Happy Thanksgiving 2018

The kids have had the past week off, and it has honestly been a restful week. I worked Monday and Tuesday, but the remainder of the week was filled with library visits, lunch at VCC, Thanksgiving preparations, movie nights, pizza, family time, UGA football, and some initiation of Christmas decorating.

Thursday morning we got up, headed to Tifton, and stopped off at Maple Court to pay a Thanksgiving visit to Sa. She seemed in good spirits and I completely for got to take pictures. The kids had taken her stain glass window hangers that they had painted. They were so proud of their work. After visiting with Sa, we headed to my parents' home for lunch. Amos, Anna, and Hardy were in town so it was a full house at Grandma and Papa's. We had a huge, fabulous lunch and were completely stuffed afterward.

On Friday, we were all lazy, and other than a grocery store trip, we stayed home. Saturday the kids and I headed to downtown Valdosta for Shop Small Saturday. This is a Saturday honoring and promoting small businesses in the area. There aren't tons of stores downtown, but there were some very cute items. We came away with 3 bath bombs. We ate lunch and watched the UGA vs. GA Tech game. After the game, I surprised the kids with a impromptu trip to the movie theater to see the new Wreck-it-Ralph movie. They have been begging to see it, so we went.

Throughout the weekend we have gradually started pulling out Christmas decorations. Worth was on heart call all weekend and was not up to getting fully engaged in case he were to get called in. Also, we had the living room redecorated and they are coming with new furniture and to decorate next week, so there really was no point in decorating in that room.

We are all really sad this year because our favorite farm to go to get a Christmas tree has closed. The original owner passed away, and the family just can't keep it going. We are still deciding on where to get our Christmas tree this year, and most likely it will involve a trip to a Tifton Christmas tree farm. Maybe by the time I post next weekend we will have been successful in our tree hunt.

Obligatory family Thanksgiving picture

Grandma had a direct mailbox to Santa this year. 

The kids were BEYOND to put their letters to Santa in there, even little Hardy was excited. 

When they opened the mailbox, they had discovered that Santa had already left them a letter. 

I had to get a picture of mama's table. It was gorgeous. 

Dooley was showing off his tricks while Hardy was walking ALL over the place. 

The girls got a video on Aunt Anna's phone to try to calm  Hardy down. He had a bad cold and wasn't feeling well. 

They all 3 started fading fast. 

Until they were all completely dead asleep. Notice the 1 cousin NOT in this picture. Yes, that is Mack. He was outside literally running circles around the house with Dooley. 

Sweet Tift cousins

Grandma and Papa wanted a picture with their cuties. 

I tried to get a picture of one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen on the way home Thanksgiving Day evening. This picture doesn't do it justice. 

The kids decorated their tree that sits in our breakfast area. 

Our elf Red showed up Saturday morning. Mack was mesmerized and  I kept catching him having conversations with Red the elf. 

Snack time yesterday during the UGA game involved popcorn and egg nog. 

Busy Little Turkeys

My little turkeys have been busy the past 2 weeks, and that has made us even more excited for the upcoming Thanksgiving break coming up this week. These are some pictures and videos of our events over the last 2 weeks.

Mack's sweet soccer team had their end of season party 2 weeks ago. They ate pizza, played and  got a trophy. Mack still has his trophy sitting on his night stand. He was so excited to get it. 

Ellie's volleyball tournament was last Saturday. We watched volleyball from  9am to 3:00pm. It was a LOONG day. Her team made it to the end and lost the last game. Ellie FINALLY got a chance to serve in one of the games. She did so good, but it still went out of bounds. She learned so much this year and is asking to be in the spring league.

She got a little more playing time this round. So I snapped as many pictures as I could while she was out there. 

Her team ended up with 2nd place, which I don't think their coach (on the left) was very pleased about, but  I though they played awesome. It had been such a long day, and they were all completely exhausted by the last game. 

In the last post, I laughingly posted pictures of Mack planting our pumpkin seeds when we cleaned out the pumpkin to carve. Well, what do you know? They are sprouting! In our driveway! 

This little Indian put on a good show for his Thanksgiving program. This is my 8th and final year attending these at PAUMC. I may have been slightly sentimental.

The girls had early release at school this Friday, so we originally thought we wouldn't be able to make the "feast" part of the program. Worth called me and had ended up getting off of work early and was able to get the girls from Westside so Mack and I could enjoy his feast. 

5 of the 9 little boys in Ms. Tish's class. She has her hands full this year. 

I attended a roof top yoga class this Saturday morning and this was my view. Although it was a little chilly, the restaurant where we were having the class had wall heaters. I ended up with a spot RIGHT by the heater, so I honestly got hot during the class. It was a great time with a nice brunch that followed. 

The brunch was fabulous. Leave it to me to go to a yoga class and take pictures of the food. 

Yesterday, I caught the sweetest moment when I heard Emma in the living room explaining to Mack how to tie his shoes. I caught the 2nd shoe tying education on camera, and I'm so glad I did. I don't know what Mack would do without Emma to take care of him.

Not to take away from Ellie's sisterly abilities, she and Mack made a tent outside yesterday.  They wanted to sleep outside in it last night. Due to the cold weather last night, I had to nix the outdoor sleeping, but the tent turned out pretty creative. Mack is taken care of in all levels in our home. Bless his poor future wife! 

Soccer.Jack-o-lanterns, and Volleyball

The last 2 weeks have been full of sports and Halloween excitement. Last weekend we kicked off Halloween festivities with a neighborhood festival, church trunk or treat, we had our normal weekly soccer and volleyball practices and games, Mack had a school pumpkin party, then we headed into last Wednesday for a fun Halloween night. All of the kids are at such a great age for us ALL to enjoy being out on Halloween. We did have to be careful with street crossing, etc., but for the most part the kids can get themselves to a door, say "trick or treat" and "thank you" (hopefully) and the adults can sit back and watch, listening to music in the golf cart. The weather was awesome Halloween night. It wasn't burning up hot, but it wasn't yet cold. The kids rode on a hayride pulled by some of our neighbors while the parents followed in golf carts and it was beyond entertaining. The creativity of the neighborhood costumes and home decorations were amazing this year, which mad for hilarious kid/people watching.

2 weeks ago, Worth was home for the afternoon, so we headed to our church pumpkin patch to finally pick out some pumpkins for the front porch

This crew has grown so much since our first pumpkin patch experience

This summer, after Levi drowned, I passed around these posters at the pediatrician's office, and I took one to my best friend who owns a dance studio. She teaches girls and boys as young as 2. I asked her if she minded displaying it so parents could see it somewhere in her studio if she wanted to. I never go in the studio, because I just drop the girls off and then I have to run to pick up another child from somewhere else. Well, the other night, I walked in to pick Ellie up and saw this in the main waiting room of the studio, hanging proudly by the Nutcracker posters and the summer intensive schedules. It brought tears to my eyes. I had to get a picture. Thank you Allison, for helping us educate others on the seriousness of drowning in your dance studio! 

2 Fridays ago, we were invited to a high school football tailgate for the Lowndes Vikings. The family that hosts the tailgate are friends of ours and have a big, kid friendly tailgate with tons of food. Worth was on call, so I just went with the kids. We didn't have tickets to the game, but the tailgate was all we needed as evidenced by Mack's face in this picture.

Go Vikings!

Mack and his friend, Sara Gwen, (the little girl in the red dress with her back to the camera) were honing their flossing dance skills in this picture. Her mom got a GREAT video and posted it on Facebook. Sara Gwen's parents were the tailgate host and hostess. 

The next morning after the tailgate we had early soccer games. Ellie was cold. 

Mack has improved each week in soccer. He plays really well, when he wants to. 

Emma's team never wins very often, but Emma can definitely play the hardest. She scored all of the points her team  got in this game. 

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Next up last Saturday, was Ellie's volleyball game. 

Her skills are improving as well. She really loves Volleyball. 

Since the Dawgs beat the Gators last Saturday, we had to make sure there was no doubt who came up a winner when we went to church last Sunday morning. 

Last Sunday afternoon, we headed out for our first costumed event: The Neighborhood Fall Festival.  Emma was Harley Quinn, Ellie was Maleficent, and Mack was Lloyd, from Legoninjago. 

The girls bobbed for apples. 

It was so gross. 

There was a bouncy slide that my kids would have been just fine on for the rest of the afternoon. 

After the fall festival we headed over to our church for trunk or treat. The kids started the night with a big treat of Kona Ice. 

There were sooooo many cars and kids!

Cute trunks this year. 

You could even go fishing at a firetruck!

This was one of Mack's favorite stops. 

Instead of fishing at the firetruck, Ellie opted for face painting. 

There was also a put put course. I had to pull Mack off of this one. 

We finished out the night with hot dogs and chips on the curb. Emma was acting funny about eating her hot dog and later threw up that night. The excitement and candy were all just too much for her little tummy. 

Mack AKA Ralphie

And the pumpkin carving finally commenced....

Mack was taking the pumpkin seeds and burying them just off of our driveway. 

If anyone needs a pumpkin next year, we may have a couple spring up in our front yard. 

The girls did their own form of decorating their individual pumpkins. 

Worth's handiwork

Pumpkin party day at preschool!

Clearly, I was NOT a party parent for this party. So cute! 

Mack's class pumpkin. His teacher told me she asked the class, "who's daddy can come carve our pumpkin?" She said Mack immediately responded, "My daddy can't, he has to work and we don't have a sharp knife anyway." 

HALLOWEEN NIGHT! (finally)

Sweet sisters ready to get candy

Mack made it to time out before we were even able to leave to trick or treat. 

Worth and I procrastinated on a costume theme, and this is all we were able to do at the last minute - superhero mom and dad. 

A synchronized father/son photo bomb of our family picture. 

Our friends, the Waltons, were the Spartan cheerleaders and played the part all night. 

Our trick or treat hayride crew

Worth's pumpkin at night

Emma's team played hard Saturday, but lost the first game in their tournament. This is the best picture I got of their final team high 5. It was freezing outside! 

Ellie's team came out victorious once again. Ellie scored a point for her team. She got more playing time in this game than she's ever gotten,  and she did awesome! 

We finished up yesterday morning with Mack's soccer game right before lunch. 

He turned the juice on and was scoring left and right. 

I was so proud of him!