Trying out the halloween costumes....

The girls wanted to try out their halloween costumes tonight. We were heading to a costume and dinner party for our small group at church so they wanted to dress up and have some fun. Lauren has a few to choose from all of our dress-up clothes in the playroom so tonight she decided to do the Thomas the Train thing. Then, of course because she is a girl and we "girls" like to do this, she decided at the very last minute, when we are getting ready to walk out the door, that she doesn't like that outfit and that she would rather be in her Minnie Mouse costume for tonight's party! AGH! I just had to grin and bear it as I so remember doing the very same thing when I was young! ; ) Allie went has Hannah Montana (as if she would want to go as anyone else!) and loved having such long hair for the night!

Fall Break for the Massey Family!

Last week was fall break from Allie's school so we decided to keep up our family tradition and head down to Gatlinburg, TN for a few days! We love that area during the fall season. It is absolutely beautiful with the leaves changing and the Smokey Mountains all around you. And, it has great shopping and restaurants too so who could ask for anything better??!! We spent a few days having all kinds of fun. Got to see a dinner show at the Dixie Stampede...if you've never done that with your family, I highly recommend it. It's not cheap but totally worth it...the girls absolutely loved it! They bring out longhorn cattle, horses of all kinds with trick riders, stage coaches, etc.. And, they serve the food family style with no utensils...it's that good kind of southern cooking that you eat with your hands...yum! : ) We also spent part of a day going up the mountain via the Sky Tram and spent some time going thru the bear exhibit up there and having the kiddos ride down the Alpine slide...lots of fun! We let the girls each pick out one special "prize" to take home with them from our trip....Lauren of course chose a small "Dora & Boots" car and Allison decided on a "super balloon" rocket. Daddy was very excited about her choice....sounded like some good fun to him! They both ended up loving that prize and played with it nonstop outside! Definitely getting our moneys worth out of that one! On our way home, we decided to meet up with Jason's parents at a campground in eastern KY to get one more fun day out of the vacation. The girls love spending time camping with Nana and Papa. We also had a family friend that was staying at a cabin close to the campground and they have a granddaughter that is Allison's age and they have become good friends over the past few years so we were able to meet up with them at their cabin for a few hours. The girls enjoyed playing together and we loved hanging out at their big campfire that night and eating lots of yummy s'mores! Lauren enjoyed spending time wandering around the creek and woods close to our campsite and she really liked playing hide & go seek w/ Daddy behind the trees! Allison collects rocks of all kinds so we couldn't keep her out of the little creek this time. For a fabulous end to our trip, we camped near a place called "Natural Bridge", KY and we got to go up a chair lift about 400 feet and view and walk on the actual Natural Bridge (it's made out of sandstone and just naturally formed into a bridge after years of erosion)...absolutely gorgeous views from up there....made you remember how awesome God is having created all that you see! All in all, a great few days of vacation just spent w/ family having fun!

More fun with Katelyn...

Katelyn is wanting to explore more and more and getting so big so quickly! It's hard to believe that she's 8 1/2 months old already...where does the time go??!! Here are a few new pics of her trying to get across our kitchen table, with Daddy there to hold her back! : ) She is just too cute!

Allison's 3rd Grade Fall Harvest Party....

Today was the school "Fall Harvest Parties". They are trying to get away from just doing "Halloween" parties and focus more on the fall season.......so this year, the school decided to have "Fall Harvest" parties instead and have them a bit earlier in the month. So, today was the day! Myself and another mom planned the party and I do have to admit that I think it was a big hit! Thank the Lord (actually prayed for God to hold off that rain...He is so good!) that the weather cooperated for us so we were able to have it outside where the kids can have more fun and we don't have to worry about cleanup as much! : ) We ended up having a costume relay race, a pizza snack (yum), smores, a pinata and hunting (no bobbing allowed....too much strep throat going around in the school...lovely, I know!) for hidden apples! The kids had a great time and the moms did too! Of course, everyone went home with goodie bags filled with sugar just to get ahead in their sugar intake for all that is to come soon with Halloween....get ready! : )

More fall fun....

On our way to the lake this weekend, we stopped over at the Appleworks Orchard for a quick trip. The girls always love going there and you can never get too much apples and pumpkins this time of the year, can you??!! Katelyn is really getting used to her carrier that Daddy uses when we go places now....she loves to look around and get in on all of the action! Lauren and Allison enjoyed seeing the animals, sliding down the big slide, riding the train and of course, picking out pumpkins...one for each family member! After the orchard, we headed on down to the lake where Grandma and Papa hosted a birthday party for one of my nieces who turns 14 this week (where does the time go???). We had lots of fun with roasting hot dogs and marshmallows out at the fire and playing games before heading home. What a nice weekend!

A beautiful family day at the orchard/pumpkin patch!

Today was a gorgeous day.......absolutely perfect fall weather! So, we headed out to a local orchard/pumpkin patch here in Mooresville for their annual Family Fall Festival. They had all kinds of kids games, a mini corn maze to go thru, tons of pumpkins to pick, hot dogs and kettle corn to eat and of course, lots of good apple treats (apple slushies, caramel apples, apple crisp, etc..) to tempt us! We had one of Allie's friends from her school with us too. You'll have to notice in the pictures Lauren's lovely outfit for the day! : ) She picked it out this morning and oh man, was it good looking.....wink, wink! Nothing better than a cute "skeleton w/ a bow on it" shirt and a frilly skirt w/ Dora crocs! She thought she was quite the girly girl today! Allie and her friend Bridget enjoyed all of the games to play and the little pumpkins that they got to decorate. And, Katelyn just loved sitting in the grass (pulling on every piece she could get her hands on!) and looking at all of the pumpkins around her! Everyone had a great time and it makes me remember how much I love this season! : )