A Royal Halloween

Mike The Knight

Princess Pea

With the king and queen!

Mommy LOVES Preschool

I love school. I have always loved it. I loved playing it when I was a child. I love teaching it now(when I am left alone to do so). I love going to it as a student (and am starting to feel a little burning desire to go back). I just really love school. Well now I must say that I also LOVE preschool. I love how excited Tyson is each morning he gets to go. I love picking out his clothes and planning snacks for his class. I love taking him and picking him up. I love when he proudly shows me a pretty craft that he made or sings songs that he learned.  I love hearing him talk about it. It is more exciting than a movie for me (ridiculous I know) to see if I can find out more about his day. I wish I could be a fly on the wall! Well this week I feel like a real school mommy because we made goodie bags for his classmates. As we made them, he listed names of little ones that I do not know. It made me realize that for the first time in his little life he knows people that I do not know. And somehow, I even love that! I am just so happy that he is happy, and that like his mommy, he loves school. (I wub my school so much mommy!)

A few little supplies...

...and we have "ghost"suckers and play-dough pumpkins!
(I thought these ghosts were so great when I was a kid.)

Add in some cheeseballs for a fun litttle Halloween treat bag!




*The preschool has a carnival/ trunk-or-treat on Wednesday night. I think it will be fun for Tyson to wear his costume to see his teachers and friends. We will also be visiting some of our favorite people too, including a very excited Grandma Raye!

Fun Fall Wedding

We went to a fun wedding at Willow Pond Farmstead in Coats, NC this weekend. Jodi Driver, a "little girl" in the first dance class I ever taught married TJ Harper. It was really neat, with dancing, hayrides, kids crafts, playgrounds, smores, and a photo booth. I do not think any little boy in history has ever had so much fun at a wedding!

The venue was just beautiful. These pictures do not capture the lovely views. The wedding took place in front of this old barn, with dancing/cake inside. The food was in the stables shown in the second picture. There were other buildings on the grounds as well, including the owner's gorgeous home and other stables. 

 

Of course, with any dance family event, the decorations are great! 

 

 

 

Tyson is currently IN LOVE with Inga's daughter, Keegan. He seriously loves her! She also goes to his preschool. In the mornings if he is being difficult about getting dressed/brushing his teeth etc, I just have to tell him that he is going to see her and he snaps out of the fit! It's great! He was just thrilled that she was in the wedding, which he referred to as "Keegan's Party." When we were getting ready to go, he ran into the bathroom and said, "mama, you need to put some water on my hair. I am going to see Keegan!" She was pretty happy to see him as well.Just look at how he is checking her out in this picture snapped when he first saw her!

Juel loves her too! (We have lots of silly photo booth pictures of the girls.)

Everyone was also really excited about the hayrides. Tyson was not planning to be left out of this fun, so he hopped on right in the middle of the wedding party...

We later took a long tour all around the property...

 Notice the hands...

The farm owners are part of an organization that helps preserve rare breeds of farm animals. These are Devin Cows, which are ancestors of oxen. There are only around 300 in the world.

Juel was quite impressed and began her cow imitation!

 

As for the rest of the night...no pictures. Only in my mind do I have HILARIOUS visions of my child dancing like a fool on the dance floor. You thought I was talking about Juel, oh no! It was Tyson. He was dancing like I have never seen him do, including break dancing moves, random, off-beat claps and even flips. I was laughing until I cried! He was surrounded by little girls and tons of people. It was priceless. Juel was busy running around eating cake! Congratulations to Jodi and TJ!

 

 

 

Pumpkin Farm

This weekend we had a fun adventure to the Vollmer Farm with a college roommate/good friend, Kim and her little girl Sloane. Kim and I have not seen each other very much since our good old UNC days, so it was great to get to catch up with her. We also had both our moms, Amy and Hunter, along with Grandma Raye and our little friend Emerson join us as well. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time playing. This little local farm has changed so much since I was a little girl and they sold pumpkins off the front porch of the family homeplace. Now it is filled with all kinds of fun and educational things for children to do...(warning:lots of pictures coming-seriously a LOT )

Juel loves Emerson

I love having Grandma Raye do special things with us!

 



 

 

Grandmas with their granddaughters. (Although Tyson will scream if he hears you call his "gee" a grandma. He has "Grandma Raye" but Gee is Gee!)

 

Juel was obsessed with milking this cow!

 

 

Big surprise...Tyson was obsessed with the tractor.

 

It has been a long time since we have seen Amy. T and J were so happy to see Lu Lu and Hun!

 

 

 The farm had pony rides...

 

 And lots of cute photo opps!

They also have several cool playgrounds, with lots of handmade play things, some using recycled farm materials.

 

Juel's absolute favorite thing was the "Corn Crib"...like a giant sandbox full of corn.

 

 

There is a huge underground tunnel slide...whee!

 And a "barrel zip-line"

 The children also loved this little cow train..."Darla"!

 

(Juel pretended to be on parade waving at everyone! )

 They even had a "Pumpkin Princess"

Perhaps this will be Juel one day! Ha ha!

At the end of the trip Juel picked up a pumpkin from a large field near the hayride. Well those were for school kids trips. However, she would not let go of it without a scene...Pumpkin Princess!