Halloween Celebrations

We enjoyed a week of celebrating Halloween.  The first  pictures are from Allison's party in her 3 year old preschool class.  I did not even get any pictures for myself of Allison in this costume.  Thankfully, my friend Cindy took pictures.



Allison and her friend Evan at her class party



Lilly, Allison, Evelyn, Maddie & Joe

These next pictures are at our church Fall Festival and Trunk-or-Treating night.  The girls had a great time and got lots of candy that night. 



My little crayons Lauren and Allison

Lauren and Allison playing the doughnut game.  They had to eat the dangling doughnut without using their hands.



Lauren and Dorothy (aka Mackenzie)

Allison, Lauren and Mackenzie Trunk-or-Treating

Mackenzie, Lauren and Allison

Allison with her teacher Jim Pryor and Owen Keim

These next pictures are from Lauren's kindergarten party.  I was fortunate enough to get to go and help out again.  We played games, had a wonderful breakfast, and made several crafts that morning.

Lauren's kindergarten class

Connor and Lauren

Lauren and her friend Kerstin

Lauren and her best friend Lilly

And finally, Halloween arrived and we got to trick-or-treat in our new neighborhood.  What a perfectly wonderful time we had with the Watsons.  Last year we trick-or-treated with them in their neighborhood and this year they joined us.  It was a perfect evening to be outside.  The kids were out in droves and the parents seemed to enjoy being out as much as the kids.   

Mackenzie, Lauren, Allison (with her fish face) and Josiah

Mackenzie, Lauren, Josiah, and Allison

Allison, Mackenzie, Josiah and Lauren at their first house





Race For the Cure

Today we enjoyed our 2nd year participating in the Race for the Cure as a family.  It was pretty chilly, but we braved the cold and actually ended up walking the 5K race.  We planned to do the 1 mile walk again with the girls, but we got in with the crowd for the 5K and ended up completing the 3.1 miles with the crowd.  I was proud of the girls, even though Allison wanted to be carried a LOT and Lauren needed a little rest every once in a while.  We had a wonderful time together.

It is such a special event for us to participate in as a family.  It was 6 years ago this past August when Mom was diagnosed with Breast cancer.  Mom is cancer free and we have been blessed beyond measure in these past 6 years.  I love being a part of this race and seeing all the women who have survived breast cancer and all the other people who are honoring loved ones who have battled the disease those who lost the battle.  It is truly an emotional event. 

Mom, Bill and Allison at the beginning of the race

Me, Lauren, Allison and Bill

Bill, Lauren and Dad

Mom, Allison and Bill

Brother Bill, Mom, Allison, Bill, Dad and Lauren

Brother Bill, Allison, Bill, Me, and Lauren

Lauren, Me, Mom and Allison



Scary Dreams and Santa Dreams

Last night Lauren came into our room afraid from a scary dream.  She crawled in my bed for a few minutes before I took her back to her own bed.  After getting her settled in her own bed for the rest of the night, I stopped by Allison's room to check in on her.  I decided to take her to the bathroom (because she has wet the bed a couple of times in the past couple of weeks).  While she was sitting on the potty, she looked at me with sleepy eyes and said, "Is Santa coming tomorrow?"  I looked at her and said, "No."  I asked her if she was dreaming about Santa coming and she said yes.  After explaining to her that it was a while until Christmas, she looked at me and said, "I can't wait to put our stockings up."  We got new stockings this week and we are all so excited that we have a fireplace and a place to hang our stockings in our new house.

Pumpkin Patch

Words cannot even describe how wonderful this fall day was, so I won't  attempt to write much about it.  We took the girls to the Pumpkin Patch and enjoyed a picture perfect day with our friends, the Watsons.  Here are some (OK, a lot) of the pictures I took.

My girls in their pigtails getting ready to go to the Pumpkin Patch

Posing at the pumpkin patch

The Bouncing Pillow, the girls LOVED this!



Josiah, Allison and Mackenzie on the Bouncing Pillow

Allison bouncing

Allison and Josiah on the Tractor Tire Mountain

Josiah, Mackenzie, Lauren and Allison

Allison sliding

Mackenzie and Allison

Allison, Mackenzie and Lauren sliding

Allison coming out of the tunnel slide

Allison and Daddy on the pedal cars

Allison sitting on a pumpkin in the field

Allison found a pumpkin

Lauren found a pumpkin

Mackenzie and Lauren on the hayride

A family picture at the Pumpkin Patch

I absolutely love this time of year!!! 

Johnny Appleseed Day

Lauren's Kindergarten class celebrated Johnny Appleseed Day at her school on Friday.  It brought back memories  for me as a first grade teacher.  I would take my students to the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge to celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day.  While Lauren's class stayed at their school, they had a great time with their Apple Festival.  I got to help out with one of the stations.  I manned the Apple taste-testing station and graphed which apples the kids liked best.  I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with all of Lauren's classmates.  I loved volunteering in Lauren's classroom.  I wish I was able to do that more often. 

The kids were encouraged to dress up like Johnny Appleseed for that day.  My sweet friend Cindy loaned me a vest and plaid shirt for Lauren to wear.  I must say, that made the outfit just perfect.  Thanks Cindy!!
Here are a few pictures of "Lauren Appleseed".

I love how Lauren is looking up at my Dad in this picture 

                              Lauren and my Dad                                 

                  Classic Lauren pose with her head tilted                        

 Lauren in her classroom

                                                    

Lauren's class with Mr. and Mrs. Appleseed.  The man is the gym teacher who happens to be married to Lauren's K teacher

                                                                 Sweet smile my little Lauren

I'm thankful for my parents coming down to keep Allison so I could help out in Lauren's classroom.  I'm so thankful that Lauren absolutely LOVES school.  We are blessed with a wonderful teacher for her.  I am so amazed at everything she is learning.  I am so proud of my big girl.  I love you my sweet daughter.

Rainy Days

The girls spent a wonderful, rainy, Saturday playing out side in the rain yesterday.  My wonderful, sweet husband got them dressed in their boots and let them go out and splash around in the small stream that had formed in our side yard.  The girls had a blast.  Their neighbor friends joined them for some splishing and splashing. 

Lauren and Allison

Lauren getting her hair wet

Lauren splashing in the small stream beside the house

Allison and our neighbor Alexa

The rain was pouring on the girls

While the girls were playing in the rain, I got a chance to start painting their wooden letters that spell their names.  It's going to take a little longer than I anticipated to finish them.

My dear friend, Billie bought these cute little crocheted hats for the girls and I snapped some cute pictures of them modelling the hats.

School and Labor Day Weekend

Lauren completed a four day week of school last week.  She absolutely LOVED it.  We are very impressed with her teacher!  Lauren has learned so much in the 7 days she has been in class.  She knows all the values of coins from a penny to a dollar.  She can sing, or rap several songs to go along with that knowledge.  She has learned about periods, question marks, and exclamation marks.  She brings home a letter book for each letter they have  introduced complete with the high frequency words they are supposed to be working on this year.  She is really enjoying writing words and making rhyming word lists.  She talks about her morning message all the time and has picked up a lot of writing from that.  Is this really Kindergarten????  She has learned more words this week than my first graders learned  in a month back when I was teaching 1st grade.  I guess the new Kindergarten really is the old First Grade and so much more!  I have mixed feelings about that. 

Allison and I are adjusting to being teacher and student  on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of Mommy and daughter.  It's a work in progress.  We had a really good day today!  I am also enjoying the alone time I get to spend with Allison while Lauren is in school.     

I feel very rushed in my job, though.   I have to beat the traffic at Lauren's school when I drop her off in order to get to my school on time.  Then I have to leave my school quickly to pick Lauren up at 1:00.  I don't have any time to prepare for my class at school and that is very frustrating.  Fortunately my co-teacher is empathetic to the situation.  I don't know how Mom's who work full time do it.  I have an even greater admiration for them now than I did before I started working my two little mornings a week.

We enjoyed a great Labor Day weekend.  We went to Mom and Dad's for the weekend.  Here are a few pictures we took at the park on Saturday.  The weather was absolutely fabulous that day. 

We came back to Knoxville Sunday afternoon and got Allison's room primed and ready for repainting.  We were able to get two coats of paint on Monday to finish up her room.  Today Bill put the curtain rod up and we hung her new curtains.  I love the new pink paint and her curtains look great.  I didn't get any pictures of her room tonight, but I'll post some soon.