Pumpkin Carving

We joined the Westbrooks for their annual pumpkin carving party this year and had an absolutely fabulous time. Amy and Adam are excellent hosts and I always love to go to their house to celebrate. Emily had been looking forward to this party for weeks and had so much fun that she woke up in the middle of the night talking about it! After looking through the pictures, I can't decide whether the adults or the children had the most fun. Definitely the mark of a good party! Can't wait until next year! This is serious business.
Helping Daddy figure out how to carve this thing.

Yep, that's baby Kimber in there! Emily was so excited about painting this particular pumpkin. For pictures of the real thing, visit The Steele House blog. Such a sweetie!

Working on a little artwork of her own

Painting with a new friend

So proud of her purple handiwork!

Amy always has the best holiday decorations. I love this sign. Y'all know my favorite store is the Goodwill.

The annual lighting of the great pumpkins

All the kiddos with their creations

Having a snack after all that hard work

Reading a story with Jessi and Amy. Jessi showed her how to do a split and Emily has been practicing all week.

And finally....our great pumpkin! Emily requested a Bob pumpkin - from the Monsters and Aliens movie, get it? Donald did a great job carving this really difficult request. Bob became a tasty snack for Rocky the Raccoon just a few days later. Stinky pumpkins definitely do NOT belong in the house!

Happy Halloween!

Emily has been saying for months that she wanted to be a polar bear for Halloween. An odd request compounded by the fact that stores don't make polar bear costumes for children her size. So, I visited Hobby Lobby and came away with a pattern and three yards of white fun fur. We could tell that the saleswoman was curious about what we would do with all of that faux. I put it off for a bit, but the week before Halloween I sewed (with much direction from Mimi) my first outfit. I figured that a Halloween costume was a good place to begin - if she looked ridiculous, at least I wouldn't have to send her to school in it! I'm proud to say that the polar bear was precious and gathered many admiring comments during our trip through the (very soggy and muddy) neighborhood. I also stitched fantastic fun fur around a leotard for Abby to turn her into a sassy kitten. Too bad the weather kept so many trick or treaters home this year - that means I get to eat all the Reese's and Kit Kats by myself! Halloween at the White House is always fun. We have family and friends over for dinner, then load the kids up in someone's car to trick or treat and visit the pirate ship up the street. Papa John and I were the ones to brave the weather this year while everyone else stayed home warm, dry, and close to the football game on TV. At least they got to clean up all the dirty dishes! We even ran into our friends, the Andersons, while we were out and hauled them back to the house to share some candy - and chocolate gooey butter bars, thanks to Amy and Lane. Yum! Hope your Halloween was full of chocolate and fun!

Getting a little help from my supervisor

I love, love, love this hood!

Finished product!

Ghouls just wanna have fun!

T.C. hides from the fray under Emily's festive piano

Posing with Adrian and Austin after checking out her candy. See - it really IS one size fits all!

Chitlin' Hoedown!

Today we made our annual trek with friends to Yatesville, home of the Chitlin' Hoedown. An entire day spent eating roadside barbecue and Maw Maw's fried pies (fortunately still in operation after her death last summer), scarfing down boiled peanuts, packing in loads of people watching, enjoying the best Chitlin' parade EVER, and just generally hanging out with friends in the sunshine - what could be better? In all the years that we've been going, I don't think we've ever taken a camera. First pictures ever of Chitlin' Fest! We got some great pictures inside a building that we've admired for several years, and also paid a stop to the Full Gospel Thrift Store on the way home. Although no purchases were made at Full Gospel and no one actually ate the chitlins this year (Donald is the only one to have ever claimed that prize), we can always hope for next year! Welcome to Yatesville!
The Chitlin' Window - Where the magic happens! Just don't stand downwind...

Yum! That's the combo plate, not the scrap plate. I'm still not clear what you'd get if you ordered that one.

Picnic on the lawn

Waiting for the parade to begin

Mr. and Mrs. Chitlin'! This was the first of three fantastic Mustangs to appear in the parade this year. I could hardly pay attention to anything else...but then the Shriners came by!

Possibly my favorite float - you know how I love hats!

Well, this one was good, too!

As was this one - Not sure where the "real" left off and the "costume" began on this guy.

I just liked the slogan on this one.

That's a tractor trailer with an airbrushed rendition of Da Vinci's Last Supper down the side. Don't see that very often.

Crowd shot - I love the guy in the foreground.

A rat tail hairdo and a REALLY smokin' shirt

The Andersons pose for a pic

Love ALL of these pictures - This building is open to the sky and has beautiful weathered brick inside and out.

See you next year!

Lazy Sunday Morning

While I went to church to fill in for the sick pianist, Donald and Emily stayed at home and had Daddy-Daughter day. When I left, they were water painting at the kitchen table. I came home to find lots of new pieces of artwork on display. What better way to spend the afternoon - curled up in front of the fire with the family watching Project Runway?? Glad that Emily likes it, too - I'm getting a little burned out on the Wiggles. She's discovered a renewed love of them the last few weeks and I have caught myself humming "Fruit Salad" in the car on the way to work. Hope your Sunday is equally lazy!

Love this one!

Fun at the Fair

While Donald helped the GYSTC by selling tickets at the Coweta Fair this weekend, I took both girls to the Fair to see the sights. We had an excellent time trying out all of the different rides, eating some divine corndogs, and petting lots of animals at the livestock barn. Emily was very brave about going on the rides, as was Abby. Also, I learned that it takes about ten minutes to completely dry out a child's wet sock underneath a bathroom hand dryer. An exciting day!

Glad I brought along scarves and hats. Brrr!

We rode the merry-go-round about four times!

Loved the roller coaster!

Emily bailed on this ride at the last minute. Brave Abby!

She thought this car was jazzy.

Only eight days old!

Emily asked if this is where turkey comes from. I didn't want to go into too much detail about that.

Hee haw! They were careful with this one - Remember that Abby was bitten by the donkey on a preK field trip!

All tuckered out

Library Tea Party

The Newnan Central Library is absolutely fantastic and has loads of fun things for children to do. We visited there last weekend for Science Saturday (that's right - I'm married to Bill Nye and Emily is following in his footsteps) and had a fun time making Oobleck (cornstarch and water) and listening to stories. This happens the second Saturday of each month, if anyone out there is interested! They also have lots of other fun things for little ones to do but many events are held during the week so that working mommies like myself miss out on all the fun. Fortunately, today was one of my furlough days and I was able to take Emily to the Fancy Schmancy Tea Party, which is held once per quarter. Lots of fun! She had a great time listening to stories, sipping tea, and making tissue paper flowers with about twenty other very fancy boys and girls. If I had to take a furlough day, this was definitely the way to spend it! We even got to meet Donald for lunch later and take a quick trip to the "old store" - always a favorite (mine, not Donald's). If you were also celebrating Furlough Day today, I hope it was a good one for you!

She loves to strike a pose.

Having some snacks
Cute decorations - and she even drank real tea with sugar cubes.

Meeting some new friends

Showing off her artwork

Not the greatest photo of us - Donald caught us both before we smiled! But it's the only one I have of the two of us. She was just about finished with picture-taking at this point and was in need of a nap. What a treat fpr me to get to take a nap midday. I love it! I would be so much more productive at work if I could have a thirty minute power nap after lunch.