Advent calendars for my kids

I literally waited till the last weekend in November to finish these.  Nothing like last minute is there?

I had seen some done like this last year in blog land so after Christmas I snatched up little paper mache boxes everywhere on sale.  What I didn't get then I did get this November on sale also. 

Here they are :

 The two of them are very into who has what and are they the same.  You know that sibling rivalry - where all must be equal.  So they each have the same boxes for the same days in the same papers but seeing as if I had to make them both exactly the same I'd go crazy.

I made Jacks tall with a red background and laid out one way. 

 And I made Sophie's wider with a green background and her boxes in a totally different layout.

 It was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be.  Those dang small boxes were hard to cover and then trying to get it all to fit on the board with all those boxes was a puzzle all unto itself. 

But in the end it all worked out fine.  I like them and they are all ready for years to come.  

Yeah one less project each year. ha ha

White Wednesday

  I was out shooting with the camera on Monday and noticed some last remaining whites still hanging on in the garden.  With our frosty evenings I am surprised they are still around - must be pretty strong survivors.  

So, before they go off to sleep for the winter I thought I'd share their last hooray with you.

Isn't Mother Nature a peculiar girl?

Muffins to the nines..

My daughter Sophie has her Thanksgiving desserts today at kindergarten. 

We are bringing pumpkin muffins. Now normally I'd throw them on a plate and call it done. But then I hear my friend Liz saying, " Always take it up a notch and make it pretty.  No reason muffins can't be pretty.".  

She is right.  

Liz does everything to the nines.  Seriously, when she throws a yard sale she makes breakfast and mimosas to serve the friends that are working it. 

So, to make Liz proud and to start making it pretty here are our pumpkin muffins. 

 

Is this some hoarder's husband?

Hey, I found this husband and a truck of junk in my driveway - does he belong to anyone?  

 Oh yeah that is my great husband who helped me load all this stuff I bought on Saturday.  I think he is now wondering what all this stuff is?

Or maybe he is just wondering where all this stuff is going to go as I have already used up my allotted storage space in the garage. 

Oh my gosh, what am I going to do with all this stuff?  And where will it all go?

Stay tuned and you'll see.

Fall and all her splendor

Well I was out playing with the camera Monday while the weather wasn't too cold.  And it was amazing all the color that was out. Fall was really showing her colors that day.

 It is so beautiful right now.  All the colors are gleaming and when the sun hits them just right it is amazing.

 The trees are in so many different colors- yellow, green, rust and red.

 Even my encore azaleas are blooming again- this is like the 3rd time this year.  Beautiful right?

 The Don Juan roses seem to be confused as they are blooming again.  They really haven't stopped much since spring.  They tapered off a bit when it was soooo hot but are beautiful again.

 The hydrangea is all ready to go to sleep she has dried up those flower heads but they are still beautiful.

 I even love my zinnias when they are drying out- it just shows how they keep on going.  They are preparing all the seed heads they will drop to bring awesome colors again next summer.

 See those seeds just waiting to continue the circle?

 These marigolds proved their weight in gold.  Man it was a 6 pack of flowers and I planted one plant each where you see all those pops of yellow- they got so big and keep blooming.  Will definitely plant those again.

 I love fall how about you?

A not so typical Saturday

This Saturday was not your normal Saturday of soccer.  First of all it was September 11th which in and of itself is a bit sad and a reminder that we have these Saturdays because of all that so many give of themselves.

But it being the opening day of Soccer there was a party at the field and we made it a good day for the kids..

We started out with some of this:

Yeah that amazing little girl is my Sophie.  She is a killer on the field and I love watching her play.  She did sort of have a meltdown when the Raleigh Railhawk mascot came around- have I told you she is afraid of people in costumes..Okay afraid is an understatement- she is TERRIFIED.

But he left and all was okay.

Then we watched some of this:

That handsome fellow is my boy Jack.  He gets a bit distracted but man when he runs he is in heaven.  I think we have a track or cross country boy in him.  Don't you love those lime green shirts? 

Then we told the kids we had an errand to run.  For what they asked.  I replied we just have to pick up something I ordered.  We then drove to CARA - Carolina Animal Rescue and Adoption to pick up the puppy that we were adopting that they knew nothing of. He was a complete surprise to them.

Here is the newest member of our family- Boone. 

He is a 2 month old Lab/Retriever mix. I gave the kids the choice of 4 names:

Raleigh- the name the shelter gave him

Fisher- because we love the beach where we go - Ft. Fisher

Boone- we love the mountains we go to in Boone, NC

or Sam- well because it is just a cool name.

They chose Boone- which is what I secretly wanted.

We love him and he is so much fun.

Welcome to this crazy family Boone.

A day of Manners

Yesterday was the annual Kindergarten "manners" field trip.  My son did this when he was in kindergarten 2 years ago and now it was Sophie's turn.  She was waaayyyy more excited about it than he was.  I guess dressing up is a girl thing.

The class had to wear dress up clothes and then they all went for "tea" to practice their manners.

They went to Ms Lacy's Tea Room in Sanford.  It was adorable.

Now if you know my little girl she is the true mix of tomboy and princess.

She had to wear her dance recital dress- she begged but then told me she of course was wearing her pink cowboy boots with them.  I told her you wear what you love. 

She then got "partnered" with an escort.  How cute

..

Here are all the couples walking in.  The boys were not too thrilled with having to have the girls on their arms.  It was so funny to see all the girls grabbing the boys arms over and over.

Time to be seated at a table for two..And well instead of tea they had pink lemonade with strawberries and a big cupcake.  Much better than tea I suspect.

You notice here she forgot her mannerly way of sitting..I think she was hungry and tired of waiting.

When do we eat already?

Here is Sophie and her friend from preschool. Yes they are quite the fashionistas. 

And this is when the "meltdown" started.  Sophie decided she didn't want me to go home, she didn't want to go back to school, she wanted to go with me.  She started crying.  I told her it wasn't preschool that she had to go back to school.  She kept crying bless her heart so I had to leave so she could calm down. 

I found out she cried on the bus and the teacher let her sit with her and gave her lots of hugs. Sophie is one tough little girl - but unlike most little girls - she is a mama's girl.  And she can't stand to be away from me.  It is fine if she doesn't see me during the day - but if I show up then she wants to leave. It is nice having someone love you that much but I don't want her to be embarrassed by her crying.  So, my times at school are limited.

I couldn't miss this for anything though- even tears.