One of my FAVORITE Halloween's ever!!

still backposting for fall 2016

This Halloween was AHmazing!!  Not only was I thrilled that my kids wanted to dress- up AT ALL, since they're 14, 12, and 10!  (A lot of kids feel too old to dress-up at this age or are embarrassed if they do) ...but mine were ALL GOING TO COORDINATE!  They all decided together to be a Harry Potter character, which was cool, since this was the year we all read the books and watched the movies for the first time.

Lucy was Luna Lovegood and did a fabulous job of being very chill and spaced out while talking in Luna's dreamy voice.  She made some adorable choices like her radish earrings and butterbeer-cap necklace (like in the book, NOT the cork in the movie) ;)

Clyde was Gilderoy Lockhart and relished acting like the overdramatic, egotistical professor!  He played a very active roll in picking out his wand (they don't sell Lockhart's anywhere), and his pastel suit and cravat.  It was hard curling an puffing up his hair, but really funny.

Iris was Hermione Granger, and took a while to settle on her uniformed look instead of one of the other outfits.  She bought herself, Hermione's light-up wand and was very particular when it came to choosing a ACCURATE looking time turner.  Her Brittish accent was on constantly and she relished correcting people and raising her hand.

Get ready for some pictures, people...

 First stop was a local church's fall festival.  They have one every year.  This one is so great, they have tons of games, a huge amount of the people show up who get to go on hayrides, pet animals, play games and get loved on and invited to church.  They have an allergen friendly basket at every booth.  It's so neat!!

Gilderoy Lockhart heroically killing the bean bag toss.

 Hermione ran into Ron Weasley while were there!!  Oh my goodness, I love this picture!!!  And I don't even know this kid.

Luna and Hermione cheering on Professor Lockhart in a neck and neck car race!

 Then mom takes them all for a photo shoot...because she doesn't have enough pics already.

 Dueling....

getting into character...

Just ... you know... having a wand :)

being cute

and cuter still

at our church's Reformation Celebration....

Hogwarts meets Chik-fil-a....

Then we get to the Tennessee Valley Railroad museum for their Halloween thingy.... really, we just needed to be around a train so we could ride the Hogwart's Express!!!

While there, we ran into the boy who lived!!

Hermione put her lumos spell to good use while on the Express....

Sherry came with us on this venture!! <3 p="">

the fun house....  (even though the TVRM's halloween party is for younger kids, it was still super fun... well, except for the story time, but we survived.)

 On to Nena and Papa's church festivities, where they were hard at work...

Was an awesome Halloween!!!

Where I Turn 36...

still backposting fall of 2016

So I turned 36.  Not sure how I'm feeling about all this getting older stuff.  But I sure do have the sweetest of lovebugs around me!!

Sherry dropped off a balloon bouquet and gift card wrapped around a bottle of water, from Voss.... because we've been to Voss.  Yes, you should be jealous, Voss is gorgeous and the water is delish!!

Momma took me out to eat and to buy me stuff.  Always super sweet and fun, but this time we actually got a pic!!

Stephen and the kids got me a little coconut cake and made me a paper hat to start off the streamer-laden festivities.

Then Stephen let me read a super sweet blog entry he wrote about me (his blog is typically dedicated to information security so I was SUPER surprised.  It made me cry.

Twas a good birthday! :)

Hanging at Grandad and Grandmom's

Still back posting for fall of 2016

One of our visits to Grandmom's and Grandad's...

This is right after they built their new deck.  The kids had a blast on it, and it was a nice spot for everyone to hang out.

Always fun to play with Grandad's amazing elephant ears and bamboo!

David was dreadfully excited!  ;)

This is Grandad's amazing Great Pyranese-German Shepherd, SarahBeth.  She's the one who intentionally took a rattlesnake bite for him.  If it happens to your dog....apparently benedryl can help, but it was still scary and a close call.  Such a good dog!

I'm only upset that I don't actually have pics of Grandad and Grandmom.... because I only took video of them on this trip!  oops. :(

Camping

Still backposting for fall of 2016.

Several years we've gone camping with Sherry and David at a really nicely located campground in Polk County.

This time we got to take our newly minted puppy, and believing, at the time that he was mostly made of of the very water-friendly Catahoula breed, we insisted on him learning to swim.  (We've since found out that he's mostly bulldog and golden retriever, so he's only half waterfriendly).  This is also when we normally celebrate Sherry and David's anniversary.

It's right on the river, so even if we don't go rafting, we strap on vests and float down.  SOOOOO nice!!

Always the best kind of fun!!