Catching Up on October & November

With the craziness of fall, traveling, and Thanksgiving, I got a little (or a lot!) behind on the blog. So, to catch up...

The day before Halloween we made our annual trip to Hubers. 

Our 9th year of taking this picture with the Dursts! :)

It was a hot, sunny, and beautiful fall day, and we managed to find the perfect pumpkin, despite the fields being picked over.

When we heard the tractor fire up, we hustled (ran!) to the road to meet the tractor. Did the driver stop for us?? Nope. The four of us lined the road as he passed on by, and we watched the shocked faces of those on the wagon. We simply couldn't believe he left us standing there. Luke sprinted after the wagon yelling, "Run for your lives," but even that didn't slow down the driver.

Thankfully, it was a hot, sunny, beautiful fall day as we walked back to the barn to pay. :)

So, I think that will end our annual trip to Huber's with the Dursts. We all decided that next year we are going to a pumpkin patch with a little bit more customer service. After all, remember last year's debacle?!!

*****

We love warm fall weather! Nothing is better than shorts in November! 

Luke and I passed the time during one of Caleb's piano lessons with walks around the neighborhood.

The boys even raked leaves in shorts!

*****

November was also a party month for Luke! 

Celebrating with Tae

Celebrating with Oakley

*****

Thanksgiving Festivities

Luke decided to dress as a pilgrim for his Thanksgiving program in his class.

Over break Caleb made a volcano out of plaster strips

and then painted it.

 (We have yet to actually have it erupt...but I promised to let him do it soon!)

Somehow this is the only picture I took on Thanksgiving...

We drove up Thursday morning to Charleston, WV to celebrate with Creed's family and then drove home Friday morning. It was a quick, but fun trip!

*****

We celebrated Grandaddy's retirement and the CATS pulled out a big win over UofL to make the day even sweeter!

We wrapped up November with a dentist trip. 

Both boys LOVE going to the dentist (I quote, "Best day ever!") and actually cheered when I took them. 

Halloween Fun

The boys scored so much candy this year that I was able to take a big bag to work and they never even noticed it was gone! The candy collecting began when Grandmom and Grandpa took them Trunk or Treating at Grandma and Grandaddy's church. Apparently Luke got tried of collecting his own candy and decided to hand it out for Grandma. 

Halloween fell on a Monday night this year, and I am a strong believer that it should never be on a school night. (Caleb actually had two test the following day at school...not cool!) Why can't trick or treating always be the last Saturday of October?!!  Thankfully, the weather was beautiful (shorts and flip flops kind of weather!) so at least we had that going for us!

The boys ran from house to house and worked up quite a sweat...those masks and gloves didn't last long that's for sure! At the end of the night they were happy and sorting (and eating!) their loot! 

Recently...

We had the perfect evening at the Gaslight Parade.

We got to celebrate with our sweet cousin Claire as she turned one year old!

He melts my heart. This is hanging on my file cabinet at work and I can't help but smile.

Luke received an award at chapel for being able to read his first list of sight words. He loves school and we are blown away with how much he has already learned! 

Chapel is for all elementary students, so big brother came and sat with us too! Love my sweet boys!

Caleb went to his friend Andrew's fishing birthday and slumber party, and as you can imagine, had a great time. The party favor was a little tackle box full of candy...so cute!

The following day, October 16th, we had our last lake day of the season.

Caleb fell asleep on the way home since he didn't get much sleep at Andrew's the night before. 

Luke's class put on a phonics lesson for parents one morning

and then we walked to the fire station for a quick field trip.

At Open House I learned from Luke's picture that his favorite number is 101

and Caleb proudly displayed his first big project of the year.

For awesome report cards, the boys picked Japanese for dinner

and 32 degrees for dessert.

Luke celebrated his buddy Clayton's 6th birthday with friends from school.

At Award's Chapel, Caleb got the Principal's Award for earning all As on his report card.

The little brothers played outside at Colin's house one afternoon

while the big brothers played video games at our house.

Fall Break in NC, Part 3

When the airlines agreed to let us fly home from Charlotte instead of having to drive back to the beach we were thrilled. It helped that I called while the storm and flooding was hitting hard.  ;) For one last hurrah, we decided to spend two days in Charlotte and stay at Great Wolf Lodge there. We even talked Uncle Drew into coming with us! 

We were crammed into Beth's midsize SUV, so thankfully, Charlotte was only a little over an hour drive!

We spent the late morning and early afternoon at the mall in Charlotte and the boys were content to stay in the LEGO store. They are LEGO crazy.

We didn't think about it ahead of time but Great Wolf was decorated for Halloween and had lots of Halloween events. Thankfully I had just bought Luke's costume so he was ready to go!

His happy place :)

Since we were there on a Monday and Tuesday, we had the place almost to ourselves.

The layout was different than the one in Cincinnati, and it had a few different slides. These racing slides were our favorite! 

Uncle Drew was a great sport and had a really good time too. 

Before leaving to head to the airport, we had one last photo op!

We joke that our boys are "road warriors" because a four to six hour road trip is nothing to them. I sent this picture to Creed and said they are just the best little travelers. They were so patient and content just waiting around the airport.

Wheels up, and ready to get home to see Daddy!

The direct flight home was easy and uneventful! We got home around 8pm that evening and the boys had school early the next morning, so it took a few days for us to recover. We were all tired. Because of the hurricane, we didn't get the trip we imagined, but we still had an awesome week- in Wilmington, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte! We almost saw the entire state...only thing we missed were the mountains!