Five years old

When we started this blog, our little girl was about five months old.  Somehow, in the blink of an eye, she has now turned five YEARS old.  How did this happen?  Where has the time gone?

The extended celebration started last weekend, with a (what else) art-themed birthday party with her friends at a local painting studio.  The girls painted butterflies, and I think everyone had a great time.

So focused!

All of the girls' paintings came out great, each one different.  Here's Emma's:

After the painting was over, we continued the celebration at our house with family and pizza.  Then, after a few days off, the birthday partying was back again to celebrate the official Big Day on Friday.  Because we had such a busy day planned, Emma had to open her gifts from Mom & Dad early in the morning.  You can see below that the sun wasn't even up yet!



It was the one morning Emma didn't mind getting up a little early.  Normally it is a BATTLE to get her out of bed in the morning.  Don't know where she would have gotten that trait from...her mother was an absolute angel in the morning when she was a kid!  Right, Grandma H?

After gift-opening, we had to put the final touches on Emma's birthday/halloween cupcakes for school.  Her class was having their halloween party at lunch, so we volunteered to bring dessert since it was her birthday anyways.  She requested jack-o-lantern cupcakes and directed me on how to make each and every face.

Tim and I came to her school for lunch, to help her celebrate.  The kids were so excited to sing to her...

...and then point out (and in some cases actually touch) the cupcake they wanted.  Good thing they all wanted different ones!

After the lunch party, Emma convinced her Daddy that she should get to go back home with him for the afternoon.  Since it was her birthday, and they really didn't have much else planned at school for the rest of the day, he gave in.  She came home and promptly took a two-hour nap -- on the ottoman! 

The nap was much needed because after we all got home, it was a race to scarf some dinner, change the kids into their costumes, and get back up to the school for the Fall Festival and costume contest.  We'll have more pictures after Monday night, I'm sure, but here's a sneak peek at Scooby Drew and Daphne:

He actually doesn't mind wearing the head piece at all.  He kept in on for a good hour at the festival!

He even has a tail!



The kids had a blast, especially Emma, who ran around with her school friends and earned all sorts of treats and prizes.  What a way to cap off a week's worth of birthday fun!

Back to the pumpkin farm

Not many pictures in the post about the fair on Friday, but we're going to make up for it right here!  After a good night's sleep, we woke up on Saturday morning and headed out to the Kinsey Family Farm for another year of pumpkin picking, hayriding, catfish-feeding, and a few new attractions.

Look at this kid.  Orange pumpkins, orange stroller, orange jacket...could he get any more orange?

The answer is yes, with the help of Grandpa K's hat!

Wait a minute...where'd Drew go?

It pained me to put Drew in an orange stroller and and orange and white jacket on the day of the UT-UGA game, but by game time he and his sister were in their most spirited red and black attire.  Did anyone happen to catch that game?  Remind me who won again?

We tried several times to get some group photos with the kids.  It was next to impossible.  This might have been the only shot where they were both happy and both looking in the general direction of the camera.

Emma had so much fun running around and trying to find just the right pumpkin.  You can see the joy on her face:

Once she found hers, it was time to find one for Drew.  After an extended search, she brought over The Perfect Pumpkin for Drew so that he could check it out.

Emma had a very patient pumpkin picking partner!

Meanwhile, Grandpa kept Drew entertained.  Or maybe it was vice versa.

Emma found this cool pumpkin with a smiley face on the bottom.  I absolutely love how this photo turned out!

Two pumpkins in the wagon:

Another random fish face:

One of those failed group photo attempts I referred to earlier.  This would have made a great pic if a certain someone didn't look absolutely miserable.  Life's tough when you spend all weekend being spoiled by both sets of grandparents!

We rode the hayride down to the pond to feed the catfish, like we did last year.  I had forgotten how huge these fish are! 

Last year, they only had goats to feed in the little petting zoo area.  This year, they've added a few cows.  Tim managed to get this pic just as the cow was turning her tongue sideways to grab the food out of a little girl's hand.

The goats were still there too, of course.  Emma had a blast feeding them grass from outside the pen.  Apparently they get sick of eating the crackers that everyone was purchasing for them in the shop, because they were so excited when Emma fed them grass that they ignored the kids holding the crackers!

In case you ever wanted to see inside the mouth of a goat, here you go. 

One more attempt at a happy pose.  Success!

Our pumpkins are now happily gracing the front porch, waiting to find out what sorts of jack-o-lanterns they will become in a few weeks.

No pics of today's events, but Emma went to the movie theater with Grandma and Grandpa H to see The Lion King, and then they came over to play with Drew and take us out for a yummy dinner.  What a great end to a fun-filled fall weekend!

And now it's off to bed...zzzzz....

Friday fun at the fair

We've had a whirlwind weekend full of fall activities!  First off was the Cumming Country Fair on Friday night.  Grandma & Grandpa H joined us this year, and I think everyone had a great time, especially Emma, who rode on lots of rides, had popcorn for dinner, and ice cream for dessert!

We didn't feel like lugging the fancy camera around, so we have minimal photos to share.  But we do have a video, so hopefully that will make up for it.

Drew spent most of the fair hanging out in his stroller seat.  He seemed to enjoy watching all of the sights and sounds.  Next year, I have a feeling he'll be riding the rides right next to his sister!



We made sure to stop by and watch the X-treme Chainsaw Sculptor once again this year.  It really is pretty amazing how he can carve something so intricate (that is an eagle in flight he's creating below) out of a log.  



Along with the usual merry-go-round and fishy ride adventures, Emma added some new rides to her arsenal this year.  The Circus Train was a big hit, as was the speedboat ride.  We managed to capture some video of her on the boats:



And since we didn't have a video of Drew from the fair, here's one of him from our house the other day.  He was getting way into the motorboat sounds, so much so that he actually cracked himself up a few times:

And that was only Friday night!  The weekend fun continues in our next post...

Scarecrows

Last Saturday was the annual Alpharetta Scarecrow Harvest, a sure sign that fall is here.  It was pretty chilly when we arrived, but it ended up being a perfectly beautiful autumn day.



The first order of business was to check out the farmer's market and listen to storytime.

After that, we walked up and down Alpharetta Highway to look at all of the different scarecrows, which are made by various elementary school classes. A few of our favorites:


Some fish and an octopus, totally made of recycled materials

Angry Birds

Despicable Me, one of Emma's very favorite movies

This one was called "A Windy Day" -- very clever!

Our walk ended at City Hall, where we tried to pose the kids for some photos together.  Unfortunately, one of them (we won't say who) was not really in the mood to smile for the camera, so this was the best we could get:

The smiles reappeared, though, after a cup of delicious freshly squeezed lemonade from the farmer's market on the way back to the car.

I must admit, it was pretty darn good!

Next up, our adventures from this weekend's trip to the fair and the pumpkin farm...

Fishy face

Have you ever seen such a serious fishy face? 

Scarecrow Harvest festival pictures coming soon.

Also, the kids are selling Scentsy fragrance warmers through their school as a fundraiser for The Melanoma Research Foundation, in honor of one of the parents at school who recently lost his battle with skin cancer.  It's like the candle warmers, but it uses a lightbulb instead of an open flame.  If any of our blog readers are interested, you can see their products at http://scentsy.net/ or let us know if you want to look at the brochure.  We have one, and we really like it!

More Athens

As promised, here are a few more photos of our trip to Athens last weekend. 

An unsuccessful group shot of me and the kids:

A sweet pose in front of The Grill, an Athens landmark.  Ironically, Tim and I hardly ever ate here -- maybe twice ever!

We decided at this point that Drew was taking it all in, so that he would be prepared to come back in about 17 years for school.

Em posing under the arch.  No worries, the curse about standing under the arch only applies to underclassmen.  And while she's a smart girl, she's still at least a few years away from being a college freshman!

Emma loved this HUGE tree in the quad.  Here, she was attempting to climb it.  Tough, since she's never climbed a tree in her life.

One of a million poses in front of the tree:

We all made a wish in the Herty Field fountain.  Drew was napping, so Emma made his wish for him.  She whispered to me that she wished he would get a cool Spiderman toy.  But don't tell anyone or else it won't come true!

Many, many more pics will be posted to Flickr soon, I am sure.  We also have some photos to share from our annual visit to the Scarecrow Harvest this weekend.  Hopefully I'll get those posted before next weeked, when we have more fun activities planned.  Whew, we sure do stay busy in the fall!