Happy November!

I just can't believe it's already November 1st. As Paula Deen says, "Great time of day!"

Halloween was a huge success. We met at Tara's for dinner, as we do every year. We had pasta salad and a whole mess of sides. I made the cutest pumpkin cake

but there were a ton of sweets already so I ended up bringing it home. We had no problem cutting it up today! The entire crew headed out as soon as it got dark, Lisa and I went to her house to give out candy. Joel had decorated his front yard with tombstones and other scary things. It was a big hit because we had a lot of traffic! Lisa and I stayed by the firepit trying to stay warm but it was tough - my hands were still pretty frozen. There was a wide array of costumes, some pretty creative. Of course my kids were the cutest! Liv was a dragon fairy.

Kind of hard to see her wings in this pic. Alex was a black ninja...

He was totally hamming it up once he put his costume on. Mary was a Bratz leopard/cat thing. I don't think it actually had a name but she looked awfully cute, even if she wouldn't smile for the picture.

They were so excited and it was very contagious. Alex and Mary ended up going to the Fall Festival at church with my brother of all people. He said they don't have good trick or treating in their neighborhood so they were looking for an alternative. I heard the festival was really nice - carnival games, pony rides, hay rides, hot chocolate, jumpy things. Fun, fun, fun. It was the first Halloween where we weren't all together. But everyone had a great time and I guess that's all that matters.

Tomorrow will be another long day. It's our turn to provide breakfast for Sunday School, then we have a picnic afterwards and I have to take a covered dish. After that, I have a Women's Leadership Team meeting. Later in the afternoon, Liv has small groups.

A few weeks ago, Alex had his belt testing ceremony in Tae Kwon Do. It was a big deal for us since it was our first time going through this. He worked hard and he passed the test and received his yellow belt. I took a ton of pictures because it just all looked so cool!

He had to do the white belt Form (or as Master Choi says "porm"), He had to break a board, he had answer questions from the judges. Some of the questions included the Korean names for some of the moves as well as counting to 10 in Korean.

He had to take several tries to break the board but it was very exciting when he finally did! A few days later, Master Choi had the belt ceremony - another interesting experience. It just happened to fall on our wedding anniversary so we ended up having a fabulously romantic dinner after the ceremony, with the kids, at the Waffle House!!! Hey, what's a busy mom to do but just take whatever comes along, right? We'll have our date night next year, in April, when my dad gets back!

So I joined this NaBloPoMo thing. Blogging everyday for a month. Considering I don't have an audience, who's going to care? LOL. But I'm going to do it anyway. And I will hopefully post a bunch of pictures so my dad can keep up with the kids' activities. Hope I can keep it up!

It was a happy November 1st after all.

Life Is Good

I went out to dinner tonight with Tara and Natalie. It is always good to recharge with my girls - especially when it's just us. We laughed, we planned a shower, we laughed some more. I hated having to go home!

Last night was church. Tuesday night was Bunko. It was at Lisa's house and it was wonderful. Of course I only won a stupid consolation prize but the rest of the night was great. Amy went for the first time. She was a last minute sub and I think she had a good time. I am hosting Bunko in November and I have already purchased most of my prizes. I am SO excited about it.

The kids are great. They have each had a turn with strep - all on different weeks, of course. Mary was the last one. The little baby had a fever of 104 for two days. Once we got the drugs in her she was good but I hated that she had to feel bad. I stayed home with her on Monday and Jay was able to work from home and stay with her on Tuesday. I have been working hard on making a sub lesson plan so that I won't have to think twice about calling in sick next time. It's hard for me to think that far in advance, much less have all of the materials ready. One in advance? It may as well be a year! Some teachers don't have a problem with it, in fact some teachers have their entire school year planned out before the year even starts. Not me. Considering I have been a teacher for about 5 minutes, it's hard to do! But I know it will get easier with time and I am looking forward to when it doesn't take me so long to get one class together. It will come.

Okay, enough blogging. Must go play Word Challenge...

Spring Break - Day #3

Today was our day with Vegas Mimi.

We met Mary Ann at Target this morning at 10:30 for some marathon shopping. Each kid got a boat load of clothes! I am so grateful to Mimi for everything she does for our kids. She always blesses them with clothes, shoes, and whatever else they need or just ask for. After the shopping spree we had lunch at Steak and Shake - always a treat I must say! The waiter was awesome and got us in and out in just enough time for the movie. We saw Horton Hears a Who. Loved it! Jay was cracking up during the entire film. The kids were laughing too. I enjoyed it - not laughing out loud enjoyed it but I still liked it a lot. Everyone loves Dr. Seuss! It was a great day. When we got home, Mary had to put on her new bikini - pink polk dots! I should have taken a picture but I didn't. Somehow, I think I'll have another opportunity tomorrow. The other Mimi - Alpaca Mimi - came by to pick Olivia up for a couple of days. They went to her house to spend some quality time sewing. Livi has a knack for sewing and Mimi has been wanting to show her all her tricks.

Jay took Alex out for a bit, Mary was at McKennah's house...I was home all alone. What did I do? I started reading the dozens of People magazines that Mary Ann gave me! Heaven! After a while, I went to pick Mary up and ended up bring McKennah home with me. This was the first time that she came over to our house since her heart surgery. I was so excited! When it was time for us to go to dinner, McKennah asked if she could come too. What? Seriously? So we took her with us!

She behaved very well, much better than Mary did! Mary looks sad in this picture because 1)she was grumpy because we wouldn't let her watch the Power Ranger movie before we left the house and 2) because her menu got wet from her drink. Whatever. McKennah was very sweet and ate all her dinner. What a pleasure! I hope she will want to come and spend more time with us very soon...like maybe tomorrow!

Spring Break - Day #2

Day #2 was a success! Jay and I slept late and then we went to the gym together. He rode the bike (again!) and I used the treadmill - 3 miles and I even started to jog a little! Yeah me! We saw Tara and Natalie there working the cardio circuit. After we got cleaned up, we went to pick the kids up from my dad's. They are so lucky - he dotes on them and always shows them a good time. He took us to lunch - we went to Melton's not far from where he lives. We dropped him off at home and the rest of us headed downtown to the Imagine It! Children's Museum. The kids were excited about going, and I was too because we had never been there and also because it was free today. Yes, free. It's normally $11 a person so we saved $55 today! And I am so glad. It's not that I was disappointed by the museum, but I guess if I had had to pay $55, it so would not have been worth it. The kids had a good time - see the slideshow below - and enjoyed each activity at the museum. Honestly, Liv was a little old for it, it's mostly geared to younger kids. They all three really loved the moon sand exhibit and stayed there the longest.

It was a beautiful day - not hot, not cold. It was sunny which was wonderful after so many days of rain! I didn't realize the Children's Museum is right across the street from the Coke Museum and the Georgia Aquarium. And right across the street from Centennial Olympic Park. Afterwards, we took the kids across the street so they could play on the playground at the Park. I think the kids had a really good time.

We stopped at Fellini's for dinner. It has been years since we have eaten there and it brought back a lot of memories. Of course Alex loved having pizza. And their pizza is soooo good! We came home exhausted but happy. The kids went to bed without a peep. After all, we must rest for our big Day #3!