Twilight Saga

For those of you who know me you know I have been caught up in a new book series by Stephenie Meyer called "Twilight." These books are somewhat controversial because one of the main characters is a vampire. I know, you say, Jenny is reading a vampire book, goodness! Well it is actually a teen love story and I have just been captured by it. Just like with the Harry Potter series I think in order for you to debate a book's worth you need to read it to see what all the fuss is about. I have a huge problem with people trashing something they have never even read. So anyways back to the point of the this post I finished the last book in the series last night and now I am lost without a story to get swept away in. But the movie for the first book is coming out in a few weeks so I am anxiously awaiting to compare the book to the movie. So I say if you have some questions about the worth of this book try it out and tell me what you think.

Z is for Zoo and Potty Training

Isn't that the cutest dang zebra you ever did see?

Yesterday our preschool class met again and this time Jeanne was the teacher. The kids learned the letter 'Z' and the theme was the Zoo. They made adorable zebra puppets, painted the letter 'Z' and read some great books, Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? and Goodnight, Gorilla. They even got to act out the scenes for Goodnight, Gorilla. This was all in preparation for our big trip to the zoo on Friday. This will be Connor's first trip to the zoo. More pictures to follow!

On a side note you might have noticed the potty chair picture. Yes it is true, Connor has pretty much potty trained himself. I guess Dr. Albino was right, if you wait until they are ready then it happens fast and effectively. I do expect accidents in the future but he just woke up yesterday from his nap and exclaimed, "Mommy, I need to potty!" Of course, I jumped right up and ran him over to the potty. He has been really good about telling me ever since. We still have not ventured out in public with underwear I'm a little gunshy about that. But I am so excited about this whole thing (and he looks so cute in his little Lightning McQueen underwear)!

NKOTB Concert

Showing off my Joey Joe!

We decked out the minivan!

Jordan, Jon, Danny, Donnie, or Joey who's your favorite? I got the opportunity to see them all last night at a New Kids on the Block concert. I went along with Angie, Jeanne, Denise, Deborah, & Rachel. We had a blast! Angie got ahold of some T-shirts from the 80's so Jeanne, Angie, & I wore them along with some pins and other accessories. We met up with our crew in Tampa at a restaurant across from the Forum where the concert was held. We ate and then headed over to the concert. Nastasha Bedingfield opened for them and she was great. Then the New Kids came out and the place went wild. They sang songs from their new album and their old hits. It was a fabulous concert. I was amazed at how many songs I remembered from 15 years ago. Some of my favorites last night were: Step by Step, Favorite Girl, Cover Girl, Hanging Tough, I'll be Lovin' You Forever, Please Don't go Girl, and some new songs, Summertime, and Click Click Click. I'll post a video of one of the songs I recorded it's not the best quality. I must say I have always been a Joey Joe fan and he is still the hottest of them all! I didn't get to bed today until 1:00 this morning, my throat is all swolled up, and my ears still haven't stopped ringing but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Thanks Deb for getting those tickets it was truly an amazing night!

Trick or Treat Smell my Feet . . .

Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! My kids got plenty "good to eat" last night while trick or treating. We stuck to our tradition of trick or treating in MawMaw & PawPaw's neighborhood (the same neighborhood Craig grew up in). First, we met at MawMaw & PawPaw's house to show off our costumes and hook up the Rascal 600 for neighborhood rounds. I took some pictures of the kids in their costumes - Note: Caroline is flipping me off in half her pictures (tell me what you really think Caroline) After getting everything ready we loaded the two older ones in the jogging stroller attached to the Rascal 600 and we loaded Coop up in the double stroller. We took a quick ride over a few blocks to Jeanne's Mom's house to meet up with our crew and unload Cooper with Christy (Jeanne's sister). We had to have a little photo shoot there with all the kids. All the costumes were so . . . cute. After that we all loaded up in their van and headed out for some candy. We probably hit about 5 houses before we started hearing the kids complain so we just went back to Mrs. Brenda's house and let the kids play together. They loved playing together just as much as trick or treating.

Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin

Cooper chilled out in the swing watching all the action.

Tonight we carved our first pumpkin together as a family. The kids had a great time pulling all the gooey insides out and deciding on what the pumpkin's face would look like. After much deliberation we decided on triangle eyes, a circle nose, & a silly smile with pointy teeth.

Our Weekend

**Updated with a slide show of pictures from our day at SeaWorld I got from Brant's camera.
Friday we took the kids to SeaWorld for the Halloween trick-or-treating booths they had set up. They also had a Sesame Street show that Connor loved. Needless to say, Caroline didn't feel the same way. She is so busy - she didn't want to sit still at all. So I wrestled with her in both the shows we went to. She actually was squirming so hard that she knocked my glasses off my face in the middle of the Elmo show and I had stepped in gum so I was stuck to the floor. It was not a pretty moment. From some of the sounds that were coming out of Caroline's mouth (because I was holding her down) I thought some of the mothers in that show were about to call DCF on me. I kept getting quite a few looks. I even had one mother put her hands over her daughter's ears to protect her from Caroline's screams. Like I said it wasn't pretty. She doesn't normally act up that bad but no nap combined with being held against her will was not a pretty combo. Other than that minor hiccup SeaWorld was a blast.
Tonight we went to the Oxford Fall Festival. Our church has participated in the Festival a few years now. We had two booths this year. A colored hairspray booth and a scarecrow balloon craft booth. Connor had his hair colored green and white and Caroline had hot pink and glitter. MawMaw & PawPaw helped us out so we could help out at the booths. They bought both the kids a snow cone. Caroline was so into that snow cone that by the time she was finished her cheeks were stained hot pink to match her hair.
We survived another wonderful but crazy week! Craig is off to a pastor's conference for the first part of next week so I am going to have my hands full the next few days. But I am very happy for him to get away and get recharged! I told him even if you don't like the sessions (which I know he will love them) you get to sleep through the night without any kids waking you up and you can have a complete thought without being interrupted.

P is for Pumpkin

The letter of the day is P. We met again for preschool today. I was the teacher and I must say Connor was a gazillion times better today. I guess he was just having an off day last time. The kids were super great today. We covered a lot of skills like: cutting with scissors and making a pumpkin windsock, making the letter P with playdoh and wood sticks, making a craft to correlate with the rhyme Five Little Pumpkins sitting on a gate, we sang and danced to a scarecrow song, we read 3 books, we made a pumpkin snack, we discussed the nursery rhyme Peter, Peter Pumpkin eater and colored a picture of his miserable wife who had to live in that nasty pumpkin shell. Oh the list just goes on and on of all the fun things we did today. I couldn't have done it without my fabulous, happy helper Mrs. McDonald! After we finished our lesson we had a little celebration for Jake's birth! Happy Birthday Jakers! It was a Perfect day!