Parker is NINE!

 I can't believe my baby is 9!  

Parker's birthday is the 4th in a line of birthdays in our family.... we almost tailor the decorations that have already been up for the new birthday person. ;)

For Parker's birthday, we surprised him and painted his school's rock!

He got to open his presents that night...

We went to dinner with Grandmom to celebrate!

Then, the next weekend, he had his birthday party!  He invited about 12 friends and we rented out a local gym.  The kids played basketball, kickball, whiffle ball, and football.  There were lots of shirtless 3rd graders, lots of sweat, and lots of fun!  Even the dads got into it. :)

Opening his presents back at home:

Parker is a mixed bag... he is sweet and snuggly; he has a lot of friends; he tries to be "so cool" in front of his friends, which we are trying to talk to him about; he enjoys reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid books; he is all about trading cards (currently, it's football cards); he loves his PS4; he enjoys basketball and flag football; he's has a very sweet nature to him.  I want to freeze time!!

Happy birthday to my sweet boy!

September!

My favorite month is over!!  I love September for many reasons, but mainly because of all the birthday fun, and it's the start of FALL!  This weather has been amazing lately.

Here are some of the other things (besides birthdays, Labor Day, and Fall Break) that we did in September!

Random Stuff:

Homecoming parade

Sydney and Kincayd

Georgia Tech Game:

Grandmom's Birthday!

More Random Stuff:

Parker did something to his finger!

T had several games this month

Bike riding.

Cheering on Kerrigan at her volleyball game!

Post-game dinner.

Fall Break

 Fall break had a completely new meaning to me this year, after going back to teaching for the first time in 6 years!  It was SO needed!  I feel like I've been trying to keep my head above water for the first few weeks, trying to get back in the swing of things.  So I was ready to do a whole lot of nothing, plus catch up on things around the house.

Last weekend, Taylor had a basketball game on Saturday, and our friend Peter and his two boys came over that afternoon to watch GT football and eat dinner.

Scooter-ing in the rain.

Then, we decided to take a quick getaway and take the kiddos to Great Wolf Lodge!  It was only about 1.5 hours away, and we planned to stay Monday and Tuesday night there.  

It was so much fun!  Everything is in the hotel/adventure park area- the water park, putt putt, (mini) bowling, ropes course, rock wall, arcade, build a bear, and more!  It's definitely a one-stop shop.

We got there Monday after lunch, and we got checked into our room.  Then, we hit up the water park!  It was fun!  Not as big as White Water or Volcano Bay by any means, but there were about 5-6 good slides with little wait.  After about 2-3 hours, the kiddos were pretty much done- but they probably rode those slides 10 times each! ;)

The first night, we drove into downtown LaGrange and ate dinner at Your Pie.  There was a balloon animal guy there, and the kids had so much fun with him.  Sydney got a monkey, Parker got an alien-looking thing, and Taylor got a basketball rim with a ball!

The next morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, and hit up the water park again!  They had fun until about 1, when they were ready to go.  We ate lunch and came back and had some fun with the other parts of the hotel.  First, we did the ropes course- it was fun and a bit scary (you don't realize how high the upper level is until you're up there!).  Then, we did mini bowling, which was a blast!  We went to the arcade to close out the night.

The next morning, we ate breakfast, got packed up, and headed home!  It was a fun little getaway.

The rest of the week, we did a bunch of random things... celebrating Sydney's birthday, doing stuff around the house, hanging out with neighbor friends, Taylor had a basketball game on Saturday, and afterwards, she and Stephen went to Mercedes Benz stadium to watch Tech play!

I got some lesson plans done, I got some special education paperwork done, I'm catching up on my blogs (!!), I cleaned the house, cleaned out the garage, and lots more.  I'm so sad to see this break end!  Back to reality tomorrow. :)