Halloween Twenty-Fourteen

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Halloween Twenty-Fourteen

 Halloween Twenty-Fourteen was one for the record books! Over the past week we were given three different days for Halloween dress-up, which was great. It makes me feel like we got our monies worth out of our costume purchases, so yay for that! Also, this was Delta Mae's first time doing door-to-door trick-or-treating and she did great!

Here's a glimpse at what Halloween Twenty-Fourteen looked like for us this year. And when I say glimpse, I truly mean it. I've managed to take over 800 pictures at three different Halloween events that occurred this past week. Somehow, I've narrowed them down to less than 30.

It's a glimpse.

{ONE} DanceSouth Halloween Costume Day
On Wednesday, our Little Ballerina was given the opportunity to wear her Halloween costume to dance class. I won't waste anymore of your time with words. Here's the ADORABLE pictures.
Delta Mae and Kate. I'm pretty sure Delta Mae is telling her a joke. 
"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
"To go Trick-Or-Treating!"

And there they all are! See. I told you. Adorable.

{TWO} Trick or Treat at The Pete
On Thursday, Southern Miss hosted a Fall Festival and invited kids to come out and play games with the baseball players at The Pete (the ball park). Remember in my previous post I mentioned that we had a cowboy outfit for Wyatt to wear for Throwback Thursday, but had to do a mid-week wardrobe change? Well, this was his chance to make good use of his Dapper Cowboy costume! =)

Wyatt went as U.S. Marshall Virgil Earp, brother to Wyatt Earp, of course. Which means he had a silver mustache rather than black. Delta Mae got another use out of her Baby Chick Costume. I tried really hard to take some good pictures of them both before we left the house.
Wyatt, I mean Virgil, did great, and was looking Very Dapper. And a whole lot like his Daddy.

Delta Mae just wanted to kick at me.

I was even able to sneak in a picture of me with My Mr. Big Stuff thanks to my good ol' tripod. =)

Then, we made it to The Pete!
And played...

And played..

And played! We left with fun memories and way too much candy!

{THREE} HALLOWEEN DAY!
On Friday, our Halloween morning started off with Jack-O-Lantern pancakes for breakfast. I gave both of My Littles a pancake each and they decorated theirs to their heart's content.
I poured a little syrup on top and they got started creating their Jack-O-Lantern's face.

Wyatt's looked great. Delta Mae's had four eyes. It's her Jack, and she can do what she wants to.

Before all was said and done, Wyatt took a lesson from Delta Mae and added a few more eyes to his masterpiece. I love how Honey Chicken smiles at her brother. =) 

I used food coloring to make the pancake batter orange and black, then I transferred the black batter into a ketchup dispensing bottle to make the shapes needed for the eyes, noses, and mouths.

Later that morning, I dressed Wyatt up in his costume and sent him off for the fifth and final final day of Spirit Week at Benedict Day School.
Only this time he had transformed from Virgil Earp into Captain America.

We dropped The Captain off at school and headed back home to get ready for the PTA sponsored Fall Festival. I took it upon myself to try to get some better pictures of Delta Mae before we headed back to school. Sweet Honey Chicken DELIVERED!


And to round out the cuteness, how about a glimpse at her cutting her eyes at me when she was obviously done.

After lunch, it was back to BDS. Once again, they played, and played, and played. =)
Some, but not all of the Kinders. 

Hula-Hoop. Doughnut on a String. Hot Pumpkin (Hot Potato).

Darts.

Wyatt and Parker

But wait. There's more! We still had Trick-or-Treating to do. We don't live in a neighborhood, so we made a short drive to one close by and started making our rounds.
Brad and Our Littles 

Me and Our Littles 
It was so cute hearing Delta Mae say "trick or tweet" and "hap a ha-yo-ween." At one house as we were leaving I spoke to Delta Mae asking her, "what do you say?" She turned around to the home owner and said, "Yes ma'am."

It was so cute, which made it better than the "thank you" I had in mind for her to say.

She wanted to share her candy with the witch.

Wyatt ran into his best bud, Owen, from his old preschool days.

Have you had your fill of pictures?

Let's wrap this up by saying that yes, we did have a Happy Halloween. Nearly everytime we would leave someone's porch, Delta Mae would say, "some more houses?" She really had a fun time going door-to-door. Wyatt had a great time to, although I think I bothered him with the constant reminder of what to say.

Delta Mae got so many compliments on just how cute her costume was, and I fell in love with the feathers too! So much, I'm already thinking I'll do a swan, or peacock in the coming years. Maybe both! Wrapping a child up in a feathered boa has never been more easy and adorable.

Happy Halloween Twenty-Fourteen! Linking up with Julie and Natasha for the Halloween Costume Party Link-up!

WYATT'S 1ST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

 Wyatt is officially a Kindergartner! 

It was his big day and I wanted it to be super special for him.  I mentioned in a previous post that my parents would always take us out for breakfast on the first morning of school, but there's just no way for me to get my family to a restaurant for an enjoyable meal that early in the morning.  What's more, I'm certain someone would get a food stain on their brand new clothes.  So, why not have a First Day of School Breakfast Feast at home?!  And so our tradition began!

Wyatt is FIVE

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Wyatt is FIVE

 Wyatt you are 5!  We woke up to a beautiful Saturday morning on your birthday, and after a quick breakfast it was time to start having fun celebrating you and the things you love.  We dropped your sister off with Granny and PawPaw, and your Dad and I drove you out to to Camp Shelby for some big boy gun shooting.

You didn't know where we were going.  Each part of this day was a surprise for you. 

You have never shot a rifle before, only a BB gun pistol.  We know you prefer pistols and once we arrived and told you that we had plans to shoot guns your first question was, "can I shot a pistol?"  Unfortunately, your hands aren't big enough to pull a trigger with only one hand.  At least, not any of the pistols your Dad has.  Rather than teach you wrong technique, your Dad only brought rifles for you to shoot.  After we told you they were "sniper rifles" you were excited to give them a try.
 Up first was a Marlin 22 caliber rifle.  You shot it twice, but didn't like the fact that you couldn't see through the scope very well.  Even so, you made two great shots and hit the target both times.  We could sense that you were loosing interest. You told us you were hot and ready to leave!  But then your Dad brought out his AR and you gave it a go.


Here's the video.
You said, "Ow! It shaked a bunch and hurt my chest." You shook it off and were happy to see your bullet hole even closer to the center of the target than the other two shots you had fired from the .22. 
 You did it!  You shot a real gun!  I was so proud of you!  After you shot it, I had no more excuses and had to shoot it for the first time myself.  You did it before I did!

You had had enough of shooting, though.  You were hot and ready to go so we did.  We stopped off at Huddle House for lunch and you ate a salad and then got this brownie for dessert. Yummy! 

When we got back to Granny's we found your sister asleep on the swing with Granny.
So cute!  But there was more fun planned for the day, so had to get going.  We were going swimming next!  We went home, SPF-ed ourselves, changed into our swimwear and headed to Aunt Desira's.
Let me quickly mention that before we left the house you said that you didn't want to go swimming. You wanted to stay home and play the new app, LEGO Star Wars, that I had just installed on your iPad for you that morning.  After telling you that summer was almost over and we weren't going to get many more opportunities to go swimming you came around to my way of thinking.  I'm so glad you did!
 Your Dad hasn't had the chance to swim with us very often this summer. He's a busy man.  But he finally got the chance to see you swim in the deep end all by yourself and jump off the diving board.  You and your sister had a fun time in the water with your Daddy.

We swam for about two hours, then it was back to the house where you opened your "birthday day" gift.
We had hoped that you would want to watch your new movie, Marvel's Avengers, but no.  You wanted to play your new app.  Your Dad and I watched some of the movie, but cut it short so we could all get cleaned up and ready for dinner.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese's!
You were excited! 

You and your Dad partnered up while Delta Mae and I stuck together.  I didn't watch you play one game, but I know you had a blast.
Also, Papa J, Kitty, Alyiah and Anna Grace came along, but I failed to get a picture of our whole crew.  An employee got photo of us just before we left. 

We got got back home and you finally got your birthday cupcake!!
Like usual, you ate all of the icing and took only one bite of the cake, then trashed it.  We put Delta Mae to bed, but let you stay up and play your iPad a little longer.  We had such a great time celebrating you!  We love you very much and are so blessed by you being in our lives.  Happy Birthday, Wyatt!!!

DAY TRIP TO GULF SHORES

Monday, July 14, 2014

DAY TRIP TO GULF SHORES

 I love the beach! Also, I love a beach with pretty water. Don't get me wrong, any opportunity we get to swim in the ocean I am ALL IN! About two months ago, we took a day trip to Biloxi, Mississippi (90 miles away). Although the water was dingy looking it didn't stop us from jumping in and having a blast splashing around and playing in the sand. As you travel along the Gulf of Mexico, the water turns from a dingy brown in Louisiana to a beautiful blue once you get into Florida. No doubt, Florida beaches are the prettiest among the Gulf's beaches. However, jellyfish become a problem the further east to travel.


Yesterday, the kids and I ventured a bit further than Biloxi and stopped off in Gulf Shores, Alabama (150 miles away). Pretty water and no jellyfish! It was so nice. The beach was filled with families when we arrived, as it should be! It was a beautiful day. We found a spot and got busy playing. 

Let me quickly mention that the only editing I did was photo cropping.

 She's so beautiful!

You'd almost swear he had never had this much fun before.

She loved getting sandy.

And then washing off in the bucket.

Could not stop smiling.

Offering me some sand. No thanks, Chicken. I've got plenty of my own.

Handsome and Happy.

Gulf Shores also has bigger waves than Biloxi offers. Wyatt had fun running into the water and riding the waves back in.

Pretty Lady.

Have I mentioned how many holes I had to dig?! Wyatt and Delta Mae both enjoyed jumping in them and getting covered.. Although, after I covered Delta Mae and headed for the camera she started screaming, so I don't have a picture of her in the sand hole.

Boom, Clap!

Time, be still.

 The forced sibling picture.

They played very well together. Delta Mae chased Wyatt with sand and he scurried off like a crab. They were both giggling so loud. Best. Sound. Ever.


And Delta Mae loved feeding Pringles to the birds.

Wyatt loved it too!


Our best famly picture.

After 3 hours of being beach side, we loaded up and headed to Lambert's Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls. Seriously, if you want a roll, they throw it to you. I thought Wyatt would love this restaurant! They had a play structure outside to keep the kids entertained while we waited to be seated.

And 1.5 hours later, we were in. We were all SO TIRED, but still very hungry.

I got a very quick video of Wyatt being thrown a roll.

The restaurant also offer "pass arounds." It's seven side dishes that the servers walk around offering their guests. If they pass buy your table and you don't have a plate yet, they just plop it down on a paper towel. We had five of the seven: hot rolls, mac and tomatoes (blech!), fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, and boiled cabbage. We missed out on the apple butter and black-eyed peas. =(

I ordered the Hot Beef Sandwich, an open faced pot roast sandwich smothered in brown gravy with mashed potatoes and cole slaw on the side. Yummy! (I moved the coleslaw to make room for the fried potatoes when the server came by our table.)

Our check totaled $30, and I thought that was cheap considering how much food we had eaten and that we were taking three to-go boxed home full of leftovers!

The kids left with their Throwed Rolls in hand!

We had such a fun time! I'm ready to go back!!