A Scary Good Time

Some pictures I took before church in the morning.

They really did not want me to take any pictures. They are not opposed to photos, only to sitting or standing still long enough for me to take them. This is the only close up of Greyson I could get.

Nicholas was a bit more cooperative, although this was right before he said "ok, enough already with the pictures".

This is the boys when I said "please, just one more picture". They can run pretty fast.

Ok, I didn't stop. There may be a job for me as part of the Gallatin paparazzi.

Zorro and his little brother Harry Potter. Nice 'stache.

I will cut you with zee blade, en garde.

Quit talking already, Zorro, it's time for some candy.

This just cracks me up. After they were finished trick or treating, they wanted to hand candy out to the other trick or treaters. At first it was fun to sit inside the door and let them knock but in an effort to be more efficient, they decided to sit on the stoop and hand out candy. Also in the name of efficiency, they decided to hold the candy up and yell for people to "come and get it". Never mind that there was not a spook within 200 yards when they started their advertising campaign.

This is where Nicholas got tired of holding up the candy and decided to partake of some. Don't worry, Greyson was not far behind on this.

So the boys had a wonderful time trick or treating. There were a couple of moments of panic before we left when then 'stache pen broke and B had to improvise with the blunt end. Then there was the complete freak out when early birds came to our door while we were still getting dressed and the boys kept whining "we're late for trick or treating". Followed by one of Nick's typical "what if" questions. This one being "what if we are late and they run out of candy".

Grey trick or treated about 45 minutes, then he was ready for me to take him home. Nick managed to make it about 30 more minutes, most of those spent sitting on his Daddy's shoulders (good thing for Daddy that he only weighs 42 lbs), then I head his little pirate lace up boots shuffling up the sidewalk.

On a side note, the difference in their personalities really came out when they were handing out candy. Greyson would quietly hand out one piece of candy at a time, never saying a word until he said "you're welcome", while Nicholas would chat with everyone about random things and give them big handfuls of candy.

All in all a spooktacular evening.

Falling

We are falling in love with fall. I adore this time of year and so do my little guys. We have spent the last couple of weeks enjoying typical falls activities, and lots of 'em.

From hay rides to hay bale jumping, from pumpkin carving to baking pumpkin muffins, from decorating the house to decorating a spooky gingerbread house (that collapsed soon after it was complete thanks to impatient little fellas who absolutely could not wait 10 more minutes for the icing to dry), we have done it all.

And there is more to come. We are looking forward to this weekend and bonfires, hay rides, wienie roasts, fall festivals, Halloween parties, soccer and more soccer, church and trick or treating.

A jammed pack weekend of fun, fun and more fun. I should have lots of pictures to post next week, provided I survive this weekend.

Happy Halloween!

Leaving

That's what we call it when we rake some leaves into a bit pile at the end of our slide and slide into it.

Why must they always remove their shoes?

No he was not decapitated during the slide, he just made sure he "went under" as he kept saying.

Head first! It was so warm outside today, around 80 degrees I think so I am not sure why Greyson felt the need to wear jeans and long sleeves.

Adorable even after a leaf dive!

Yes, I stood out there the whole time and "reraked" the leaves for maximum "leaving". You can see a cowboy hat and a boogie board in the background. Sadly I did not have my camera handy when these were in use. The boogie board I can understand, but I am not real sure why Greyson felt the cowboy hat was necessary. He insisted on wearing it to go "leaving" but it kept falling off on the way down. And I am saying it correctly now, I tried calling it "leafing" but Nicholas said since there is not one leaf but many leaves, we must call it "leaving". Makes sense.

What a blast!

Sun, Fun, and Hay?

This week we had two field trips, same day, same time, different locations. So we split up, Nicholas and Bryant went on one and Greyson and I on the other. We all had a great time, well maybe not Bryant since he was surrounded by about 80 5 & 6 year olds. Just kidding, I think, he said he had a good time but after soccer practice I did catch him going through the liquor cabinet. Check out some of our pictures. Please excuse the quality of Nick's photo's, Bryant was using my point and shoot.

The buses. If you ask Nicholas what his favorite part of the field trip was, he will tell you riding on the buses. Bryant was supposed to follow along behind them, however thanks to some one's faulty GPS coordinates, he and several others ended up a bit lost. He did eventually find his way there as evidenced from the photo's he took.
Nicholas and his friends jumping on the "popcorn popper". That's Nick way up in the air, and the pretty blonde woman is Mrs. Braswell, his teacher and the love of his life.
Fake cow milking appears to be a lot of fun.
My pumpkin in the pumpkin patch.

A very serious game of Cornhole. This is Greyson and one of his class mates. And yes, there is seriously a game called Cornhole. I had never heard of it until the Fall Festival last month. Still am reminded of Beavis and Butthead and Cornholio every time someone mentions this game.

The world's smallest hay bale maze but enough for my little guy.
Getting ready to do some jumpin'. Actually, Greyson is yelling "Rock and Roll" which seems to be his "rebel yell" before he does anything. I have no idea where he got it but seriously it is the equivalent of "hey ya'll watch this sh*t". I have learned to cringe whenever he says it, cause nothing safe comes afterwards.

As evidenced from this picture. Actually this was not as hazardous as it appears. Now when he jumped completely off from about 4 feet in the air, that was a bit worrisome but this was relatively tame in the world of Greyson. But lotsa fun.

Yes, the sky really was that blue and it was about 76 degrees outside. I love Tennessee in the fall!

Note the tractors and trailers behind him. They were used for our hay ride.

Sun, fun and hay, it doesn't get any better than this.

I am Iron Man, nuna nuna nuna nananana

I had no idea that Iron Man had...

such blue eyes or...

such big dimples. I could just eat him up with a spoon.

The Other Woman

Well, it's happened. I have known about it for several weeks now but it has just been too painful to put into words. He fell madly in love with her the day he met her and now, weeks later he loves her even more. And how can I compete? She is younger than I am, slimmer than I am, more fun that I am, and she has taught him so much in just a few weeks. He spends hours with her every day and during that time he gives her all my kisses. right now, as I type this he is leaving town with her. Ok, I have to stop because if I think about it too much, I will cry.

You don't think I am talking about Bryant do you?

Nah, I am talking about Nicholas and Mrs. Braswell. He is crazy about his teacher! Loves her with all his 6 year old heart, draws pictures of them holding hands and makes things for her when he is at home. I think it is the sweetest thing ever. About a week or so into his two and a half week fall break, I asked him if he was enjoying his fall break and he said "Yes, but I really miss Mrs. Braswell." Sigh, it's a good thing I like her so much as well, otherwise I would be jealous;)

As for leaving town, Nicholas is going on his first school field trip! They are going to Honeysuckle HIll Farm (yes we have been there). Bryant is going with him and I am going with Greyson to the Pumpkin Place for his school field trip. Bryant is in charge of taking some pics of Nicholas so who knows how that will go. I gave him my point and click (it is a lovely shade of metallic pink) to take some pictures of him at least getting on the school bus (his first time on a bus ever). We'll see. So expect an update in the next couple of days with lots of pictures of at least Greyson and his pumpkins.

The Old Crayon up the Nose trick

So yesterday I had a terrible stomach virus. Just miserable and fortunately for you people, I will not go into detail. After spending all morning with Greyson, picking Nicholas up from school, fixing snacks, and monitoring homework, I felt the almost overwhelming need to lie down, just for a little while. So like any good mother, I pulled out some crayons, pencils and worksheets, turned on the TV and let the boys have free run of the den.

I think I had about 7 minutes to myself before Nicholas runs to me. totally freaked out. He was quite crying, just nervously whining and asked "what happens if you get a crayon up your nose and you cant get it out". Natch, I thought he was talking about Greyson because Greyson is 4 and well, he is Greyson. But no, my extremely cautious six year old was talking about himself.

Yes, THIS Kid

Stuck THIS object

up his nose. So again, like any good mother deserving of the MOTY award, I started laughing. Which caused Nicholas to get even more upset and almost hyperventilate. Then he asked me "Am I going to die cause I cant breathe?" My loving response was "Uh, no". Obviously he did not have much faith in my diagnosis because then he asked "Are you sure?" So, another loving response from me "Well not from this because you still have another nostril to breathe out of and a mouth". So I had him lay down on my bed while I went to get the tweezers. For those of you that don't know Nicholas very well, he has this completely irrational fear of tweezers. Seriously. B and I once tried to get a tiny splinter out of his foot, he took one look at the tweezers and went nuts. I mean screaming crying freaked out nuts. I bet people having their limbs severed with no anesthesia aren't that hysterical. So anyway, back to yesterday. He took one look at the tweezers and started freaking. I quickly tossed them back into my bathroom, I was afraid that he would get so hysterical he would suck the crayon further back. So I calmed him, made him lay on the bed, then I pushed gently on the side of his nostril and out popped the piece of crayon. I wont go into a lot more detail but just wanted to say it was a good thing my boys' allergies are acting up.

Of course, after it was over with, all 3 of us just laughed and laughed. Greyson thought the whole thing was pretty hilarious. Maybe a little too much because he then tried to stick a Cheeto up his nose. After I had a long talk with the boys about why we don't stick anything, fingers included, up our noses I asked Nicholas why in the world he would stick a crayon up his nose. His response was "I didn't stick the whole thing up there, just the tip". So again "why did you stick it up there"? And he said "Well, the color was sky blue." Well, ok, that explains it.

PS. For those of you grossed out, that was actually not the same tip he had up his nose, but another one, which I am assuming he had on hand for the other nostril before his little project was derailed.

Soccer Playa's and their Soccer Mom

The boys are playing soccer, I think I have mentioned that a few times;) This is Nick's 4th year and Greyson's 2nd. Nick, bless his heart, due to his birthday falling at the end of July, is by far the youngest fella on his team. I have been told this is my fault for bullying my OB into inducing me on July 27th, instead of waiting until after the 31st, which is the cut off. So he is playing in the 8 and under group at just a couple of months past 6 years.

Greyson is playing in the Kickeroo group, his team is the Green Dragonflies. The Kickeroos are the 3 year group. Since he did not turn 4 until after the Aug 1st date, he is the oldest on his team. I know you are thinking "ok, so" but seriously this is really important in sports. The difference between Grey's coordination and athletic ability and that of his team mates is huge. It also doesn't hurt that he has been playing soccer with an older brother for over 2 years. He normally scores at least 3 goals per game and the past 3 games he has scored 4 in two of them and 5 in another. The only issue he has is that he has a bit of a temper. He is very polite usually but this Saturday there was a little kid on the other team, he was about 4 inches shorter than Greyson, but he was good. And he used his arms, he held them up like a scarecrow, you know bent at the elbow, and he most certainly used them to move the other kids, his teammates included, out of the way. G was not having any of that, he is used to being the star of the field, so he finally just bear hugged the guy from behind and moved him out of the way. No red card for that, however his coach was pretty adamant with him that he was not to man handle the other kids, no matter the provocation. It did provide quite a bit of laughter for the parents on our team, as we were a little tired of watching this other kid knocking our hero's around with his elbows.

Like I said before, Nicholas plays in the 8 and under group. He is one of the smallest on the team and seams to do a bit better on defense rather than offense, mainly because of his size. This is the first year that he is playing with traditional positions. I think his is halfback, but since I know relatively nothing about soccer, I am probably wrong. This week, however, he played more offense, in fact he played almost 3 full periods of offense. He was worn out afterwards but was right in the game most of the time. I say most of the time because for some reason he has this obsession with pulling grass when the ball is not in his particular area or there is a slight break when kicking the ball in. This necessitates the coach asking him where the ball is several times a game, lol. He really is a pretty good little player, especially on defense, but it is a bit hard for him to stay in the mix on offense due to is size. Still he gets an A for effort and I love watching him play and learn. My only fear is that one day he is going to want to try his hand at goalie. I have learned to take some deep breaths as a Mom of two boys, however I think I would have a hard time watching other kids kick balls at my son's head several times a game. Oh and Nick's team is the Green Gators. Yes, they have the same uniforms as Grey's team, however they are different numbers and Nick's team has their individual names on the back of their uniforms. Nick is #2 and Grey is #6. There aren't as many pics of Greyson playing because, well if you have ever watched a bunch of 3 & 4 year olds play, you know it is pretty much a wild melee around the ball and good clean shots of your kid are hard to come by. I took about 50 pics, but usually all I could pick up of Grey was an arm here, a leg there, part of his head...you get the picture.

Looks like Nick is getting leg checked or maybe he is doing the checking, I dunno, sometimes it is hard to tell.

My boy runs like the wind. His shorts are huge!

Team Captain choosing "Heads" during the coin toss. And if you know Nicholas, you will not be surprised that he was up there asking the ref all kinds of questions including "what happens if you throw it in the air and it blows away"

Every time Greyson kicks the ball from the round circle during kick offs or whatever it is called he kicks it, goes right after it, then dribbles it all the way to the goal.

Grey Baby! Soccer Stud!

Greyson with his sweatpants underneath his uni. It was freezing that morning and he insisted on wearing them under his shorts and not over. Of course after the first period he wanted to take them off. I had to stop him from dropping trou right on the sidelines. Note for future reference, must work on modesty and the importance of keeping our pants on at all times in public.

Honey "Sucker"

Sorry once again for the long time without updates. What can I say except the one area I excel these days is procrastination?

Last week, I took the boys to Honeysuckle Hill Farm or as Greyson says "Honey Sucker Farms". We were joined by B's cousins and had a blast. It was kind of a redneck amusement park, complete with Corn Maze, Corn Pool, drainage pipe slides, Pig Races (yes, real live pigs), small farm petting zoo, and cow milking attractions. Of course, my guys loved it. Obviously the redneck tendencies come from his Dad's side of the family, who sadly was unable to go (but never fear, he gets a turn this week). Seriously fun though and the best iced apple cider I have ever tasted. Well, ok the only "iced" apple cider I have ever tasted but it was in the upper 80's and much too warm for hot apple cider. Here are a few pictures from the day. The other cute little blonde kid is Dylan, my boys' adorable cousin and one of their favorite playmates.

Also, I will be updating in the next day or two with pics and soccer info. The boys are loving soccer this year and finally, after 6 games I remembered to bring a camera.

On tap for this week, hanging out with the family at the boys' Great Grandmother's house. So much fun with all the cousins. Round up Rally or something like that in the preschool at church. Grey is thrilled to get to wear cowboy gear to church (although he cant quite understand why he is not aloud to take his cap guns, and thanks once again Heather for that purchase,haha). Nick is not too happy about having to wear just "plain old church clothes". Well he was until I explained that only the preschoolers were doing that and his comment was "oh, a bunch of babies and little guys, nevermind." Sorry Nick, we cant all be so mature as you. Lots of school and soccer stuff. And this is kinda funny, but both boys have their first field trip on Thursday. To different places. So B is taking the day off to go with Nick's class to "Honey Sucker" farms while I go with Greyson's class to The Pumpkin Place. B will be going about 45 miles west of Gallatin and I will be going about 30 miles east. Talk about spreading us thin. We then get to come back and suit up for soccer practice. Pictures of the Pumpkin Place will surface on here some time next weekend.

Ok, verbose as usual. But enjoy the pics.

Best Buddies on the way in.

Drainage Pipe thing slide. Seriously fun for guys.

Hay Bale Maze. This was perfect for little ones.

Waiting for the HillBilly Pig Races. I am not poking fun of "Hillbillys" I swear, they called them that, not me.


Cow milking was pretty fascinating. Thank God it was a wooden cow since Nick really needs to work on his technique. I am pretty sure milking a cow from the back end is not the ideal way to do it.


Waiting for the pumpkin cannon (yes you read correctly) to shoot tiny unsuspecting pumpkins about 300 yards to their death. Does it get anymore redneck than that. Ok, well maybe the pig races and the pool thing filled with corn and the...ok, enough, they were all equally red.

The boys really seemed to like the pumpkin blasting.

Awwww, too tiny (and sleepy) baby goats, or kids or whatever they are called. Amy and I thought they were precious, the boys spared about 30 seconds on them. I am proud to say that my boys were not overly impressed with small farm animals. The agriculture community is safe for now.

No words.

My cool rustic guy. Ain't he da bomb? And no that is not a silly band on his wrist, B.

Rustling some plastic cattle. Took me a while to convince him that live cattle are not so easy to rope. Or at least I dont think they are.

Corn Stalking, hah! This was in the kiddy maze, we decided not to try the large corn maze as it would take a normal group of people, without curious little guys with short attention spans, an hour to get through it.

This just cracks me up. He reminds me of one of those little capuchin monkeys

Pics from the corn pool.

Swimming in a sea, or rather a pool, of corn. When we got home,

they had enough in their pockets and underwear to pop an entire bowl full. Not that we did, that would be gross, right? I'm just saying.