Yesterday was the Pet Parade and downtown trick or treating, so the girls, Lydia Ann, Thomas and I went down to watch the parade and then let Emma trick or treat. The parade only lasted about 2 minutes, which was sad, but then Emma had a good time getting candy. We went over to John and Lydia Ann's after the festivities and grilled out for Thomas' first birthday. We had such a good time!!!

Pumpkin Carving

I wanted to share some pictures from our pumpkin carving activity last weekend. We decided that we would carve our pumpkin, with Emma's help, right after lunch and before nap on Sunday, which might have been our first mistake! :-) Chris and I ended up doing it all by ourselves. As you can see from the pictures, Emma was a little wary of the pumpkin guts and then it just got boring for her. She would have much rather played on her swingset then carve the pumpkin. She liked it once it was done, though, and loves to light it! Erin was a trooper just sitting in her stroller, watching. She's such a sweet baby and has such a sweet temperament! I hope she stays this way (even through her terrible 2s!!).

Harvest Festival

Our church's Harvest Festival was last night, and, as you can see, fun was had by all! We started the night eating hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, then had a costume parade, then enjoyed all the games and inflatable things outside. Emma has an obsession with jumping castles, so it was difficult to get her to focus on much else. Emma was Strawberry Shortcake and Erin was a strawberry from Strawberry Shortcake's garden. :-)

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this past Saturday and had a blast (despite the cold!). Emma's favorite part was jumping into the container of corn kernels. Her next favorite activity was the moo train. We had so much fun!

It's Fall!

Here are a couple of pictures of Erin and Emma that I took on Saturday. They are wearing their matching Halloween outfits that Granna a Papa gave them. We are going to the pumpkin patch next weekend, so hopefully I will have another update then.

First Day of School

PICT0072, originally uploaded by melanie_castleberry.

Today was the first day of school for Emma (and Erin, but it's really no different than she's been doing). Emma is in one of the 2-year old classes, and her teachers are "Miss" Missy and "Miss" Pam. She was so excited to be going to a new classroom, but what she was most excited about was getting to sleep on a new cot. :-) For some reason Emma LOVES sleeping at school. I guess it's just the fact that it's different. She had a pretty good day (I think she only had to go to time out twice!!). :-) What I was most excited about was her use of the potty. I just knew I would pick her up and she would be in a different outfit than the one she went to school in, but she wasn't! Maybe the potty training is really sticking.

Wild Animal Safari

Last week, Emma and I went to the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, GA with some friends of ours from Americus. We met some other friends there including my mom. I was a little concerned how Emma would react because she has been very "scared" of anything and everything lately. Well, it started off pretty well. We got in the van, and Emma sat in the very back with Andrew and Dolly while I got in the front passenger seat. As you first start into the park, you are bombarded by deer, and, since the vans don't have windows, they all come right up and stick their heads in the van. Emma screamed at the top of her lungs, shot out of the seat and came running up to me in the front! She was so scared, she was shaking. She spent the whole rest of ride sitting in my lap saying she wanted to go home. :-) After we went through the park, we ate lunch and then went to the petting zoo. Emma seemed to like this a little better although it was soooo hot outside! All in all it was a fun day.