Happy Haunting!!!

Last Day of Fall Break

After some puniness and general malaise over the first 3 days of Addison's fall break, everyone seemed to feel much better this morning. Maybe it was the beautiful sunshine and pleasant temperatures. It really was a gorgeous fall day!

I was very happy since I had been hoping we'd be able to get to one of the local pumpkin patches (if you consider an hour away local). But do you know how hard it is to find one that's open during the week? I think they reserve their weekdays for field trips, homeschool groups, etc. Luckily, we did find Boyd's Pumpkin Patch (very friendly and reasonable too!).

We got lost in the corn maze,



took some pictures,



then picked out the perfect pumpkins to bring home.




After we got back home, Addison and Clark had fun painting their little pumpkins.




Now if we can just get another warm, beautiful day to carve the big one into a jack-o-lantern!!

Happy Birthday Clark!

In just four short years, we've gone from this sweet little guy


to this sweet little guy.


He is lovin' Buzz Lightyear right now (and Superman, Spiderman, Batman and any superhero he can find).







We even ventured out to Chuck E Cheese tonight to make sure he had a super special day since he's our special superhero!



Happy Birthday Clark!

White Water Rafting (miniscale)

I guess today is as good a day as any for my "Once-A-Month-Blogging". I realized a couple of weeks ago that given my transition from blogging to Facebook to Twitter, pretty soon I'll just expect you to read my mind! LOL And as a new blog feature, I've added my Twitter updates to the sidebar.

We have had so much rain the past couple of weeks, our backyard is reaching lake status again. There is an underground spring in the backyard, and when it reaches its limits water actually bubbles up out of the ground (along with a crayfish or two). Somehow I doubt we'll be using the fire pit anytime soon.


This morning it was raining pretty steady, and the kids are acting bored to death. Once we got a little break in the rain, Addison and Clark head out to the creek right behind the treeline. It's in the 70's here, so I let them go for it. It has a little current going, and they both are having fun using it as a wading pool.





Then Carl brings out the pool float and they had a blast "riding the raft."






What fun for them! And I love that a little outdoor time and some hot chocolate afterwards have cured the "I'm bored" mantra for the moment.

Krazy Corner to Kids' Corner

I was called on the carpet about a week ago by a friend who noticed that I hadn't updated the blog lately. Seems I've turned into a OAMB (Once-A-Month-Blogger). But instead of boring you with all our vacation and back to school pictures, I'll show you what I did today.

The office/craft room has recently become a dumping ground for lots of things. We've been cleaning out my mother-in-law's house to get it on the market. Boxes and items from her house landed on the table and floor until I had time to figure out if we needed to give these things a home or not. But not all the blame lies there. Since there's not been much crafting going on in this room the past few months, the kids and I have gotten bad about letting the table pile up. I've been wanting to set up a little area for Addison and Clark to keep their art supplies instead of letting them spread across the house.


I signed up for Aby Garvey's free one-week online workshop (started yesterday) to give me a jumpstart on getting organized. Since today is my day at home, I decided to tackle this crazy corner. One shredder to goodwill, other shredder moved upstairs near the filing cabinet. Rolling tote moved to the attic, paper files purged. I still need to unpack those scrapbook supplies under the table, but we're saving that for another day. I'm just happy that the kids have their scrapbook paper, colored pencils, markers, crayons, stickers, glue sticks and scissors neatly contained! So whether it's used for homework or artsy stuff, they have their own little area to work in. I can't wait for Addison to get home from school to see it! Clark has seen it, but he's much more interested in watching our plumber replace bathroom fixtures at the moment.

Does your family have a mission statement?

I've been mulling this over since I read Simple Mom's blog post earlier this week. No formal discussions with the family about this yet...just thoughts running through my mind. I can guarantee you we will be working on this in the near future. In today's crazy, busy world, I think we could use a clear-cut standard to measure against the activities we involve ourselves to see if they are helping us or hindering us from achieving our long-term family goals.

If you have one, please share it (and you can also share it here)! If you don't, do you want to join me in formulating one for your family?

Thank you Addison!

We just got back from a little vacation to the Smokies. We stayed in a wonderful cabin way up on Ski Mountain in Gatlinburg with the most spectacular view from the back deck. The drive up was a little unnerving at first, but we got somewhat used to it. Our excitement was when this visitor showed up going through our trash can....no more than 20 feet from the front door!!
And then he wandered off just as nonchalantly as he showed up. We didn't really do much tourist-y stuff except the Ripley's Aquarium which everyone enjoyed.

But yes...it was because of Addison that we scheduled our little getaway. Her dance team participated in the Stage One National Finals Thursday and Friday. They didn't make it to the Shootout today, but I am so proud of how well they did...especially since this was the first year of competing for most of the team.

It's no secret (at the studio or to my friends and family) that Addison has struggled with her backbend for "Germs". She nailed it during Friday's performance, but when I saw this picture I asked her why she and her friend on the far left are looking at each other.
Her answer: Bella was saying "Great job Addison!" and I was saying "Thanks." You gotta love the sweet innocence of these little girls!

And who can forget "The Cars That Go Boom!" It will be hard to find a costume or a catchy little tune to rival this number.


Great job Hubbies! Thanks for the trip to Gatlinburg! :)

Dress Rehearsal

After spending almost 9 nours at dress rehearsal today, I'm too exhausted to say much. But here are some pics of my little diva!

Remember the hat that goes with this?

Another Long Hiatus

I'm afraid I've had another long spell of neglecting the blog. It seems I've just moved from one crazy deadline to another lately. Tax season ended officially two weeks ago tomorrow...then we switched immediately into competition season for Addison's dance team. But life has not been all work and NO play.

We did find time to color Easter eggs.


And have an egg hunt.

Ride with daddy on the lawnmower.


I will admit the only creative thing I've done is to turn this plain pink felt hat


into this:

Addison's costume is definitely not one of those "off-the-shelf" numbers. Lots of time went into it, but they are definitely out of this world.

My next project is to finish 6 pages in 22 scrapbooks for the end of school!!! I hope to be back soon to a regular blogging schedule! Where is that darn Calgon??? LOL