A sea of LEAVES

A sweet couple from church invited us and our cousins over to play while "raking" the leaves.

The kids had a blast piling them up and then hiding in and jumping in the leaves.

Jack was so funny, while all the kids were playing, he kept on working. He was determined to get the job done. Nevermind you that we got there about half an hour before dark, and they had 6 acres of leaves. He just knew that if he kept working hard he could make a difference.

At one point, the pile they were working on was at least as tall as megan standing up... Don't get lost baby!

Once it got dark enough, they lit a campfire and we cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows.

Happy Birthday Jack- party pictures

It's party time!

Jack wanted a "race car" themed birthday party.  I had a lot of fun putting this together for him. Here are some of the highlights!!

Here's the "figure 8" race track cake I made for Jack

We played "pit stop", and these guys were my "pit crew".  They had to change the tires on my race car, and do it while blindfolded and after being spun around. Whew, we had tires everywhere!  ( note the traffic cone party hats!)

We made race cardboard box race cars and had a relay race.  We were going to spray paint a track around the backyard but it's been raining non-stop and the "swamp-like" conditions forced a change of venue to the basement.  Check out the goggles and helmets too! They were so cute, and Matt even got in and raced a round against the kids!  We also played "car bingo" and red-light, green-light. It was a really fun time for everyone!

Thanks to all our friends for the totally awesome presents Jack got.

Here's megan, thoroughly enjoying pizza, cake and ice cream.  You think she's a mess here, she was being so quiet, we let her sit there and enjoy herself while the party continued on.  By the time we took her out of her seat, this mess was EVERYWHERE!!!

Jack got some cowboy boots! and oh how he loves them....

It's kind of tricky getting the pants over them though...

Okay, now he's ready for his "tough guy" pose...  don't mess with him, you might get hurt!

Six years of Jack!

Here's our Jack over the past six years!

2003

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2004

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2005

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2006

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2007

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2008

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2009

We love you Jack. You are our sweet and cuddly, serious and crazy, thoughtful and helpful, smart and totally awesome super six year old!

Here's a bunch of Halloween Pictures

Trunk or treating at the Ward Building
As you can see, This year for halloween, Jack was Batman (after changing his mind 300 times between batman, transformer, army man, and vampire)  Brianna dressed up as cindrella, and megan who originally was going to be a ladybug (hello... BUG!) but I decided that the little princess fairy dress up clothes were just too cute to ignore.  We had a very busy but very fun Halloween night.

fun and games at the skate barn

A Hayride at the Shaws

Candy is GOOD!!!

Ohh yeah!



We told the kids that they had one week to eat as much candy as they could, but whatever wasn't gone by Sunday night, we would either throw away or give away.  They decided that they wanted to send the leftovers to Uncle Clint.  So that next Monday I stuffed a gallon size bag of candy into a box and sent it down to Fort Campbell KY for Uncle Clint to share with all his army buddies. 

EEWW! Slime!

Okay, so I caught the Halloween spirirt and wanted to make some slime for the kids. I didn't have any borax and we couldn't run to the store because megan was asleep (hence the willingness to get involved in a messy project).  I found a "recipe" for slime that was just water and cornstarch and food coloring.  Once we got the right ratio for the best consistency, we had some ooey gooey very messy and very easily cleanable fun!

Awesome Possum!

Brianna, excited to earn some stamps on her chart, asked me to teach her how to fold laundry! This little girl folded a whole load of "darks" with just a little help from mom!  Brianna, you are such an "awesome possum"!

Jack was feeling creative.  He got out the tinker toys and asked me to help him try to build the same thing that was on the container.  Well, it didn't turn out exactly the same, but Jack decided to make a few adjustments and... ta-da! here you have a handy dandy "sock washer".  Jack, you're such an "awesome possum"

After seeing Brianna dig through the dress up box to get ready for her "dancing show", Megan decided she wanted to join in all the girly fun.  Brianna picked out a few things that are too small for her now and we helped Megan into this lovely ensemble.  When my little "Bug" started doing her adorable little dance (imagine... stomping/ marching, mixed with clumsy twirling and waving arms) I couldn't help but think "Wow, Meggie, you are such an awesome possum"

Sponge curlers

Okay, so I visited my childhood the other night.  I bought the girls some of the sponge curlers that my mom used to put in my hair when I was a little girl.  I remember feeling so fancy with those curlers in my hair, and I loved it, even though they are terrible uncomfortable to sleep in.  Brianna tried to humor me a couple of times, trusting in my promise to her of gorgeous flowing curls.  Well, something didn't quite work out right, and we've both moved on, but I still have fond memories of, as a small child, going to bed saturday night with curlers in my hair!

Firemen Rock!

We had a neat opportunity to go tour the new fire station in town.  The kids had a blast climbing around all the trucks, checking out the kitchen and bedrooms, trying out the fire hose visiting with firefighters and learning all about fire safety.