CPC Fall Festival 2007

Last night was the annual Fall Festival at church, and the girls had a blast!!! We dressed them up as a Buffalo Bills player (or former player as the case may be --Doug Flutie) and a Bills cheerleader (Abbie was also a cheerleader for her 2nd Fall Festival (in TN)). There were lots of games, treats, activities, etc. for the kiddos to do. Inadvertently, the only pic of Kate of the night...

maybe my friends have more

Abbie doing the Noah's Ark game

My happy girl

Working hard on her scratch off pumpkin

with a painted pumpkin on her face
She won the prize for Cartoonist pumpkin

here she is with her winning pumpkin!!!

She also won a big plate of brownies in the cakewalk!!!

She had a good nite

Abbie with both Keesler pumpkin entries
My sweet girl again (with her pumpkin face)

Kate had a pumkin painted on her face too...

not sure how Lori got her to sit still that long...

And at the end of the night,

Abbie helps with clean up

Carving Pumpkins with Daddy

After our bout with the SLOPPY joes (see next post),

the girls and Ed worked on their pumpkins for

the Fall Festival at church. They had a great time

digging out all the insides and getting them ready for

Daddy to do the actual carving part. I put what in where???
"Or should I put it back in the pumpkin"

(which is what Daddy found her doing)
"I am coloring Elmo on mine"
This is fun!!!
The finished products
Noah's ark at night
Elmo
(who actually looks like a monster)
The pair finished and ready to go...

we call them SLOPPY joes

Saturday night, we had sloppy joes, which as you can tell,

with 2 little girls live up to the sloppy part.

The girls really do EAT them, but why would you

call them sloppy if you can't have fun with them too... I hear it is good for the skin...
I LOVE SLOPPY JOES
HELP!!! I am messy!!!

Briley's Pumpkin Patch, without pumpkins

A couple Saturdays ago (the last Saturday I wasn't at Sylvan),

Abbie's soccer game was near the pumpkin patch,

and since the weather has not made it seem like fall,

we hoped seeing pumpkins would, so we went up

the road to Briley's Pumpkin Patch. Besides the

pumpkin patch, which we did not actually visit,

they have a HUGE sand play area, a great playground,

animals, and a lot of other fun stuff. Kate on the playground
My cute duck and sheep...
The cow says "moo"
At least I am taller than Abbie's shadow!!!
I don't care how big, I am I want to look at the pumpin!!

We went to the fire station!!!

A couple weeks ago we went to the fire station for

our annual trip during fire prevention week.

Abbie and I were able to go last year as well

(even though Kate was sick) and Abbie has

talked about it ever since. Abbie, her friend, Megan, and the fireman on the truck
Kate (and her ever-present baby) on the truck
Megan and Abbie IN the truck
After the fire station, we went to the park...

here is Kate headed up the stairs
and Abbie in a cage!!!

Uncle Ray, Auntie Tara, and Arreil visit

A couple weekends ago, Ed's brother, Raymond,

his wife, Tara, and daughter Arreil (and Tara's neice, Sarah)

came for a visit on their way to Myrtle Beach, SC.

We had not seen them since we were up north last August,

and Kate and Arreil were both babies. It was a lot of fun

to have them here and Arreil, who is 2 months younger

than Kate, and Kate enjoyed playing together.

They will have a lot of fun playing next summer,

when we are hoping to get back up north.

Kate and Arreil
Raymond and Tara
The girls "riding bikes"
Arreil and her mommy

sweet Arreil

YUMMY YOGURT

The other day, I got some yogurt on sale and Kate

decided that was what she wanted for lunch...

well, I guess I failed to mention to her that it is supposed

to go INTO the mouth, because as you can see, she made quite a mess...

These pictures were actually taken 2 different days!!!yogurt baby
is this how you eat it??
I LOVE a mess!!!
yogurt and doritos...YUMMY
I think I will drink it...
Look what I did!!!
Mommy cleaned me up :(
I like being messy!!!

NEWSFLASH....

ABBIE HAS A MESSY FACE!!!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, my sweet Abbie

does NOT like to be messy, but I was able to catch her

with a messy face on not one, but TWO occassions... Playing with her "friends" in the playroom
Eating lunch (doritos, I think)

Just because she is cute...

These are just a couple pics of Kate that I snapped one day...

I just think she looks so cute!!!" Aren't I a cutie?"
"What are you looking at"

Ode to my dear husband...

As I mentioned last night, Ed is at a men's retreat with church,

so I have had the kids alone since yesterday AM.

Now, I will say that last year at this time (minus Kate's issues)

this would have been more of the norm, but

I have to admit that I have gotten used to him being around.

To explain to you the times I missed him...let me give you a recap of my day...

7 AM Get the three of us up, dressed, and ready for the day

(I had to work today AND Abbie had a soccer game and soccer pics,

so I had to get her dressed in her uniform with an extra set of clothes)

8:15 Rush out the door to my sister's house (she had

graciously agreed to keep the girls while I worked and take Abbie to soccer)

8:30 Arrive at Lydia's and unload the kids, carseats, soccer/diaper bag, etc.

8:40 FINALLY head to work (with a brief stop at Sonic to get a drink)

8:47 Arrive at work and start IMMEDIATELY helping out

9-12 Tutor 3 kids at a time for an hour each set

12:00 Clean up the table, and help out with work issues

12:15 Head back to Lyd's to get the kids

12:30 Head home for lunch, naps, etc.

12:45 Start the lunch, nap routine

1:15 (or so) Everyone (but me) is in bed

1:30 Clean out and vacuum the van---it was BAD

2:30 Abbie gets up

4:45 Kate gets up

5:15 We head to run errands

7:35 Finally home from errands (and Chick-fil-a for 3.15)

8:15 Trying to get Kate and Abbie dressed at the same

time while looking for church clothes, etc.

8:30 Girls in BED!!!

8:35 Tired Mommy MISSING DADDY!!!

I love you honey,

Happy Seventh Anniversary (tomorrow)!!!!

5 kids in one van...am I nuts...

Before I begin this blog...

WARNING...Ed is gone at the men's retreat and the girls are in bed...

Translation...I am blog happy!!!

Now on to the rest of the story...

Well, not really since it was 5 kids (4 and under) with 2 mommies.

My sister, who seems to be having TERRIBLE luck with

her car recently, wanted to go to our new playgroup at Kathryn's house

(thanks again, Kathryn for hosting all of us :) )

and doesn't have access to a car right now.

The short version of that story is that they

took the car in to get fixed on Sunday, it was

"fixed with a new broken piece" on Tuesday,

and got REAR ENDED AT THE DEALERSHIP

(where it was being fixed) on Wednesday.

So, I went and "kidnapped" the carseats out of my

bro-in-law's van, and picked Rach and her

3 kids up in my van and off we went..

We stopped at Food Lion for a snack to

take and while she was shopping,

I was photographing the "bus" of kids...My nephew, Carter, 3,and niece, Emma,4,

Emma is taking care of her baby brother, Jonathan...Emma caring for Jonathan (9 weeks)Baby Jonathan Alder Manwaring

(named after my dad and grandad)The busload of kids...

Kate LOVED it

After having to buckle and unbuckle kids,

Rach and I decided that 7 passenger vans work

better if the passengers are NOT in carseats!!!