Krispy Kreme Tour

I think it was a dream outing for me and the kids today. My friend Leslie set up a tour at Krispy Kreme so we could all see how the donuts are made. Jackson always loves to watch from the window, but they got to go behind the scenes and get an up close look. Jackson was about to grab a whole bunch of donuts once he spotted the trays stacked on top of the each, but luckily I stopped him just in time... disaster averted! The Krispy Kreme employees were very nice and even gave the kids a couple of Halloween donuts to take home with them.

Learning how the donuts are made and where the dough is put in so it can rise.

Watching the dough rise into yummy donuts!

The donuts are ready to cook in the hot grease. Almost ready to eat!

Pittman Pumpkin Party

Sunday night we headed down the street to the Pittman's house (The Pittman Post) for a pumpkin carving party. I wish I would have taken a picture of the food because it was so cute! There were donut hole eye balls, carrot fingers, ghost nutter butters... all ideas I'm totally going to steal next Halloween! :) After eating all the wonderful food, the carving began. Jackson helped pull the gooey stuff out of the pumpkin, but then lost interest. He decided running in the rain was much more fun. He ended up going home in just his undies and a shirt because his clothes were soaked! We decided next year we are taking a much smaller pumpkin because it took Charles forever to clean it out! It was like the Mary Poppins bag of seeds! While the boys were outside carving, I was inside playing with Brady and chatting it up with other moms. Charles did a great job on the pumpkin.. we now have a spooky ghost to light up our porch for trick or treating this weekend. Thanks Pittman's for the very fun night!

Trip to Granny and PawPaw's House

Since we have lots of time to do what we want (staying at home is great!), we decided to head to Heber Springs to visit the grandparents for a few days. It was a very fun and relaxing trip! Of course, the first thing we had to do when we got there was stop by the station for a hot dog and to say 'hi' to PawPaw. Then it was off to school to sneak into Granny's classroom. We finally made it home and before I had even unloaded the car, Jackson was in the backyard ready to play. The weather was gorgeous, so we stayed outside all afternoon until Granny and PawPaw got home from work. After playing on the swing set, we headed to the pond the feed 'the girls' (coy fish) and play in the water. Jackson decided the rocks were dirty and was washing them off in the waterfall. The mosquitoes finally got the best of us, so we headed indoors for the night.

We had a busy day on Wednesday. We went to Granny's classroom to help them make witch's brooms filled with goodies for a craft project (see blog post below). I think they enjoyed it... I know Jackson did. He got to help pass out scissors and candy (he ate all of his before we ever got it into the bag!).

Brady had fun too... getting loved on by all the kids. Although I was a bit of a germophobe while we were there. I kept wiping his hands and mine with a wipe every time someone touched them. Those hands go straight to his mouth... I didn't want anyone else's germs getting in there!

After we left school, we had to head to the station so Jackson could 'work' on my car. He had a blast lifting and lowering my Jeep. He thought he was so cool!

I had yet to try my luck at the new Arkansas lottery, so dad bought me some tickets to scratch off on the 'scratch off table'. I won $2 total, but spent $10 or so to play... maybe I'll be luckier at powerball when it starts next week. :) Dad had one guy there for hours.. and I mean HOURS.. scratching off tickets... sad, but true. I'm hoping he'll buy some underwear if he wins... I'll spare you the picture because it wasn't pretty.

Thursday, my friend Alesha and her daughter Lynnlee came over for lunch and a play date. They had a great time playing with puzzles, books and cars. They are both stubborn and strong-willed, so Alesha and I decided marriage might not work out between them... but they sure do make a cute couple!

Jackson discovered Granny's radio in her closet and insisted we have a dance party, so we put on silly hats and danced to Jimmy Buffett. We all had on beach hats and were dreaming about our next trip to Florida!

Channeling Martha

I love to be crafty, but I often don't have the time to do any projects. In fact, I saw this witch's broom goodie bag on an episode of Martha two years ago! I've been wanting to make it since then, but October always came and went before I had a chance to make it. So I finally made one today. For my first one, I think it turned out pretty good! The crooked stick was the only one in our yard, so I'm going to have to scour the neighborhood for more, straighter sticks for the broom handle. My goal is to make the goody bags for Jackson's friends, but since it took me two years to make one, I may end up giving them to his 2nd grade class by the time I finish!

Mad Scientist

My sister Pamela, who is an organic chemist, would be so proud of us... we turned our kitchen into a chemistry lab this weekend and it's all thanks to Chick-fil-A. Yesterday we stopped by to get something to eat (after we left the grocery store.. of course... we're always too hungry to make it home to cook!). Anyways, the toy was a flask with instructions on how to conduct your own science experiments. We just did one yesterday. We mixed vinegar and baking soda, then watched it bubble over the flask. Jackson loved it! We're going to try some more experiments, but I didn't have all the ingredients at home... so it will be back to Wal-Mart, then probably Chick-fil-A for more science toys! :)

Nom, Nom, Nom...

Brady did another first today... he ate his first meal... very liquidy rice cereal! He wasn't sure what to think of it at first... it just kind of dribbled right on back out, but after a few tries, he was opening right up. Hopefully once he really starts eating cereal, he'll be less hungry during the night! Ever since we moved him to his crib, he's been waking up 2 or 3 times a night and seems to be starving every time! The boy definitely loves to eat! Once he got a hold of the spoon, he forgot all about actually eating what was on it... he just wanted to chew it! To watch an adorably cute video of him 'eating' just click here.

Right Choices Farm

Last Friday we headed to Southwest City, MO to the Right Choices Farm. It was so much fun and well worth the 1 hour drive (well, two hours for us since we got lost!). There was so much to do.. from a pumpkin patch and corn maze, to a hayride and cow train! Not to mention all the farm games like pumpkin ball, hay jump and the corn box (instead of sand it was corn kernels). Here are some pictures from our day at the farm. If you go, pack a lunch because you can spend hours there!

Jackson had a blast sliding down the hill slide on the potato sack. There was also a slide where you sat on a board and went down rollers. I tried that one and it was really fun!

Here's the cow train! Jackson wanted to sit in the caboose, so we was really far back from the rest of the group. Brady sat on my lap as we rode through rows of corn.

Here we are on the hay ride. Brady only made it through half the ride before falling asleep in my arms. The bumpy ride knocked him right out! We learned all about corn and even got to see some 50 year old farm equipment on the ride.

Here's the group we went with. Jackson and his friends had a great time!

Charles is showing Jackson how to pump water the 'old fashioned' way. You could race rubber ducks on the wooden slides.

And here is Charles changing our flat tire on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. We saw three older men drive even older tractors by while Charles was working on the tire. At least it entertained Jackson for about 5 minutes... the other 25 were spent whining about wanting to get out of the car to help Daddy.

If you want to learn more about the farm, go to http://www.rightchoicescornmaze.com/

Brady's Big Night!

So I finally cut the cord last night and moved Brady to his own bed. Here he is sleeping soundly this morning (although I almost woke him up by snapping a hundred pictures of him sleeping!) I loved having him sleep beside our bed, not just for convenience, but because he's just so darn cute to watch sleep. He was on the verge of having his legs hang over the moses basket, so I knew I needed to make the move. He woke up a couple more times than normal, but other than that, he slept pretty good! In fact he slept until 8 am this morning, which is an hour later than usual... I have a feeling that is due to the fact he couldn't hear a noisy 3 year old playing downstairs!

Today was bath day, so I thought I'd get some new bath photos of him. Don't have any since his first bath almost 5 months ago! Here's the happy little guy playing with his feet!

All clean!