Halloween

We shared Halloween with the Vess Family, Robertson Family, Graham Family, Robbins Family and the Call Family. It was a fun afternoon with play time for the kiddos and visiting with the Mom's and Dad's. Everyone shared in a potluck supper then we dressed the kids and headed out for trick or treating! The rain stopped long enough for us to accomplish our mission!
A really, really tired Dixon after all of the fun.

The gang as we started out in search of candy.

Dixon (fireman), Porter (Venom aka bad spiderman) and Ely (Ninja Turtle).

Dixon after returning home. In case the kids did not have enough excitement for one day, we also celebrated Dixon's birthday with an Elmo cookie cake. He loved getting to have 'Happy Birthday' sang to him.

Trunk or Treat

Happy Birthday Dixon

My baby boy has turned 2! Time sure does fly when we are having fun! Dixon has changed so much over the last few months. He loves to wrestle around, climb, jump and is always on the go!!! His best friend would be his big brother with a close tie between Miss Ava and Miss Emily.

We celebrated his birthday with buddies on Halloween. His favorite cartoon character is Elmo. He loves, loves, loves Elmo and Sesame Street. He pronounces him as "Ut-Oh".

Dixon is my 'sweet-tooth boy'. He loves candy and seeks it out at every opportunity! Here he was spying Ely and Ellie's candy machine. Too bad he couldn't find any money.

Family Fun Day

In an effort to find budget-friendly family fun day activities, we loaded up and went to the local Real Estate Associations' kids fair.

The highlight of the fair might have been a ride in the miniature firetruck.

No ride on a firetruck would be complete without fireman hats!

A close second could be the animals. Dixon and Porter got to pet a pony, goats, sheep, bunnies and look at some chickens up close.

Here are my little firemen checking out the interior of the truck. There is a lot of room inside that cab.

The boys also enjoyed jumping in the large inflatables, eating boiled peanuts and winning candy from the carnival style games.

Henderson Family Birthday Dinner

My family tries to get together for a dinner to celebrate each other's birthday. It was a stoke of luck that Jared had a business trip in Alabama for the week following Porter's birthday. His company was kind enough to make his travel arrangements such that he could spend the weekend at Home before his meetings began. We were so happy to spend this time together. Porter felt so special that Uncle Jared came on the big airplane just for his birthday!


Aunt Paige came to visit too! We had a great time visiting before dinner.

Uncle Joseph and the boys had a dance competition. Porter was the winner!!

Late on Saturday afternoon, Porter told me he wanted a vanilla cake for his birthday dinner. I kept telling him that vanilla cake was what we had for the sponge bob cupcakes and he didn't eat them. After much discussion, I realized what he was talking about was pound cake!! Uncle Joseph came through and made his favorite cake (now we know)....a vanilla butter pound cake! In true Joseph style, he put sparkler candles on the birthday cake. Porter was a little startled by the sparks flying around. Thanks for the great cake, Uncle Joseph!!

Happy Birthday Porter

Porter turned 6 on September 25th. A special birthday surprise was a weekend visit from Cousin Amelia. His birthday was on a Friday night and we wanted to keep things simple....we invited 6 friends to come for dinner and cake. For his birthday dinner, we served his favorite meal...spaghetti! No birthday party would be complete without cake. Porter wanted Sponge Bob Square Pants. I learned from previous parties that after I would spend hours decorating character cakes (you know the ones with thousands of 'stars') that Porter really doesn't eat cake with frosting. He just likes the idea of cake frosting. I decided to look around for a bakery cake. For anyone who does not know (like me), Sam's Club offers 30 cupcakes for $12.63!!!! I could hardly buy cupcake papers and character sugar candies for that much money!!! It was fast and easy and no one complained (especially me)!

Blue Ridge Apple Picking and Amicolola Falls State Park

A favorite family fun day activity is to go on our annual Apple Orchard adventure. This year was especially fun because the orchard allowed you to pick your own apples during a few weekends in September. Even though it was officially fall...it was HOT!! We did not let that stop our fun! The boys loved getting to taste all kinds of apples. I loved getting to pick only the little apples. They are the perfect size for our little hands....which leads to less waste. Our favorite apple was the Ambrosia variety.



Dixon and Matt on the tractor ride up into the orchard.

Porter and Julie on the ride.

After apple picking, sampling homemade goodies and eating some fried apple pies, we left and headed to the state park. We found a great picnic spot and enjoyed our picnic supper then headed to the playground. While I was packing up the picnic food, I spotted a long lost friend, Jeff Hibbert. He and Marigold were there with their kids. What a great coincidence. We were able to introduce our children to each other and visit for about an hour while the kids played. Such a special treat for our family fun day!

After we said good-bye to the Hibberts, we drove to the top of the mountain. Porter was unhappy that the park was closing and we had to leave. This is a face I often get to see....thought you might like a peek!!

Dixon was in good spirits. He loved the big slide at the playground where we had our picnic.

Uncle Joseph comes to visit

One of the first names that Dixon could pronounce, fairly clearly was 'Joseph'. As a result, he has a fast friend. Dixon loves to play with Uncle Joseph and keeps him hopping when we go to Nanny and Papa's house. It was a fun treat to have Uncle Joseph come to our home for an afternoon.

Joseph and Dixon looking at the salt water tank at the Nature Center.

Porter also loves the Nature Center.

The favorite tank....TURTLES!!

Playing on the playground at the park. Joseph was very patient with the boys and just let them play as long as they wanted.

After our day of playing at the park and looking at animals, Uncle Joseph headed off for the rest of his vacation. He was kind enough to treat us to a yummy, yummy Chinese dinner. Thanks!!!

We love having visitors...come again.

Fishing Memories

After school started, Porter started having some behavior problems at home. After many nights of yelling and crying, we thought that maybe he just needed some one on one time with his Dad. So, what better way to spend quality time on a budget? Go Fishing!!!

Porter and Matt enjoyed their morning together and Mom loved having a happy kid the next week!

Rainy Day Play

We were blessed with some rain this week and I could not resist letting the kids run around and play. It was just a rain shower not thunder and lightening. They had a blast running and playing.

Kindergarten Rocks!

Porter has started another school year. We have learned that Kindergarten is an academic grade and not just play time. He is adjusting pretty well, his main problem has been talking too much or being rowdy at lunch. He is excited for all of the new stuff he will learn in kindergarten. One of his favorite things is that now he gets to his side items at lunch. (In Pre-K the lunch ladies just gave them a pre-made tray.)

My sleepy-head on his first morning.

Please, Please, Please Tell Me It is a Phase...

Porter has started a horrible thing. About every third sentence out of his mouth begins with " I hate....". It is driving me nuts!! Completely aggravating, yelling , mad!! I have asked him to stop saying that, etc. He really frustrating part is that about 80% of the stuff isn't something he dislikes. He simply likes the phrase....I'm guessing.

To bring home the point, I told him that the next time he said that at the dinner table, I was going to make him eat a huge spoonful of whatever the items was. He then asked me what I meant. I explained again that whenever he says "I hate....." then I would get a huge spoonful of that food and he would have to eat it. Mr. Smarty-Pants was really quick with his next thought....'Mom, I HATE watermelon!" I was dumbfounded...seriously...I had to walk into the laundry room to keep from just freaking out on him!!! He then yelled, "Mom, did you hear me? I HATE watermelon!!" "Aren't you gonna cut the watermelon and make me eat it?"

Let's just say that Matt stepped in and quickly told Porter to cut it out and behave. I just went to work on laundry and tried not to laugh or cry too loud!!

Summer Conference in Augusta

The only trip (besides the wedding) for our summer was to tag along with Matt to his GVATA summer conference. We played while he was in meetings all day.

One activity was to go to the other side of the conference area and let the boys run wild. Here is Dixon in action.

Taking a quick break from the racing.

Porter also was sword fighting the "bad guys" getting them put under arrest.

Taking care of more bad guys.

Finally, the victor!

Another activity was walking along the riverwalk. We spent a lot of time doing this fun activity.

Sliding at riverwalk park.

Taking a break from the play ground.

We counted the animals we would pass. The highest count was 13 turtles and 8 ducks, 1 egret, 2 squirrels and lots of fish. We even learned that the turtles and ducks would eat our pretzels.

One afternoon we learned that the science center offers half price admission near closing time. So we packed up the stroller and headed down the riverwalk to visit the science center. The had a lot of exhibits but most of it was over our head. Porter did enjoy sitting on this motorcycle though.

Family Fun Day

A favorite family day for us is to visit Stone Mountain Park. We had a rare non-humid afternoon so packed a picnic and headed for the mountain. It turned out to be a great outing for the whole family. Porter was really excited for the 4-D Dinosaur movie...until we got in line! I decided to go see it by myself and Matt took the boys on the sky lift to the top of the mountain. I enjoyed the movie and Porter would have freaked out and we would have left about 4 minutes into a 20 minute movie. The train ride around the mountain is still the favorite activity. We did not get to go on the big boat. Turns out that this summer they have cut the hours to a lot of those activities and just do them on the weekends. Another really fun part of the day was the ball war in The Barn. Dixon couldn't believe he could throw balls and not get into trouble. He was in heaven.. not to mention the slides! Porter and Matt had fun climbing all over the various levels and waging their own little war.

Sitting on top of the mountain.

Tired little guy just as the laser show is about to begin. Can you guess how much he watched?

Porter loved the show. The fireworks were his favorite part.