Hallloween Treats

Tonight we dug out the ol family sugar cookie recipe and whipped us up some yummy from scratch cookies!

Daddy helped the kids cut out their shapes. Mommy baked them during our Friday night family dinner (mini meal tonight - mini pizzas, mini chicken fingers, mini cheese sticks - mini cups of pink lemonade!).

After dinner, we all set to decorating our favorites!

I'll let you guess what came next?

Cooler Weather = Bike Rides

You don't need a math teacher mommy to know the equation for fall

Cooler weather + 2 Kids = More time outside

Mikaela and Xander are becoming pros on their bikes. Watch out Nana - not too long and we might be sending those kiddie poos on bike rides to your house!

As a side note - check out those cool fall boots that Mikaela now wears with every outfit!

Pumpkin Carving!

Decisions were made quickly as to what each pumpkin would be!

Mikaela chose Cinderella - anyone surprised?

Xander picked the lovable Winne the Pooh!

Washington Farms Pumpkin Patch

Fall break fun continues!

We headed out to Washington Farms for our annual Pumpkin Patch adventure!

First we started the hour long process of choosing a pumpkin.




Mikaela's stiff criteria: she had to be able to carry it to the carry it back to












the wheel barrow.

Xander's stiff criteria: it had to be bigger than Mikaelas!

Criteria set, off we set into the pumpkin patch. After much deliberation, the most perfect 2 specimens were chosen.

Next, it was to the trike race - each man was on his own!

Then to the PVC pipe slide - now someone is really making some money off a redneck idea here! One slide you go down inside a big piece of plastic piping. The other slide is several smaller pipes attached to boards so that they go "bump bump bump" on your way down. The sound effects are the true joy. About half way through our slide time, it was discovered - if you yell "AAAAHHHHH" really loud - it comes out "AAAA AAAA AAAA AAAAA HHHH HHHHH HHHH" on the way down!

My favorite - the corn box (ie a faux sand box). Big wooden box full of - you guess it kernels of hard corn. Yes - babies, try throwing that in your hair. No worries for mama at shampoo time tonight!

Xander's favorite is the petting zoo. Big Pigs - I don't think he needs that "Don't feed me" sign - he pretty much preaches it! Rabbits, goats, cows, donkeys, and turkeys.

"Ladies and Gentlefolks make your way over to the Taladega speedway in 10 minutes for the pig race." No way were we missing that! Each pig worn its own colored bandanna. The crowd was handed bandannas to use to root for their pig - Stinky Feet, and other themed named pigs raced to the finish. Now - in case you too were wondering how they pull that off. They spend all summer teaching the pigs to run around the circle for a reward of.......chocolate milk! I see a race car future in Xander!

Up next, the cow train. You have never had a relaxing ride until you have squeezed your oversized rear end into a barrel decorated like a cow. Then ride around a farm, pulled by a teenager with a new driver's license driving a John Deere tractor!

We ended our activities with the hay ride - Sit down on your bottom , keep your hands inside!

The Thrailkill family ended the perfect outing with our favorite picnic - Zaxby's chicken fingers (don't forget the Zax's sauce!) and doritos! YUMMY!

Hump Day

Day 3 of fall break and we are having another pajama morning. If you listen carefully, you can probably hear the chatter from our home:

M: No Xander- that's not how you do it
X: Mommy, she's not being kind to me
M: HE'S NOT DOING WHAT I TELL HIM TO
The Mommy: Play nicely or go to separate rooms!
M: We don't want to go to separate rooms - we like to play together

Thus, is how our morning goes.

We did manage to share glitter glue and create some really cool sand art (thank you NaNa for dropping off new art supplies for our week!).

A few games of candyland, a little online time with our webkinzs, some stamp art, race car racing, train playing, puzzle working morning.

We're having a good time?

Jumpin into Fall

Monday marked the beginning of fall break for Mikaela and Xander. A whole week off school. What will we do?

Monday we had a pajama day - lay in Mommy's bed and watch cartoons, have breakfast while hanging out with Super Why, and play, play, play!

So, it would only mean then that after Mommy was home ALL day with TWO children - that an outing would be needed for Tuesday. We packed up our lunch boxes, bottled waters, and our camera and headed to Jump Zone.

It was our lucky day as not long after arriving, 3 of Mikaela's friends had the same idea as us! The kids loved having playmates and had the best time.

Daddy met us mid day, and shhh - don't tell anybody, but he raced the obstacle course and did the super slide more than one time!

After 4 hours of jumpin fun, we headed to Baskin Robbins for a real treat. Tuesdays are buy one get one free Sundae days - yummy!

Pumpkin Art

After carefully selecting our pumpkins at the school fall harvest festival, we then had to decide what to do with them. It was unanimously decided that our pumpkins needed........Halloween Costumes!

Mikaela set forth to make hers a beautiful princess. First, came a full coat of pink paint. Then, drawn on a face. Decorate with jewels. No princess would be in complete costume without her tiara. Much time was spent on creating the perfect tiara - pink of course, with many jewels - and lots of sparkly glitter!And, it wouldn't be Halloween without a little magic - so a magic wand was in demand!

Xander created his own superhero - a cross between spiderman and superman. He began with a coat of red paint. Then went to work drawing spider lines on his pumpkin. Created a face - complete with gluing on circle eyes. Now for the Superman quality of a super hero cape. A piece of mommy's big scrapbooking paper, many stars and accessories and a good glue stick - Up, Up, and AWAY!!!!

Fall Harvest Festival

Today was the Fall Harvest Festival at Bright Beginnings Preschool. The festival begins with a hayride - pulled by a very cool John Deere Tractor. The hayride takes you to the pumpkin patch.

Your first stop is the tri-cycle race - all the way to the cone and back. Now for the tricky stop - the sack race! Nothing is cuter than sacks bigger than the kids in them!

Off to the patch to pick out your pumpkin. Then to milk the cow (no we can not get a cow to milk at home).

Next we are on to macaroni necklace making (just wouldn't be a preschool craft day without it!). Died macaroni in red, blue, green, orange, and yellow to choose from.

Corn painting and apple stamping - very creative centers. Apples were cut in half and dipped in red and green. Corn was rolled around in a box dipped in orange/red/yellow paint.

Then, back on the hayride to get back to class.

The kids had a blast! Check out the link "fall festival" for additional pictures!

Jump Jump Jump

This is our last year of "Monday Mommy" days. Since Mikaela's birth, we have spent every Monday together - no preschool on Mondays! As we sadly see these days coming to an end, we have voted to do something really cool and fun every Monday this year!

This past Monday, we went to Jump Zone - for the whole day. 4 hours! We jumped, and jumped, and played! We took our lunch boxes for a picnic lunch. A good time was had by all:).

Funtastic Fall!

We are loving the cooler weather - bring it on!

Sunday afternoon, we cooked out in the backyard. Hotdogs for everyone (hamburger for Xander - the only kid I know who won't eat a hot dog!). The kids played on the swingset, rode the tractor and had a great time!