November Parties

Abbie with her turkey disguised as Santa!

Here's thing 1 and thing 2 at Carter's birthday party.

Rick and Kristy Ault at her baby shower (she is Abbie's teacher).

Abbie and her friend, Addison at the shower.

 Life doesn't ever seem to slow down.  November has been busy with birthday parties, finishing the soccer season, Girl Scouts, school, etc.  One weekend in November, all of the room moms for Abbie's class (myself included) gave a big baby shower for Abbie's teacher at our neighborhood clubhouse.  I didn't take many pictures but it was so nice!  Mrs. Ault, her teacher, is having a baby girl in January.  All of the students in Abbie's class and their families were invited as well as the other kindergarten teachers and some of her former students.  It was a pretty big baby shower.  I thought some of the room moms had done a wonderful job with the decorations.

The next day, Abbie had her last soccer game and it was COLD.  I brought iced sugar cookies, pretzels and drinks for the games as a special snack for their last game.  Later that day, we went to cousin Carter's 1st birthday party.  I didn't get a cute picture of Carter and the girls but Keri (my cousin) had done a wonderful job with all of the Dr. Seuss decorations.  They had green eggs and ham, goldfish and assorted snacks that all related to the Dr. Seuss books.  What a cute party theme!! Aunt Martha, Morgan, Nana, Uncle Mike and our family were able to come from our side of the family.  The party was held at Aunt Patti and Uncle John's house.  If I need help doing a party, I know who to call!  I always love watching a 1 year old eat their cake but Carter doesn't like cake so he didn't want anything to do with it.  =)  The kids had fun jumping in the bounce house.  

Halloween 2013

our family on November 1, 2013

 
me and my girls

the mad scientists

Abbie and Addison, a friend from school

Sophie and Abbie

Abbie and Sophie are contemplating-which house will have the best candy?  (just kidding)

trunk or treat at church Oct 30, 2013

Our family enjoyed going to trunk or treat at church the night before Halloween.  The weather was really nice and we saw several of our friends.  They also had a hot dog supper that most of our family enjoyed (except Matt who won't eat them).  On Halloween, it was really windy and it rained.  People in our neighborhood moved trick or treating to Friday, November 1st instead.  Halloween night, we just stayed in and had a normal night.  Then, we went trick or treating on that Friday night around our neighborhood.  I forgot to get a picture of Nana and Paw-paw but they came out to our house and gave out candy.  Sophie was a mad scientist and Abbie was a cowgirl this year.  Matt decided to wear his lab coat and tie dye shirt too on Friday night so we had two mad scientists!

 

Fun at Walden Farm

Sophie and Abbie with the big wagon.

Abbie and Sophie are ready to ride the pumpkin train!

Abbie loved going down the big slide!

Abbie worked and worked to find the perfect pumpkin but we left it there. 

 Abbie and Sophie-2013

                                                                    

On the weekend after fall break (Sunday, October 20), we met up with Paw-paw and Nana after church, changed clothes and had lunch before heading out to Walden Farms.  It started out as a very chilly fall day but it warmed up to be really nice.  I failed to get any pictures of Nana and Paw-paw but we had a good time going through the little haunted house, going through the corn mazes, the girls climbed the hay bales, rode the pumpkin train and fed some animals.  They also enjoyed playing in the corn.  There were a lot of people there that day but we managed to get a few pictures.  Abbie really wanted us to buy her a pumpkin but we had already bought some and she had gotten one at Lucky Ladd Farms so we turned her down.  Both girls have grown a little bit since last year (although it's hard to tell about Sophie from this picture).   Halloween pictures to come soon!

Bye-Bye Atlanta

Our girls with Evelyn Grace right before we left.

 

The girls with the ferris wheel that's right by the Olympic park.

silly Abbie won't be still!

Thanks for letting us stay with you, Patrick, Suzanne and Evelyn.  We had a great time!  Sorry that we missed the Burnett's and Uncle Bobby this time but they both had company.  It was nice to see Paw-paw Tom and Aunt Leia!

Lions, Tigers and Bears...oh my!!

We got to see the male and female lions up and about-a rare treat.  We were so close to them!

We found two sweet little lions there!

Here's the baby rhino-what a cutie!  We got to watch her playing some.

Sophie and the elephants.

Aunt Leia, Paw-paw Tom, and Sophie

Here are some more pictures from our trip to the zoo.  We had such a good time!  Beautiful weather.  Lions sleep about 19 hours out of the day so we were excited that we got to see the lions moving around.  Before we left the zoo, the girls got to play on the playground for a little bit.  Matt's dad, Tom, has been having some health problems since this summer.  He's had a lot of different tests done to try to find out what is wrong.  He did fine walking around at the zoo (I think) but I'm sure he was tired.  Matt and Leia went to get the cars before we left while the rest of us hung out by the playground.  After the zoo, we said our goodbyes.  Matt, Paula and the girls had dinner with the Williams on Sunday night.  Monday morning, we slept in and then after the girls played a bit, we took the girls by the Olympic Park.  Then, we had lunch at Pappasito's, a wonderful Mexican restaurant I was introduced to years ago in Texas, before heading home to Franklin.

Zoo Atlanta

 

 

Abbie and Sophie with the panda.

I love pandas (even though they are lazy).  They are so pretty!

 

Our family with the gorilla statues.

It's hard to see but it was fascinating to watch.  A mama gorilla was carrying her newborn baby around on her back. 

Look who just hatched-Sophie!

Sophie and Aunt Leia in the nest.  (Abbie wouldn't get in there.)

On the last day that we spent in Atlanta (Sunday), we went to church with our hosts, the Williams, and met up with Tom, Leia and her friend, C.D.  After church, we went to lunch with Tom, Leia and C.D.  Her friend, C.D., was interesting to be around because he is mostly blind and has only about 30% in one of his eyes.  He had ridden a bus to Atlanta and takes a lot of bus trips throughout the country because he can't drive.  He uses a walking stick.  We went to the zoo in Atlanta on Sunday and it was pretty busy because it was such a nice day.  We really enjoyed seeing the gorillas, lions, rhinos (there was a baby one), and the pandas because we don't have these at our zoo.  Many of the animals were moving around when we were there, including the lion, so it was a great time to go.  I was hoping that we could see the baby panda that was born in the summer but they didn't have it on display yet.

Stone Mountain Park

Sophie on top of Stone Mountain.

 

This little piggy was having lots of fun!  =)

 

They were having PumpkinFest with lots of cool activities like dressing a scarecrow!

We had to get the girls picture with the Duck Dynasty pumpkin men!

We stayed for the Laser and fireworks show.

Abbie and Sophie

Abbie doing the ropes obstacle course. 

 

 On Saturday, the girls had fun playing with Evelyn who we were staying with.  She and Abbie are the same age.  They loved jumping on her trampoline and playing on her swingset.  They also decorated some headbands.  Evelyn was very sweet to share with the girls.  Our family and the Williams took a picnic lunch and ate at a local park.  The kids enjoyed playing there too.  Then, our family headed to Stone Mountain.  We spent the afternoon there with the kids playing in the big barn, doing the obstacle courses and playing on the big playground.  The kids had so much fun on the ropes courses with the zip line and in the big barn.  They had some fun activities for the kids to do that were Halloween related.  Sophie loved this scavenger hunt kind of thing where you had to look for things.  She and Abbie got some candy after they finished that.  We also rode the cable car up to the top of Stone Mountain and walked around some.  The temperature reached the mid to upper 80's so it was pretty hot. 

After we had dinner, we met up with some friends that live near us (the Clark's) that had come to Atlanta to visit their grandparents.  We knew in advance that we were both planning to visit Stone Mountain on Saturday.  Our girls played with the Clark girls as the adults took turns reserving a spot on the lawn to watch the laser show.  A few days before our trip, we also found out that Matt's sister, Leia and his dad, Tom, were also going to be in Atlanta.  Leia had planned to meet up with a friend of hers.  Tom came to Stone Mountain in time to see the laser show.  It was an awesome show!  The Clark's grandmother, Judy, bought all of our kids this laser beam sword thing that was really cool!  We had a fun time Saturday but we were exhausted!!