What to do with the hair!?!

So I have been going back and forth obsessing about what to do with Emma's hair. Do I grow her bangs out? Do I cut the bangs short? Do I cut all of her hair into a little bob? Should I try dying it bright red and weaving long extensions? I don't know.

So take a look at these recent photos and share your opinion. Emma with long grown out bangs in the top photo and the bangs clipped back in the bow in the second photo. Oh, the stressful life I lead!

We're back! This time with Emma's class.

Avery, Emma and I ventured back over to Harmon's farm again on Wednesday for Emma's 3-year-old preschool field trip. The preschool visits every year to ride the hayride, pick out a small pumpkin, have a snack and then return to the school.




Emma and her preschool class all rode the bus together over to the farm and Avery and I met them there. Emma's teacher Ms. Kim is in the front of the line in the blue jacket. Of course Emma is trailing behind the group wearing the pink jacket.

There were a few other school groups of kids there at the same time, so Emma's group killed a little time playing on the playground.

Eventually everyone squeezed onto the hayride truck and off we went for another spooky adventure.

Once we got to the pumpkin patch, all the kids were able to get off the truck and pick out their own small pumpkin to bring home. Emma is very proud of hers. It gets lugged around the house everywhere she goes. I'm just waiting for it to be dropped on the tile floor and SMACK, I'll have pumpkin goop all over my house!


This is Emma's preschool class gathered together. They are such a great bunch of little kids and get along very well. I didn't see any arguing, pushing, pulling, nothing while I was around them. Emma's other teacher, Ms. Christy is on a cruise this week with her husband so Ms. Rainey in the darker jacket has been their substitute teacher all week. She is such a nice lady.

After the hayride, the kids all got to gather around the picnic tables for a snack: chocolate animal crackers and juice boxes. Yum!

Baghead! Need I say more?

This is not Ryan's idea of a creative Halloween costume. Instead this is my boy getting fully involved in his love of reading. As I mentioned in a previous post, Ryan's school had their annual family book fair recently. The school always does a nice job of hosting authors to sign their books and talk to the kids. This year's guest was children's author Jarrett J. Krosoczka who happened to write the book titled...Can you guess it? Baghead!
Ryan loved reading the book so much he insisted on creating his own "baghead." After multiple trips to the grocery store, I finally remembered to ask for some brown paper bags for his design. He opted to follow the young character's simple design of eye and mouth holes and leave it at that.

Then Ryan announced, "I will be wearing this bag all of the time from now on. When I eat, go to school and even when I sleep."

I figured there was no point in arguing about that. If he wants to wear a bag over his head all of the time, no big deal. He'd get a few strange looks when we were out and about but I can handle that.

However, it never came to that. He enjoyed playing "baghead" for the afternoon and then the lovely mask was stowed away and hasn't made another appearance yet. "Yet" being the key word here. I figure we all have days where we want to place a bag over our head and go about our business.

The Haunted Hayride

In case you haven't figured it out, we are fall and Halloween junkies who partake in every local and non-local fall event in the state of South Carolina. Well, here we are again on a Sunday afternoon and of course, no fall season is complete without a ten-minute drive over to Harmon's. Harmon's is actually a big Christmas tree farm but they are open all year long and have added seasonal activities to keep families visiting.





The fall is the best time to go though because they have all of their pumpkins on display, they offer the "haunted" hayride which keeps us coming back year after year, and they have plenty of side activities to kill a few hours: a huge playground, farm animals, antique farm equipment and cars, a grits mill, and homemade ice cream.

So our drill is to take pictures around all of their lovely fall foliage and then hemorrhage out a large portion of our income to ride the "haunted" hayride. Did I mention that it is "haunted"?

The hayride takes you around all of the farm animals: goats, rabbits, ducks, geese, and some I don't even think I can identify properly. They have several big ponds and in one they have constructed a Loch Ness Monster swimming in the middle. Now, that is one I can identify because everyone knows what the Loch Ness Monster looks like, right? No, not him - that's Ryan!

You keep traveling through the Christmas trees growing densely across the land and then the black plastic whipping in the wind appears and you know...you have reached the haunted woods.

Now this is no ordinary grave yard or haunted house, it is a junk collector's paradise. They have something for everyone here. As you can see in the photo below, there are various "scenes" staged to frighten. This particular one helps scare those inclined from drinking and driving.

A child is bound to see every major movie superhero and villain (yes, this is part of the reason Ryan wants to go every year) along the way: Batman, Spiderman, Darth Vader, and on and on. Sometimes the characters are even mixed up in scenes together. Spiderman may be hanging from a tree while the Jolly Green Giant peers down at him. O.K. the Jolly Green Giant isn't out there but pretty much everyone else.

There is one particular scene that reminds me of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. Take a look at the photo below. There is just something a little creepy about it. I call it "The Attack of the Villagers."

At the end of the hayride, these great wooden rocking chairs are waiting for you (hayrides are a lot of work!) The kids hung out for a few minutes before we took off for the playground. I know what you are thinking looking at the photo below...and no, Avery did not have an accident! Although she does kind of have a guilty look on her face...

We're Going on a Ghost Hunt...

We were a little behind getting our Halloween decorations out this year, but we finally managed to get things in order this weekend. Halloween is Ryan's favorite holiday by far so he has been begging me to get the house decorated since the end of August. The sad thing is, some of our neighbors have had Halloween decorations out almost that long! Anyway, not my thing.

So we pulled out the talking monsters, vampire, ghosts, spiders, pumpkins and spider webs and got to work. The ghosts floating in our trees out front make an appearance every year. Ryan and I made the fabric ghosts three years ago now. He decorated their faces by himself so it is always fun to get those out and look at them.

And if the ghosts don't frighten all of the neighborhood children away, this scary vampire should do it peaking around the tree. Actually I am more afraid of kids deciding to karate chop him down for fun. And by kids I mean Ryan.

Now we still have to spookify the inside of our house, but I figure that can wait until maybe next weekend before we celebrate Halloween Friday night. Is anyone having a Halloween party? Last year I threw a big bash for the neighborhood kids before the actual Halloween night so I've still got loads of games, decorations and recipes (including the infamous brains paté, um mm, yum, yum.) I even had the adults grossed out!

This year I am thinking...more like pondering...inviting kids and their chaperones over after trick-or-treating for cider, treats, and games. I'm just not sure I'm up for it or not. I guess next week will tell but of course I have to get invites done, etc, etc. Needless to say, you'll find out next week!

Firemen, Puppet Shows and Avery...They Don't Mix

It is national fire prevention month and so each of the girls had special fire safety days at preschool where they get an exciting visit from the local firemen. Emma's school conducted their fire safety day last week and she was able to look around inside a fire truck and according to her, even inspect the underneath of the fire truck. A bunch of three-year-olds crawling under a large fire truck doesn't sound safe to me but sometimes Emma exaggerates a little so who really knows what happened that afternoon. I can tell you she learned a song that she still sings in the car called "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry" and basically the fireman hurry, hurry, hurries to drive the truck, climb the ladder and squirt the water. O.K. that was Emma's fire experience.

Avery's was much more traumatic. Her preschool had their visit from the local firemen this week and when I went to pick her up for the day all of the little 18 month-2 year-olds were wearing these adorable Dalmatian fire hats that they had made earlier that day. They even used their own fingerprints to make the dots on the Dalmatian ears. So cute!




When I inquired about the day's events Avery's teacher, Ms. Susan, started frowning and explained they never even made it to the firetruck. I immediately assumed it was because of the loud sirens and was telling her about Emma's experience and how loud she thought it was. No wonder little ones didn't want to see the truck. But that wasn't it. Nope, they were afraid of the puppets in the puppet show! All but two kids in the class ran screaming to their teachers (she was quick to tell me Avery was one of the screamers.) So they took the little ones out to play on the playground instead. So much for "stop, drop and roll." Maybe next year. But doesn't she look cute in her little fire hat?

Ooooo...We got BOOED!

Each year around Halloween in our neighborhood, neighbors start "booing" each other. It's basically a Secret Santa type activity where you put together little Halloween treats, a copy of the poster for the front door and instructions on how to keep it going so everyone gets "booed" by Halloween.

On Saturday night after our busy excursion to the Crab Shack, we put the kids down for the night and came back downstairs to relax. Michael was watching football (go figure) and I was playing around on the computer (go figure) when our doorbell rang. Even though our computer is literally right next to the front door, I just sat there trying to figure out who would be ringing our doorbell that late. Most of our friends know to knock since the kids are all in bed. Michael finally opens the door and just stands there. Eventually he comes back inside and announces "We've been booed."

Our secret "booer" obviously knew us and our kids since they had wrapped individual goody bags of candy for each child. Sunday after church the kids enjoyed another tea party/picnic lunch out on the screened porch. As desert, they got to break into their bags of candy.

Ryan ate his candy while he kicked back on the phone talking to his cousin Hannah. Thanks for calling Hannah! Now it is our turn to "boo" two of our other neighbors...Ooooo...SCARY!