Heading out for fun!

Michael Phelps and Curious George the monkey sharing some brotherly love:)
The kids have been in their costumes for 30 minutes waiting to head out on the town for some halloween fun. Before we went, I just had to share some a picture of them in their costumes:) Happy Halloween!

Magic Table

Tonight was such a blast! We went with Lynn and her kids to Suzanne's house for a halloween party. Suzanne is an amazing cook and truly goes all out for this event. Last year she hosted this party and we all had such fun that Lynn and I shamelessly invited ourselves back this year:) We (I mean the children) had such a good time that we had to repeat it again this year.:)

Suzanne's house is like none I have ever been to. She is totally relaxed about her house and no part of her house is off limits to kids. Both of her children have autism and they do not like traditional pictures and knick knacks on the walls, they much prefer holiday scenes on the walls. Suzanne embraces this and goes all out. It is always magical at Suzanne's house! She had huge pumpkins out for the kids to carve and we also had monster houses for the kids to decorate. Kyle's favorite part was a trampoline in the middle of their family room:) We have to get one for Kyle's boundless energy!

The most magical part of Suzanne's house is her kitchen table. She is such a great cook and there is something magical about her kitchen table. I feel relaxed and always eat way too much! She always has girls come and help with the kids which allows us to have time to sit and chat. Tonight was a little hectic due to some pottying accidents on David's part and a little "lock my keys in the car" moment, but it was just as magical as last year. My belly is still full of good food and I still have the glow from good fellowship.

Lynn and I talked earlier in the day about the details of the night and we were both so giddy to go ourselves. Suzanne's house is one of the only houses I have ever taken my kids to that I feel totally relaxed-I think it has to do with the yummy comfort food she always serves:)

I just had to share some pictures of the evening...my kids are both sleeping off their sugar high from all the good food:)

David thoroughly enjoying his cupcake.
Kyle and Heath posing for me!
Each child received one of these as a souvenir from the party. My kids were in heaven:)

Suzanne's magical setting! Her home is decorated for most holidays with scenes all over her walls. I am amazed-Martha Stewart needs to take some notes:)

Self-proclaimed control freak!

Okay, I admit it-I watched the clock all morning at preschool until I could dismiss my students and meet David and his Prek class at Hungry Mother Park for their field trip. I let him ride on the bus with the class but I assured the teachers I would meet them there when preschool was over.

I know the teachers watch him closely and love him, but the control freak that I am made it hard for me to relax until I could get out there. They spent the day at the park to study the leaves, cook their own lunch over an open fire, roast marshmellows, and play in tents that were set up. I could just see David stumbling into the campfire or running towards the lake.

As I pulled up I was humbled by the fact that most of my fears were not even feasible. For one, the water had been drained from the lake and the open campfire that I was so horrified to think about was actually raised off the ground and was guarded at all times by an adult. My other fear was that David would just wander off into the woods and be lost forever. It never occurred to me until I saw it with my own eyes that David was having way too much fun to go anywhere. He had a ball and it was so amazing to watch him with his peers that it almost made me forget that he had just eaten a very cheap and sketchy hotdog that I do not think was cooked completely!!!!

God uses days like today to remind me that He loves David way more than I do and that He watches over him at all times. While I was finishing my preschool day and totally fretting for David's safety, he was safe under God's watchful eyes. It was a humbling lesson for me today:) I just had to share some pictures of David's first big boy field trip!

Here he is enjoying his smore. He liked it but much preferred just the chocolate!

David roasting his hot dog over the open fire:)


David peeking out of one of the tents that was set up for playing and reading stories.

Because of David

Caroline and David had a ball together today. In this picture, Caroline is instructing David on how to get a strike:)

Mike and David bowling. David uses the ramp and actually gets some strikes:)

Mike and the birthday girl, Jessica!

Caroline and David-David's face is scrunched up because he was saying "cheeeeeese!"

Because of our sweet David, today we got to have a ball at our local bowling alley. One of our friends, Jessica, from our Down Syndrome group was turning 30 and we had to get together to celebrate! If we had not been blessed with David, we would never have gotten the opportunity to meet the people that are special in our life like our friends from our Down Syndrome Group.

Jessica wanted a bowling party and the must have people on her guest list were David, Caroline, and Dr. Robinson! She loves Mike for some reason and so after church today we all headed to the bowling alley to bowl, eat pizza and cake, and have fun with Jessica. I am embarrassed to admit how many frosted cookies David ate and how much Diet Sprite Kyle drank. As some of you know, I am on this organic, healthy eating kick due to a book I read recently and I think my kids were SO HAPPY to have access to junk that they took full advantage of it:)

I just had to share some pictures from the party!:) Have a great week!

Being a Sports Mommy

Often there are roles that you play in life that you don't choose. Being a sports Mom is a title that I have simply because I am the blessed mother of two boys. I relish the many titles that I have, but sports mommy is a title that can be wonderful, but it can come with its challenges.

This past week was Kyle's last football game. We were in a celebratory mood getting ready for the game because Kyle's team was undefeated and if they won they could be the champions. But, most importantly, Kyle was celebrating that it was OVER! Even though he is fast and can run some touchdowns, he hated the hitting and tackling part and was scared to death the whole game. Mike and I made him finish the season to honor his committment and this week I have been using this as an example of a time that he could be proud of himself because he had overcome a fear and honored a committment by finishing the season. I was such a proud Momma because Kyle truly perservered through this season and had every reason to be proud.

When we got in the car, I congratulated Kyle and treated him to ice cream when we got home. It was just such a lesson for me to train up my boys to value the things that are truly important and that winning is when you give it your all and play even when you are scared. Also, that winning doesn't always mean that the scoreboard is in your favor. Kyle is a winner because he followed through on his promise and did something that scared him to death. I wonder if they can put all that on the championship trophy.... :) Have a great day!

Fun family time

This past weekend we spent Friday night and Saturday in Roanoke for a swim meet. It was an interesting night in our hotel. Kyle woke up at 3 a.m. crying with his ear. We didn't know what to do-do we go home and wait until the doctor opens up or do we stay and try to get meds? Mike decided to go to Walmart and see what he could come up with. He came back with Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and swimmers ear meds since Kyle is prone to that. Not only was Kyle crying with his ear, but he was crying because he wanted to swim. Anyway, the meds worked and Kyle somehow was able to swim. He had fun at the meet and actually got a first and second place!:) My parents came down for the day to watch Kyle swim and Hunter play soccer.

Then, we got to meet up with Chad, Annettte, and Clayton for lunch and some shopping before we went to Hunter's soccer game. Hunter is on a soccer team in Roanoke, called Roanoke Stars. It was fun to watch his game, even though they played a really good team from Charlotte. Not only was it fun to watch Hunter, but it was amazing to watch Clayton romance and woe the other little girls there to watch the game. I have never seen such a Romeo before:)

Kyle and David enjoyed their cousins-with Mike's brother and my brother both busy and not living in our town, cousin time is really precious to my boys. I really had planned to get a little shopping done on this quick trip, but time with family is way more important.


Kyle, David, and Clayton playing a little football before Hunter's game began.

Clayton had moved his little chair over to this blanket where these cute girls were playing and once he got settled, he gave us a thumbs up! What a little romeo!

Clayton and David found a different group of little girls to play Simon Says with

Go Hunter go! He is in the blue jersey:)

Rainy afternoon thoughts

It is raining here today. The children have no afterschool activities except for church tonight. Mike has gone to an evening meeting, so I was looking at a lesiurely afternoon with my boys. I dug through my halloween stuff and found some pumpkin painting stuff that I bought last year dirt cheap. I gave the boys two pumpkins and look at the final result!

Halloween has been a sticky subject this year due to Kyle's interest in costumes that I do not agree with. We sat down and looked at some costume sites on the internet to find a costume we can both be happy with. I am not joking, but two costume options under kid boys were "hellboy" and "whitey tighty." I was dumbfounded! What exactly is hellboy I will never know, and for whitey tightey, just picture a boy with his pants hanging down to his ankles showing his white underwear-what is this world coming to?! I will keep you posted on the final costume choice... David's was bought weeks ago and he loves it:) He is going to be a monkey!!!!

This week has been sad as we had to say goodbye to Lynn's mother-in-law, Carole. She spent five days in the hospital before she went home to be with Jesus. I went to the service on Monday and was so touched to hear that Carole and her husband, T.W. went to 49 out of the 50 states-they lacked Hawaii! Her life is such a lesson to live fully-thankfully she didn't wait until retirement to do all those trips-she was scheduled to retire on 12/31 of this year. I was so inspired from her service and her life to not wait and procrastinate all those "to do" list items. I often postpone things for silly reasons-wait until the kids get bigger, wait until David is fully potty-trained, wait until Kyle is older, etc.. If I have been reminded of one thing this week, it is to LIVE FULLY and LOVE MUCH!

Enjoy the pumpkin painting pictures and I will keep you posted about Kyle's final costume choice-you can bet it will not be hellboy or whitey tightey!!:)

Sick Day

David has been home the last two days with croup and an ear infection. He has had some breathing issues which has made us pull out his nebulizer. David has actually enjoyed his breathing treatments. This morning he was doing one and I stepped out of the room to get a tissue and this is what I found when I came back in the room. Obviously Elmo has croup also!! Maybe David has a future as a respiratory therapist!!:)