September 19, 2007

Kati's Creations!

Not only does Kati make the kids birthday cakes - she also makes their pumpkins. For those of you that don't know who Kati is - she is my wonderful sister-in-law! She worked really hard this past Saturday getting the kids pumpkins done so that they could enjoy them longer. Alan takes his from room to room and Carrigan cleaned off her dresser (it was a miracle she cleaned) so it would have a clean place to sit. Here are pictures of the kids with their pumpkins! Thanks Kati!


Alan loves his Thomas the Train!

Carrigan asked her Aunt Kati to do one with flowers and she got it! Thanks Aunt Kati!

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Rusty came home from work early yesterday and got the itch to shoot his bow. He has not shot his bow in over 3+ years. Of course - his first round was a perfect grouping. It was just like he had been practicing for months.

Look at that form!



Alan had to check out what his daddy was doing!



I can see you!



Rusty put his stand up in one of the trees and the kids just had to climb up there.



Rusty in the tree! It was a perfect day to be outside!

I hope that you enjoyed looking at my pictures! Have a great rest of the week!

Kim

September 9, 2007

Alan's 3rd Birthday Party
Sunday - September 9, 2007

Although Alan's actual birthday was September 8th - we had to have his party on the 9th this year. What a fun day we all had. Alan for the last week had been talking about his "slide" for his party. It took me about a month to convince him that we were not having ponies at this party like we did last year. Up until a couple of days ago - he was telling everyone that he was going to be 4 instead of 3. We finally broke him of that. :-)

We had an awesome day. Thanks so much to everyone that was able to make it ~ Mom (aka - Grammy), Kandis and Matt, Kristi, Pat, Hunter and Mitchell, Barb (aka Grandma) and Tim (aka Papa), Kati, Ty and Brooke, Carolyn and Katelyn, Amanda, Abby and Maggie, Sue and Dante, Mike, Dana, Rachael, and Stephen, Tori, Bailey, AJ and Camden. I hope that I did not leave anyone off. If I did - I apologize - I did not mean too!

Below are just some of the pictures that were taken of the party. I have others that I will try to post later on this week.

This awesome cake was made by Kati. She has made just about every cake for the kids since my baby shower with Carrigan. Every cake out does the one before! She is awesome! Thanks again Kati!!!! For those of you that saw the invitation - this fish was on the bottom right.

Here's the birthday boy ready to blow out his candle.

Here's the slide that we rented. It was an 18ft wet/dry slide. I think that it was a huge hit. The kids seemed to love it. Some of the kids were a little scared but let just say - they all went down at least once. We will have to do this again maybe next year. Check out the website at www.herecomesfun.com/pke

Here's the birthday boy sliding down. He had so much fun!!

Amanda and Maggie

Amanda's little girl Abby was probably on top of the
slide trying to save the moth that was up there :-)

Carolyn and Sue

Carolyn's little girl Katelyn loved the slide.
I think she stayed on it until the very end.
Sue's little boy Dante was a little afraid
of it but he did go down once with Rusty.
He also liked to play in the water and the foot of the slide.

Mom, Kandis and Matt

None of them tried the slide :-(
Matt did find the water balloons
and from what I hear - they were a big success especially
once Rusty got the sling shot. I think the kids
liked them too. Thanks for coming over.

This is Mike and Dana.

Their kids Rachael and Stephen were right there with Katelyn.
I think they only came in to eat cake and watch
Alan open his presents and then they were back outside.
Thanks Mike for helping Rusty load the slide and for helping him
pack it away and clean up. Thanks Dana for
helping with the ice cream. That was really nice of you :-)

Barb and Tim enjoying some sun!
Barb went down the slide several times!

Barb's turn. Barb actually went down it alot.
She seemed to have a really good time also!

This is Rusty going down.
He said that the slide was pretty fast.
I only went down it when it was dry and I thought it was fast then.

Here's a picture of Brooke. Does Brooke
look like her Grandma (Barb) holding her nose?
It looks like she had a great time too!

I hope that everyone had as much fun as we did.

I just wanted to let everyone know also that if you did not receive an invite to Alan's party - please don't feel like we left you out. I promise we didn't forget about you. I just tried to only invite the smaller kids more Alan's age this year. I hope everyone understands.

Please check back later this week to see more pictures from the party! Thanks to dial-up I could not post all of them at once and this has taken me all day!

Have a great week!

Kim

Labor Day Weekend 2007

LABOR DAY WEEKEND
Florence Marina State Park
August 31st - September 3rd, 2007


What a great weekend to get away. The only problem was....it didn't start out that way.

Friday morning Rusty took his GRE (he scored high enough to get accepted into all the schools that he plans on applying too - YEAH!) in Columbus. Then he came home and finished loading the camper while I picked Carrigan up at school. We get loaded and headed out and his truck is making a funny noise. We weren't comfortable taking the truck so we had to turn around (not easy with a 30" travel trailer) and head back home to pick up my car (a Tahoe). We finally get on the road. Once we hit Columbus we passed right by the place Rusty was at earlier in the day. We had planned on pulling into a fast food place to get us and the kids something to eat but none of the places were big enough to pull in with a travel trailer so we didn't get to stop. We had also planned on stopping by a store to pick up the rest of the things we needed before we got to the campground. We did not see one grocery store the way that we went. We then headed towards the camp ground thinking that a grocery store would be on the way. Nope! Rusty also noticed once we got to Fort Benning that my A/C stopped working in my car. Not a good thing in the heat that we have had recently.

We went to Lumpkin and could not find a grocery store there and then we went to a small town where we stopped and asked a very nice guy if there was a store close by and he said yes and told us to turn around (again not an easy thing to do with the camper) and it is right behind the Dollar General store. Then he told us that he saw us drive by the first time and it looked like one of the bikes were falling off of the back so Rusty pulls alongside the curb. While doing that - he gets too close to one of the signs and hits it. Luckily it did not scratch the camper and the bike ended up being okay even though it was kind of dangling. We turn around and head towards the store. It's a good thing the guy told us it was behind the Dollar General or we would have never found it. But - guess what! It was closed. It closed at 8pm and it was about 825pm when we got there. Plus there was an arch thing at the entrance and the camper was too tall to fit under it. Soooooo....Rusty backed out of the parking lot entrance and we headed toward a gas station that said they had pizza. Rusty gets out and goes inside to find out that they were sold out of pizza. URGH.... There was a police officer there that Rusty asked about a grocery store and the nice officer told him that he would show him the way to the store but it closes at 9pm. We had a police escort to the store. The store was a grovery store but not the kind of store you would go to every day. Let's just say that we got what we needed and then got out of there. When we got outside the officer was there waiting for us to make sure that we got everything that we needed and we told him we did and said thank you!

We were back on the road again. We were only about 20 miles from the campground. We pull into the campground and look for a spot to pull in and from what we could see in the dark it looked like they were all taken. Rusty was not very happy since we had paid for reservation in advance. We circle the campground a couple of times and finally find a place that had about 4-5 empty places. Now my job was to make sure that Rusty did not hit any trees and make sure that he could see me in the mirrors. That was not easy considering it is now 945ish and it's dark outside. We finally get the camper situated. By the time we are done it's time to go to bed.

Saturday morning we wake up and guess who is sick? Me! Alan had been to the doctor earlier in the week and ended up having a double ear infection and was congested with a cough. I guess I got what he had minus the ear infections. It was a very lazy morning and afternoon for me. I ended up taking a nap for a couple of hours trying to feel better. Meanwhile the kids were having a great time. The campground was completely flat and it was perfect for the kids to ride their bikes. Carrigan was such a big help to Alan since he can ride his bike but he can't get started. They road all over the place together. The campground was really safe so we had no problem with Carrigan going everywhere but we wouldn't let Alan go by himself. Carrigan even made some friends with some girls at one of the sites and played volleyball with them.

When I woke up Rusty suggested that we head towards Eufala to see what we could find there. If we had known that it was only 20+ miles away from the campground we would have gone there on Friday night after we dropped off the camper. When we got to Eufala there was everything there. We stopped by the Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of items (a coffee pot - I thought there was one in the camper) and then he dropped me off at Winn-Dixie and he headed to a car parts store to get what was need to fix my car. It was the belt that broke so that was pretty easy for Rusty to fix.

Saturday night ended up being alot of fun. When we got back to the campsite we noticed that someone had pitched a tent in one of the sites near us.. It was a mom and her two girls. They were originally from Finland and had lived in the Norcross area for the last 4 years. She told me that her that had just dropped her husband off at the airport and she and her girls were camping and then were going hiking the next morning. They were behind us. On one side of us there was an older couple from Columbus. They were really nice. On the other side of us was a man, his wife, their granddaughter and her friend all from Moultrie. They were wonderful. Saturday night they brought us over marshmallows so Carrigan could roast them. She had so much fun.

Sunday was another fun and lazy day. I still wasn't feeling great but I at least didn't take a nap. The kids from the time they woke up until it got dark were riding their bikes. Alan's little legs were just a going. Sunday night the couple with the granddaughter invited all of us over to roast marshmallows and to make Hobo Pizza. Of course Carrigan had to be different and just had a grilled cheese over the campfire. It was fun fun fun!

Monday morning it was time to pack up and leave. I always hate this part. It is so much easier unpacking than it is to pack up. We left Florence Marina at 1145am and got home at 215pm. It was a very easy drive home.

This is definitely a place that we will go back to. It was perfect for the kids and very relaxing for me and Rusty.

Unfortunately I didn't take alot of pictures from this trip due to not feeling good but here are a few.

Here's the camper all set up. One nice thing about these sites are they were very big so you were not on top of your neighbor. The campsite also had full hookup (water, sewer, electric and cable TV).

Another view of the camper.

Our campfire on Saturday night.




Caarrigan and Alan enjoying the fire.



Rusty showing Carrigan how to roast marshmellows.
Carrigan didn't like the smoke getting in her eyes.




This is for you mom. Your granddog Princess had a great time.
She even liked her new leash. She could not chew through it but she did try once or twice!



Rusty and Carrigan




This is almost everyone on Sunday night.


This was alot of fun and I can't wait to go back again. Be sure to check out www.gastateparks.org and then look for Florence Marina State Park.

Hope that everyone had a safe holiday weekend.

Kim