Fall Fun Weeks!

My, oh my! We are in full fall swing around here! The weather has included some overcast days and there have even been days of.........wait for it.......rain! Amazing! Cooler, darker mornings have made the littlest member of our household not want to get out of bed so easily in the mornings. I can't say that I blame her, but getting her ready for school each day has become increasingly more difficult despite the fact that she gets upset every Saturday and Sunday when there is no school!

We started out the fall festivities this year by attending my sister's school (she's an elementary school teacher) fall festival. Caleigh really enjoyed her time at this outdoor festival. She got her face painted, played a few games,

jumped in a jumpy, slid down a very large slide,

rode on a horse,

held a chicken and a bunny,


and collected enough prize tickets to get herself an interchangeable princess necklace, a Kit Kat bar, and a ladybug temporary tattoo. She was most pleased with herself and did not want to leave.

The very next morning was the Fall Festival and Auction at Caleigh's preschool. This was an indoor event (and thank goodness it was because it was so very windy outside).

Here, Caleigh got to play games for candy prizes,

make a sand art bracelet and necklace,

have her face painted, jump in a jumpy, slide down a giant inflatable slide, and visit a fire truck.

She got to have all three of her aunts, her two cousins, one of her uncles, and her granny come to her school festival! She was very excited about this. She played the cakewalk alot with them!

I got to participate in the silent and live auctions for some very good things. I was really impressed with the amount of items that were available to bid on. The craftiness of some of the baskets up for auction were inspiring! I would have never thought to concoct some of the baskets that were there. I even bid on and won Caleigh a handmade Halloween dress and coordinating hair bow! So cute! I also won the bids on a Mexican themed gift basket that included a sombrero plate holding a giant bag of Tostitos, a jar of salsa, a jar of cheese dip, a jar of jalapenos, and a $30 gift card to a local Mexican restaurant. Chad and I have already went and used the gift card on a date night! In addition to those two auctions, I also won the auction for $30 worth of gift cards to Red Lobster. I foresee another date night in our future! :) There were also door prizes available, a 42in LG flat screen HDTV, an iPad2, and a years tuition to the school, none of which I was lucky enough to win. :( This festival was very fun and we spent most of the afternoon participating in all the activities.

Unfortunately for us, Chad has a very lousy work schedule this month. He works until at least 8:30 every night he works and has to work every weekend. This doesn't include him in many of our fall plans this year. However, the county fair happened to be occurring on one of his off days so we loaded up and headed 5 minutes down the road to the outrageously overpriced amusements. Despite the hard hit to the pocketbook, the experience was nice. We called my one of my sisters and her daughter and they met us there. We purchased unlimited ride bracelets for the kids and I spent the rest of the evening watching the two of them bounce up and down on boats,

zoom along on a train roller coaster,

spin in an enclosed cage wheel,

and bump other cars in Barbie cars and Jeeps.

The carousel made me nervous as I watched Caleigh go round and round and up and down.

I am a big fan of this picture of her!
I am not really trusting when it comes to "pop-up" rides. There was one ride that I refused to let her ride but I was pretty accepting of most of the others. Chad did get me to ride one thing with him, the Ferris wheel. I have to admit, once I got over the shock of moving backwards and swinging whenever the ride stopped, I did enjoy the view of the sunset. But, that was the extent of my rides. Thank goodness my sister was there to ride some of the other rides with Chad. I wasn't about to be suspended upside down or subject myself to seizure inducing strobe lights while spinning around in circle for anyone. Not even Chad! LOL.

Continuing with our fall activities, Mish, Caleigh's oldest aunt, asked to take her to a local farm with some friends of hers that were coming to visit. I consented and noticed that there was a fall festival going on in the square she would have to travel through in order to come and pick Caleigh up to go with her. I advised her of the festival so that she could go an alternate route as to not get caught up in traffic on the way to our house. Instead, she suggested we all go check the festival out before they headed to the farm. So, Caleigh and I got ready and headed to the square and met Mish there with a special guest, Caleigh's youngest cousin! We walked around the festival and Caleigh got to jump and slide again, as well as play with inflatable baseball and basketball games.




She then met a clown who cut her a beautiful ballerina out of paper

and then made her a balloon animal.
I do not like clowns (bad childhood memories I guess) but this guy wasn't so bad. We snapped a few pics



and then Caleigh headed to the farm with Mish for the rest of the day.

Yes, she did a clothing change before she left. She had to root for the Dawgs like Mish. She got to play in a bin of corn kernels,

shoot corn out of a cannon,

went on a hayride,

got lost in a corn maze,

petted farm animals,

slid on a slide,

watched a pig race, and bounced on a bouncy horse.
When I picked her up, she was coated in a layer of dry red Georgia dirt! She turned our tub orange during her bath that night, but she had fun!



Our local Chick-fil-a has family nights every Tuesday night from 5:30-7:30pm. They do some kind of special event during these two hours. This particular Tuesday night was pumpkin painting night.

Caleigh and I drove there and met Mish and her husband to eat dinner and she got to paint and decorate a baby pumpkin.

Then she got to eat her favorite meal for dinner. After that she got to play in the indoor playground for a while. Then, the giant CFA cow came out and interacted with all the kids. She gave him hugs and high fives. She then traded her toy in for an ice cream and then got a balloon to take home. In the car she tells me that she had such a good time at that fall festival! LOL! I take her to dinner and she thinks I took her to another fall festival. Guess I got some cool mom points in her eyes! Go me! LOL!

This past week, we did something we have never done before. We purchased tickets to see Disney on Ice- Dare to Dream.

Caleigh loves the Disney princesses and this show was so amazing! I was in as much awe as she was I think! I don't know if I enjoyed the show or watching her reactions to the show more!

Chad brought all of our cameras to make sure we didn't miss a moment and then got in our seats only to realize there were no memory cards in any of our cameras! So, all of our pictures and videos were taken on our phones! Thank goodness Chad has a phone with a really good camera! The pics on my phone weren't so great, but at least we were able to capture some memories!

Of course we had to buy the needless light-up spinning Rapunzel toy and a Rapunzel cup with a snow cone inside of it in order to complete the night. The people of Disney really know how to pull on the heartstrings and the purse strings! LOL! I LOVED taking her to this show! It was quite magical!



This weekend is Mish's birthday so now we are in for some more celebrating and having fun! All these super fun activities are really adding up and we just now reached the middle of the month! We have yet to visit a pumpkin patch, carve/paint our family pumpkin, or do any Halloween related activities. There is still so much fun to be had!

One Busy Month

Wow! So I have been so bad about blogging here lately. The month of September was supposed to be a laid back month with Caleigh's fall break week happening and everything but instead it turned into a really busy time for us. I had gotten so used to Caleigh being at school during the morning, when fall break got here, by that Tuesday Caleigh had fully reminded me what it was like before she started school. A whole week of round the clock Caleigh and I had to get ready for the following week which was an entire week of vacation off the Georgia coast with Chad and his mom. Packing is something that I really don't like to do for myself much less for my entire family. But I understand that it is a necessary evil in order to travel. Since Chad was working the entire week before we left, I had his packing to do too (unless I wanted him to "pack like a man" and he would toss a few pair of shorts and shirts in a bag along with some underwear and a swimsuit and be done). I couldn't let that happen, so I packed for him too. Caleigh seems to always be the easiest for me to pack for some reason. And her clothes take up the least space. However after all this preparation for packing, Chad informs me that our suitcases have had it. He doesn't think they will last another trip. So, now to shop for some affordable luggage to pack all of the stuff in. After hitting Target, Wal-Mart, JC Penney, and Khols, we finally got the best deal at the second Khols we went to. So, luggage in hand, it was time to pack it all up. The following Sunday morning, Nonnie arrived, we loaded down the back of our little SUV, and strapped the fishing poles and beach chairs to the roofrack, then hit the road. We made it all the way to the Bass Pro Shop before a stop happened. Chad wanted to fish off the pier and surf fish while we were in St Simon's so he needed some different hooks and weights.


This was Caleigh's first trip to a place like that and she sure had some questions about whether the animals in there were real or not. Try explaining to a 3 year old that they used to be real but are not anymore. Awkward! So, we headed to the fish tank where everything was still living. LOL.

Once back on the road, we drove until hunger forced a stop for an early lunch. After refueling, we were bound for the beach! We arrived in St. Simon's Island, Georgia and it was so much more beautiful that I had imagined, so serene and calming. Ocean meeting dunes and splashing against rock beckoned us to return the following morning to bask in all of it's glory.


Unfortunately, the forecast called for thunderstorms and rain showers pretty much the entire week we were going to be there. Fortunatly for us, the weather forecasters were not God and He had other plans for the weather on the days we were there. The skies would light up early in the morning and we would hit the beach. Sandcastles were made, "pools" were dug, and small waves splashed over a tiny body and big ones alike.









There was no real schedule. No deadlines. No tasks that had to be handled if we didn't want to handle them. There were just books to be read, magazines to be purused, and games to be played. We would take in all the sun we could until lunch time and then head back to the beach house for a shower, lunch, and then a nap. After nap each day it was time to head out to shop or browse and decide where to eat at for dinner. After one round of "cranky Chad" we all decided that it would be a good idea to decide where to eat dinner BEFORE we left the house so that we had no more episodes out of him. Seems he gets a bit cranky and impatient when he is hungry. LOL Pizza the first night, Authentic Mexican at Bubba Garcia's the next, pub food at Brogan's after that, seafood at Iguana's, and then some of the best BBQ ever at a little hole in the wall near the beach that was listed as one of Alton Brown's (from Food Network) places to must eat! And we all agreed, he was right! Funny story from that place: We placed our order at a window and when we were all done ordering, the guy asked "What's the name?" Nonnie was the last one to order and so he was still talking to her when he asked. She stumbled over the question and looked at me and asked me what he had said. I said he asked for a name. Somehow, the man heard "Meg" and wrote that name on our ticket. Just FYI, her name is not Meg, nor did she say "Meg". So we walked over to a table and sat down and a few minutes later, "Meg, your order is ready, Meg" was called over the loudspeaker. We all couldn't stop laughing. As I write this, I find it much less funnier than when it happened but every time I think about it, I still laugh.

Some of the best times had by Caleigh were not even at the beach itself. She absolutely loved driving in the golf cart

and feeding bread to her "buddies"- the seven ducks that lived in the pond at our condo. The ducks fought with the 50 or so turtles and tons of fish to eat the bread that she threw out. I think I should have just bought a loaf of bread just for the ducks, turtles, and fish!




She also loved playing the round of putt putt at the lighthouse. 97 over par (for each hole) was her norm. LOL! She did accidently get one hole in one!




We all also enjoyed watching the giant cargo ships head out to sea! The size of these ships were simply astonishing.


After five glorious days of beach, it was time to head back home. But, not before we spent a day in beautiful Savannah. I had never been there and as soon as we arrived, Caleigh was immediately intrigued by the "charlies" aka trollies. We inquired about the trolly tours and I was pleased to find out that there was a 90 minute round trip guided tour of Savannah offered. I couldn't think of a better way to see and hear about some of the city's history than on an open air trolly.




("Meg on the Charlie")



We opted for the ON/OFF pass so we could get off and explore whereever we liked and then catch the next available trolly when we were done. This turned our 90 minute trip into more like a 4 hour trip but it was well worth it. The city is pretty amazing. Lunch/dinner at the "fun family dining" Pirate House turned out to be "oh please don't break the stemware and it is ok to use the cloth to wipe your mouth (this time)" dining. Probably the fanciest place I have ever dined with my darling 3year old. But she was awesome. She was excited to "act like a lady".







After a full day in Savannah we were truly homeward bound. The next day was bithday day for both of my parents and for Nonnie. We doled out presents and then went to a housewarming party for Chad's aunt and uncle who just finished rebuilding their home after it was destroyed by fire last December. Their new place is absolutely gorgeous. The next week is was back to our daily routines of school and work. Caleigh was super glad to be back at school. We did get all of her work from the week that she was going to be absent and did it over fall break so she didn't miss anything, but she did miss getting to see all of her friends. This past weekend has been the start of all of the fall activies. Fall festivals, bbq's, pumpkin patches, cornmazes, fairs, and various other weekend adventures are sure to await us in the month of October. And I thought September was one busy month!