Emily loves books, her Tag reader and Tangled. She has listened to/read the book dozens of times. She surprised me the other day by reciting the first part of the book. Little girl has a pretty good memory!
“Leaf” it to the kids
Always a good time playing in the leaves! The kids always love having fun in the leaves. Always takes twice as long to get the leaves in the bag but well worth it!
Picture by Emily
Emily drew this picture at school recently. She is such a little artist. Always drawing, painting and coloring. I LOVE it! Notice that “Dad” is TOTALLY spelled wrong. I *think* she knows how to spell it but her little friend at school told her it was “DASM”. LOL!
Random Zachary
Zachary owns a special piece of my heart, as does Emily. Each of my children are so completely different. I never thought I could love them so much and so differently.
Here is some random Zachary love!
Pictures
It’s that time of the year. Picture time. We were wanting to get fall/Emily’s birthday photos taken. I decided to try something a little different this time around. Instead of attempting to get photos done at Picture People, which let’s be honest here is a crap shoot, I decided to try out my friend Anastasia. She has taken pictures of several families that in our playgroup. She does a wonderful job. I love how she just kind of let’s the kids lead. She doesn’t expect them to “stand on the dot” or “place your arm on the tip of your ear while standing on your toes”.
We decided to try some outdoor shots down on Main Street. I have always wanted to have pictures taken down there because it is so beautiful. You have old buildings, the gazebo, and nooks and crannies galore. We even went across the street to the park so we were able to get a few picture at the train depot and by the train tracks (now the trail). Wonderful venue for having photos taken. I think we took Emily down there a few years back right after Thanksgiving to get some shots for our Christmas cards. BRRR!
Anastasia did a great job with the photos. Emily, as always, was a more than willing model. Always hamming it up for the camera. Zachary, on the other hand, was Zachary. He was very reserved with his smiles. Which is not like Zachary in real life. He is usually very smiley and funny. Not so when it comes to having pictures taken. Anastasia was able to get some really good shots of both kids. Go figure Zachary started to warm up and smile towards the end! She took so many great shots that I made a little slide show to share. I am not even including the entire shoot in the slide show. She did that good.
Thanks Ana!
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Take a (short) hike
A few weekends ago we had beautiful weather. We decided to take a drive after Zachary woke up from his nap and enjoy the rest of fall. We ended up at Klondike Park near Augusta. One word- beautiful! There are tons of trails to explore and a scenic overview to walk up to. We didn’t have time to hike through the woods, as the rain clouds were moving in but we did have enough time to hike/walk up to the scenic view. It was a pretty steep walk up but Zachary trudged along pretty well for being a little guy. It was a slow go with him but totally worth the view. We decided that we needed to come back in the spring. Both kids will be a bit older and we will be able to explore a little better.
Of course, I had to snap a few pictures.
Projects, projects
I keep myself busy. Almost too busy at times. I usually have one or two projects going that I am working on at any given time. Surprisingly, I have gotten several of them finished despite the busy-ness of Halloween and birthdays. Some of the ideas I found on Pinterest go figure. I have the links to any of the projects that I found on Pinterest if anyone is interested in tutorials.
Got Barbies?
Emily has been accumulating Barbies over the past 2 years. For awhile they lived in a bucket, their hair getting all tangled and gross. I knew there had to be a better way to store them. Enter Pinterest. Oh how I love Pinterest!
Genius!
A neat way to store Barbies for only $5!
An Interview with Emily
I saw this idea where you interviewed your child on their birthday. The idea is to ask the same questions each year and see how much they change. This activity
Emily- age 5
was a lot of fun! Some of Emily’s answers were surprising and/or funny. The one with the biggest “awwww” factor was “Who is the coolest person on Earth”. I really didn’t get the answer I was expecting. Super sweet.
Let’s see if I can remember to do this next year.
All things Halloween
It seems like there are so many things to do around Halloween. Pumpkin patches, parties, tons of trick or treating opportunities. In an effort to save time, I am going to talk about all of our fun at once.
We started out our trick or treating festivities at Stephen’s office. Last year was our first experience at his work. Oh my goodness. It is so hard to describe how much effort goes into this event. Each area decorates and everyone dresses up according to a theme. The main theme this year was Children’s stories/shows. The IT department even participated this year. I told Stephen they were all stick in the muds and they were going to decorate even if I had to come in there and do it myself! They went with a Scooby Doo theme. Stephen even dressed up as Shaggy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of their area. I didn’t take pictures of all the areas because I didn’t want to be “that” dork. Every area outdid themselves this year. A few of the themes were Toy Story, Cars, Under the Sea, Candyland, Snow White, Zoo, Alice in Wonderland and It’s a Small World. There were a lot more but I can’t remember them all. Emily, of course, loved Under the Sea. I thought It’s a Small World was pretty cool. They put the kids in wagons and pulled them through the different countries. Honestly, it was hard to choose who was the best. They always are over the top with the candy handed out. We really didn’t have to do any more trick or treating if we were just going on Halloween loot and candy.
Emily got to dress up at school. They did a little parade to show off all of the costumes. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed up. They got on stage and told everyone their name and what they were. I don’t think there were any duplicate costumes, which really surprised me.
On Halloween, we headed downtown to go to Trick or Treat on Main Street. This has quickly become a tradition for us. Grandma comes with us and we walk down Main Street and collect candy from the merchants. It’s always a lot of fun to see all the costumes. We never make it all the way around. Later that evening, Stephen took both kids out to trick or treat around the neighborhood for a bit. After they went to a few houses, Zachary stayed home and I took Emily around to a few more houses. We met up with her bff and they had a lot of fun running up to the houses.
So much Halloween fun! Way, way, way too much candy. I have a huge paper bag full of candy to get rid of. I think we need to cut some trick or treating down next year. It will be a lot different with Emily being in kindergarten that for sure. We really wanted to enjoy this last year of “freedom”.
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I am a woman who wears many hats. Wife, mother, maid, cook, boo boo kisser and friend to name a few. I stay at home with my children. That doesn't mean I don't work! Believe me, I do. I love my life, despite the challenges I face. Every day is a gift and I try to live each day to the fullest. 
Love Overflowing 