In the new album on our picasa site are pictures of the fun things we've done together as a family recently.
The first bunch of pictures come from our trip to Watson Mill Covered Bridge State Park, where we went for a picnic and nature walk on Columbus Day. It was nice to have the day off as a family, and it's fun to have so many beautiful parks around us here in Athens. We drove to the bridge and had a picnic and then wandered down by the river (not sure which one...) to play in the sticks and leaves. We took a little nature walk and collected leaves (Rylie kept finding "so many oak leaf-es!") and rubbed our fingers over lots of spongy moss. We weren't hiking for too long when Olivia had collected more leaves than she could carry and when mom wouldn't help her carry any more, she exclaimed, "Oh man! I wish we never even went on this stupid nature walk!" We had to call uncle Chandler and tell him his legacy for nature-walk-frustration lives on. It was beautiful and fun to be together.
Then for Halloween we had a super fun party at our friends, the Vess's house. They have a nice safe neighborhood for trick or treating, with the homes close together and a perfect sized block for walking. The kids were just about exhausted with only two or so homes left, so we timed it just right. Also, the rains came just before we made it back home. :)
As you can see from the pictures, Tucker and Olivia were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and they looked adorable. Some other friends of ours had a lathe in their garage, and offered to make them each their own "authentic" magic wands - the kids even got to pick out their own styles. Then I made them some black Hogwarts robes with little Gryffindor patches. Tucker had his (adorable!) glasses and a scar, and we braided Livvy's hair the night before so it would be poofy and wavy. They looked perfect! And they "expecto-patronum-ed" their way down the street all evening. And for some reason Rylie had her heart set on being a girl dragon, and she loved curling up her fingers and roaring all night long. They were so proud of how much candy they got. In fact, Tucker said his bag was so heavy it felt like it was full of lead! (and then, to explain to all the other younger children, he stated, "Lead is actually a very heavy substance.") It was a great night.
And then the last bunch of pictures on the album are from Rylie's recent "gobble gobble surprise party"/thanksgiving
feast she had at her preschool. Dan and Tate and I got to go see her sing some songs and then we ate turkey and chicken nuggets together for lunch. She was super proud of her pilgrim hat and the handprint turkey she had made. And it was nice for us to do something special with just Rylie.
And now we're headed to South Carolina for Thanksgiving, where I hope to take lots more fun pictures (and maybe actually post them before Christmas...) I'm so grateful for this time of year, when we stop and think about all of the blessings we have. And chances are, if you're reading this, you're one of those blessings!
