Harvest Dinner (Redux)

Harvest Dinner time!  Finn's school puts on a little Thanksgiving "play" where the three's class dress up as Native Americans and the four's class dress up as the Pilgrims, they sing a few songs and then all of the families share dinner together, just as the Native Americans and Pilgrims did for the first Thanksgiving. It's exactly the same "show" we saw last year only this time Finn got to be a Pilgrim, which for some reason, he was really excited about. Actually, he wasn't that excited about being a Pilgrim as he was getting to stand on the stage. The kids were really cute and only a few got stage fright and refused to sing. I'm sure I video taped it but you can just watch last year's performance here. 

The whole harvest dinner portion of the evening is great in theory . . . all of the children sharing a nice meal together with their families, but in reality it is an absolute disaster. Total chaos and mayhem. Sort of like taking your child and all 30 of his or her best friends + siblings to a restaurant and expecting them to sit still and eat their dinner and not act like an animal while you attempt to carry on small talk with parents you see maybe 5 minutes a week in the carpool line. But, the kids have a blast and the teachers most likely walk away a little suspicious of our parenting/bribing techniques, but it's all in good fun, togetherness and thankfulness! Happy Harvest Day.

Testing out the reverse camera feature on my iphone, pre-performance

Last Year's Harvest Dinner as a Native American (2011)

Pilgrim Finn perfecting his moves 

Yes! He remembered all the words

Our happy little Pilgrims and Native Americans

So tired of behaving!

 Things begin to unravel after this :)

Fun with Charlie

Our little pup is growing up. She's right at 2 months old in these pictures. Charlie has been quite the addition--her personality is way bigger than she is. She's a little spit-fire that always keeps me on my toes. Potty-training is hit or miss (with many misses!). She eats like a man and has more energy than we know what to do with. Finn is having fun with her and Lily tolerates her. I love her but find myself questioning my decision (sort of) when I'm up at 5:30 am with her and everyone else in the house is sound asleep, including Lily.

Charlie's First Trip to the Beach

Ok, I promise this will be my last "charlie" post for a while. But she's so cute. Now it's harder to take pictures of her without it looking like a big blur. Anyway, Lily and I took Charlie to the beach for the first time this week. It's kind of special that I was able to take Charlie to Sullivan's for her first beach experience. Because I also took Lily to Sullivan's for her first beach trip nearly 10 years ago. They both had the same reaction: total joy. Just walking the boardwalk to the beach Lily would run ahead and then turn around and wait for Charlie to catch up and then run ahead again as if she were saying, "ohboyohboyohboy come on come on catch up little one it's the BEACH!  . . . ball . . . let's go let's go to the beach!" They hit the sand running and rolling and digging. Charlie balked at the water but desperately wanted to go after Lily but decided to save it for another day. She wore herself out, so much so that I had to carry her home.

I took this video a week or so later. Charlie loves the water and desperately wants to follow Lily into the deep water but is still a little unsure.

Fall Fun at Boone Hall Plantation

Right before Halloween, Finn's class took a field trip to the Boone Hall pumpkin patch. They got to pick out their very own pumpkin. Finn, of course, chose the largest one he could find, which I in turn had to carry around. After pumpkin picking, we went on a "spooky" hayride through the grounds and capped the morning with lots of fun feeding animals, jump castles, corn mazes and much much more. It is always fun to take the kids out of their normal school routine. The boys especially love being outside.

The Making of a Gamecock Fan

Let me state this for the record: I am a proud Georgia Bulldog Fan! But Finn comes from a long line of Gamecock fans AND he now lives in South Carolina so it was inevitable that the garnet and black would rub off on him. Mark took Finn to his first Gamecock game in Columbia and he had a blast. He proudly wore his jersey and cheered the Gamecocks on to victory, plus enjoyed being one of the guys with Luke and Bop Bop. I do hope he will be an equal opportunity fan and pull for the Bulldogs at least occasionally. 

Halloween Fun

I will give you the Readers Digest version of our Halloween week. Although every week sort of feels like Halloween: Finn loves to put on his costumes, say on a Tuesday, and be Darth Vader for the rest of the day. One of these days I'm going to follow through with my idea to buy a bunch of costumes after they go on sale to use for the next year. But not this year, because I forgot. 

Anyway, back to Halloween. We did the Fish or Treat event at the aquarium, which was loads of fun. We had a costume parade and party at school, followed by the main event: trick-or-treating. I can't think of another holiday that mother's hate so much and kids love so much. All that candy, ugh. Finn on the other hand, could hardly wait to fill his bucket. 

Spiderman in front of the fish tank

Fish or Treating with our sweet neighbors Langley and Eloise

Ahoy matey, I spy a pirate

Halloween mayhem in their classroom

Mommies can trick or treat too

A whirr of energy, excitement and SUGAR