Fall Break Fun!

This year we packed up with some of our friends and headed to the beach for fall break. I'll be honest..... I had my doubts about trying to relax even one iota with the crew of kids that we were going to have. It actually turned out to be really great though.....kids playing and adults chatting beachside/poolside. 

Elaina chillaxed and checked her email:)

The kids got the nets out and went fishing....

and they came across some really fun things! 

Samantha and I decided we needed to do our mandatory planking picture to send back to our workout class. 

Then Ashlee decided she needed to get in on the plank business. It's a good thing Samantha is one strong cookie and Ashlee isn't any bigger than a minute! 

It was decided that Samantha really needed to be on her hands instead of her elbows so we gave a whirl again the next day. 

Then there were beach handstands...

and an attempt to do some "couples sit-ups" that someone had seen online and it went terribly wrong ending with me flopping around in the surf:/ 

The gals had some good tan time sitting in the water discussing all sorts of topics. 

 We did go out to eat and in our sun induced haze we tried to get a table for all of us to sit together. What? No table for 14 kids and 10 adults? Well, I declare. 

 Beach days pics:

And out for another evening of trying not to lose anyone in the crowd. This part of the trip was definitely NOT relaxing. 

Elaina had so much fun playing with her friends at the beach and to this day she has not stopped asking to go back. (I'm always late in blogging and it's been a few months ago!)

 Bobby and I thought the trip was a breeze since we were down 2 kids. When you go from 4 to 2 you realize, "Hey! Two wasn't as bad as we thought it was!" Cade and Grant made the choice to head to Gatlinburg with Grandma and Granpa for some fall break fun. They went to the Titanic Museum and Ziplining. 

They had a great time spending time with their grandparents making memories. They came back bearing all sorts of souvenirs. Good times! 

We had a super fall break. Now back to the grind! 

Quotable Quotes

Ahh....Rhett. He STILL makes me laugh nearly every.single.day. He's full of confidence and full of himself! I told him last night that I was laying a nice shirt out for school the next day. He sighed and groaned and said, "Why???" and I replied, "Because it's school picture day and I want you to look decent." To which HE replied, "I don't even get school pictures. I mean, every single parent KNOWS what their kid looks like so why do we need picture day anyway? Picture day is so annoying." His rationale made me giggle:) With the way my memory is working, and with my brain being full to capacity with "to do" stuff I probably WILL need pictures to identify which kid is whom soon! 

Movin' on Up!

Elaina's room underwent some major transformation in just one day. I knew I needed to jump on it while she was at school and mom volunteered to help me paint and voi'la! It was complete! 

She was a little shocked when she got home from school but quickly became excited at the change. Just a few days prior she had given up her paci with absolutely no fight whatsoever. It was weird actually. One night I couldn't find it amongst her 82,000 stuffed animals in her crib and I said, "Lanie, I can't find your paci anywhere!"  To which she replied with a shoulder shrug and a "well, I'm tired of it anyway." What? She was addicted to that thing just 12 hours prior! 

I instituted great parenting and said, "Okay. If you sleep ALLLL night long and you don't yell for mommy one time during the night, I'll give you a chocolate sprinkle donut when you wake up." At about 8:30 the next morning she woke up and her first words? "Get my sprinkle donut." 

I thought for sure it was too good to be true and the next night would be torture with paci withdrawal, crying, screaming, the whole nine yards. So I promised her a scooter if she slept alllllll through the night and didn't yell for me. (I'm not above bribing. I like my sleep!).

She agreed but then just 30 minutes after I put her down she was wailing. I went in to ask her what was wrong and through her tears she said, "I don't want a scooooterrrrr!" Me: "Well, baby, what do you want?" 

"I want another chocolate sprinkle doooonuuuuut!" Done. The kid slept all night again and when she woke there was another donut with her name on it. 

 I can't even believe how easy the transition was. Apparently I've never realized the power a chocolate sprinkle donut holds over a person! Now I've traded a kid with a paci problem for a kid with a donut problem. Now, the quest to find something more powerful than donuts........

Releasing Some Butterflies!

Every second grade year the kiddos get to "grow" their own butterflies and then we as parents are lucky enough to get to stand around outside and watch them fly out of their classroom cages. It's.....interesting. This year the second grade all made up songs to sing about butterflies. I videoed Rhett singing. Well, I tried. He got video-taping-fright and pretty much forgot his words. Next time I'll just be there in person and record it in my little memory bank. He looked cute in his homemade butterfly t-shirt though! 

Once we got outside and he got his butterfly trap (a tasty orange slice) and about 3.4 minutes went by with no luck, he was over it. He dropped his slice, ran around until he found a bud and then I was as good as chopped liver. I slowed him down for one second to break school rules to snap a picture (I'm such a rebel!) and then texted it to his bud's mom who had to work that day. 

Butterfly release parties are so much more fun when you have a great bud to share it with! 

Swim and S'mores

As it's the end of September, this is probably one of our last swim days. Having a heater in the pool was a great idea so we could stretch our pool days out a little longer. We invited a few friends over and did some swim and s'mores. An excellent combo! 

 There may have been dancing on the wall. With Rhett around....yeah, you can be sure there will be dancing on the wall!

 S'mores in the fire pit. 

S'mores on the face:)

Bye, bye summer! We've loved you!

Flag Football

 Both Cade and Rhett decided they wanted to play flag football this fall instead of baseball. So, every Saturday we spent a couple hours out at the field to watch. I actually like flag football as a break. It's not too serious and the kids have fun. They both ended up being on teams with their baseball team buddies. Cade's team did pretty well but they were by far the smallest team in the league. Some of those kids looked like grown men.....I mean, who has legs full of black adult hair and makings of a mustache and a five o'clock shadow in a 10-14 year old flag football league? Oh yeah. It's the 14 year olds. Woah. What? Are there really that many hormones in the chicken we've been eating? Anyway, Cade had fun. 

He ran the ball a couple times....

 made some good catches...

and called it a day. Good season.

 This was Rhett's first time to play flag and he was pumped. That's all he and his friends do at recess and half of his recess crowd was on his team. That made for a pretty stellar little team! 

His baseball bud Garet was on this team and those two....you've gotta watch them. It seems that every time they're together they end up in some kind of wrestling match or something. 

Rhett's competitive nature takes over in any sport so he was full force this whole season. 

Pulling flags....

playing a little QB....

and ending their season undefeated. 

We had a ton of fun watching this crew take everyone down. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!

Family Pics With Wendy!

Bobby's sister was ever so kind to take the time out of her busy schedule to do some family photos for us. They were all great but these are some of my favorites:

This is my most favorite one of all because it cracks me up! I told the kids to act like they always do for this shot and this is what they came up with. So true, so true!