Hats

I’m just in love with putting the boys in hats and I just want to squeeze them every time they wear them.  That is all.

Garden Fall Festival

The Oakhurst Community Garden was having a fall festival in the garden.  S’mores, leaves, campfires and live music!  We’d never been in the garden to be honest and it was really cool.  It was a cold and sprinkling night, perfect for the campfire!  I forgot my camera (yes this seems to be becoming a habit!  :(  But friends of ours were there and captured a few pics!

An AWESOME action shot of Finn running and jumping into the giant pile of leaves!

Riley being slightly more trepidatious (did I make that word up?)about the pile of leaves…

And Riley with his first s’mores!

Pigeon Forge Scavenger Hunt

Steph had the idea of doing a scavenger hunt on Friday in Pigeon Forge.  So her and Todd got to scheming on a list of things to find, we broke off into two teams, loaded up our mini-vans and off we went!

Teams
Team 1:  Heather, John, Finn, Joseph and Grandma
Team 2:  Holli, Riley, Steph and Todd (yeah you read that right, the two people who schemed up this event took off on the same team…..sketchy????  brother/sister united)

We could do the items on the list in any order, we had to take a picture at each task and we had to have at least one of us in each photo and we had to have at least one group photo.  The first one to call the other team at the LAST STOP wins!

And here is a photo montage of the items on the list:

Everyone in group has to find a yellow leaf or pinecone

Team 2 also got their group shot with their leafs.

 

Picture in front of large white cross (bigger than a building, must have entire cross in picture)

Please note the ridiculously steep gravel road in the background.  Turns out there really is no road that drives to this cross and when you ask people in town how to get to it they look at you like you are crazy “why do you want to go there?”  Oh you know, family scavenger hunt.  So Team 1 only made it this far to get the picture.  Team 2 tried this:

See the cross in the back on the hill?  Yeah you can barely see it, and they were nervous it wouldn’t count so they hiked up the hill…..

    

Picture with bear larger than Uncle Todd

Please note I am the only one growling in the photo.

Picture with Santa

Team 1 got our group photo, Team 2 got a real Santa!

Nativity Scene

Airplane or Firetruck (larger than a bread box)

Upside-down Building

Please note how we both took the picture with the children upside down!  Are we married or what?

 

The LAST STOP:  Picture of you eating a sweet treat (i.e. ice cream, cookie, etc….)

The Winners!!!!!  Way to go Team #1!!!!!

And here's team 2 enjoying their sweet treats!

 

Bonus Photos

Egg

 
Dinosaur

 

Titanic

 

Views from the cross.

 

John & Joseph with Santa

Giant Presents and Cold Boys

Giant Boots

Pilgrims and Indians

Finn had his Thanksgiving Day party at school last week and I was lucky enough to be able to go check it out and I’m SO glad I did.  But as I was walking into the building I realized….I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!!  HOW????!!!  :(  Luckily there was another mom there who did bring her camera and shared the pics with me.  The only thing is that they did a small little “play” and I SO wish I could have taken video of it because it was so.stinking.cute!

First the kids walked in wearing these adorable little Indian hats they made.  Then they lined up for the potty train (which is what they do every day when they come in from outside).  Next they told us the story of the Pilgrims and Indians which was painted on construction paper and taped to the blackboard.  Next they acted it out for us, eep!  Then they had a “traditional” Thanksgiving Day feast of fish, corn, corn pudding, dried cranberries and grapes and some apple cider and a cookie! 

 

Lining up for the potty train…..

Waiting in the hallway!

 

Here is where they are telling us the story written on the board.

Next up the play!  Finn was a pilgrim helping with the ocean that the Mayflower sailed across!

All the kids lined up saying Happy Thanksgiving!

Time to eat!

Finn playing Incredibles with his friend James!

Storytime with Mr Laird.

The children had all done artwork for us to take home with us.  The theme was thankful for the color of paper and paint and the children chose what color paper and paint they wanted and painted a picture which the teacher then took and drew an actual image over and wrote what the kids said they painted.  It was pretty cool. 

 

And Finn’s……it is the pink one on the right side of the picture.  it says “Finn’s sincere explosion in white”….say what?

Have I mentioned how much I love Finn’s school?  I just LOVE his teachers and I love how they talk to the children and I can see how much they truly care about each child.  It is just such a loving environment, it fills my heart with such happiness!