Catching Up

Matt Riley (Martha's fiance) & Martha

Sophie on the slide

The weather has been beautiful lately and I just haven't taken the time to slow down and blog. So, I'll try to catch you up. We've been getting outside a lot lately and soaking up the sunshine. Yesterday, we tried out a new playground right outside of our neighborhood and it was great! Saturday, my sister's dream came true because her "military man" and fiance, Matt Riley, came home from Japan. Several family members met him at the airport and it was exciting because Martha had won a contest with a photographer for a free photo session. Jonathon Campbell, a photographer, nearby came and took lots of pictures of their big reunion! His blog will have lots of pictures of their reunion sometime later this week. I just wish that we had dressed up a little more for the occasion. Matt Riley will have a little vacation and then he will be stationed at Paris Island, SC. Martha and Matt R. are planning to get married in June. Can you tell it's going to be confusing having all these "Matt's" in the family? One of my first cousins just married a Matt as well. =)

This past Thursday, Sophie and her friend, Anna Kate, went to an art class at Precious Prints. They had a great time making gingerbread cookie plates. Sophie loves making crafts so I knew that this would be a fun class for her. While they were in the class, Abbie and Will, her younger brother, played on the playground at Chick-Fil-A.

As far as Abbie goes, she started doing somersaults independently. At the airport, she really started showing off her brand-new skill. We were all clapping for her and she was so proud of herself! Maybe we can post a video soon but I'll have to have Matt's help.

More Halloween

Emerson & Sophie

Superman (Brown) and Sophie

Miss Abbie

Here's a couple of shots of Sophie with some friends. The first little girl is one of our neighbors. Emerson and Sophie are the same age. We walked down to Publix with them and did some treat or treating on Halloween night. The girls had fun hanging out. We did a little trick or treating in our neighborhood as well but Abbie was getting tired so my sister, Martha, and I decided to take Abbie back to the house. The plan was for Sophie and Matt to finish trick or treating in our neighborhood. Well, Matt and Sophie were back just a couple of minutes after us. It turned out that Sophie spotted kids headed towards our house and she wanted to pass out the candy. It was really cute because she just wanted to stand on the porch with our bowl of candy and wait for the kids to come. However, her "Mean old Mama"-just kidding (she didn't say that either), kept asking her to come inside when there weren't any kids because it was pretty cold.
Sophie and Brown (Superman) are friends from church and from preschool. Maybe next year I'll do better at getting more pictures. Kids are always on the move so it's hard sometimes. Hope you had a great Halloween! Ours was fun!

Halloween Fun

Sophie as Cinderella

Sophie's preschool class with Grumpy

our family before we went out trick or treating

Last week, we were busy with several events centered around Halloween. First, on Tuesday, Sophie wore her costume for ballet class. At the end of the class, all of the parents were invited to watch the children participate in a costume parade and then sing and dance along with a couple of Halloween songs. (I would like to try to post a video from that.) Then, on Wednesday night, we went to Trunk or Treat at church. Both of the girls had fun but they were so busy and there were so many people that I only took a couple of pictures. They got lots of candy! Abbie dressed up as Abby Cadabby that night. On Friday, it was time to celebrate Halloween with Sophie's preschool class. It was a lot of fun! They had pizza and exchanged treat bags. Also, the kids did a little bit of trick or treating right around the church. So, by Saturday night, we already had a good bit of candy but since the weather cooperated, we took the girls to do a little bit of trick or treating on Halloween night. Abbie dressed up as Snow White that night. Nana, Paw-paw, and Aunt Martha came over and had dinner with us so they were able to see the girls dressed up. They also helped pass out our candy while we took the girls trick or treating which was nice.

Walden Farm

Abbie loved playing in the corn crib

our family (not a bad picture for us-no my hair's not that wild-it's the corn growing behind me!)

Abbie and Uncle Phil looking at the pigs

Abbie LOVED the slide

This past Thursday, we had a very busy but fun day. In the morning, we met some friends at the zoo and had a great time overall! Then, we got home around 1 PM. Abbie fell asleep on the way home but she woke up when I tried to move her to the bed. Both girls took a little rest but no naps. Matt had just gotten back from a trip and he suggested that we all go and visit Walden Farm since we hadn't had a chance to visit a pumpkin farm this year. My brother, Phil, decided to meet us there. Both of our girls had a great time there but again, it was really neat to see how much more Abbie could do this year. She really loved the corn crib and the little kids haybale maze but especially loved the slide. She went down the slide over and over again (probably at least 30-40 times). It was really funny because she'd go down the slide and then go right back to wait behind a couple of kids to go down again. The girls got to see the animals and do the corn maze. They also played in the kids area and Sophie wanted to do the hayride. Sophie and Matt went on the hayride while Phil & I watched Abbie on the slide. Then, we ended our night by eating at Martin's BBQ. Yummy! I was exhausted when we got home!

Getting Ready for Halloween

Here's Sophie while we were making sugar cookies for Halloween!

Sophie & Matt with our Diva pumpkin (as I was posting this I noticed there's a knife really close to Sophie's hand-Whoops!)

Abbie gets in on some of the action and helps Daddy with the pirate pumpkin

Both girls are intently watching their Daddy. =)

Last Monday, Sophie was out of school for fall break. We didn't really make any special plans but I decided to go and buy some pumpkins so that we could decorate. We also bought some sugar cookie dough so we could roll it out and decorate cookies for Halloween. Sophie had a blast helping me with that and got to wear her cutie patootie apron. The only bad thing was (at least that I can remember now-other than the mess it made) was that I accidentally burned Sophie just beside one of her eyes. After I pulled a batch of cookies from the oven, Sophie wanted a better look at them. I tilted the pan so that she could see them and moved closer to her but didn't judge the distance well. I didn't even realize anything happened at first because she was so brave. I felt terrible!

That afternoon, we enlisted Matt's help for our annual tradition of decorating the pumpkins. So far, we usually just use the Potato Head decorating kits. For some reason I didn't get a good picture of both girls with the pumpkins. Maybe another time! Abbie's so much bigger this year so she was interested in everything that was going on.

Animal Kingdom

Matt and the girls playing the drums

Tom, Teresa, Abbie, Phil, me, Sophie & Matt at Animal Kingdom

a giraffe we saw right next to us on our safari ride

While we were at Disney, we visited each of the four main parks for at least one day each. I loved Magic Kingdom with the kids and I also really enjoyed Animal Kingdom. On Wednesday, when we went to Animal Kingdom it became extremely hot and stayed that way for the rest of our trip. My parents and my sister, Martha, headed back to TN on Wednesday while the rest of us stayed in Orlando. Matt and I and the girls as well as my brother, Phil, moved over to the timeshare where Matt's family was staying because there was plenty of room there. We ended up splitting Animal Kingdom up over two days. I really loved the Finding Nemo show there and the Lion King show was good too. I also loved the Mt. Everest ride there and the safari thing was cool too. While we were in Orlando, they were experiencing record highs for October (in the mid-90's). We weren't really counting on it to be that hot but at least you can go into some indoor rides and shows and cool off. Plus, the girls went back each day for a nap so some of us could usually get a break from the heat. All of the parks had some fun things to do. All in all, it was a wonderful trip! I look forward to going back in a couple of years when Abbie can enjoy it more.

Random Disney Pictures

we've got the power

Abbie in Minnie Mouse's house

Sophie's serving tea at Minnie's house (Both of our girls loved Minnie's kitchen)

Abbie and I riding in the racecars. This was one of Sophie's favorite rides. She also loved Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster, Peter Pan's flight, It's a small world, and a few others.