Halloween party ideas!

So I'm in charge of Makyla's class "Fall Party" which is the same thing as a Halloween party!:) We've got about an hour to play games, do crafts, treats, etc.! I'm having a hard time coming up with some things that we could do during that hour. I was kindof thinking we could split the class up into 3 or 4 groups and have them rotate between centers, but I'm not quite sure what to do in each center! If anyone has any good ideas for me, that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

Kyla's Birthday!

Our oldest turned 9 on Wednesday! Man I am feeling old! It was such a fun day though! In Kyla's class in school they have what they call a mystery reader every wednesday. You give her teacher 5 clues about yourself, progressively getting easier so that they will recognize that it is you. Since Kyla's birthday fell on a wednesday I was able to be the mystery reader and then take treats for her class! The last clue I gave was: I have 4 children, 3 boys and a girl. My daughter was born 9 years ago today! Then they introduced me and I got to pick out a couple of picture books to read to her class. Afterwards we passed out her treats and enjoyed some time together with her classmates!
It's has been so amazing to see how fast she has grown up! She specifically told us she didn't want any barbies this year! We got her a few gifts, and then she just wanted money so she could buy her an MP3 player. My little girl is growing up too fast!
She is such a joy to have in our family and although I don't like her growing up so fast, she is really turning into a wonderful young little lady! We love you Makyla!

Kyla's presents

Rhett bringing Kyla the present from him! You can't see it in this photo, but what he is staring at is the cake!! (I think he was actually more interested in the burning candles than eating the cake!)

Blowing out the candles-she got 6 of the 9 on her first try!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Win a free handbag!

So I followed a link on a friends blog where they are giving away 24 free handbags in 24 hours! I love bags & purses so I thought everyone else might enjoy entering for a free chance to win a bag as well. Just go to www.handbagplanet.com and enter to win!

Rhett's favorite pastime!

So, I was washing the dishes yesterday morning, and Rhett usually scoots a chair over to the sink and "helps" me, but today he didn't! After I was done with the dishes I went looking for him. It didn't take long to find him in the front room curled up on the chair with his 3 blankets looking at a book! It was so cute and he looked so relaxed and enjoying himself that I had to take a picture! Since then he has been doing that quite often or else bringing me a book with his blanket, and he also has added a new word to his vocabulary...BOOK! What a sweet little boy!

Painting!

I've had so much fun painting this last weekend! My walls were so boring and I'd been wanting to get some color, but always had a hard time deciding what colors to use and worrying that I wouldn't like it when I was done! Well, I made the plunge and am so excited about the results! I even attempted some color washing-which turned out so good! I'm still a novice at this, but I know there will be lots more painting in my future! Makyla's been getting excited about painting her room and making plans for what colors she wants. (her plans are quite eloborate!) Anyways, here's some pictures!

Accent wall in the Family Room. This took me three coats and I think it might need one more! (Tony wants to paint a big white "U" in the center of the wall-but don't you worry-I won't let it happen!!)
This is the first coat in my front room-I liked it like this and was debating whether or not I should even attempt the glazing-I'm sure glad I did!
So this is the final product! I think it looks so good! I'm going to see if I can get Aunt Virginia to paint me a picture of Wilson peak like Mom has at her house from out at the cabin to put in this room somewhere-it will go so well with the wall!

By the way...Thanks so much to Ben who works (or should I say "worked":)) at Sherwin Williams where I was able to get our family discount on my paint! I had to hurry and get it while I still could!:)

Eli's trip to the Hospital

Okay, so I keep forgeting to write this story down in Eli's journal, and since I'm on the computer enough already I figured I could document it here before I forget! Plus it's a cute story and you just might like hearing it.
A week ago Sunday after church the kids were complaining that they were starving (we have 11:00 church, so lunch kindof gets skipped) so I got out my apple slicer to cut some apples to tide the kids over until I had dinner ready. Next thing I know Caleb is using my apple slicer to cut Eli an apple and somehow Eli's finger got inbetween the blades of the slicer and the cutting board and it sliced his finger pretty good. It wouldn't stop bleeding, but we could tell it was pretty deep, so Mom and Eli made a trip to the ER. After checking in, they had us wait in the waiting area until they were ready for us and while we were waiting Eli leaned over to me and asked if we could say a prayer so his finger would get better. I asked him if he wanted to say it and he said "no, could you?" We were the only ones there so we just bowed our heads there and I said a quick little prayer for Eli. When I was done he looked up at me and said "well that was short!"
We then headed back to our room and the doctor was able to stop the bleeding enough to be able to glue it shut instead of having to do stitches! Eli was so brave! While the nurse was cleaning his wound with the syringe (he was blasting the sterile water in there pretty hard!) he kept asking Eli if he was okay, and I could tell that it was really hurting him, but he always replied (between clenched teeth) that he was fine. So the nurse kept cleaning and I kept watching Eli go whiter and whiter, and then his teeth started clattering, and he started making noices like he was going to throw-up, but he never cried! And if you know Eli he can be quite dramatic (at home he was screaming his lungs out!) so I was quite surprised by his reaction. He didn't ever pass out or throw-up, and after the nurse left he told me that it "kindof hurt"! Anyway before we were ready to go Eli looked at me and said "if I ever cut my finger again Mom you'll have to say a longer prayer!"