Shaw Farms

Every year, we try to get out to our favorite pumpkin patch, Shaw Farms. I am convinced that Shaw Farms is the best in the city! They have so much for kids to do, activities and fun things to play, horse and tractor rides, a corn maze, the list is endless. After looking at our calendar, we realized that we had exactly one afternoon that we could make it out to the pumpkin patch before Halloween, so we jumped on it. It was crowwwwwwwded, but always fun.

Being the good parent that I am, I snapped this picture of the sign as I let Jack *RUN* *UNsupervised* through the maze.
Yummy homemade apple butter in the store



Jack spied his name on this wagon full of baby pumpkins (did you know that those little pumpkins were actually called Jack Be Littles? I had no idea and for our lover of all things Halloween, he was thrilled!).
Jack put Neily in jail and she was not happy, LOL!

Neily took Daddy for a ride in the tractor




Mmm, caramel apples!

The soccer season is coming to an end...

And it can't come soon enough! Whew. I think we are soccer'd out this season. In the spring, we'll try a new sport. Jack has really enjoyed it but Neily is ready to move on to something bigger and better.
Here are some action shots- I wish they were larger so you could see that Jack has his tongue stuck out in EVERY shot. LOL!

Go Jack!

I'm open! I'm open!

Getting a mid-game pep talk.
Neily on a corner kick

Jack trying to stay warm at Neily's early game, I think the high was 40 that day and we had a 10am game. Brrrrr!


This past Saturday, the other team that Jack was supposed to be playing was a no-show. The kids were so disappointed, all ready to go in their gear, so the dads and siblings decided to organize a game against the kids. They loved it! Neily was nice enough to 'take it easy' on them.

We are alive! ;)

Yes, I'm still here. We are all safe and sound. The past two months have been seriously busy and we have barely had a second to breathe. We are doing a lot, but honestly, I am not taking a lot of pictures for two reasons- 1) I am tired of taking pictures this time of year and 2) I am trying to BE there at family events and enjoy them instead of feeling like I'm always waiting for a shot. I stopped taking the camera out of the car at soccer games for this very reason. Life lately has consisted of me booked back to back to back with sessions, soccer games, soccer practice, another soccer game, and ripping the upstairs floor apart. We don't have time to be blinking, let alone blogging. Just to prove we are here, happy, and that we ARE doing fun things when we have the chance, here are some pictures of our trip to Disney on Ice. My mom and I took the kids a few weeks ago and they loved it. I was worried they might be too old for it, but honestly, they were at a great age! They appreciated it much more this year than when they went as toddlers. We saw countless 2ish year olds being carried out asleep by their parents and I thought how much that ticket price would sting if your kid slept through it! LOL!

The view from our seats before the show- we had GREAT seats and a great view!

The kids with Nana before the show. Always good to bring a Nana, because she buys all the stuff Mommies won't, like snow cones in overpriced cups, cotton candy, and Micky binoculars.


The Small World tribute, it made me so excited!
Grand finale with all of the characters


Everyone's favorites! Mickey and Minnie :)

Our Mickey Counter....

If you are really observant (this would be considered stalking), you will notice that our Mickey counter went from 40 days to 74 days today.
We pushed our Disney World trip back from November to December. Eddie's work schedule has been crazy and without realizing it, I'd booked the trip at the worst possible time for my business. It was sneaking up on us too fast, so we decided to say Merry Christmas with Mickey instead! We will be going December 12-18. We're sad that the kids will be missing their holiday parties at school, but very excited to see the castle looking like THIS!

Still alive!

Yes, we're here! I know there are so many friends and family members who check this blog to see pictures, but the last month is a complete blur! The kids started school, we are barely used to Neily being gone all day :( and I am working (what a yucky word!) non-stop. I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this!
I have a lot of pictures to put up, but this is the only set I have on my laptop for now. We took these pictures for Lindsay and Phil's anniversary. We only had a few minutes, but I think there were some cute ones. I really like Lindsay's idea to get a picture of them together for every anniversary, even if it's a snapshot.

On a side note, I'm considering moving the blog to Wordpress. I've been using it for my business website and I really like it! It's a lot more user friendly than Blogspot. Of course I'll post the link here if we do that.

Nana and Papa, LOOK! Only a month and a half after the poor boy's birthday, we finally got around to putting together his Lego bulldozer. Jack really enjoys Legos, it is one of the few toys he will sit and play with for hours on end. We first visited a Lego store in Downtown Disney, and one just opened at Kenwood. He loves it and I have to avoid that section of the mall unless I want to go broke.
Eddie and I assumed there would be a lot of adult help needed to put this thing together, but Jack decided he was going to do it on his own. I could hardly believe it, but that is exactly what he did. He understood how to read the manual and went step by step, getting all the pieces he needed and putting it together. I wish I'd thought to video him, because this was very intricate and I feel terrible saying that I had no idea he was that good with Legos!
In the end I am glad that he was able to enjoy putting it together, because the stupid thing won't STAY together. It was definitely more about 'enjoying the process' and I think he has since turned it into a jetski for the Lego policeman. :)

Carefully reading the directions

Grandma will appreciate the tongue in all the pictures... I think it's the one trait he got from Daddy!

Nowhere near the finished product, I am ashamed to say that I didn't even snap one of him with the final version!

Jack's Last First Day of Preschool

Yup, his very last 'first day of preschool'! Next year, it will be off to kindergarten. Rumors are swirling the district about all day kindergarten, so that will be interesting. This year, he is in preschool with Mrs. Carson for one more year and loving it so far. He left Mrs. Carson's afternoon class last year halfway through when a morning spot became available in Neily's school, so he was really excited to have her again this year. There were a few familiar faces, including Mr. Owen. One week of preschool down, and he runs out each day with a smile on his face! Poor Jack is getting a little bored in the afternoons without Neily around- he makes it until about 2:30 and then starts asking for her. Shannon and I are trying to keep the boys busy, and it amazes me how they never seem to get sick of each other and play so well.
Oh, and bonus points to anyone who can tell me what is so funny about Jack's first day of school outfit. ;)

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