Bon Bini!

The week before Thanksgiving, we (and by we, I mean adults only) headed off on a work trip to Aruba.  It was ahhhmazing!  We spent 5 nights at the Grand Hyatt resort, all expenses paid, great dinners every night, spa treatments, golf, catamaran snorkeling trip, fruity cocktails, the works!!  It couldn’t have been better.  Thanks to DeDe and Pro for keeping the little angel while we were gone.  I don’t think she asked about us one time!!  She did great.

The whole group that went …. 22 employees plus guests …

Can’t wait for next year’s trip …. The Ritz Carlton in Grand Cayman!!

Home for the Holidays

We went to Memphis for an extended Thanksgiving weekend to visit DeDe and Pro.  Much to Emmy Cate’s delight, we also got to hang out with Uncle Ben, cousins Molly (4.5) and Atticus (2.5), great aunt Sally, and second cousins or cousins once removed (depending on who you ask) Alex and Sara.

The kids had a blast wrecking the place playing with each other and the most popular activities were getting pulled in the wagon, reading books, and coloring.

On Friday night we went to the lighting of the Germantown Christmas tree.  The kids got to see a reindeer, hear carolers, roast marshmallows and see the lights come on.  You gotta love the South where the weather allows you to do fun things at the holidays with no coats and even short sleeves!!

One of the kids’ favorite things was taking a bath together.  Three kids in a tub is a bit crowded when you have a wild man like Atticus trying to do flips!  But they had a blast and were asking to take baths every night.  Silliness generally ensued right after bath time to include dancing, streaking, and plenty of silly faces!!

 

We surprised Mamaw with a cake and big and little voices singing her Happy Birthday for her 90th birthday coming up in a couple of weeks.  She had absolutely now idea that anyone was even coming to Memphis for Thanksgiving, so you can imagine when she walked in to find both of her grandchildren, her great grandchildren, and my aunt and cousins too!  She was blown away!  Happy 90th Mamaw!!

We took the kids around one day to see all of the “horses” around Germantown by request of Molly, the horse obsessed.  The girls wanted to ride the pretty horses (Atticus steered clear).  For those that don’t know, Germantown has always been associated with horses and horse shows and they create these life size horses that artists paint with different themes and they are placed around the city. 

Boy were DeDe and Pro tired after all of that complete chaos fun!!

Ahoy Matey!

This year for Halloween, Emmy Cate was a cute pink sailor girl!  As is the usual trend, we loaded up on the golf cart to do a tour of our cul-de-sac and hit the haunted house on the corner.  It was pretty chilly that night, so we didn’t stay out long but Emmy Cate was excited to hit a few houses.  She doesn’t like candy all that much so after about 4 houses she had had her fill and wanted to just go and see all of the big kids’ costumes.  We got to play with neighborhood friends and attempted a visit to the haunted house but never made it in due to an accident that ended with a 911 call, an evacuation and ambulances descending on the neighborhood!!!

Emmy Cate had a blast and still likes to play “trick-or-treat” in her little playhouse out back.

My Little Helper

We printed invitations for our upcoming Christmas party and Emmy Cate was quite the helper.  She learned how to use the printer and even knows how to collate the finished product!  I’ll have her up at the office in no time as my new assistant.

 

Ghosts and Scary Witches!!

Over the weekend {and barely in time for Halloween} we carved a few pumpkins to get in the spirit!  Emmy Cate liked to choose the designs and use the punch to poke holes all over the pumpkins.  She didn’t get the whole “stay in the lines” concept!

Can you tell that I did most of the carving while Daddy did most of the beer drinking??

 

The finished product … not bad considering very active 2.5 year old hands!!

Harvest Party

Last week, EC’s class had their Harvest Party, not to be confused with a Halloween party since that doesn’t exactly fit with the Methodist ideals.  No biggie, but since I was in charge of planning most of it, this momma got it confused and really threw a Halloween party.  Oh well.

It went great though.  Almost all of the kids were there (16 of 17), and all but 2 kids had 1 or 2 parents representing.  The kids painted pumpkins, decorated foam pumpkins with craft shapes, ate snacks and cupcakes, dressed up like farmers, played outside, and each took home a favor and a balloon.  It was a great success and kids and parents had fun!  I won’t mention how I got in “trouble” for bringing PB&J sandwiches (allergies!) and balloons (choking hazard).  Oh well, can’t win them all!!

I made pumpkin shaped PB&J’s and pimiento cheese sandwiches and a pumpkin cheeseball for snacks!

         

The kids had a blast dressing as farmers in plaid shirts and straw hats.  

Cute little party crackers for the kiddos with toys and candy inside!  Daddy’s comment “those kids aren’t going to be very impressed with a used toilet paper roll”!!

We had a fun party and I’m glad to have that under my belt for the rest of the school year!!  Next party to plan – our Christmas shindig!!

Our Little Pumpkin

Since I am so far behind on blogging, I’m not going to spend much time on a write-up.  I know everyone just wants to see the pictures!!  Pumpkin patch, playground, face painting, hayrides, ice cream, seeing friends from Mommy’s work.  Good time had by all!! 

Happy Halloween!!