InstaFriday ~ Elf on the Shelf Edition

This is our first year to have an elf on the shelf join us from the North Pole. 

One of AP's good friends had an elf join them this year and AP's friend told her all about how all she had to do was write a letter to Santa and he would send an elf to our house. 

Of course, AP came home and started writing her letter immediately. 

The only problem was we were leaving for NC the next day. So we mailed the letter that next morning and, lo and behold, Santa delivered an elf to the grandparents house in NC! 

So, the pics are of elf antics I have captured on my cell phone this week!

The grass may not be greener...

But in some places the McDonalds is a lot nicer!

Thanksgiving in NC

So this Thanksgiving I took ZERO pictures. Very strange. But, we are so very thankful to be in NC surrounded by family.

Thanksgiving evening was overshadowed by news that Nanna was rushed to the hospital from my sisters house. Please remember her in your prayers. Not exactly the holiday she had planned.

We didn't participate in the midnight craziness of Black Friday, but AP and I did go out shopping midday for angel tree gifts.

The boys went to ECU for their first Pirates football game and had a great time watching a close game that went into overtime and ended in a pirate win (arrrgh).

And apparently I made them stare at the sun as I took their picture.

Blogging After Defeat

We are driving home from K-town as I type. Although, it was most definitely not the outcome we wanted (really, what coach gives up on 3rd down with a timeout and 30+ seconds left?!?), we still enjoyed the awesome weather and our day on Rocky Top. This was the last game that we will attend this season. It's been fun! And they can only get better, right? :)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Little Rebels :)

The Big Cheese

After begging for over a year, I finally gave in and let the kiddos try riding the bus home from school.  

We live about 100 yards from the school, so their daily adventure is about 5 minutes long total, but they love it!

This was the bus pulling up on their first afternoon.

 

And they made it home safely!

I must admit that I can see the school from my house and can watch the bus as it drives the route, but at least they feel like they are gaining some independence, right?

The bus can't actually turn on our street because we live on a very small cul-de-sac and there would be nowhere for the bus to turn around.  So, the dogs and I have been walking to the end of our street every afternoon to watch and wait for the kiddos.

 

 

I made our bus driver a school bus scarf with her name as a little "thank you".

3rd Grade Landform Project

As a part of their study of landforms, C's class had an edible landform project.

C was assigned a waterfall, and we were to construct it completely out of food.

Here is our finished product!

 

We used cake, broccoli, Fruit Roll Ups, Oreos, sprinkles, Jello, and Swedish fish.

At the end of the day, their teacher let them deconstruct and attempt to eat their projects, 

but C wouldn't let anyone touch his!

Monster Mash

This year the 3rd grade had a Monster Mash Party the Friday before Halloween as a reward for good behavior.  Each of the room moms was in charge of a station.  My station was the gross sensory station.  You know, reach in and feel gross Halloweeny stuff. 

So I got plastic shoeboxes, then painted them black.  My uncle cut 3rd grade hand-size holes at the end of each box and I added a little fabric curtain so they couldn't see in.  I added white vinyl circles decorated to look like eyeballs and then I had the perfect gross sensory boxes.

For the signs, I got Dollar Tree frames and just hot glued googly eyes to them.  The kiddos loved all the gross stuff!  I used peeled grapes for eyeballs, pasta for brains, carrots and almonds for witch fingers and nails, fake fur for werewolf fur, and water gems (vase filler) for cat eyes.  The cat eyes were the favorite.  And I must admit they felt pretty gross!

The pic above is C and one of his best friends that is in his class this year.  They have so much fun together!

Little Cupcake and Scary Scarecrow!

This year we had a little cupcake and a scary scarecrow at our house!

C has been asking since last year before Halloween if he could have a scary costume.

I think the scary scarecrow was a good compromise!  At least there are no blood and guts hanging out.

And although AP looks sweet and innocent as a little cupcake, she really wanted to be scary, too!  She asked if her cupcake could carry an axe after seeing one with the costumes when we were out shopping!!  Someone even asked her what she was when we were out trick-or-treating and she said a "bloody cupcake"!  

It's hard when Halloween falls mid-week.  Before we ever left our house, C had lots of homework to finish (poor planning on his part because he left everything he needed at school until the day before it was due!).  Then we met up with family for dinner, handed out candy to a few spooks, and had time for one quick lap of trick-or-treating, then it was bedtime!  The weirdest thing about this year is that neither of my kids cared one bit about going to get candy.  It wasn't that they are getting old because they still really like the dressing up. And at 6 and 9, they should be at the peak of their trick-or-treating-is-cool phase. They just neither one really wanted any candy!  We had to talk them into going on the one lap that we did, then after about three houses they asked to go back to my cousin's house.  

I think they would just rather hang out with family! 

We don't need any more candy anyway :)

Backing Up ~ Yankees Visit

A few weeks ago our friends who were originally from the north, but then moved South for a while, but are now back up North, came for a super quick visit on the way to their grown up anniversary getaway.

They are Steelers fans so when we saw the Steelers were scheduled to play the Titans, the boys put a plan in place and then there we were tailgating with Frank Wycheck.

 

Oh,  and on the way to the game I had Jack's BBQ for the very first time.  

And guess who was there??

Jack!

 

(although, I didn't really eat BBQ, I had turkey, and it was really good, despite the warning that it would be otherwise)

It was a great night- good weather, the Titans won, and our friends aren't even sore losers.

 

A good time was had by all, even in the hour that we spent in the parking lot after the game battling dolphins and grumpy granddads :)