Happy Times Farm

Channing's school had Happy Times Farm come one day for the kids. My future veterinarian loved it!

She loves all animals and was in her element. Even with the baby pig squealed loudly, Channing held her arms out, she was ready to hold him. All the other kids backed away, not Channing.





She held every animal there to hold. The poor baby chicks. I'm not sure she's mastered "soft touch" yet.




I think she liked the bunny the best though she really liked them all.





She was even lucky enough to feed a calf a bottle of milk. The bottle was pretty heavy so lots of classmates helped.


After petting, holding and feeding the animals, she got to ride on the train and ride a horse.



She wasn't scared at all. Maybe it's all the animals she's been around with Dalton riding horses.



She looked like a natural!

Fitness bootcamp starts today

No before pictures...too scary. Just FYI I am starting fitness bootcamp today (2xs/week). I'll let you know how it goes but I must admit I'm a little nervous. I was sore after doing the basic warm up exercises. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Dalton's Party Pics

Finally, Pictures of Dalton's party. It was a great party and the kids that came were absolutely great. The food was fun. Mummies in a blanket, fingers made of cheese and carrots, bones out of breadsticks, and eyeballs made of white chocolate oreo balls.



We played a mummy game with toilet paper. Taylor and De won.









This was my favorite part. Having the kids put their hands under a blanket and guess what body part it was. There were fingers and toes (mini hotdogs), skin (dried out lettuce), eyeballs (peeled grapes), brains (spaghetti) and the best one...the heart (stewed tomatoes). The faces were pricesless!

Trunk or Treating

This Halloween was filled with lots of candy. Every where we turned we were getting candy. Not good for me because I love candy.

We started Halloween by meeting the Whitfields and Ormans at Bartlett Baptist for some trunk or treating. This was the debut of the kids in their Mario characters halloween masks. I thought they were awesome. I found them on ebay and couldn't resist. Craig and I even had a mask to wear.

Sullivan wasn't crazy over all the attention he received with the Mario mask so it was a real battle to get him to wear it. Dalton LOVED all the attention so no problems there. Channing
wanted to make sure everyone could see her so she opted to wear her mask on top of her head. All in all the masks were a huge hit. No one else had masks that cool! Bartlett Baptist was way crowded so we didn't stay long.

The following weekend we attended Faith Baptist's trunk or treating. We got there early and really racked up on the candy. Craig was afraid people wouldn't recognize Dalton with his luigi mask on but everyone knew who he was! Dalton loved it.

Would you believe we had a house showing right before leaving for trunk or treating! Wow, what poor timing! Anyways, we cleaned up best we could, got the kids dress and went to Faith.







We didn't stay long at Faith so we could get home, maybe do a little trick or treating and hand out candy. On the way home, we stopped at a neighbor's haunted house. I was being nosy and not really thinking. We took the kids through, and let's just say it wasn't a good idea. Can we say nightmares?

Once home, Dalton was the only one who wanted to go door to door trick or treating while Sullivan and Channing stayed behind with Craig handing out candy. By the night's end, we were loaded in the candy. Would you believe then uncle Todd and aunt Marie sent the kids some yummy candy and the next door neighbor stopped by and gave us their left over bag of candy! Anyone need some candy?

Health and Safety Fair

I think I can breathe now. I finished with Red Ribbon Week at school so hopefully things will get back to some semblance of "normal". We'll still be busy just not crazy! Red Ribbon Week was a success if I do say so myself. Our theme for the week was "Growing in the Right direction, Staying away from Drugs". Playing off the "RIGHT" in our theme, the kids wore different items during the week in support of staying drug free.
R-red ribbon week starts today, wear red.
I- I am a "jean-ius" because I'm drug free-wear jeans.
G-Going to put a cap on drugs-wear fav. hat.
H-Heroes say No to drugs-wear camo or red/wt/blue.
T-Team up against Drugs-wear fav. team jersey.

I was so excited every day I was at the school and saw how many kids participated with the theme.
We, ok not really me (I was the supervisor)....Stephanie and Suzanne made me a tree for the cafeteria. Do I get props for it being my idea? Playing off the "Growing" part in the theme, we made a "I pledge to be DRUG FREE, TREE". Every child was given a leaf and if they made that pledge, they added their leaf to the tree. It looked pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

Then on Thursday was our Health and Safety Fair. I was so pleased with the exhibitors we offered this year: United Way, Fire dptmt, McGruff, Agricenter Poison Display, Traumatic Brain Injury Association, Beauticontrol, Arlington Family Chiropractic, CSI, Fitness Premier, State Farm, Relay for Life, Shriner's, Primary Eye Care, Leath Chiropractic, Sovereign Rehab, Identikid and Shots on the Spot. We had over 100 people come through which was outstanding. The biggest draw was we were offering the H1N1 flu mist. Just by chance a shipment came in right before our fair so we lucked out! Even though many probably came for that, at least 75 people went around and visited the exhibitors. How do I know that? We did passports that had to be stamped by every exhibitor and then those passports were turned in for door prizes. I think everyone was pleased.

Of course things weren't completely smooth, near the end of the night, Dalton tripped on his feet


and fell head first onto the hard floor. He had a pretty bad bump on his head but the firemen quickly came up to him and made it all better with a personal tour of their firetruck. All in all, a great week at AES.

Finally, Dalton's birthday party!

We haven't had an "official" birthday party with friends and everything for a few years now. As he gets older and older, I find it more difficult to find "themes" that both he and his classmates would find interesting.

Last year, we got off easy. We went to Disney on his birthday. Of course, that was one of the best times ever. He received a birthday button and any time a Disney employee saw the button with his name on it, they wished him a happy birthday. Of course, Dalton just thought that was the most awesome thing ever. He wore the button the entire time we were there and would proudly exclaim to everyone...even the ladies in front of him while we waited in line, "Today's my birthday!" Now, that wasn't exactly true 3 days later but he still enjoyed saying it and getting all the birthday wishes!

Sullivan gets quite worried that we haven't celebrated Dalton's birthday appropriately because we didn't have friends over. So, after some debating, we've decided to throw him a birthday party today with a Halloween theme. Not too scary. My kids get freaked out at the beginning of the Cars movie because the car wrecks. So, this is a not so scary Halloween party but maybe universally "cool"with the kids?

I'll post pictures after the party. Wish us luck (and Happy birthday to Dalton!...even though is birthday was a couple weeks ago. The boy can milk a birthday!)

Sullivan's half mile

Sullivan participated in a 1/2 mile training program for 6 and 7 year olds. He really enjoyed the training sessions.






To cheer him on, me and the kids made him a sign to encourage him during the race. He did such a great job.

He finished in the top group of runners and all the kids that participated received a medal. He was so proud of himself, he wanted to wear his medal to school. I think Craig was able to talk him out of it and the last minute.