Festival of Trees

There is a Festival of Trees that benefits Brenner's Children's Hospital. We went over on Saturday with Margaret, Leah, Ellison, and Ethan. It was really fun and the girls got to put on their old Christmas dresses. They had dancers and other acts and the girls really got into that part. Of course, we didn't go visit Santa.

Doing the Candy Cane Limbo

Face painting

Watching the show with Margaret.

Posing with the UNCSA Nutcracker tree

Our only picture with Santa

Visiting The Dancers And The Costume Shop

Carly and Joiner really go to the coolest school. It is next to the NC School of the Arts. This is the institution that will be performing in the Nutcracker. The classes have been studying the Nutcracker story and performing it for a few weeks. Last week we walked over to the school to see some rehearsals and to visit the costume department to see where the official costumes are made. I signed up to go because I like to go with the girls, but also because I love it myself!

Watching a rehearsal. The teacher is in front and he just reels off steps and they fall in behind. It is really amazing.

Carly in a trance when I could get her to look at me.

There was no chance Joiner would take her eyes off the show.

Carly

Ms. Othella showing us some of the costunes. They were so detailed. I can't imagine the amount of time each takes to make.

I love this picture of Carly

The Mouse costumes

They are watching one of the male dancers having his vest fitted. He was really sweet and waved at them and asked their names.

We Are Thankful For Belle

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were all up early to cheer Andy on for the Turkey Strut. You can't see it well, but he is coming up behind the guy in the green. He did really well. The girls and I have our race this Saturday, so we were sitting this one out and cheering for our "Speed machine!"

After the race we came home and enjoyed what turned out to be a really beautiful day. We played outside and the girls and Andy cleaned out the carport while I did my run. When I got back, both girls decided that they were thankful for the dogs. You can tell that Belle is really pleased. Zoie may be blind and hypoglycemic, but she was smart enough to sit this out.

I didn't take any other pictures of Thanksgiving, but it was a wonderful day. Gigi, Grumpa, Caga, and Gussy came and we had a wonderful meal. On Friday, we all headed to Raleigh to see my mom's side, the Nichols' family. There are 6 grandkids on that side now, so they all had so much fun together. My uncle took a great picture of us all, and I hope he will send it to me. Thanks be to God for all our blessings and family!

Halloween (finally)

I have been terrible with the blog lately, so I have a lot to make up for. The first thing is to actually finish the Halloween post I started. I promise to do better with birthdays and Christmas coming up!

We started Halloween with "Jack-O-Lantern" eggs. This was basically a fried egg with cheese features. A fried egg is a favorite breakfast in our house!

Joiner with her Jack-O-Lantern Carly

We went over to Leah's neighborhood for a party that she helped plan. Gigi and Grumpa went with us. The weather had been yucky all day, but it was clear as we were walking to the hayride.

Waiting on the hayride. You can see from the hoods, that it had started to drizzle again.

It started pouring during the hayride. We then met for pizza in the street and it was so messy. The kids didn't care though as they tour into pizza and cupcakes. After we were full and fully wet, we started trick-or-treating.

Joiner ballerina; soaked but still going for the candy!

Getting some goodies

We came home earlier than we thought and took nice warm showers to get warmed up and dry. Then we played dance party and Carly and Joiner each got to pick a piece of candy. Unfortunately (not really) their candy got ruined from the rain and we had to throw it out the next day. There was sticky goo in the bottom of their pumpkins from the sugar and water. Regardless of the rain, it was a fun night!

Pre-Halloween Fun

We did lots of cool stuff to celebrate Halloween this year. So in this very long post, I will put some of the things. The girls went to a pumpkin patch at GiGi and Grumpa's house, but I don't have any pictures from that.

We went to the Tanglewood Pumpkin patch with school and had a great time. This is the girls posing with one of the many hay bales.

Trying to decide which pumpkin to pick
Carly running with some friends

All of us with the big pumpkin; nice squinting!

On the Monday before Halloween, Jarrett (Caga) and Miriam came over to carve pumpkins. Caga is the ultimate carver and usually does soem great pattern. I think he is exhausted with work and school right now, so he just free-handed it, but we had a great time.

Carly showing us her pumpkin hands
Joiner scooping out the seeds. This was by far both girls' favorite part of the carving.

The whole crew "digging in"

Now Andy truly hates carving pumpkins. He is like a pregnant lady with the smell. So he sat in his camping chair as far from the seeds as possible and kept making faces when I was taking his picture. So it is his fault that this is the picture I am posting for the whole world to see.

Everyone with their pumpkins

The YMCA has a fall festival every year and this year it was on the Friday before Halloween so we got our ballerinas dressed and headed over. Our friends Ethan and Ellison were with us, but they didn't want their picture taken.

Carly, Joiner, and dinasour Ellison on our trick or treating trail

Joiner playing a pumpkin toss game

Ellison playing

After we ate lunch we all ran around in our fall wonderland until Mrs. Leah came to get her crew. This was so beautiful to watch in person because the leaves were falling as the kids were running.

That night Leah's church has a Fall festival that she organized. They had lots of games and prizes. Here is Joiner in a big pumpkin that Mr. Dave built.

Daddy and the girls playing a basketball game

There was a cupcake walk and the girls both won. Here they are eating their giant cupcakes.

Here we are getting our face painted. Joiner is giving Carly moral support.

Here is Carly's pumpkin

Joiner getting her face painted

Here is Joiner's doggy

More to come....