Fall Festival

The annual Fall Festival usually falls on the last Friday of October every year. This year it was a week late. We have taken Kayleigh to almost every one of them since she was about 18 months old. I think this year was the first year she was able to really enjoy it fully. She could actually participate in most of the games and her main motivation of course was candy! Look below for some highlights!

We can't get real round pumpkins here so this background has to do for our fall picture.

They played games like toss the bean bag into the Jack-O-Lantern.

Decorated some cookies that Zeb thought would be best by just licking off the icing.

They also both got fake tattoos.

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween we took a different approach. We have a lot of new people on our crew that were missing the fact that they did not get to partake in the North Carolina Fair this year. So we did our best to try and reenact that by going to a local park near our house. The park did not have elephant ears or vinegar fries for sale but you could buy a pretty disgusting hot dog on a stick. We road the Ferris wheel and our friends road a roller coaster to try and help bring back the feel of the fair. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day. That night our friend Chad brought us some home made candy apples. They were amazing! That did bring back some memories for me of fall in America.

Track and Field Day

Back in the summer some friends of ours found a field tucked away behind a concrete wall near our house. It actually belongs to a high school but they don't mind us playing there. My friend Lindsey and I have decided to make Wednesday mornings a regular track and field day. The kids love being able to run in the grass. Not something they are able to do very often. We usually start out with a lap around the track then on to some fun games like "Mother May I" and "Simon Says". They love throwing around some balls and doing exercises. I really like it because it gets all their energy out!

Here they are getting ready to make a lap around the track.

Zeb and Kayleigh's favorite place to play is the long jump sand pit. It makes for a huge mess and a much needed bath when we get back home.

Looking for Blue Queen

If anyone knows Zeb then you would know that he is obsessed with the movie "Cars". He also loves all the "Cars" characters that he owns. One of these characters is Lightening McQueen. Lately, he has been particularly attached to what he affectionately calls "blue Queen". That would be Lightening McQueen in Dinoco blue when he dreams of being sponsored by Dinoco. Can you tell I have watched this movie one too many times? Anyways, one morning he could not find "blue queen". So I sent Kayleigh on a mission to help him find it. When I came into the living room this is where I found them! Once they emptied the entire toy box they thought it would be fun to play inside. I love my kids. They come up with some crazy things to do sometimes.

Crew Get Away

We just got back from a trip with our crew. We went to a lake about 2 hours away from our city. We had a great time! I was sad that it rained a lot and was beautiful on the day we left but we found things to do that kept us busy. This lake is one of the few in our country that you can swim in. However, it was too cold to do any swimming. Here we are eating at a restaurant across the street from the hotel. Sometimes little "hole in the wall" restaurants like this have really good food and this one did.

At the end of the hall of our hotel there was a balcony that overlooked the water and an island. The kids loved going out there and looking around. We decided that if it stopped raining we would try and take a boat over to that island.

Here is probably a fisherman rowing around the lake.

The hotel had a bowling alley so while we waited out the rain we did some bowling. Not sure what kind of pose Kayleigh is giving off in this picture. It definitely reflects an attitude.

The rain stopped in the afternoon so the guys headed out to figure out how we could get to the island. They found a way! This is the longest canoe I have ever been in!

We had two guys rowing our boat. I was thankful they handed out life vests.

Here is the entrance to the island.

We hiked to the top and played around a little.

I am so glad that we went and we hope to go back sometime when it is warm so we can swim and the kids can play in the sand.

IT'S A.....

It's a girl! Yes number 3 is a girl. We went today to the hospital to get an ultrasound to see what we were having. Kayleigh has been hoping the whole time that the baby was a girl. I asked her this morning before we left how she would feel if it was a boy. She told me "Mom, I will be very angry!"

I am glad for her sake that it turned out to be a girl. We took Zeb and Kayleigh with us to get the ultrasound. Kayleigh loved looking at the baby's fingers and toes. She is really into having a little sister and was thrilled with the news when they told us. Kayleigh often talks about holding her and says the baby will laugh when she tickles her. I think it is so sweet that she is so into this baby. She was so young when I was pregnant with Zeb that she didn't really understand. We will see how Zeb takes to her arrival soon enough!

He looks like.....

Today I dressed Zeb for Church and then I looked at him and thought "He looks like his Grandy ( John's dad)!" John's dad often wears this type of outfit to church. So not only does he share the same name as his grandfather he has taken up dressing like him too!

National Day

Tomorrow is National Day in East Asia. The whole country will be taking about 8 days off to celebrate this holiday. Kayleigh's school decided to celebrate too with a performance today. John dropped her off this morning and came back home to tell me to go to her school at 10am for the performance. I should have seen it coming since she has been dancing around the house and singing in Chinese for the past couple of weeks. Kayleigh did not warn me of this performance and neither did her teachers. Notice Kayleigh's attire. All the other little girls are wearing nice white dresses and Kayleigh is in her every day clothes. They gave me no warning to dress her up. However, the teachers did compromise by putting make up on her. We were so proud of her. Last year during this performance she just basically stood there. This year was very different. She knew all the moves to the dance and even knew some of the words to the song. She did a great job!

Notice above that Kayleigh is singing on the microphone. I was surprised and proud at the same time!

Hard Hat Zone

Kayleigh and Zeb's friend Nathan had his 4th birthday party on Saturday. It was a construction party. It was full of fun games like painting a house, a wrecking ball that knocked down boxes, and a race with dump trucks. The kids had a blast! I am pretty sure my friend Brooke ( Nathan's mom) is the next Martha Stewart. She had hard hats for each of the kids with their names on the back. She also sowed each of the kids a tool belt that had goodies in it like a tape measure. She is amazing!

Painting the house.

Dump truck race.

Zeb the construction man!

Kayleigh the construction woman!

Just Hanging Around

There hasn't been much going on here and I like it that way. Sometimes we need to slow down for a while. We have just been hanging around doing some fun activities at the house. I suppose now is the time to announce to the blog world that I am pregnant. Yes, number 3 will be arriving sometime at the end of February, beginning of March. My due date is March 2ND. Kayleigh is super excited. She is voting for a girl. It is really neat to see her understand this time around. Zeb on the other hand understands a little but I still think he is going to be pretty shocked when this baby arrives. While we wait, I am taking advantage of the time I have to do fun activities with the kids. I know when number 3 arrives my time will be limited.

One day we were doing stamps and Zeb found a bug on his stamp. I am pretty sure he watched that bug for a good 10 minutes. He was so intrigued with it. Maybe I should find him bugs to play with more often so he will sit still??

Kayleigh taking a picture of herself.

And finger painting...

Zeb's version of cleaning himself up from the paint!