Shopping: Only one more month until I will be out with the crazies at 2am looking for that great deal that I could find online in my warm pajamas in my warm bed. It truly is worth the experience and all the fun stories that are shared throughout the night!

#3- Cuddling: Fall weather means cuddle time with the ones you love. The cooler weather makes me want to pull out the blankets and snuggle up for a good nap with my favorite family members.

#2- Starbucks Pumpkin Scones: I discovered these for the first time this past weekend. Do not let the fall season disappear before you get to your local Starbucks for one of these delicious treats!

#1- And my number one favorite fall item is STARBUCKS PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE of course!!!