Pumpkin Decorating 2011

 We went with a little less messy option this year for pumpkin decorating! The kids, Pop, and I had a great time sticking and glueing all kinds of decorations to make silly pumpkin faces. Connor got his pumpkin fully decorated and said, "Pumpkin crying" and took everything back off! I just love this time of year!



Connor decorating his pumpkin (with a little help from Pop)!

 

OMG....all three looking at the camera and smiling! It is a miracle!

Eight Wheels and So Much Fun!

These last two weekends have had one thing in common....roller skating! Last Sunday, Aiden had a Cub Scout meeting where the boys learned about roller skating (from a local roller derby expert who happens to live in our neighborhood and teach at their school! ) and had the chance to practice skating in order to earn their skating belt loop.

The boys are getting their skating lesson from "Violet Seizure" from the Savannah Derby Devils!

He's almost got it!

Michael is using Connor to get his balance!

Aiden and Matthew having a super time!

 This weekend, we continued the roller skating fun by attending a Savannah Derby Devil roller derby scrimmage! It was loads of fun! I just love that under the fishnet pantyhose and loads of eye liner, these women are scientists, college students, teachers, waitresses, stay at home mommies! They push their day jobs to the side, and get their crazy skate on under the alias of their alter ego on the weekends! I joked on my Facebook status tonight that I would totally be a roller derby girl if I wasn't such a baby about getting hurt. I can just see myself crying on the sidelines after getting bumped out of the way by some chick named Molly Melicious!  Just like in baseball, I don't think there is any crying allowed in roller derby!

These girls are hard core!

This is my friend Jessie Larson as she was getting introduced!

Jessie getting ready to skate!

Among the Oaks at Bonaventure

Because I talked Steven into going to see the Savannah Derby Devils (post to follow) with me today,  we ended up with a little extra time to spare near Bonaventure Cemetary this afternoon. We did a little drive-by visit to the gravesides of my grandparents and several aunt and uncles that have been laid to rest there. I also took the opportunity to snap a few pictures since we had a little extra time. The cemetary sits on the bluff of the beautiful Wilimington River.  It is particulary gorgeous to visit in the spring when the azaleas are in bloom, however, the moss draped Oak trees that call the area home are simply stunning anytime of year.

I really could have stayed another two hours wandering around with my camera!

 

This is the only picture that I took with the headstones in it. I know it is  little creepy...

I took this from under the tree....love it!

Another shot from under the tree

Aiden's Big League Birthday

Aiden's 7th birthday will be one that I am sure he doesn't soon forget. He decided months ago that he wanted to celebrate his birthday with his favorite baseball team, the Savannah Sand Gnats!  He and his friends had the best time playing together and rooting on the team! We also had our traditional "big meatball" spaghetti dinner at home on the night of his birthday. Steven started the tradition several years ago of cooking a spaghetti dinner on the night of the kid's birthdays. The one celebrating the birthday get a huge, gigantic, "big meatball" to enjoy! 

It is so hard to believe that my sweet boy is a seven year old second grader!

Aiden is loving his new bike and helmet that his dad picked out!

The "big meatball"!

What a fun day for him!

Aiden and his buddy Andrew with Gnate the Gnat!

Aiden, Christian, and Andrew!

Getting ready to throw out the first pitch of the game!

The gang!

Aiden and Andrew enjoying the game!

Cake, ice cream, baseball, hot dogs, and all his friends....what else could a little boy ask for?

The Generation of Warriors

Not being a huge (or even slight) Joe Biden fan, it is a bit strange that a comment of his would be the one that has resonated the most with me this weekend.  He said in a speech at the memorial in Shankesville, PA that 9/11 galvanized a “generation of warriors”.  I have had the pleasure over the past ten years to know many of these warriors. I have taught their children and lived next door to them. I have been best friends with their wives and celebrated birthdays with their children.  I am blessed to have known each of them, and am forever thankful for their sacrifice.  They are the generation of warriors. They are the men and women who voluntarily stepped forward to defend our nation at a time when we needed them the most. 

As I have watched the coverage of the memorials over the last few days, and seen again those horrible images of the devastation and destruction in New York and Washington DC, I have really been reminded of what I think we were all reminded of as the sun set on September 11, 2001.  Life is fragile, and can be taken from us so quickly and without any notice.

As a crazy busy working wife and mother to three little children, September 11, 2011 has been a day for me to remember what I am working so hard for, what I am most proud of, and what is clearly the most important thing to me....being a mom to these three amazing little people!


They are my hope for a better, brigher, and happier tomorrow!

 

La La, LaLaLaLa, Sing A Happy Song

Well, this has yet again turned into another moment when I am possibly more excited than the kids about an upcoming movie. They have watched the Smurfs a few times, but I am the big Smurf nerd in this house! The Smurf movie comes out next weekend (in 3D!!!), and when I heard that Build A Bear had the Smurfs, my two favorite childish indulgences collided! Even though I had had the week from you know where and a cold, we hurried into Savannah last night after I got off work so the kids could pick out and bring home their very own Smurf! It was so worth it! We took JoAnna and Amy (our little neighbor friend) and had a Smurftastic (I already warned that I am an the Smurf nerd) time! I am looking so forward to the movie next weekend that I can't hardly stand it. I have such sweet memories playing with my little mushroom playhouse and dreaming that I would someday be as gorgeous and captivating as Smurfette, and wondering if people really lived to be 543 years old like Papa Smurf. I am sure that the pesky Azreal is probably even the reason why I have never cared for cats! My funniest story about the Smurfs is one that Steven will never let me forget. So, we apparently didn't get a color television in my house until I was about 5 or 6. By then I was well into my Smurf additiction! I woke up eager every Saturday morning to watch them, and my world was changed forever when dad turned them on in color. I shouted in pure amazement, "MOM....The Smurfs are BLUE!!!". A fact everyone else in the whole world probably already knew....except me. My love for the Smurfs was pure....even without knowing their three apple tall bodies were really blue!