Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day to all Vets past and present. We love our soldier and are very proud of him.  This is a recent picture, posing with one of the military working dogs.  We love you, Edward!

The Farm

Thursday, Luke's preschool class took a field trip to the local farm/pumpkin patch.  He has been so excited to go, and I was so glad I could go along as a chaperone.  We had another little boy ride with us, and Luke was thrilled to have a friend in the car.  This farm is only about 10 minutes from our house, if that, and during the summer months, they have wonderful homemade ice cream too.

Some of the boys from his class.  He has seven boys and seven girls in class.  It was a really cold morning too.  I think it was 41 when we arrived.

Wagon ride

These are all of the pumpkins set aside for school trips.

We saw a lot of cows.

It was a beautiful morning.

 Luke and his friend who rode with us.

This farm did a great job with the kids.  They had an animal "show" in which the different animals were brought out and discussed.  This is the farmer, and to introduce the next animal, he had all the kids sing, "Old MacDonald had a farm.."  It was really cute, and the kids loved the animals.  He is holding the chicken.

Sheep

Goat-This goat was SO cute!

Pig-This little pig couldn't stop squealing.  The kids loved it so much, and it was a really cute pig.

Then, we were taken outside to see the larger animals who couldn't be part of the show.  This ox was really sweet.  The farmer said it weighed over 2200 lbs.

Waiting for food

The ox was fed lettuce, and the kids thought it was funny he liked to eat salad.

Bunnies near the chicken coup

Finally, it was time for lunch.  Luke didn't waste any time.

The pumpkins the kids were given

Luke's class-These are some very four-year-olds, and it was really nice to go on this field trip with them.

Dollywood

I've had trouble uploading these, and it took a few days.  We spent last Saturday at Dollywood with Nana and Pop.  The kids had never been there and had a great time.  It was super cold, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  Thanks for taking us there, Nana and Pop.

Madison loved all of the butterflies at Dollywood.

 Alex thought all the old cars looked like a scene from Cars.

 A picture with Nana

 The old fashioned cars were a must. We didn't care who went first; it was all about the color.  Alex and I rode in this.

Pop and Luke had the "Batmobile."

Madison had the pink car, shocker.

Carousel...Madison was in trouble during this and not allowed to ride.  Alex was scared.

Madison and Pop had a cold ride on the swings.  Luke and I took a ride after this (also super cold).

Scrambler

Scrambler

Madison LOVED this ride.

Luke was just barely tall enough to ride this, but he made it.

One of the biggest attractions at Dollywood is the eagle preserve.  Dollywood takes in eagles in danger or wounded.

We happened to walk by when the Birds of Prey show was starting.  Luke especially enjoyed this.  They had some really cool birds they brought out.

Waiting for our tram to the parking lot...Alex is holding the back scratcher Pop and Nana got him.  He's crying because he and Luke battled it out with theirs, of course.

Thanks for the great time, Nana and Pop.  We had a lot of fun and are so glad we got to see you.

Alexander

Alex's preschool teachers call him Alexander (his full name).  He's been able to say Alex, but the other day, he came home and started saying, "Alexander."  It's so cute to hear, and he's very proud of himself for saying such a big word. I had to get it on video because it's been making us all laugh the last several days.

If you pause the music, you can hear the video.

Rapunzel, Neil Armstrong, and Dr. Jones

I never thought I'd say that I would miss Yuma's 100 degree weather for trick-or-treat.  I miss it...after pouring down rain, I really wish it had just been hot.  Our first Halloween in NC was a downpour.  The kids were so excited to go out, but after a few houses, Alex couldn't stop shivering, and Madison and Luke were soaked to the bone.  We had as good of a time as we could in spite of the weather.

 Dr. Jones, at your service.  He was so happy to look like Daddy, and he kept pointing to himself saying, "Daddy wears."

 The crew

 Neil Armstrong

 Rapunzel with the hair

 I'm Rapunzel's witch.  Madison took a pretty good picture!

This is the BEST it looked, and you can't see that it was actually raining pretty hard when I took this.  We were in the garage still, and I changed to the double stroller since it had some rain coverage on it.

Ready to go...we made it down to our cul-du-sac and back. That took an hour, and they were so cold.

After a very hot bath, Alex went right to bed.  Madison and Luke sat by the door to give out candy to the remaining trick-or-treaters.  The last few we had were mainly the high school kids who live on our street and who didn't mind the rain.  The cutest costume we saw was a little girl, about Alex's age, dressed as a bag of groceries.  It was SO cute!