Pumpkin Carving and Trunk or Treat

Here are the kids pumpkin creations this year.
Andrew with his scary pumpkin:

Karson with the Trick or Treat pumpkin:


Every Halloween our church host a trunk or treat event where you fill your car trunk with candy and kids come thru the line to trick or treat. Every year we have about 1500 kids come thru so we have to have lots and I mean lots of candy! Our Sunday School class helps with the candy and we are always able to give several pieces to each child. It was raining this year so the church decided to hold the event in our gym. It was much better because you could actually see the kids costumes. This year the Cotheran's met up with us and they helped give out candy too. The Laney's and Nana and Aunt G also had their own tables on either side of us this year so we had a long line of kids giving out candy.

Riverbanks Zoo

Before Halloween we went to Riverbank Zoo with the Cotheran's and the Laney's. We spent the day looking at all the different animals at the zoo and of course we posed for plenty of photographs along the way.


The whole crew:

Zac and the ladies:



Zac riding an elephant:


My kids with the tiger:


After spending the day looking at the animals we left and got some dinner where we met up with the Waddell's and headed back to the zoo for Boo at the Zoo. The kids get to dress up in their costumes and trick or treat at the zoo. Karson was a diva (of course) and both the boys were something from GI Joe.

All the girls

Karson's 10th Birthday

I know I'm way behind and haven't posted in awhile so I am going to try and catch up. So get ready for blog overload as I try to update from June 09 to February 10.

On October 19th Karson turned 10 years old. I can't believe that my baby is actually double digits. This was a huge birthday year for her and so we decided to take the whole family to Great Wolfe Lodge in Charlotte to celebrate. Jamie was going to a Metallica concert on Sunday night so it worked out perfectly. We arrived to the hotel on Sunday afternoon around 2 and to our surprise our room was ready. So we took our stuff in and immediately changed into our swimsuits and headed to the water park. The kids had so much fun exploring the indoor water park and going down all the water slides.
Luckily Zac was tall enough to go down all but one of them. We then had pizza and headed back to our room to change into our pj's and to let daddy change and head to his concert. At 7pm the hotel has a story time in the lobby and you are encouraged to wear your pj's. The story is told in front of this huge tree and it moves and it's really cool. Afterwards the mascot Willey came out and took pictures with all the kids. On Monday morning the kids were awake bright and early and ready to go back to the water park. We spent most of the morning again going down the slides and playing in the wave pool. The hotel was empty this weekend so we were able to just walk up the massive amounts of stairs and climb right on the slides. The positive was that we were able to get right on the negative was that we were exhausted because we never got to rest waiting in line. Someone should really invent an escalator for the water parks. Anyway after lunch in our room we went and played Magic Quest. This is a fun game located all over the hotel where kids get to look for clues and perform magic with their wands. They played for about 2 hours and again it was more climbing stairs as it is located all over the hotels 3 floors in the lobby. For dinner we took Karson to the restaurant in the hotel for her birthday. For her cake we ordered the campfire desert and they sang happy birthday to her. We all shared this huge desert which was ice cream, waffle cone logs, and cotton candy for the fire. That night they had a trick or treat thing set up in the lobby to give the kids candy before story time. After story time tonight we fell fast asleep. On Tuesday morning we went to make paper mache wolves in the lobby. The kids really enjoyed learning how to make paper mache and decorating them.


Afterwards Jamie and the kids enjoyed another hour in the water park before we headed home.
The one thing I learned is when they say on TV that they keep the water park at 85 degrees year round that it doesn't feel that warm.It was actually quite cold inside after you were wet. There was no sun to warm you up!!

Niven's Apple Farm

In October we went to Niven's Apple Farm with the Cotheran's. When we first got there we went in the corn maze.



The kids lead the way and it was pretty easy. Afterwards we went into the pumpkin patch to cut our own pumpkins. We have never done this before and it was so fun.

The kids each picked a pumpkin and then we cut it off the vine and put it into the wheel barrow. We spent a little while looking at the animals, tasting apple cider, and playing on the playground before we left.

Zac's First Day of Kindergarten

This past summer Jamie and I made a difficult decision to remove our children from Fairforest Elementary school and place them in Spartanburg Charter School. This is a public school which involves parents and community. They have a unique learning style similar to the Montessori. They also require the children to wear uniforms. Another difference is they have gender specific classrooms. They all seem to be doing very well there. This was also Zac's first year of big boy school. Since he attended preschool at the same place I work he has never been away from me. The first day he was very nervous but he loves school now!

On the way to school:


Mom's really leaving me here!

Aren't they too cute in their uniforms!

Andrew & Noah

Blue Bell Camp

Every summer since Karson was 5 she has gone to Blue Bell Camp. Blue Bell's are dancers at Dorman High School. She always has a great time and learns a cute routine.
Warm Up:

Getting ready:

Kick Line:

Finale: