Boo at the Zoo and More Fall Fun

We had another crazy busy weekend. It started out on Thursday night with the East Carnival. This is the elementary school's biggest fundraiser. It was an exhausting, but fun night. Sadly, I took no pictures! I have no idea why...Harrison was rocking some major blue hair that night! Ha!

 

On Friday, we had family pictures at 4:30. The photographer didn't arrive until 5, so that really got us behind on our evening plans, not to mention trying to keep the kids happy for an additional 30 minutes. Ugh! Hopefully they will turn out ok, but let's just say we were not happy to start the session off! They are done though, and that's all that matters! Does anyone else hate family pictures as much as I do?!?! After pictures, we grabbed a quick dinner and headed to Boo at the Zoo with the Bridges and the Stamps. It was such a fun night even though we didn't get there until 7. All of these pictures are awful, but you get the gist.

 

My really excited ninja turtles!

 

 Boo at the Zoo is laid out so much better this year than in years past! It was crowded (hello Friday night at 7 pm!), but everything was spread out so it didn't seem too bad at all.

 I'm pretty sure their favorite part was the dance party! They didn't want to leave!

 Saturday, we had another birthday party to attend in the morning. We are making the birthday party rounds this fall, that is for sure! It was at Wald Park, which is one of the boys' favorite parks, so they were in heaven.

On a side note, at the East Carnival Thursday night, Hudson bought a whoopie cushion. You would not believe the HOURS the boys have enjoyed the whoopie cushion. Boys and bathroom noises...what could be better?!?! I have much enjoyed the laughs that have come as a result. Pure happiness! Ha!

 The Robinson's came over Saturday afternoon and we played with them for a while before heading to the Etheridge's house to watch the Auburn game. We had so much fun hanging out with friends and watching Auburn win again! Needless to say, the kids barely made it home awake. They were exhausted.

Unfortunately, Hudson woke up early Sunday morning with a tummy ache, and we quickly realized it was a stomach virus. Yuck! He had to miss school yesterday AND today. A THREE day virus...it has been brutal. Hudson had to miss his first field trip today too. He was pretty sad about that. I was too. I was looking forward to hanging out with his class for the morning!

He finally turned a corner today though and seems to be feeling better so we carved our pumpkins tonight.

These would be the ones I carved...

 The boys were pretty proud of them!

 Joel carved the big one and then we took a family selfie!

Now that our pumpkins are carved, we are officially ready for Halloween!

Busy Fall Weekend

We had a super busy weekend, mostly filled with birthday parties!

 

I think these next couple of pictures were from Columbus Day when the kids were out of school. It was kind of a cold and dreary day and I really wanted to take the boys to a movie, but they wanted to go see trains instead. We saw only one train, so it was a bummer! We tried to kill time by taking selfies, but that only lasted so long! It was a nice day off though...now that real school has started, we pretty much live for weekends and holidays! :)

 

 Halloween costumes finally arrived! They have put them on every day and I'm not sure they are going to last until Halloween! And the weapons...well, let's just say that have been put up until further notice! They are some super cute ninja turtles though!

 Joel and I had to divide and conquer birthday parties this weekend. Three seems to be the magic age for "friend" birthday parties because we've had a lot of them lately! He LOVES them. I don't know what we are going to do when we have a weekend without one!

This is Harrison and his friend "John John" at Abbey Kate's birthday this weekend. It's hard to believe these two are the same age...Harrison is a GIANT compared to John, but they are big buddies.

 Hudson went to Abigail's party at her house and from what I can tell, the kids played in a jumpy, had their faces painted and got balloons made all while the dads stayed inside and watched football on the couch. Hence the reason I have zero pictures from that party! I think I got the short end of the stick--ha! It was fun though.

The weather could not have been more perfect this weekend so we got the bounce house out at our house Saturday afternoon. This has really entertained our boys for a long time now!

Sunday was filled with more birthday parties and our church fall festival! Oh and throw in a flag football game on top of that! Busy busy!

 Hudson asked for Dracula at the church festival...not sure how I feel about that...I sort of think he looks like a puppy dog! Ha!

 Spiderman!

It was a fun, fun day, but we were all exhausted by the end of it! Wishing today was Columbus Day again so we could have another day off!

My First DIY with Chalk Paint

I have jumped on the chalk paint bandwagon! I come from a very, VERY artsy family...all my parents do these days is make jewelry and amazingly good clay sculptures and paintings, and travel from one art show to the next...and I am the total black sheep of the family when it comes to that. Give me a ball of any sort and I'm good to go, but art, I have no talent or creativity! Ha! So, because of that, Joel didn't have a whole lot of faith in me when I told him I wanted to re-finish a foyer table. I don't blame him! Thankfully, while we were in Nashville last weekend, Anna was working on doing the same thing to a table of hers and she was able to teach me how to do it. Otherwise, it probably would not have turned out so well! She even took me to a store in Nashville and told me everything I needed to buy, including $80 in paintbrushes, which I about fell on the floor about. But, now that I've used them, I think they were worth it! I think?!?!?

 

So this is the before...

 

And this is after!

I love it! Someday I'll do a house tour when we have the den fixed the way we want it, and show the whole room, but it really adds a pop of color to our den. The walls are gray and the rug is gray with a slight hint of bluish gray in it. This was so much fun to do! It was quick and easy, and you really couldn't mess it up if you tried. And if you did mess it up, you just paint over it and start again (I did have to do that a couple of times). It's really that simple!

Just for reference, I used Annie Sloan Louis Blue with a combination of the dark and clear wax. I actually preferred just the clear so there's not a ton of the dark wax showing up on it. The piece already had some really nice cracks to it, so I was able to easily sand it after I painted it to get the distressed look I was going for, along with sanding all of the edges of the piece.

I think there will be more re-dos in the near future. I've already told my parents I'm going to raid their storage unit looking for old pieces that I can have. I really can't wait!

A Little Birthday Party and The Wizard of Oz

We had a little birthday party at the park to celebrate this 3 year old on Saturday morning.

 

 

The weather was just perfect!

 

 We had a balloon man come to the park as a little something extra, and that was a big hit. There were no limits to what they could get, so we came home with several garbage bags full of balloon animals, aliens, dinosaurs, swords, and Olaf the snowman! One of the little girls went home with literally every single Disney princess. It was so cute!

 We loved the new Cam's Corner area of the park!

Harrison couldn't wait to blow out his candle, but unfortunately the wind beat him to it every time! Bless his heart!

Some of his sweet friends!

I think we can now put Harrison's third birthday in the books! A full 10 days of celebrating and we are officially done! You know it's bad when you tell him it's birthday party day and he tells you he already had his birthday. Oh well!

 

We did have his 3 year old check up this past week and he was 35.6 pounds (90-95th percentile) and 36.3 inches tall (90-95th percentile). He's still HUGE...but proportionally huge! :) I'm very glad that he now at least looks his age and I don't have to tell people that he's 2 anymore. I got some crazy looks before. We are still having ear issues--after having the surgery a month ago to drain the fluid from his ears (which cost an arm and a leg by the way), he already has fluid back there again that is causing him discomfort. Frustrated is not even the word for it! But other than ears, we have a healthy boy, so we are thankful for that! Up next is potty training! This sweet boy has absolutely NO desire to do it so I'm going to have to get a little more serious about it!

 

Since much of our focus has been on Harrison the past couple of weeks, I decided to take Hudson on a Mommy/Hudson date to see The Wizard of Oz at the Children's Theater yesterday. Our friends, the Stephens, joined us, and we had so much fun! Hudson and Reese loved the play, but I think they may have had more fun telling Carroll and I that they were getting married--ha! Not yet buddy!!

 The lion was Hudson's favorite! He was so funny!

 We loved the tin man too.

We had a fun afternoon! We love supporting the Children's Theater!

Weekend in Nashville

We spent this past weekend in Nashville with Jordan and Anna. We had such a blast! They just bought a new house in Franklin and we were dying to see it, and see them too, especially since they've been there a year and we had not even been up to visit.

 

I think if Hudson ever needs glasses, he's going to look cute in them! Ha! He "borrowed" these from Anna!

 

 My little stud!

 One of the main reasons we headed to Nashville this weekend (other than visiting J and A) was to see Frozen on Ice! Harrison is OBSESSED with Frozen. He would watch it every day if we let him...and this has been going on for months. So back in the summer when I heard it was going to be in Nashville the day after his birthday, I just knew it was meant to be! The show wasn't originally slated to come through Birmingham....of course a few weeks after we bought the tickets, we found out they had added Birmingham in May 2015 (and tickets go on sale November 1st for all those wanting to go!). It really was such a good show, even if Elsa did bust it on her big "Let it Go" song. :)

 We survived the show by only purchasing a $12 bag of cotton candy, which came with the Olaf hat. I'd say we did pretty good!

Saturday morning, we headed to the pumpkin patch in Franklin. It was a chilly morning and finally felt like fall! Perfect day for the pumpkin patch.

 We saw some chickens too, some of which were "wrestling" so to speak. Hudson asked Jordan what they were doing, and he said they were mating, and of course, Hudson says, "What does mating mean?" at the top of his lungs. Jordan just said that it means they were making eggs! We got a lot of looks for sure!

 Our adorable hosts for the weekend!

 We made it through the corn maze!

 Yep...add it to my snake count. I can run into a snake anywhere.

I love this picture of Joel and Jordan and the boys. The boys just ADORE Jordan and Anna, and they are so good with them. They are going to make the best parents someday!

 Tractor riding...

 And finally we picked our pumpkins...we never get to go to the pumpkin patch early in the season where the pumpkins are actually still on the stalk, so this was a new experience! We are usually picking the ones they probably purchased from the grocery store and had thrown in the field! Ha!

 Love this boy...

 Harrison had pretty much lost it by the time we got in the patch and refused to be put down, so he's not in any of the patch pictures. Boo! Jordan and Anna gave us a new word for this--hangry--he was hungry and angry (and sleepy too!). He was there though, and he did pick a big pumpkin!

After the pumpkin patch, we ate lunch at Puckett's, which was awesome. Harrison had a hush puppy come on his plate, and at first he said he didn't want it so I moved it to another plate. A little while later, he started asking where his dog was. We could not figure out what he was talking about until he pointed to his hush puppy! So funny!

Then we headed back home to watch football the rest of the day. What a great day of football it was!

The kids got creative....Harrison is walking the dog.

We came home early Sunday in time for Hudson's football game. It was a great weekend and we can't wait to go visit again! There's so much I want to do in Franklin...what a cute little town it is! Thank you to Jordan and Anna for being such wonderful hosts and being so gracious, especially when you got 7 am wake up calls each morning by two little munchkins ready to play with their aunt and uncle!