Halloween Happenings

Jessica, Athena, Arielle & Haley
Toby After

Toby Before

Miah, Teddy & Arielle

The kids were out of school the Friday before Halloween and they enjoyed a long weekend of fun. Arielle had a couple parties with her girlfriends and went to two haunted houses- Spookywoods & The Spook Trail at Waterford. Toby had a party at a friend's house. There was also the church Trunk or Treat. On Halloween we got together with the Parkes & Shulzs and had mummy dogs, mac n' cheese & yummy pumpkin brownies then went Trick or Treatin' around the neighborhood. We had a great time but Jim & I felt a little sad that the kids are now "too cool" to walk around with Mom & Dad- they ran off with friends!

End of Fall Soccer

Toby had fun playing on 'The Strikers' this season. He played forward and scored many goals. The team only lost one game all season. His coaches were great guys and treated the players & families to a big finale pizza party at Mario's :)

Lazy 5 Ranch

Toby slingshooting a pumpkin
Lemurs!

Arielle feeding a llama

We took advantage of a beautiful fall weekend (and a coupon :) and headed to Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. That place is worth every penny. We laughed SO hard at our close encounters with the critters. We drove our car 3 miles through an open safari with pigs, ostriches, water buffalo, cows, giraffes, llamas, rhinos & more. The kids each had a bucket of feed and fed the animals from the car. It was hilarious getting eye level with all the animals.

Wake Forest Football

A co-worker was kind enough to give us football tickets to Wake Forest University's Homecoming game. Jim, Toby & I went on a beautiful fall evening. It was an exciting game against Navy with a few touchdowns but unfortunately Wake Forest lost by a point in the last few minutes.

One of Our Favorite Places

Arielle made him pose, don't you love it?
If you look close you can see the bikers coming to run me over

Pretty little Salem Lake

Random dogs (by photographer Arielle)

WE LOVE SALEM LAKE! I have blogged about it before, Salem Lake is a wonderful little spot in Winston-Salem only 15 min from home. A scenic, tree lined 7 mile dirt loop around the sunny lake . Its such a great get away, every time I go I feel like I've been on a "daycation". I am there almost every weekend either running early in the morning with my friends or taking a leisurely afternoon stroll with the family. Jim loves to go there as much as I do and whenever we have the time to get away we go walking there, sometimes without the kids for a little date. We usually have to drag the kids whenever we say "walk" or "hike", but they always end up loving it. We see some new wildlife or interesting bit of nature each time we go. Arielle was the photographer on this day. She took all the photos and I think she captured it better than I ever could!

Toby Before & After

Toby finally buzzed off the 'fro. Just in time for winter :) He had a "cell project" for science where he had to create a diagram of a cell. He chose to make an iron on t-shirt. Jim said he looked like he was pregnant with a cell, LOL. In the newer photo with the new 'do' he had just helped me finish putting up the Halloween decorations. He is such a helpful guy!

Mom, Julie, Ash, Dad, Scott, Crystal & Jim- I'm talking to you!

Ok. I decided it would be neat to have my blog posts auto emailed to you guys so you could see the posts as they are made. One little pitfall- you guys never comment on my blog anymore :( Yes, I am whining.