The Big Update

We've done so many fun things recently, I can't believe I've gotten this far behind on my blog! So let's start with the basketball game...
We've got season tickets to the Lady Vol basketball games this year (thanks to and with John's parents) so the boys have gotten to go to a couple games so far this season. They have REALLY enjoyed it! I was surprised by how much they watched and actually tried to follow along with the game. Josiah, of course, was asking about all the rules and Micah was really into yelling and shaking his shaker when they scored. We all had a lot of fun and it is fun to share our love of sports with them.

Oh, and this orange jacket is Micah's new favorite outdoor apparel. Everytime I say he needs to get a jacket he wants "the orange one." He even chooses it over Buzz Lightyear!!!

Friday Nov. 16th was the middle school play at First Lutheran. "The boys" and I had been helping direct it and I thought the performance was great! The kids all did awesome! Josiah and Micah had fun not only at all the practices, but the performance, too--especially the fog machine! The kids did the play "The Frog Prince of Spamalot" (which is really funny, if anyone is in the market for a good play). Here's some highlights from practices:
Micah showing Lajos (the frog) how to hop like a frog
Josiah joining in the sword fight/chase
A few "extra" poofs of fog at unexpected times
Josiah trying to tickle Aubin while she was doing her lines
Micah joining in the chase and getting tripped by one of the kids
Josiah joining the cheerleading squad
....You know, now that I think about it, if you ever want to do something truly chaotic, try directing a play cast with middle school kids in the gym where the cheerleaders are practicing with the additional "help" of a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old!!!! It truly was a ton of fun, though, for all of us! And I'm glad I've got a break before the next one starts!! :)


Last Saturday all of us went to the Fantasy of Trees. I hadn't been for a LOOOOONG time! We used to go when I was little and I remember always liking it, but I guess since no one was buying tickets for me anymore, I stopped going! Well, one of the benefits to being a teacher is sometimes you get free stuff...like tickets to the Fantasy of Trees! So we went! We went first thing in the morning on Saturday and it was the PERFECT time to go because there weren't many other people there. The boys enjoyed the carosel--kudos to Micah for finally getting the courage to ride it! And imagine this, he LOVED it! He kept saying, "Whooooooa!" everytime the horse went up. They also liked the cars in the kids area, seeing Santa (who got Josiah all concerned about this list he needs to make for Santa so that Santa will know what to leave under the tree) and decorating their own cookie...ok, maybe it was the eating of the cookie they really liked! Oh, and there was a huge Frosty there that someone "talked" through. The boys thought that was really cool too, in fact, we had to make sure to tell him goodbye before we left!

Waiting for Santa...and no, I didn't pose them like that. How cute are they?!??






We had some minor trauma when we left the Fantasy of Trees, though, because Josiah had it in his head that since there were so many trees there, that must be where we get our tree. So when we said it was time to go he said, "But we haven't gotten our tree yet!" I told him that we didn't want one of these trees because they were already decorated (not to mention the price tag that doesn't fit our budget!) and part of the fun of a tree is getting to put our decorations on it. He thought about that, but then kept asking, "But we ARE going to get a tree, right?" I can't even tell you how many times he's asked that! We're suppose to get one tomorrow, so after that he should be able to sleep soundly again! :)
And speaking of Christmas trees...we saw our first houses decorated when we were driving home on Thanksgiving. This prompted us talking about all the lights we would get to see this season and all the places we planned on going to see the lights. I told the boys about going to Dollywood to see all of their lights. I've never been at Christmastime, but I hear it is really beautiful up there. I saved some passes we got from my great Aunt over the summer (have I mentioned how much I love FREE stuff?) so we could see the lights this year. And then John mentioned they put lights up at the zoo, and Josiah was talking about driving around and drinking hot chocolate like we did last year and little Micah got SOOOOOOOOO excited! He couldn't even get a full sentence out because his brain was going so fast trying to keep up with all of these fun thoughts! So this is something like what he said, "So then...(gasp)...And we...(gasp)...and there...(gasp)...the lights...(gasp)...And then...(gasp)...the Chri...(gasp)...and I...(gasp)...YEAH!" It was so precious it made me laugh! He didn't know what to do with all of the excitement he had about all the lights he was going to get to see! I LOVE seeing my kids get that excited about things! Sometimes I feel like adults try to tone everything down and pretend like its all not a big deal, or maybe we're just all so used to it that it really isn't a big deal to us, but whatever the reason, I LOVE seeing uncontainable excitement in my kids. It is so refreshing and just makes my heart smile.
Ok, enough for this morning...I've got to get this day started sometime, and since we're all still in our PJ's, now might be the time to do something about that! :)