November

We had a few more adventures before the weather turned cool.  One afternoon we decided take a walk down the street across from our neighborhood.  We came across some beautiful homes and met quite a few horses.  This one in the distance saw the girls and trotted right over for a visit.

Kayla's choir at church sang in the morning service with the adult choir.  They were so cute in their little red robes.

The girls and I  spent quite a bit of our Thanksgiving break rebuilding their lego houses.  Marc is making them a couple of lego tables for them to play on. It has been quite a project, and while we still haven't rebuilt everything we managed to get enough done that they are having a lot of fun playing with these again in their little town.

We had two Thanksgiving dinners this year, but unfortunately this is the only picture I took. We are so thankful for our family and the time we get to spend with them in the midst of our busy schedules. 

A Few Random Pictures

After soccer one Saturday we joined up with our Sunday School class on a LoveLOUD project.  We were helping to clean up a families yard among other projects.  Since we had our soccer game that morning the project was near complete by the time we got there. The girls did spread some mulch and pull down some vines. Unfortunately somewhere in the process we all tangled with some poison ivy. I really don't think dead vines were poison ivy or we would have had a much bigger problem on our hands, but obviously it was somewhere.  Poor Macy had it something awful on her arm.  And then it slowly popped up on all of us.  It was crazy how long some of the spots took to show up. Thankfully we came straight home to bathe or it might have been much worse. We're still dealing with it 3 weeks later, but not so much of the itching, but the dry, healing skin.  I'm hoping that it doesn't leave any scars in the worst spots.

Silly girls out to lunch for Daddy's birthday.

The girls had a lemonade stand one Saturday afternoon.  Lots of sweet people came and purchased some lemonade from them.  They had a blast and I'm sure they will be wanting to do this again next year.

Wrapping Up Another Soccer Season

Another soccer season has come to an end. The girls had a great time playing, but I think we are all grateful to have our Thursday nights and Saturday mornings back.

This is what Brooke and Garrett do when their sisters are playing soccer.

And this is what Kayla and Macy do while Brooke is playing.

We are thankful for another wonderful soccer season!

Fall Festival

Kayla the cowgirl.

Brooke Elsa freezing the world with her powers.

And pretty as a peacock Macy.

At one of the festivals the kids earned tickets at each of the games.  They turned them in to receive a cupcake, but before they were given the cupcake someone went through the road to salvation.  I loved that!

Pumpkin Patch

Once again we decided to stick close to home for an annual family adventure, and the pumpkin patch 2 miles down the road couldn't be any closer. While I love my usual pictures from Burt's Pumpkin Farm, we had such a great time exploring a new location this year.

We started off with a hay ride around the property.

This girl is certifiably crazy.

And then we chose a few pumpkins for our house.  They were pretty reasonably priced too!

The girls played a few rounds of bean bag toss.

And we ended the adventure with a corn maze. The kids had a great time.  It wasn't crowded at all so mommy and daddy had a great time too. :)

I love fall adventures with my family. The kids are at such a great age right now and we have so much fun doing things together.

Apple Pickin'

This year we decided to stick a little closer to home for our apple picking adventure. We drove to a orchard about 45 minutes away instead of the 1.25 hour drive into Blue Ridge. This orchard had more kiddie things to do, but the actual apple picking was a little disappointing. There were only a couple of varieties to choose from and you weren't supposed to eat them off the tree while you were there.  That's one thing that we really enjoy doing when we go, and we did let the girls choose one to eat.  Shh.. But back to the kiddie fun. The girls were starting to get a little old for some of the stuff, but they'll always hop on a horse of any kind!

They all had a blast jumping on the large inflatable pillow.

The bees were minimal and the girls had a good time picking apples, so I guess all in all it was a fun, successful day.  But next year we'll be back at Merciers. :)

Life Lately

It's been quite a while since I have posted. I'm not even sure I'm going to dig around and find any pictures to put on here today. I won't abandon the blog. It's for my children.  And even though this season of life is crazy busy and posts are scarce, I do this for my kids.  They love looking back through the blog or the books I've printed, and honestly so do I. So with all that said I wanted to give a little update on our crazy busy life.

I'm back to teaching at the girls school.  Since it is only language arts and history I teach for 5 hours a week and yet I put it so. many. more. in preparation.  It's almost ridiculous how much times goes into preparing for a 5 hour a week job. I'm really hoping that next year will be at least half of the prep time, because if there is no light at the end of this tunnel I don't know what I will do.  Don't get me wrong, I'm loving teaching and even the work outside of the classroom too. I love being at my kids' amazing school, and Brooke is having a great time in preschool. I'm exactly where the Lord wants me (and I hope He keeps me there long enough to get long-term use out of all of this work I'm doing this year - ha!).

With so much of my time being taken and obviously still homeschooling 3 days a week, carting kids to dance, gymnastics, or church events, life on the home front is less than ideal. There is still cleaning, laundry, preparing dinner, errands.... The list just goes on and on.  If it weren't for my amazing husband the house would be falling apart.  He does 75% of the laundry these day - washing, drying, folding and, hanging.  I have great intentions, but I usually forget to swap loads over during the day so I accomplish little.  Last night he was assembling and painting 3 cardboard chariots for Greek Olympic Day. Three out of the four passed off to me didn't survive. He is the other half of my brain these days. Or possibly 2/3. He is also working on framing the basement in his "spare time." He has done every bit of the framing by himself with only a couple hours of work left tying up some loose ends.  He is picking up so much slack and I am so grateful. And for the cherry on top he is driving to meet me after working late today to get the kids so I can go out with some ladies for dinner. And when I get home the kids will have been fed, bathed, and put in bed. Spoiled I am.

I am so incredibly blessed by this man, and I don't know where I'd be this school year without him. He is so very loved and appreciated by his family!