Trip to Raleigh

The first week of November we took a trip to Raleigh to see some friends and family and for Maddie to go to her friend Claire's princess tea party. We stayed with our good friends Mike and Amy and their son, Luke for a couple of night and my aunt for one night. While we were at Mike and Amy's the kids had a ball playing around the house and picking up right where they had left off before we left Raleigh. Here they are being them :)....

Buddies... would love to know what they were chatting about
Making music.

We also went to Chuck E Cheese one day

While we were there Chuck E Cheese came out - Kallie wasn't too sure about him. The kids had fun playing games and Amy and I even squeezed in a couple rounds of ski ball amidst keeping an eye on 4 kids. We earned or found :) enough tickets for each child to be able to take something home.

Taking a ride with Chuck E

Davis getting some help with the bike

Davis loved this horse and rode it several times.

One afternoon when the weather was decent we took the kids out in the back yard and Amy snapped these pictures of Maddie, Davis, and Kallie.

It is so funny because this is look we get a lot as Kallie is headed off to explore or get into mischief.

On Friday we went over to the Pottschmidts for a low key play date. Claire had had surgery earlier that morning, but she was amazing and you really wouldn't have known she had just had surgery!

Claire and Maddie picked right up where they had left off as well. Maddie is wearing a Cinderella dress that Claire's grandmother had very recently made for her. I was a nervous wreck, but there were no mishaps and the girls had a great time playing dress up.

The boys had fun in the playroom with the trains and cars and trucks while us Moms tried to get in as much conversation as possible.

Dancing around in the foyer before we headed back to Mike and Amy's for naps.

That night Mike and Amy had the Pottschmidts join us for dinner so we could all catch up some more. They ordered pizza - everyone's favorite.

I think Kallie had at least a whole piece with her 2 teeth.

Kids having a picnic supper.

And pulling out the instruments after dinner.

Maddie went home with Cheryl and Paul and Evan and Claire for her first sleepover! Davis was very sad when she left, but she was fine and super excited!

Cheryl shared these pictures she took that night of them brushing their teeth and listening to a bedtime story.

Saturday morning was the big princess tea party! I got these pictures off of Cheryl's blog as I was not at the party - I had the boys - Davis and Evan and we had fun going to Great Harvest Bread Co. and Crabtree Valley Mall while the girls had their tea party.

Maddie with Cheryl.

The tea party

Claire was so sweet and let Maddie blow out one of her birthday candles. Claire's mom, Cheryl made the teapot cake - very impressive as well as lots of other fancy food! Maddie said she loved all of the fancy food and she still talks about the pretzels dipped in chocolate and Maddi also said she liked the hot tea.

All the girls at the party.

We had a great time in Raleigh - Thank you Mike and Amy for your hospitality and you Cheryl and Paul for having Maddie over to spend the night and for the birthday party. We love you all!

Halloween Festivities

This year we took full advantage of our costumes and since the kids like getting dressed up they had a lot of fun!

We started the week off going to Chickfila at the mall in our costumes on Monday night and meeting some friends for dinner. The kids got a free kids meal for wearing their costume. Had to get a picture with the cow. Here are our Fancy Nancy, Buzz Lightyear and our friend Josiah dressed up like a cowboy. It was fun because some people were saying, "Look, it's Buzz and Woody!"
Then on Thursday night we took our Lady Bug, Fancy Nancy, and Buzz Lightyear to a festival at the Y where they got to play games and win candy and jump in a bouncy house. Admission was canned goods.

Friday morning we took the kids to IHOP for the free "spooky" face pancake. They put the whip cream and strawberry and then gave the kids candy corn and a couple of oreos to use to decorate it. Yummy!
Friday afternoon after naps I took the kids downtown in their costumes to trick-or-treat at the different businesses. This was a lot of fun - there are pictures of this in the slide show down below.

On Saturday morning we met Laura Leigh and Josiah and Micah at Lowes Food where the kids got to decorate their own pumpkin for free and also got a pumpkin cookie and a bag of popcorn. It was kind of funny because at first I was a little sad that we had not made it to a pumpkin patch this year, but then I thought about it and the kids got to do a hay maze, ride on a hayride, play in dried corn and pick out a pumpkin - just at different places.

On Sunday before we left to go trick-or-treating our friend Jamie came over to see the kids in their costumes and give them their first candy of the night.

While she was there she took a family shot of us.

Our friends Jonathan and Laura Leigh were so sweet and invited us to come trick-or-treating with them in their neighborhood. This was the first year the kids went trick-or-treating. Before we left the house we were asking the kids what they say when they go up to a door and Davis said, "Christmas treating" - so cute :) Here the kids are at their first house. We had a pumpkin, lady bug, Buzz Lightyear, cowboy and Fancy Nancy.

Micah the pumpkin

All ready for some candy

The kids did really well and walked or took turns in the wagon.
Below are some more pictures in the slide show. Enjoy!

G-Daddy's visit and Charlotte

We had a family filled October! The weekend before Halloween G-Daddy came to visit us on Friday before things got too hectic for him around the holidays. The kids showed him how Lightning McQueen works. Funny that I have a picture of Maddie driving and it is actually Davis's car, but this is how we fit all 3 on it. We are going to have to upgrade to a jeep soon I think.

Then we headed to one of our new favorite parks to enjoy the beautiful weather.
Kallie enjoyed the sand.

Maddie and Davis had fun on the zipline.

Mommy and Daddy took a turn, too, but we did not document that with pictures.

After making the mistake of not getting any pictures with Mimi I made sure I got some of the kids with G-Daddy.

Then on Saturday, we headed to Charlotte to Gaga and Apple's for a family get together to celebrate Aunt Lori's birthday and the impending arrival of Baby Lucy.

Helping Aunt Lori blow out the candles on the cake.

Kallie doing what she does best :)

Gaga reading Kallie her Halloween card and telling her that with her gift card to Chickfila she can get her own ice cream cone.

Kyle made the kids a tent upstairs in the new kids room and they had a ball!

Sadly, no pictures of Uncle Adam and Aunt Sommer.

Molasses Festival

The second weekend of October Mimi came to town and on Saturday we went to the Molasses Festival in Granite Falls. This is an annual festival with lots of homemade crafts, freshly made apple juice, freshly made apple butter, and of course molasses. There were also activities for the kids. Here is Maddie using a hand mill to grind corn to make a little craft.

Davis taking a turn.
Maddie with the finished product.

They even had a live camel and they did camel rides later in the afternoon. We did not do this but it was fun to see the camel.

There was also a petting zoo that the kids did not want to do. But they loved the bouncy houses!

There was also a blow up pool filled with dried corn and sand toys for the kids to play with. This was a hit and much more manageable than the huge corn house they played in last year at Hillridge Farms.

Kallie even joined in the fun in the corn!

We also went on a really long hay ride, but did not get a picture of that. And, sadly, I didn't get any pictures of Mom with the kids. We did have a lot of fun on your visit, Mimi!

Day Out with Thomas

The first weekend of October we met Gaga and Apple at the transportation museum in Spencer, NC for "Day out with Thomas". It was a fun day with tattoos, a bouncy house, meeting Sir. Topham Hat, watching a magic show, a hay maze, and of course the highlight - taking a ride on Thomas.



After we finished at the transportation museum we headed to Chickfila for dinner and ice cream. Thanks for the fun day, Gaga and Apple!

Hickory Airport

Back in October we went to the Hickory Airport with some friends. At the airport they have an airplane museum where the kids were able to climb up into the airplanes and pretend to fly them. Matt had fun putting the kids in some funny places - intake and other danger zones for some pictures. We will definitely have to go here again when it gets warmer.