Halloween Fun

We are back from trick-or-treating. We brought home quite a haul and were able to keep the candy eating to a minimum - 20 pieces isn't too much before bedtime right? The girls had a great time and I've attached a few pics for your enjoyment.

Before you even ask I will explain the costumes. Ashlyn is - apparently - a witch. In her words, "an angry witch Mommy"! Anna's costume will need to be clarified. I will do that with the exact verbiage of our original discussion of Halloween costumes a few weeks ago...

Mommy: Anna, what do you want to dress up as for Halloween?
Anna (with no hesitation): A prince!
Mommy: You want to be a princess?
Anna (looking at me like I'm the dumbest person on the planet): No Mommy - a prince - like Prince Charming.
Mommy: Ok Anna - you're going to be a prince.

Now who am I to tell my adorable daughter that she can't be a prince. Sure, it is not the typical Halloween costume for a little girl, but telling her she couldn't be a prince would be like me telling her she couldn't be President of the United States when she grows up. Ok - that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.

So Anna went as a prince (in a costume I made by the way) and Ashlyn went as an angry witch. Fun was had by all and the girls are now racing around the living room on a chocolate high. I think I'm going to stick them on the treadmill til they wear out.

Boo!

So - I don't consider myself Martha Stewart by any stretch of the imagination, but I am pretty proud of myself this morning. It is - of course - Halloween and the girls' preschool is having a party this afternoon. I signed up to bring a snack and the pic is what I am bringing. I found a sample of these cupcakes in the Family Fun magazine (great mag by the way) and they turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. At least the girls think they are pretty "cool".

I'll have pics of the girls in their costumes later on tonight or tomorrow morning. Hope everyone has a great Halloween.

P.S. Today is also the anniversary of my husband's and my first date - how sweet (and eerie).

Scary...

I always forget about these quizzes until I see them on my cousin's site. This one was pretty appropriate considering Halloween is just around the corner. But I'll never tell you which ones I checked off on the quiz - hee hee hee.

You Are 28% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Chug-a-chug-a CHOO CHOO

The girls went on their first train trip this morning. The Music City Star just started running a few months ago and a small group of us moms got our preschoolers together for a trip to downtown Nashville. The train left Mt. Juliet at 7:50am and arrived at the downtown riverfront station at 8:10. We then got right back on the train at 8:30 and returned to Mt. Juliet at about 9am. It was fun and all the kids had a great time. Here are a few pictures. The first one is Anna, the second is Ashlyn and the third is all the kiddies line up at the station.

A bit about last week

We had a busy week last week, so thought I would post a few pics from our exciting adventures.

On Wednesday we went to the dentist for the girls' official first cleaning. They did great! We had been talking about it for a couple weeks and had even pretended to be dentist so I was hoping that would help the whole situation. It did. I couldn't have asked them to do any better. Here are a couple pics of them with the dental hygienist - who also happened to be an identical twin. Anna is in purple and Ashlyn is in red and white.



Next we went on the girls' first field trip through their pre-school. I don't think it actually constitutes a field trip since most of the mothers drove their own kids, but we'll just call it that. One of Ashlyn's class friends - Dylan - rode with us because his mom was at work during that time and they all had a blast. Here's a pic of Ashlyn's entire class - take note of who takes center stage... And here's a pic of Dylan, Anna & Ashlyn (in that order) with their pumpkins.

Unfortunately, it started raining on us before we could have the big picnic so we had to cut the day short, but the kids had a great time anyway and the girls and I had our own picnic inside when we got home.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins and More Pumpkins

We had a good time at Walden Farm in Smyrna, TN. We took SEVERAL pictures, so I have made another slide show. Be sure to check out that site at www.riggsslides.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, the rest of our weekend was spent trying to feel better. Anna has a bad ear infection and Ashlyn & I are trying to get over these sinus problems - lovely.

We have to get better though because we have another pumpkin farm to visit on Thursday with the girls' preschool classes - their first field trip - wow! I'll be driving them, but it is still such a "big girl" activity to go on a field trip. Where has the time gone?!?

The girls will be all "pumpkined" out by the end of this month.

Nutty weekend

We've had a bit of a nutty weekend. Anna started on Friday not feeling very good (cough, allergy-symptoms). Unfortunately, we were supposed to go to Gentry's Pumpkin Farm on Saturday morning with our friends, Amy & Nathan. This has become a bit of a tradition and the girls have such a good time. Anyway, after much internal struggle we decided Chris would take Ashlyn to the pumpkin farm and Anna would stay with me at home. Sounds a bit mean to send one away while the other one was sick, but I really needed Ashlyn out of the house if I wanted to keep Anna calm at all. When they are together there is no "down time" and that is what poor little Anna needed. Anna actually wasn't too traumatized by Ashlyn & Daddy leaving so that made it easier on all of us.

My parents came later on Saturday for a quick visit. They had been in Hopkinsville for a Disaster Relief/Kentucky Changers meetings and hadn't seen their grandkids for a little while. We had a nice visit, but Ashlyn got sick Saturday evening. Their cough was more annoying to them than anything else and they (nor I) got much sleep this weekend, but we are all feeling better now. Yeah!

So here is a pic of Ashlyn at the pumpkin farm. She had a good time. And Anna will get to go to another pumpkin farm this weekend as the POTATO fall event is Saturday, so she won't be pumpkin deprived this Halloween season.

The Fountain of Youth

We had a BIG day yesterday. A POTATO friend invited us to go along with her and some other friends and their kids to Centennial Park and Bi-Centennial Park near downtown Nashville. Both are wonderful parks and I can safely say I have not taken full advantage of them. We have visited Centennial Park several times to feed the MANY ducks and geese, but I had not taken the girls to Bi-Centennial Park to play in the fountain area at all - Bad Mommy!

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. We started at Centennial Park feeding the ducks and geese in record time - amazing how quickly 8-9 kids go through a truckload of bread. I'm sure those birds had some queasy tummies by the time we left. We then went over to that park's playground area which is very nice. We then picnic-ed near the playground area and then loaded up the kiddies to go over to Bi-Centennial's Park to play in the fountains. Oh - did I mention it was 90 degrees in Nashville yesterday?

It sounds a bit odd to let your kids play in a fountain, but Bi-Centennial Park's fountain area is different. You'll see in the photos.

Daddy and Miss Amy brought their lunches to the park and watched the festivities as they were so close. It took the girls a while to realize their Daddy was there - funny.

Here are a few pics of our day. Just click on them to make the bigger. The first one gives you an idea of what the fountain area looks like. The second is Ashlyn getting her back wet and the third is Anna playing in the grated area where you can walk around.

New picture format

Hello all - I have found a new way to display some of our photos in a slideshow format. I know there may be a few of you that won't be able to view those photos in that format, so I will still be posting pics here, but I made another Blog that will contain the slideshows. I will provide a link to that site each time a put pictures on here and there. Here's the website if you would like to save it as a favorite now.

www.riggsslides.blogspot.com

In fact, I have already placed two slideshows on that site. I put one on there of more pictures of the girls playing with the worms and the other one is of our trip to Mamaw & Papaw Riggs' house in McMinnville yesterday. The girls had a great time and went fishing at the lake on the property. It is gorgeous up there. Here are a couple pics from yesterday for those that aren't able to view the slideshows.










So, check out the new blog and let me know what you think.