Thanksgiving 2011

What a beautiful day! High 71 degrees and a brisk breeze. Thanksgiving feast served at noon (we do this so we can turn right around and eat again at 5...genius). Pop and I set up a "table" in the yard (two saw horses and T1-11) to eat on. The players this year: Mom, Pop, Val, Kyle, LeeAnne, Matt, Aurora, Sarah, Corey, Gilly, Krista, Aiden, Sissy, Matt, Gavin, Noah, and myself. There were missing people and we noticed :( (Chad, Lee, Jenn, Mike, Brad, Ariel, Allen, Lynn, AJ, and Amelia). The food was incredible both in flavor and quantity... do you even want to know what we had? Ok, here it goes... turkey, ham, sweet tater casserole, squash casserole, rolls, mashed taters, corn, stuffing, giblet gravy, field peas, black eyed peas, something green with marshmallows, green bean casserole, rutabaga, cranberry sauce. And the desserts...pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, caramel cake, and fantasy cake. Awesome!

The kids had a blast driving and riding on gators.

After eating and groaning about stomach aches, the adults played elimination. This has been done at every family function since the aunts/uncles were little (at least this is what I was told from the Helms side). Our beloved Val, fell. At that very moment, the group mutually agreed this was indeed a successful Thanksgiving.

Do ya'll see a theme?

How am I supposed to document our family via photojournalistic style with these characters? WORK WITH ME PEOPLE! *giggle* I love ya'll.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Nothing like good, clean fun on Halloween night ;) Gavin was the inventor of this year's theme. Not sure how this little man's brain works.. but when I asked what he wanted to be, he quickly told me a washer and Noah can be the dryer. Well, Noah doesn't speak up for himself much these days, so no answer is an answer in this house. Believe you me, I asked Gavin multiple times to change his mind. The response always came back to a washer. *Sigh* off to find appropriate sized boxes and how the heck you make a front end loader (hey, if I can't have a fancy washer and dryer set, at least I can pretend my kids are?!?) Anyway, the costumes were a hit. During trick or treating, many people commented this was the most clever idea. One chick mistook my kids for a set of stoves--- Who knows? Noah ate his candy during the walk. Gavin peed in someone's empty lot-- ever seen a mashing machine pee? Yup, that's why I made them front end loaders...

Happy 2nd birthday, Sir Noah

Happy birthday, Sir Noah!

Knighthood is a big deal!  We celebrated medieval style, complete with castle bouncehouse, castle cake, and knight regala.   Noah loves "happy birthday" so much, we sang it twice (and yes, even had complaints from the neighbors).  Sliders and hot dogs were served with potato salad, fruit, chips, and dip.  Thank you to all the knights that attended.  Wonderful jousting and jesting were enjoyed!  Happy birthday my sweet boy! 

Ag expo 2011

Our annual (and may be our last) Ag Expo. "Oh, what went wrong," you ask? Please take a seat. Our normal two hour drive turned into almost 5 hours leading to a my three year old AND my grandfather peeing on the side of the road while sitting in a string of stand-still traffic, the temperature dropping from nearly 80 degrees to a windy 52 degrees, limited time at the expo (we spend most of our time in traffic), and traffic sitting on the way home. All of this was secondary to a violent cold front that monsooned Georgia the day before leading to one of the expo days to be basically cancelled. So, it caused an influx on our visit unbeknownst to us. Nevermind, once we finally made it in, it was large tractor bliss. Barbecue sandwiches, pop guns made with pvc and cork, and John Deere sweatshirts and everyone was slap-happy. Gavin decided he would like an alpaca. "Do they pack things? Why do they call them 'I'll pack ya' for?" Pop snickered at that. I'm gunning to go back next year, Pop says 'no way.' We've got a year, and Noah will be in the mix in 2012...so we will see who wins.

Pumpkin carving

Why does Noah want to sleep long and hard through the fun stuff? This always happens... "Okay ya'll, let's do x,y,z! No, wait, Noah is tired... it will just be two hours." Two and a half hours later, Gavin is about to POP. I give in. "Okay, if we go ahead and start he should be waking up at any moment..." And he ends up sleeping 4 hours! FOUR HOURS! Why does this never happen when I have to clean?

I digress. So the boys picked some pumpkins. And now we carve them. Gavin draws the faces all by himself. Yes, folks I am a little concerned as well. They look rather sinister, don't they? And a cyclops? Really, he knows about scary things that have only one eye? Clearly, this comes from his father? I'm too sweet to have passed scary stuff like that on!