It's Fall, Ya'll!

While the weather has still been quite warm, we have had cooler mornings and hints of fall.  We decided to embrace the fall season (even if the weather wouldn't) with some fall-themed family activities over the last week.  Here is what we have been up to....

1.) We had Emerson with us last weekend while Lindsey and Boomer were out of town.  We enjoyed having her sleep over and she easily kept up with her cousins!  We spent Saturday morning at the science center.... a favorite for all three kids and then met the rest of the Kennedys along with the Williams family at Triad Park for a picnic dinner and time at the playground.

 2.) While mom and dad have been out of the country, we have checked in on Great Grandpa and Great Grandma multiple times.  I sent them this picture of Grandma taking the boys for a spin around the hallways with her walker!

 3.) I got to chaperone Zander's field trip on Tuesday to the fair!  I try to attend one field trip a year with my oldest, and when looking at the scheduled field trips for the year, I realized this might be the only one I could attend logistically!  I'm so lucky to get to go to school with Z each day and have a glimpse at what he is doing while in 1st grade!  We had a blast looking at the animals, tractors and fire-fighting equipment.

 4.) I have suspected that with Maddox's thumb-sucking habit, we might have a slight concern about articulation when it comes to speech and producing sounds for letters.  I had him screened on Wednesday, and I'm happy to report he passed in all areas.  We are supposed to bring him back in 6 months for a re-screening.  He was happy to earn all the stickers and get a whistle from the prize box!

 5.) We took advantage of canned food night at the fair and went back with the rest of our family on Wednesday night.  Zander loved showing daddy and brother all the places we had visited the day before.   The boys also loved watching the Marvelous Mutts show and getting cotton candy at the end of the evening!

 6.) We had our school's fall festival Friday night.  We loved walking around and seeing friends from school.  We enjoyed silly-stringing our principal, going on a hayride, playing corn hole and eating more cotton candy!

 7.) One of my favorite days of the year is when we can go to the Corn Maze!  Along with the maze, we enjoyed the cow train, the tram, the actual train, the jumping pillows, the zip-line, the tractors, the trampolines and eating apple cider donuts and kettle corn!  This year did not disappoint!  The boys got to do everything they wanted to do and got to pick the order in which we did everything.  I always love the corn maze while Zander's favorite this year was the tractor.  Maddox loved the kid zip-line and daddy enjoyed the jumping pillows (although his back didn't like it too much the next morning.... haha!)  I will say it was fun to have all four of us on the jumping pillows and laughing loudly as daddy bounced us even higher!

 This was an incredibly sweet moment below.  Maddox couldn't get the tractor to work on his own due to the pedals.  Zander stopped pedaling to help push his brother and get him started again.  I love watching these brothers support each other!

 Maddox opted for mommy pedaling with him when Zander picked the tractors as the activity he wanted to revisit at the end of our day!  haha

 8.) On Sunday, we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon at the house between morning church and the evening AWANA program.  Maddox wanted to nap with me since it was raining outside... I just couldn't say no to his sweet face (the to-do list can wait!) and look at those eyelashes! Such a cutie!

 Zander worked on his Christmas wish list while we napped.  He wants a tablet, tractors (big, little and medium) and a new pair of headphones!  I think he believes Santa got a raise this year... haha!

Grandpa Turns 70!

Last weekend, we were able to celebrate Grandpa's 70th birthday with family and friends!  It is hard to believe he is 70 years old!! I still think he looks and acts so young that I'm discovering that age is just a number and can't really define what you are able to do or accomplish.  Grammy worked hard to make a book with many positive comments about Grandpa.  I wasn't surprised to read all the incredibly nice things people had to say about my dad!  We enjoyed a delicious dinner out at J Peppers in a private room and the grand-kids loved helping Grandpa blow out the candles and eat his cake!

I just love how Zack and Zander matched for church last Sunday.  It was not planned but Big Z and Little Z looked cute in their red shorts and plaid shirts!

 Also, Zack worked hard in the yard last weekend.  He cleaned up our vegetable boxes and added kale as we head into fall.  He also added this cute fall "scene" out front that I thought made for a photo opportunity!  Even though it has been in the 90s, we are officially in the fall season and looking forward to all the fun activities this season brings!

 Zander has been doing great at school.  He has been earning extra points for great participation and got a Bow Tie Behavior award for making good choices during the school day.  Thanks to Grandpa, he is able to cheer on the Gators as well. ;) (He also just came inside for recess when this picture was taken...haha!)

Our children's minister sent me the October issue of the Parenting Christian Kids magazine.  I was surprised to see my Jr. Cubbies group on the front page.  I just love how Maddox is leaned into me as we are discussing a story in the bible.  We typically have about 18 three-year-olds so there is never a dull moment on Sunday nights!

 We had an Author Study day at our school this week.... we chose characters from Snow White as an office staff and first grade selected characters from Kevin Henkes books... you can see Zander with his best friend, Mia, below.  Zander decided to be Chester.

Busy Party Planning!

I just finished four events within the last five days where I was responsible for providing food for groups of people! It has been so much fun but it has also worn me out!  haha .....Last Saturday night, we had all of Zack's co-workers over to the house and their families!  It was so fun to watch all the kids play together inside our house and in the backyard.  We had leftovers so we have been eating yummy food all week!  On Sunday morning, I was responsible for breakfast at church.  Donuts, fresh fruit and juice made for a successful breakfast!  We celebrated Great Grandma's 88th birthday after church with a yummy lunch and cupcakes... thanks Grammy!  You will see pictures of the great grand-kids with Grandma below.  On Tuesday, I had to get food for our staff while we had a parent conference event.... pizza, salad and Halloween candy made for a yummy dinner between conferences ;)  Finally, last night we had a baby shower for my sister and Baby Kennedy.  We prepped meals in anticipation of Baby K's arrival, knowing that Linds won't want to cook or plan meals while she is tending to the newest addition.  She took home 15 meals that will be stored in the freezer until my niece or nephew's arrival.  We had tons of fun chatting while we mixed ingredients.  The perk of using Dream Dinners was that the staff did all the cleanup and all the cooking equipment and utensils were provided!  They also added some of their own specialty dishes to the snacks that Sarah and I brought, which made for a delicious dinner!  This made for one of the easiest parties I've ever hosted and has gotten us even more excited about the upcoming months and the Kennedy Family of Four!

A few pictures of the kids as well..... Zander is doing great spending time with friends and entertaining himself while I finish my work responsibilities in the afternoon... here he is with some of his first grade classmates while all the mommies had a meeting.

Zack and I had a date night Friday night.... we had the most delicious sushi and I absolutely loved the presentation of the food!

Grammy and I took the three kids to my school playground on Saturday morning while the Kennedys were at a football game and daddy was getting everything ready for his work party.  We had a blast and enjoyed the unseasonably warm temperatures!  There is a joke (and video) about Linds and I on a seesaw growing up.  I was not giving her a fun ride as I bounced her up and down using my larger size and weight!  It make me smile and chuckle to watch my boys on a seesaw! Zander was much more kind to his brother than I was to my little sister!  ;)  Burke also got to go for a ride to get his nails trimmed on Saturday.  I love watching him hang his head out the car window and that his ears flap back and forth due to the wind.

Weekend in Charlotte!

Before I discuss our fun weekend... how cute is Maddox before picture day last week?!  I have no idea if the gel stayed in his hair for pictures.... he looked a little disheveled by the afternoon.... but I love this sweet boy no matter how the picture turns out!

Ya'll...... I've been having a rough time physically lately... see picture below.... haha!! First of all, I've been dealing with some sort of head cold since the beginning of July.   It keeps me up at night sneezing and unable to breathe...... even my voice has sounded like I've had a head cold for months.  After two rounds of antibiotics, trying nose sprays, allergy medicine, etc.,  I went back to the doctor.... I got a steroid shot this time and flonase.  In 10 days, if I'm not "healed", we will do a CT scan and possibly follow up with an ENT referral... stay tuned.  Also, this past week I fit in a mammogram and breast ultrasound for a place they were concerned about.... I can enthusiastically say that all is good and I won't be going back for those tests until 40!  Finally, I took Burke for a walk on Thursday night.  A gnat went into my eye and scratched my eyeball in two places so while I was at the doctor on Friday getting my steroid shot and flonase for my head cold, I had them check it out! Turns out I got to sport a pretty cool eye patch for a bit.... haha!  Hoping this week is less eventful or Zack might trade me in for a younger, more reliable model.... HAHA!

On Saturday, we went to Charlotte to see daddy's alma mater play some football.  It was so much fun walking around campus and having Zack show the boys where he had classes.  I will always remember watching the boys run around the large grass areas which are always a favorite spot of mine when I'm on a college campus!   The kids had fun and we watched the 49ers successfully defeat UMass!

 On Sunday, we attended a family reunion in Charlotte with Zack's family.  It was great to see all of our family members and it worked perfectly since we were already in Charlotte the night before to make it a weekend away for our family of four!  We got to stay at Zack's aunt and uncle's house which the boys thought was a nice treat!

A little early for these pictures but the boys have decided what they want to be for Halloween and I just love them trying on their costumes and hope they will always have a passion for serving and helping others like our fire department and police department do for us!

Getting Into a Routine!

I can confidently say we are into the school routine which consists of early wake up calls and long days before we crash in our beds in the evenings.  It seems like the days go by fast because they are so packed with school, after school meetings and activities and then dinner, baths and bedtime.  Here are some of the fun things we have been up to when we aren't in our normal Monday through Friday routine.  We had a three day weekend last weekend due to Labor Day.  On Saturday, we went for a nature hike where we were able to climb rocks and get our feet wet in the creek.  We also fit in an afternoon of swimming with friends and then dinner at the park with the Williams family on Sunday.  On Monday, we took a trip to the science center.  The boys are not really napping these days.  I did happen to catch one afternoon where Zander went to lay down with Maddox and rest.  Neither boy really slept but it was the cutest thing to watch on the monitor!

Last week, my school was able to celebrate that we EXCEEDED growth which is always a huge accomplishment calling for a sweet celebration!  We got to have the most delicious ice cream sandwiches from the Ice Queen Parlor!

I love when I can get pictures of my big boy in class.  My assistant principal sent this to me one day last week while Zander was working on his number line puzzle.

 On Friday, Grammy and Grandpa fit in TWO grandparent breakfasts!! Maddox had his breakfast at 7:00 a.m. and Zander's was at 7:30!  So they quickly ate breakfast at Maddox's preschool and met Zander at our school for round 2!

My grandparents are here from Florida!  We got to stop by and see them on Friday after school.  We are excited to see them more this week while they are in town!

 Daddy has been out of town since Friday and will be coming home today!  While he was away, I took the boys to a birthday party for Maddox's best friend, Mollie.  The boys had a blast with the birthday girl!  Then, we headed back home to see Granny V, PawPaw, Grannie and GranDan.  We got to play ping pong, shoot pool, water Grannie's flowers and watch a movie!  It was a fun weekend visiting some of our favorite family members!