Roll Tide!

We were fortunate enough to get away this weekend. A weekend, I could really use. Doug's parents were sweet to keep the children overnight, while we loaded up and went to a football game. As you know by now, we are Bama fans. So, we were able to get ahold of 4 tickets to the Bama vs. Ole Miss game last night. We hated the fact, the game didn't start until 8 PM. Ugh! Wayne and Laura met us in B'ham to go to the game with us. We got there early, so we could visit with them and spend a little time with them. Wayne and Doug went to their favorite store Mark's Outdoors and no telling where else.  Laura and I had our own agenda.  We needed to stop off at the Galleria, Patton Creek, and The Summit. 

I was on the hunt for a houndstooth jacket for the game.  What started it was a few weeks ago, Peggy and I were inside a Bama Fever store and they had a beautiful wool blend houndstooth jacket.  Of course, the stores that carried this specific jacket didn't have my size  in stock.  JUST MY LUCK!  Once I widened my taste and options, I found a houndstooth poncho that was perfect for me.  Laura said, she liked it because it's different.  I liked it because it felt like a blanket was wrapped around me.  The way it's made, you can wear it with or without the belt.  Take a LOOK . . .

Doug & I sitting by the hotel fountain

I think I had more fun shopping around The Summit because Coldwater Creek was having a great sale.  I was able to purchase a couple tops, a pair of corduroy pants and a pretty purple jacket.  There was a large selection 60% off the original price, including some jewelry.  The great find for the day was discovering Charming Charlie .  They have a large variety of everyday costume jewelry, accessories and some clothing.  It was neat how they organize the merchandise by color.  I was focused on looking for a specific necklace to go with my new outfits that I really didn't get to just shop, plus it was getting close to time for us to meet up with the guys for the game.  I hate it when I have a specific style of jewelry or clothing in my mind and I can't appreciate what's right in front of my face.  When my mind is clear, I would love to go back here and shop.  I thought the prices were very reasonable.

At the game, we stopped off to visit some friends that were tailgating. We picked up some pizza to share, but oh my goodness the food that was already there.  Vicki told me that they made some new friends, other tailgaters.  So, they all came together and had a party.  What better fun than watching the game on a flat screen outside with lots of food and friends.  They seemed to have had a great time. 
When it got closer for the game to start, we headed up to the stadium.  After catching our breath from climbing so MANY stairs, we settled down in our nose bleed section of seats.  LOL!  I didn't care if we were at the very top, where the flags were flying, I love the Bamanation atmosphere.  There were times, where we couldn't see who had the ball, but we cheered with all our might.  We did have a couple of Ole Miss fans sitting beside Doug.  They were a nice couple.  They even tried to teach me the Ole Miss song "Hottie Tottie, Gosh All Mighty."  Not really understanding fully their little chant, I happily gave them the "Rammer Jammer" back at 'em.  Doug wasn't too pleased with me, but hey what's one school chant to another.  I have to say that we played a lousy game and I'm still shocked that we actually won, but I think we ALL had a good time.  It was a rough and painful game, but the tide pulled through it. We were very fortunate to win against Ole Miss (Bama 23 - Ole Miss 13).  You can absolutely tell that this team is different from last year's team.  Doug and I analyzed both offense and defense on the way back home. 


After the game, we met back up with our tailgating friends.  It was a little chilly and I was surprised to see them still outside watching television.  Of course by this time, they were watching a different game.  It was so sweet of them to let us park by their RV.  It sure helped us out, finding a good parking place and we knew no one would mess with our vehicle.  We tried to wait around to let the traffic thin out some before we headed back to the hotel.  Man, what a traffic jam.  We even stopped off to grab us a snack, hoping the traffic would lighten up some more.  Unfortunately, Wendy's, Arby's and Sonic were all having electronic problems.  I wish you could have seen the line of vehicles outside for the drive thru and inside was just as bad.  No one was moving and no food was going out.  We finally gave up and got back into the traffic jam.  We didn't get back to the hotel room until 3:00 in the morning.  We were so tired that as soon as my head hit the pillow, I didn't know anything until Doug got up to take a bath around 9:00 AM. 

Later, we met up at The Cheesecake Factory for brunch.  I had the half turkey sandwich with a garden salad and the chocolate mousse cheesecake for dessert.  YUM!  Soon after, Wayne and Laura were on their way back home.  Doug and I messed around town for a little bit before heading home. I'm having problems loading photos to Blogger tonight, which is why you only see one photo of our little trip.  I will have to post pictures on another post.  So, stay tuned . . .


"The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"

"The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is out on Blu-ray disc now.  We had to stop by Sams Club and get it for our library.  It's an all time classic and Katie absolutely loves it!  They had "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" available on Blu-ray as well.  I started to grab it while I was there, but we are going to wait until next month. 

Great Children Printables
If you like printable crafts and things, you've got to check out a new site I discovered from The Toymaker. 

Another Halloween Craft
I also have to pass this cute as a pumpkin craft to you.  I found it through Eighteen 25, they were doing a feature on Halloween wreaths. 

Isn't it cute?  I love it!!!!  Plus, it sounds so simple and inexpensive.  Really Renata  made this wreath, but she got her idea from The Long Thread, which has several great crafts and recipes.  Just CLICK HERE for your instructions and other craft ideas.  You could make a wreath for every season or occasion by following these few simple instructions.  

Parent/Teacher Meeting

Yesterday was my first Parent/Teacher meeting so far. Mrs. M had already met with the other parents because my original date, she had to cancel due to conflicts.

I felt the meeting was very productive. Lots of praises for our Katiebug and some areas we need some work. Looking at "the literacy chart," I can see where she is making progress, but still has to meet a specific criteria before the end of the year. It reminds me of the doctor's office, if she's not at a specific point on "the chart," then we might have problems. Did they ever think that maybe some people learn at their own speed, different from everyone else? Just a thought.

In their work centers, all the children are encouraged to write or draw stories about themselves. The objective is to get them to draw a picture of a story and they are to write what the story is telling. For the past week, I guess, Katie started writing stories along with the pictures. Looking at the writing it doesn't make much sense to me because she is writing the letters that she hears in the words. Mostly it's the first letter in the words, but Mrs. M says it's great because this is the beginning. She assured me that by the end of the school year, Katie will be reading and writing. In fact, Mrs. M was so proud of Katie that she had her and another girl visit with the school's reading coach, Mrs. C to read their stories to her. They both received the "Bug Award," which is a great literacy award for their school.

Right now, we are working on more sight words, rhyming words, and word sounds. Katie and I have to play a game with beginning word sounds. Easy huh? We tried it today and I thought I was going to pull my hair out. It's not as easy as it seems. I'm hoping once she gets it, she'll have no problem. Katie is suppose to be tested either this week or next.

We have an upcoming Fall Festival, Parent Picnic, Dad's Jack-o-lantern carving day and storytime costume day. The kids are encouraged to dress up in their favorite storybook character. Thankfully, Thumbelina is a storybook character or we would have to come up with another idea.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Katie was out of school today for Columbus Day and I told her that we would do something fun for her day off. I gave her lots of suggestions to choose from: picnic in the park, shopping, go to a museum or explore a national park. As I was checking out my FB friends, I noticed where a friend took her children to the pumpkin patch this past weekend. What fun? I mentioned it to Katie and she was all for it. The problem was I've never been there. I've always known it was there, but never had the opportunity to go and didn't know how to get there. Thank goodness for GPS! If it wasn't for it, we would have been lost as a goose in high weeds.

As soon as everyone got out of bed, dressed and breakfast ate, we headed to the pumpkin patch. I knew it was going to be a trip for our crew, so I packed snacks and drinks.

On the way there, I was ready to turn down a road. Unfortunately, the road was blocked because it was being patched up and the road crew wouldn't let me turn. Ugh! One of the crew members told me that it would be 10-12 minutes before the road could be driven on. What now? I decided to go on down the road. I figured if anything, I'd go down the road a little ways and turn around and go back. That was the time, my GPS announced it was recalculating. Once I reached the next road, the GPS told me to turn down that road to get to the patch. Okay, things were looking up. The road took us straight to the patch, it just took a little longer than the other road. Man, I was glad I wasn't driving down this creepy road in the middle of the night. SPOOKY! I would guess there was forest to my left and forest to my right for a good 2-3 miles, no signs of human existance. To top it all off, Katie requested that we listen to our Halloween CD this morning. By this time, the theme music to the movie "Halloween" came on. Eerie! When I thought that was spooky enough, we soon came up on a single car tunnel to go under a train track. EECK! I told Katie to hold her breath. I started popping off jokes to Katie like "do you think we'll see Big Foot?" Katie felt like she need to calm me down by telling me there is no such thing and it will be alright. About 5 miles later, we finally arrived. Shew!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

I love this Pumpkin Patch! It is so clean and there's something for everyone. We were lucky to park very close to the entrance, so we went back and forth a lot. I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone and we will definitely be coming back.

They have everything to offer: covered wagon/tractor rides to pick your pumpkin,

pony rides

Bungee Jumping

Inflatables

Crafts

Train/Gator Rides

food, toys, and petting zoo. 

Having a little snack

They even have a stage set up by the pavilions of picnic tables. After Katie did the inflatables, she had to go potty. Expecting all dirty restrooms because they were outside, I was very surprised to see how clean they were. The pumpkins, out in the field were already picked and cleaned off. We got a beautiful pumpkin and we didn't have to search very hard. The workers were sweet and helpful with me and kids. All smiles and fun.

I got lots of pictures of the kids. Katie was biting at the bit because she wanted to go play, but she had to wait until I finished taking pictures. If you are planning to go to the patch, bring cash. To get directions, schedule and prices, CLICK HERE!  Katie and Colton had a blast! We hated to see our fun leave, but we were wiped out and we didn't get make it to the petting zoo or train ride.

Boo at the Zoo and A Party Too!

Katie announced tonight as we were coming home from her little friend's party that today was a great day.

We started our day loading everyone up and taking Katie to school. Once we dropped Katie off at the front door, we parked our vehicle with the other parents that were going to the zoo. Colton knew something was up. He was getting antsy, wanting out of his chair. To buy some time, I let him play with a few of Katie's toys (Strawberry Shortcake). Shhh, don't tell Katie because she doesn't know about it.

At the zoo, Mrs. M's class all were sitting quietly in their section on the sidewalk. I agreed to chaperone for Mrs. M, but there were several parents that were able to make it. I was so glad because that made me only responsible for one other child other than Katie. Yay! Katie and S agreed that for today, they were sisters. I thought that was so sweet. The first thing I told them was that they needed to hold hands and stay close by us at all times. Of course, Katie was temporarily deaf when I stressed the point of "wandering off or not staying close by." Poor S acted like the big sister telling Katie to listen to me. Thinking to myself, I think I like S more and more. She's a good influence to Katie. Once Mrs. M had us on our way, we had to cover the whole zoo within 2 hours. Now, how do they expect us to do this in such limited time? I put on my thinking cap and we decided to just cover the Safari, Jungle and Petting area. I didn't think the girls would be interested in snakes, bugs, and alligators. The one thing S requested to see, outside of the areas we went, was the Flamingos. I think from now on the time to go to the zoo is early in the mornings because the animals were in a rare frisky form. Most of them were not hiding, the cats were posing and the monkeys were playing around. The facility is currently going through some construction work, they are adding on a huge Safari exhibit. Once done, they will house 4 bull elephants along with many other new animals. If you ask Katie which was her favorite part, she'll probably tell you the monkeys; however, I know she really like the rock climbing playground area. LOL! S got to see her Flamingos before we left. And I felt like I lost about 10 pounds walking and sweating to death. Of all days, we go to the zoo today. Yesterday and day before yesterday were absolutely beautiful with very cool temperatures. Today was another story, with the high nearly topping 90 degrees. Ugh! I could just feel my face becoming red as a beet. Thank goodness for the train ride! It made a little breeze for me to cool down. We had a really good time and Katie hated to leave so quick, but I told her that we would try to come back next Spring for the Grand Opening of the new Safari Exhibit. I couldn't have been able to do this without the help of Doug and Colton was a little angel. God was definitely watching over me.

Red Panda

Sand Cat (Wildcat) ~ Isn't it cute?

This little weasle looking thing was so funny.  It kept coming up to the glass next to Katie & S (back & forth)

This Bobcat was playing possum

I've never seen a miniature mule before until today

The dewarf goats were loving the attention & brushing from the girls

The Queens for the Day!

The zoo was decorated for the annual "Boo at the Zoo."  This was part of the Alice and Wonderland display

Cheshire

Alice falling again

Flamingos

Part of the "Candyland" display

Gorilla taking it easy

Anteater having a little snack

Monkeys

Monkeys & more monkeys

. . . along with the lemurs

They had two white rhinos

My girls feed Black Swans and Turtles, FROM THEIR HAND!  I told Katie she better watch it because the swans would bite her.  "No mom, their nice swans they don't bite."  she said.  Lucky for her, they didn't. 

I love how their feathers look like ruffles from a black evening gown on their back.  So pretty.

Carp sticking their heads out, telling us they need FOOD.

Colton enjoying himself

Sisters for the day!

Before we headed home, Doug had to stop by his favorite store in the whole wide world, Marks Outdoors. They've been doing a little construction work themselves. They've bought out the golf and bike repair shops and knocked out some walls. Wow! It looks good and seems to have more of a variety, believe it or not. They have a HUGE Costa Del Mar sunglass selection.

Katie, Colton and myself were whipped out on the way home. Colton was out and I was able to talk Katie into resting her eyes. I didn't realize how tired I was until I woke up almost home. Oops! I didn't mean to fall asleep, but I don't think Doug missed my company because he was listening to Finebeaum the WHOLE time. I'm not a big Finebeaum fan because half the people that call in sound fake.

At home, I was able to take a small break, clean Katie up and we were out the door again. Her little friend, A, is celebrating her birthday. Katie had a ball. I loved meeting A's grandparents, such sweet people and reconnecting with another couple I knew from church. A had a very nice party and we wish her many many more happy birthdays. We Love You!!

I forgot my regular camera, so I had to take all the pictures with my cell phone camera. 

Katie wouldn't even look at me.  Ugh!

Blowing out the candles!