Happy Halloween

Jack dressed up as a little duck this year for Halloween! He's so interested in animals and his "quack,quack" is so cute, we thought it would be a good fit for him this year, since he wasn't quite old enough to decide for himself what he wanted to be.



He was a bit confused by the whole scene, but in the end, enjoyed it I think! Friday night his school had a party that was so much fun! Getting ready to go wasn't quite as much fun...Jack really wasn't excited about being a duck at all!



But once we got there, he was thrilled, as usual. He gets so excited anytime we go to school and this was certainly no exception!



They did such a good job of decorating...







and had great activities for the kids to earn treats.







Jack's favorite was, quite fittingly, the "Duck Pond."



His buddy Emerson really liked the duckpond too. He was the CUTEST little vampire I have ever seen!







Jack's favorite part about this game was the tablecloth! They spent a week learning about bats and another week learning about spiders in preparation for Halloween and since then, has been obsessed with both. He came home from school one day pointing out bats in his Halloween books and flapping his arms! And spiders, my goodness, he gets so excited when he sees one, exclaiming "PIDER!" So, at some point he spotted the spiders on this tablecloth from across the blacktop and said "pider, pider, pider, pider, pider, pider...!" It was really funny. He needed to point each and every "pider" out!



Anytime he got a treat though, he tried to put it back in their bucket. He just didn't get the whole concept at all. But he had fun and cried and cried when it was time to go home. Little did he know he'd get to wear the duck suit again the next night!

Saturday night we went to Grams and Gramps' neighborhood to try out a little trick-or-treating. He made it through the first house ok, but really didn't understand what was going on at all. They had a dog that was much more interesting to him than the candy. He doesn't really know what candy is yet so we weren't all that surprised. We thought we'd try one more house after that one since we'd heard the little boy that lived there was dressed up as a spider. As it turned out, they weren't home but had left a pumpkin full of candy on the front stoop. We told Jack to take one piece of candy from their pumpkin and put it into his pumkin. It happened that their pumkpin full of candy was the exact same plastic pumpkin that Jack was carrying that night. So, it made much more sense to Jack to just pick up their pumpkin, which was full of candy, and leave his pretty empty one there! Don't worry, we didn't let him get far, but we did get a good chuckle out of it.





Maybe next year he'll understand what it's all about...we'll see!

Happy Birthday Dillyn

So I'm a couple of days behind...but last weekend we got to spend a little time with the Carpenter Family celebrating the October birthday girls. I have always loved sharing my birthday month with my beautiful niece, but this year was the first time that Jack was around to celebrate with us and that made it even more fun!

They made sugar cookies and Dillyn and Jack iced and decorated them. Jack wasn't much help at any of it except eating them, but he enjoyed it!





I remember so vividly sitting in the waiting room at the hospital waiting for Dillyn to arrive. I always knew she'd be special but had no idea as I raced to get from Blacksburg to Richmond before she arrived, just how perfect she would be. I'm so proud to be her aunt and can't get over what a smart, sweet, beautiful and talented girl she has become. I have loved watching her grow up and can only hope that Jack will turn out so well. I look forward to all the fun to come and to watching their relationship grow.



Thanks for inviting us over...what a great night!

Romp & Roll

It seems like our weekends have been kind of cool and rainy this Fall. That never really bothered me too much until this year. Trying to entertain a toddler cooped up inside for too long is really tough. So, a couple of weekends ago Mary Alex invited us to come try out her Romp & Roll class! For those not familiar with it, Romp & Roll is an indoor gym for kids that is full of great things for them to play with but also includes some group activities with songs and such. It's a lot of fun and Jack seemed to really enjoy it.





As did Mary Alex, of course!!



I'm not sure what we were looking at here, but we both look pretty serious. There wasn't anything all too serious about the class...but Jack did really well listening to the teacher's directions. He was much more interested in putting the toys away than playing with them, but he did well all things considered. I expected him to be a bit more overwhelmed than he was.



My favorite part was at the end when they turned off all the lights, played soothing music and turned on the bubble machine! I might join just for that part!

Thanks for inviting us Mary Alex, we had a great time and it was the perfect start to a rainy weekend!

School days

We recently became facebook friends with Jack's teacher Miss Ashley. It's been a lot of fun to learn more about her but it's been so much fun getting to see all of the great pictures she takes of the kids during the day! She gets to see a side of Jack we don't ever get to see. We often wish we could be a fly on the wall and see just how he acts there. We can't really do that I guess, but seeing these pictures sure helps paint the picture for us of all the fun he's having while we're at work.

Just look at these smiles! It's no coincidence I'm sure that the smiling pictures are all outside pictures, but he's having a ball!



This is his friend Ellie. His daily report card often tells us that he worked puzzles with Ellie, but it looks like they like to play outside together too!

On occasion, they load the kids into strollers and take them for a ride or to the park for a bit. I'm not sure why no one else was excited, but Jack sure was!

So it's not all smiles...he cries a bit too, of course. They were playing with colored shaving cream here and for whatever reason, even though Jack hated it, he kept playing in it...







I know I've said it over and over but we are just so thankful that we found such a wonderful daycare solution. I'm certain there is no better fit for us. Thank you Tuckaway and thanks Miss Ashley and Miss Megan for putting all of those smiles on his face and putting up with the frowns!

Pumpkin Patch

Every year for my birthday, we go to the pumpkin patch! Last year Jack had no idea what was going on, and even this year, he wasn't all too concerned with the pumpkins but pretty excited about the wagon ride, wide open spaces and waving to the folks on the hayride.

He took it all in for a little while, just looking around and trying to figure out what to do.



Then he found a pumpkin just his size and thought we should take it home, but it was still attached to the vine...



Look guys, there are so many pumpkins, let's go over there!



Walking through the vines was a bit tricky so the wagon turned out to be his best bet...















He had to wave at the folks on the hayride every chance he got! He could not understand why they weren't waving back...





Then he thought he'd take a turn at pulling the wagon...



but it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be!



There was a Gorilla scarecrow that Jack was really interested in. He kept pointing at it so I picked him up and took him over for a closer look. He growled and made monkey noises at it as we approached but there definitely came a point, when we got about a foot away from it, where he panicked and held on to me super tight and buried his head! He wanted to see it, but not that closely!



Kenny thinks there's no denying we're related in this one! It's so funny how children pick up or inherently have the same mannerisms as their parents.



The pumpkins sure were fun but they aren't rocks!





See the handful of rocks he's got there?



I'm not sure what this Mickey Mouse pumpkin is about at all, but Jack sure loved it!





Almost time to go home and still smiling! Another great trip to the pumpkin patch! Thanks guys...



When I woke up on my birthday, I found this card waiting for me, handmade by my two favorite guys! I love them so much and things like this really mean the world to me. Thank you Kenny...I know Jack helped too but I'm pretty sure it wasn't his idea! :)!





Jack's class also made me some great artwork!! His teachers are so thoughtful and creative and I love that his whole class had a "hand" in it!



Another year I got to enjoy - can't wait for all the fun year 34 will bring!