Happy Halloween!!

We had a great night of trick-or-treating. Olivia and McIver had a BLAST deciding which houses to go to, who would knock on the door and reminding each other to say "thank you" after getting candy. Both kids were done by the time their bags were too heavy to carry. So, we headed home, picked through the loot and decided what to keep and what to give to the Halloween Fairy, a cousin of the Tooth Fairy. Apparently, you can leave your candy at the front door, the Halloween Fairy will come and take it away and leave a surprise in its place. We'll keep you posted.

Posing for a quick picture with one of our pumpkins before hitting the streets.

Olivia picked out her favorites.

Kind of looks like Mac has already had more than enough!

Oh, to be 4!

McIver got a Bible song CD for his birthday. Our favorite song is This is My Commandment. The lyric actually says: This is my commandment, that you love one another and your joy may be full.

This is McIver's version: This is my commandment, that you love one another and your joy made me four! And he sings it with such gusto that you almost believe he's got the right words.

Happy Halloween!

GranGran & GranDaddy Visit

Ginny and Jimmy came to Houston for a long, long weekend. They took care of Olivia and McIver while I was busy at church with the ECW Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, GranGran was under the weather so we didn't get as many pictures as we would have if she had been feeling 100%. At any rate, here are a few...

Will and Ginny took the kids to the Fire Fest. They climbed in firetrucks, enjoyed moonwalks and slides and watched old junk cars being set on fire and then put out. McIver said the fire made his "brain hurt."
There's nothing like a snow cone on a beautiful fall day!
Apparently, McIver is a future rodeo star. I think he'd have to come up with a stage name, though. "McIver" just doesn't sound tough enough, if you ask me.
Olivia all decked out in her ballerina/Sleeping Beauty ensemble

for Sam Stricklin's 3rd birthday party.

Covenant Sunday at Palmer

Yesterday was Covenant Sunday - and Olivia's debut singing with the St. Nicholas Choir and McIver's Cherub Choir debut in the big church. Despite saying that she didn't like choir b/c "all we do is sing," Olivia did a great job. McIver was fine until he overheard another Cherub say she was scared. He balked a putting on the white collar briefly, but then all was well.

Pumpkin Patch

Every year, our realtor's company holds a great Pumpkin Patch. It's quite a party with costumes, cookies and pumpkins galore!

Spiderman trying to scale the fence!

BounceU Birthday Party

McIver was SO excited to be able to invite his entire class, plus a few other friends, to his birthday party at BounceU. This was his first real bash and he enjoyed every minute of it.

In the BounceU Birthday Chair waiting for his Spiderman cake.

Going down the big slide with Dad.

In the tunnel with Michael.

Still celebrating

Olivia just couldn't stand McIver not being able to open more of his birthday presents. We've been trying to hold off because Will has been working late and it didn't seem right to be opening gifts without him here. But, Olivia's persistence wore me down...

She picked out a Black & Decker took kit for him. He loves that the battery pack moves from sander to flashlight, just like Daddy's.

Celebrating with cupcakes in the Ladybug Class.

Let the Celebration(s) Begin...

Today is McIver's 4th birthday. Of course, because he's my child, he was able to open some presents early! (Really, we had a good reason - my Open House is tonight at school from 6:30 until after 8 so he NEEDED to be able to start celebrating last night!) He loves the baseball bat, glove and balls from Nanoo, Pop & Cacoo. We will open more presents later and are having the party on Saturday at BounceU with his whole class from school.

He actually made contact quite a few times and was so excited. This was last Thursday, so I can't really remember anymore why the children are wearing pajamas to play in the backyard.

Olivia picked out a Spiderman costume for him - a HUGE hit! (Until yesterday, he thought he had to be a pirate every year for Halloween - he's jazzed at the thought of being Spiderman!)
That would be SHEER DELIGHT on his face!

Firetruck visit at school

Last month at school, we practiced our first fire drill and invited a firetruck to visit our 3 year old classes. It was really, REALLY cool. They let the kids climb all around, in and out of the truck, try on the helmet, boots and jacket and even let them turn on the hoses. (This was new to all of us, they didn't even unroll the hoses last year, much less turn them on!) Since McIver is also in a 3 year old class, I was able to watch his reactions to the whole scene. Needless to say, he JUMPED at the chance to be first in line to hold the hose!

Olivia's Sunday School drawing

Olivia comments on the picture she drew at Sunday School yesterday: This picture is in the dark and the sun is setting. And it's raining. And Mommy's having a meeting at Palmer Church. And there's food there and we're staying home with Daddy and maybe we can get some supper on the way home.

Blessing of the Animals

Olivia and McIver were excited to sing for the Blessing of the Animals this morning at Palmer. We chose to leave our animals at home since Dad couldn't go with us to keep up with Murphy. There were LOTS of animals - live and stuffed - dogs, cats (some in carriers and, amazingly, some not), rabbits, hermit crabs, fish, guinea pigs and a parrot. Mac took his blue bunny and O (surprisingly!) took the ballerina pig that she received as a birthday gift. (Froggie was blessed last year, she reminded me.)

McIver's first public performance with Cherub Choir. He loved it!

Olivia follows Mrs. Courtney's cues closely.

Fr. Sam was the officiant and we were even joined by St. Francis of Assisi himself!

Home Sick with McIver

McIver woke up with a 102 temp early Monday morning - and an upset tummy. The upset tummy really freaked him out - I don't think he remembers the last time he was sick like that. After taking Olivia to school, we just spent the morning hanging around the house.

McIver: Mommy, I need you. I just don't feel good.
Me: What do you feel like, bud?
McIver: I feel like surgery.

Poor guy! He fell asleep yesterday afternoon (which is usually the kiss of death as far as bedtime goes), but ended up going to sleep just fine (maybe a tad late) which goes to show how sick he was. Anyway, he began to perk up once we got Olivia home from school and seems to be his old self today.

Olivia's 6th Birthday Party

Olivia invited her entire kindergarten party to celebrate her 6th birthday at a playground near our house. It was a beautiful day, we had a great turn-out and the kids had lots of fun, especially the Birthday Girl!

Olivia was all smiles and enjoying her princess cake!

Adrienne, Tomer, Grace & Olivia pose for a quick pic.

McIver took a break from throwing rocks to snap a picture. All the excitement over Olivia's birthday has made him even more excited for his own next month!

Will's Birthday

Will was serenaded by the band at dinner at Poblano's

(Olivia was horrified!).

No birthday of Will's would be complete without a trip to the Marbe Slab!

More Galveston Pictures

Like I said, Murphy enjoyed himself as much as we did.

Gay and me making our way to the beach with supplies.

Mac posing for a beach shot.
Abigail & Olivia in the surf.
Mac & Sam watching Peter Pan - notice that Mac's earphones are not even plugged into the DVD player!

Sleeping Angel

This is what I found when I went in to turn McIver's light off tonight. "Super Baby' has been to school and just about everywhere we've been lately. McIver takes very good care of him (see the blanket carefully placed over the baby, usually there's a pillow, too) - with Olivia as his model parent, how could he not?

Olivia's 6th Birthday

Olivia is about as lucky a kid as you can find. We started celebrating her birthday on Thursday night in Galveston. She opened several presents which were great fun to enjoy during the weekend. She celebrated Sunday morning (her actual birthday) with candles in her cinnamon rolls and then even chose where we went to dinner Sunday night - Skeeters, dressed in her new Sleeping Beauty costume compliments of Nanoo, Cacoo, Pop and Grandma Janet. She has also opened presents from GranGran and GranDaddy which she is not yet willing to share with her very jealous little brother - who is super excited for his own birtday next month.

Uno Attack was enjoyed by all throughout the weekend.

Lite Brite was a hit - whoever created the 4-sided Lite Brite is a GENIUS!

Have you ever seen someone so excited about a new pair of tennis shoes!? They're Hello Kitty and they have not left her feet since she first put them on.

Check out all those candles!

THIS is what Olivia wore to dinner to celebrate her birthday -

a princess, indeed!

Galveston with the Stricklins

We had been planning a long weekend in Galveson with the Stricklins for several months now. But, last Wednesday night we were very concerned that Hurricane Humberto would rain on our parade - literally. We were ecstactic Thursday morning when we woke and not a drop of rain had fallen in Houston! The weekend was a blast from start to finish...

Olivia and Abigail were the first to test out the hot tub, in spite of the

thousands of 'love bugs' floating around.

Sam & McIver took it upon themselves to rid the hot tub of love bugs - and water!

I didn't say it didn't rain in Galveston! Our house was 6 down from the beach. So we had to walk through knee-deep water to get to the beach on Thursday night. By Friday morning, we were golden. The sun was shining and we had a beautiful day to enjoy the beach.

It was great to see Will so relaxed and enjoying some free time with the kids.

Murphy faired pretty well throughout the weekend as well -beach, chasing his dummy in the ocean, free reign in the beach house, a hose down every time he came home from the beach, even a steak dinner on Saturday night.

"A Favorite Time with My Grandparents"

As dictated by Olivia while looking at pictures of each of the grands:

Pop fed me ice cream at Disney World. Nanoo gives me ‘sugar’ and tickles me. Grandma Janet has cats and my favorite animal is a cat.

Since Mamoo’s husband died, she gives me lots of money, $5 or $4 or $1 when I visit her in South Carolina. Grandma Myrtle lives across the street from a train track and we always walk to the train track. And, she has lots of toys.

My favorite time with GranDaddy was one day he took me to play golf in the golf cart and I got to drive with him, but my brother stayed home. GranGran makes good chicken pie for me. And she makes me lots of dresses. My favorite is the one with flowers and my initials.

The End.

Advice from a 4th grader

As I tried to hunt down my tennis racket (I joined a team and will begin playing again for the first time since before Olivia was born!), I ran across a box full of old pictures and letters from high school and college. I found an envelope full of letters from 4th graders giving advice to seniors upon graduating from Stratford. The first one I got to made me laugh out loud. Maybe this is the advice I'll give Olivia and McIver when we have the drug talk...

Dear Nikki,
We're suppose to give you some good advice to make choices so if you ever meet a person who wants to give you drugs just say you're allergic to whatever it is.
Your friend,
Stefano, 4th grader