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!