Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Vampire Lovin'

Twilight, the topic of our book club discussion last night, is one of my new favorite books. Yes. I have joined the masses of crazy fans. Our book club even has tickets to go see the movie on opening night. In about a month, I will have read the entire 4 book series.

To keep the mood festive, I tried my hand at creating some Halloween dishes. Unfortunately, the people on TV and the internet always know how to make the difficult seem easy. I can pour over a scrapbook page for hours trying to get it to look just right, but when it comes to pretty food, I've still got my work cut out for me. But without my wonderful husband, who spent 99.99% of his day off watching Will, hanging blinds, and cleaning for me, I couldn't have pulled anything off for book club. Thanks, Honey!

Vinefest '08





Every fall our church, the Vineyard, has a big throw down complete with potluck, paddle boats, hayrides, corn hole...the works. This year Will experienced his first inflatables at Vinefest.

9 Days Until Halloween!!!


But who's counting???

One of the absolute cutest things Will does is go into the TV room first thing in the morning, point at the Halloween decorations, and scream, "Yeah!" repeatedly and very loudly until we turn them on. When they're on he keeps screaming, "Yeah!" and claps his hands. He's going to love Christmas!

Museum Go Round



One of the things I love about living in Lexington is that very often there are fun and free events. Museum Go Round is an event that I've missed the last couple of years, but this year we finally made it. Will and I packed up the diaper bag and headed to the Explorium (formerly the Lexington Children's Museum). Outside on the street budding young artists had their crafts for sale. You could feel the creativity--just like I did as a child when I opened a new box of crayons. There's just so much potential there! Anything and everything is just waiting to be created. This is the kind of event that I, a child who slept with her Crayolas, absolutely would have loved growing up. Maybe one day I'll have an artsy child, but maybe not. We want them to persue I think Will is going to be our musical prodigy. (Note that the best pictures from the day were of him making music!)

There were all kinds of booths, from a tiny baby's finger paintings, to drawings, sculpture, and photography. But my favorite booth of all was owned by a couple of adopted Chinese girls that I had seen in the newspaper a couple of years ago. At the time, one of the girls was helping make soaps to raise the money to bring her sister home. Now they work together making soaps and bracelets to raise money for one of their best friends who cannot be adopted and is still in the orphanage. What great hearts these girls must have! We hope our children will learn to help others like that. We also want them to know that they are never too young to make a difference.

After the shopping, Will and I took advantage of the free admission to the Children's Museum. He loved it! But I did learn why so many people (not including us) don't want the number of children in a household to outnumber the parents. Just trying to keep up with one child in there is a bit scary when it is so crowded and, of course, I'm trying to take pictures while he's running off to the next greatest thing. To be perfectly honest, Will is not too far away from being able to outrun us! He may have a future in track or cross country.

After we left the museum, Will was ready to eat. Mommy was probably more ready to eat because I knew if we waited Will would fall asleep in the car and nap time would be ruined! So we got a little food and sat down to listen to Radio Disney and watch a dance contest. Will danced in his seat and learned the word "Cha Cha!" As a matter of fact, he's saying it right now.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Oh, A Camping We Will Go!!!



Most thought we were crazy (especially the family), but we did it anyway. The last time we went camping as a childless couple, we saw some people there with a baby. We decided if they could do it, so could we.

Will became an official camper this past Monday. Being the outdoors man that he is, he loved it. His favorite part was watching the boats that we could see on the lake from our campsite. (Yes, the danger of fire AND drowning!) But we all made it back in one piece.

Bi-Water Farm with Friends


We organized a trip to Bi-Water Farm in Georgetown with Amy and Shelley, 2 of my college roommates, and their kids. I had been many times with my kindergartners, but it's just as exhausting taking 5 kids as it is taking 30 or so!

Hannah and Will are pictured to the left, sporting their latest Halloween gear. To check out all the pictures, visit http://taralovesjohn.shutterfly.com. It's easier to upload a bunch of pictures there. If you're looking for a little more visual stimulation, that's where we'll be uploading more pics in the future. Don't forget to check us out on Facebook too! Different sites, different pictures!

October--The Best Month of the Year!


Beautiful leaves, Halloween, candy, pumpkins, apple cider, cool weather, church picnic...I could just scream!!!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Good Time for an Old Story

With good friends getting ready to leave for China, John and I have been reminiscing about our trip. Now don't think that I just go around telling stories on my husband--he's given me permission to post the stories I've told on him. But this is another good one that he reminded me of. I think he was embarrassed to post at the time...

The night we were scheduled to leave Beijing, we had to put our suitcases out to get picked up. This was a surprise to us and we didn't have much time before the bell boys would be around to collect them. Due to the restrictions from China airlines, there were only certain things we could take in our carry on, so we were running around trying to figure out how to pack and still be able to shower, etc. John was a good sport and got our bags out on time, but of course we forgot something and he, modest as he is, had to go back out to our bags wearing nothing but a robe. I was in the shower trying to use the liquids I needed so we could pack them up as well. After a few minutes I realized I hadn't heard John come back in. There was also a strange banging noise. I got out of the shower as quickly as I could and ran to the door. There stood John, panic stricken, trying to get back in the room before anyone saw him. I think John looks pretty cute in a robe. I wonder what the people across the hall would have said?