Firetrucks!!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to see one of Parker's favorite things... a firetruck.  The local fire department came to Sydney and Taylor's school to teach fire safety, so Parker and I decided to make a visit.  What I thought would be a bunch of classes visiting at the same time turned out to surprisingly be just one class at a time.  The kids got to learn in an intimate group about all the different parts of the firetruck and their functions.  Then, they got to go inside a little RV that was set up as a house.  In there, the firemen taught about in-the-home safety (smoke detectors, not to go close to the fireplace or stove, etc.)  Then, they got to learn how to stop, drop, and roll and actually roll on the mats.  Parker joined in with Taylor's class and looked like he fit in (he was even bigger than a couple of pre-Kers!).

Learning to crawl out of the "house". (that's Parker in blue!)

Learning to stop, drop, and roll!

Conveniently, we know that fireman from church!

Giving five to the decked-out fireman.

Pumpkin Patch

Parker's school held a Pumpkin Patch, and his class got to go on a "field trip" (a.k.a. a walk through the parking lot) to go see it.  It was very cute- they got to take a hayride around the parking lot, they had a little hay bale maze, a pile of hay they got to sort through to find a prize, they got to ride a pony, and then pick out a pumpkin to take home at the end!  Inside, they got their face painted and had a special Halloween snack.  Stephen got to tag along, and we all had a great time.

On the hay ride.

The best attempt at a class picture.

Whoa!  This is huge, y'all.

And this is even more huge! Who is this child, riding on a pony?!

Parker- school- again

Here are some of the recent letter art projects we've done.  We have definitely gotten busier, and we ran out of colors in the rainbow (I didn't have any purple shirts for Parker to wear!) but I think I'm going to go back to red and start over.  Here is what we did for letters F-I.

Letter F:

F is for Flower

F is for Fish

F is for Flag

Letter G:

G is for grass

G is for grapes

Letter H:

H is for hands (I think he's getting tired of me taking these pictures!)

H is for hearts

Letter I:

I is for Island

What's going on?

Hey y'all!  Just wanted to update you on what we've been up to lately.  It rained for a good 8 days straight, so we went a little stir crazy, but now we're good.  The sun is out, and the cooler weather is hopefully here to stay! One can hope.

Parker:

An exciting new thing about Parker is that he is potty-training like a beast!  That's one good thing that has come out of this rainy weather and having to stay inside!  He still has a ways to go, but he can go all day (while staying at home) wearing underwear and not have an accident.  woohoo!

Parker had a dentist appointment at the new dentist in town.  The video games, playhouse, balloon, sticker, and prize won him over!

I had a room mom meeting at P's school with the other 2 room moms.  We turned around and noticed the two of them standing like this.

My favorite part of taking Parker to school... the snuggle time we get while we sit in the car rider line!

Chilling at church.  I love this view in the background.

More church pics.

It finally stopped raining!  His beloved jeep can now be used!

Taylor:

This past Saturday, we had our friends Sara and Daniel spend the night (they were in town from Utah).  Taylor had a little temp that night, and I took her to the urgent care doc the next day... strep was the verdict.  Luckily, there was no school on Monday so she could rest.  Can you tell in her eyes she doesn't feel good?

Better days... being sassy!

Sydney:

I want to give a shout-out to my Sydney.  She is the first person in the whole 1st grade to master all of her addition & subtraction facts, 0-10!  She took a mixed test on them today and passed, which made her officially done.  Now, she gets to move onto multiplication!  Also, she got her first report card today and got all 100s and a 98. :)

Sydney's first slumber party- a girl in our neighborhood (who's also in her class at school) had her 7th birthday party last weekend!

And, Sydney held their dog!  This is huge, people.  (though you can see in her eyes a little panic...) ;)

There was a break in the rain, so Sydney wanted to go walk/run with me.  She wants to do a race in December that is a kid's 1 mile race.

Pumpkins:

There are lots of pumpkin things in our house now, including the pumpkin muffins I keep making. And eating. They are so good.  

Parade:

We went up to my parents' small town last weekend to enjoy the local parade and fall festival. My brother and niece were in town from Tennessee!  We drove up there in the morning, and braved the chilly rain to go to the parade.  It was cold and wet, but it was really fun.  And Parker got to see firetrucks, police cars, horses, motorcycles, golf carts, and he was in heaven.

Mom, I love this picture!

We celebrated my brother's birthday!  He's 29 for the 16th time.

Soccer:

It has been raining so much that we haven't had a soccer game or practice in over 2 weeks!  Before I knew that this past weekend would be rained out, I sent this text to the coach of Taylor's team.  This made me laugh- they all say Taylor is the best player on the team.  I love it for her!

We have started construction at our house (more on that later) and are about a week in on a 3-4 week project.  Well, when I say "we", I don't really mean "we".  We're going with the professionals on this one. ;)  The house is a little messy and I, of course, can't wait to get everything back together, but I'm excited about a change!

That's about it for now!  Just hoping we can all stay healthy, and that the rain can stay away. 

Peace out!