Life as a family of 6

Fall Weekends

We have had a nice Fall so far, with a lot of weekends without specific plans. A few weekends ago we headed to Stone Mountain for the day. We explored the old plantation houses (which Leah and Jackson loved, because they had the maps AND they can read them on their own --- so cool!), rode the train and did the pumpkin festival thing.

John really enjoyed petting all the animals at the farm area and especially loved the baby goats. Since they were bottle fed, the trainers said they try to eat everything. . . and little, silly boys are especially tasty. He talked about that the entire day!   Here's  the only way to get Johnny in the picture. . .    
 
 
 
 

Prayers needed

We found out today that my grandmother -- Mary -- has stomach cancer. She went through breast cancer when I was a baby (that was old school chemo and surgery) so she's tough. Please send up some prayers on her behalf.

A big deal around here. . .

In the midst of our big carving contest, we had a really big event at our house. A really, wiggly tooth.

And finally -- success!

It's the first tooth lost at our house! We tucked that tiny little tooth (oh my gosh was it small!) in the special pouch and left it for the Tooth Fairy.

Knowing that she has to pay for 80 teeth, we had to negotiate a good contract with her. Jackson left a note that said, "Dear Tooth Fairy, I am so happy that I lost a tooth!" And she left a little poem and two gold $1.00 coins for him. The poem said:

When I heard you lost a tooth
do you know what I did?
I made a map to visit you
'cause you're a special kid

First I got your home address
and checked my fairy map
Then I flew to your place
where I saw your brand new "gap"

Of course I took your worn out tooth
just like I always do
but I've left you something nice instead
to help you have some fun!
 
TF

He took that note to school and was so excited to show all his friends! Now Leah can hardly wait for one to loosen up in her mouth!

 
 

Halloween 2009

There was Shrek. And Princess Fiona (although we told her she couldn't kiss her brother). . . Two firemen. A baseball player and a dalmation. A 70's band. . . And a cowboy. 

 

It was rainy and cold. Not a good night for trick-or-treating and there were lots of people that weren't home. Owen was a little slow and at one house, the person gave Jackson their last piece of candy.  Poor Owen.

Even though their bags stayed a little light for the night, they  had some sweet treats made by Aunt Katie.  

  And my friend Kelley and her daughter Jessie dug up these old fingers in the yard. They were yummy!

Contest Winners Announced!

Going into the final hours of voting, there was a clear winner:

SPOOKY WINDOW garnered the most votes with 41 votes. The WITCH was next at 22 votes and the COYOTES came in a firm 3rd place spot with 18 votes. (I can tell you that I was doing a little dance, because the team of J & J was going down.)

It didn't last long. Here's an email I received from an old friend, Matt in Florida. Matt is a 4th grade teacher.

E.B.,

I have spent an exhaustive day at my school, carrying around printouts of your pumpkins and conducting "investigative polls" with many of the classes here. Out of 560 students here at Pathways Elementary, I was able to poll 309 of them. That is 55% of the school population that is voting on your three pumpkins! Below you will see the teacher's name, grade level, and how many students in each class that voted for each particular pumpkin. I got a good cross-section of the school with at least one (01) class from each grade level.

 

I hope to God that the coyote pumpkin isn't from Joe and Jack, I want someone else to win for a change! Where is the girl power?

 

SPOOKY WINDOW: 57

WITCH: 58

COYOTES: 194

	Spooky Window	Witch	Coyotes
BARRETT (K)	6	7	4
CLARK (5th)	0	1	12
COLEMAN (4th)	4	2	21
CONNELL (3rd)	3	5	11
FAB/GAB (3rd)	5	5	10
GOEMAN (4th)	1	3	8
GRUNDER (3rd)	6	4	10
HIGGS (K)	1	2	9
KUFTIC (2nd)	1	5	13
MISC. PERSONNEL	1	0	0
PELLICER (4th)	0	1	25
REAVES (4th)	7	1	16
SAMPSON (K)	7	7	2
SMITH (1st)	5	6	9
SPENCER (3rd)	1	3	11
TREXLER (ESE)	2	2	4
WALKER (1st)	6	4	10
ZIMMERER (3rd)	1	0	19
TOTAL	57	58	194

WHAT? UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! What do elementary school kids know anyway?!?! And why does Matt have to be one of those awesome teachers who embrace fun in teaching? Seriously. . . so the winners are (for the 3rd time in a row) these two:

John and Owen came in 2nd with their spooky window and Leah and I were 3rd with our witch. I think Matt should make the winners dinner . . . I mean, it is his fault, right? Oh well, there's always next year. . .
 

3rd Annual McCarthy Carving Competition

It's that time of year again. . . time for the 3rd annual McCarthy Carving Competition. The team of Joe and Jackson have won the last two years and we are hoping to break their streak! This year's teams are Joe and Jack, Me and Leah and Owen and John (with a little help from mom). The kids all chose the designs. So, here are the entries this year:

SPOOKY WINDOW

  

WITCH COYOTES
Voting will be open until Sunday. Please either leave a comment below or email me at elizabee@bellsouth.net. One vote per person BUT multiple people in one household can vote :>) The kids decided the losers have to make dinner for the winners and Jackson said the losers don't even get to eat dinner.
 

KISS

Considering some of these guys are pushing 60 . . . they can still rock it! 
        

Joe had a great time and I had a great time watching him and Steve have so much fun. I think Steve described it best when he said it was "unbridled rock and roll!"

And, it's a GREAT place for people-watching. . . because there's lots of this. . . oh well, it makes the world go 'round! 
 
 
 

Rise and Shine. . . it's Tuesday!

Can you tell where we went last night? More to follow later. . . must go to bed now.

Little things that thrill them. . .

One of my favorite parts of moving from Florida to Georgia was the bonus of leaving behind dozens and dozens of lizards and cockroaches. (Now, of course, I will float bad bug karma out there and they will swarm to my house.) I have probably seen less than 10 lizards since we moved here 6 years ago and only 2 or 3 cockroaches. Yesterday I was sitting on the front porch, watching the kids ride their bikes and two lizards were interrupting my peacefulness. I called Jackson over. He was so excited and wanted to catch one. He reached for one's tail and when it jumped down to the ground, he squealed for a minute before getting his composure back. Then he was on a mission and finally. . . victory.

 
    I told them to be careful of the lizard's tail -- that it can break off easily. After being handled by all 4, it eventually broke off and it grossed them out when the broken piece was still moving. Eeewww!
 
 
 
 

A good school picture. . .

John and Owen have school pictures at preschool tomorrow. So, in anticipation of that, why not get a good boo-boo? Sometime Sunday afternoon, they both started screaming and running up from the basement. Well, I knew they must have run into one another. If one is screaming, it means the other one has done something to them. But, if both are screaming. . . it's always bad. I saw John had a bloody lip and so I got him a rag to clean it up, all the while not yet looking at Owen. Then, I turned to see what Johnny's lip connected with and well, here you go. . .

 It was swelling as I was looking at it. That was a first for me. I had never seen a lump swell like that. After ice and a few days of looking like a boxer, he should have a nice purple/black eye for pictures. Always a memory! By the way, a few weeks ago Jackie threw a Surprise Birthday party for Ed. He was completely surprised and it was a lovely party. The kids loved yelling SURPRISE!   It was also the first time we had seen Maureen in awhile. She's 4 months pregnant now and looks beautiful! I can hardly wait until April!!!