A Day of Surprises

Yesterday morning, Amelia and I were able to surprise Shawn at work, when he was presented an award.  After that, his boss gave him the rest of the day off!  So, we grabbed some Mexican for lunch then did a little early birthday shopping.

 When Caleb got off the bus, this was waiting for him.

(Do you see him leaning around the truck trying to figure out what's going on?  I love it!)

Once he figured it out, he came running!

 Getting a quick lesson on how the brakes work - we'll work on shifting gears later.

 And he was off!

He's pretty excited about his new bike!  

More Halloween/Fall Fun

Thanks to Grannie and Papaw for sending us all the tools and ingredients for this delicious Jack O'Lantern cake.  As soon as it was made, it was eaten!

 It was like Caleb never had cake before.  Shawn was telling him to slow down:o)

 Today at Amelia's school, they had their annual fall festival.  I worked it for a little bit, then got to walk around with her when her class came in.

 Face painting was a hit.

 Pumpkin Fishing.

 Getting in a little b-ball.

 And yet more frosting and sprinkles.

 This is Amelia's best friend, Addie.

We had a great time!

Flanner's Beach Camping

Friday afternoon, we headed down the road a few miles to Flanner's Beach Campground.  We've been to this park quite a few times before, but never to camp.  We were actually pretty impressed with the place.  

The best part was that we had to wear sleeves the entire weekend!

(Don't you love the palm trees in the background:o)

 Saturday morning we went to Caleb's soccer game.

 It was actually really cold, so Amelia stayed bundled up.

 After the game we came back and got ready to get in the woods.  We found this little guy just before we headed out on a walk.

 Caleb being silly.

 Amelia said, "That's not a stick.  This is a stick!"…as she pulls a small tree out of the brush.

 There is a super nice 1.2 mile paved trail that we rode our bikes on a few times.

 Saturday night we headed down to the Neuse River beach to watch the sunset.

 Mamaw got them some glow in the dark jewelry, which doubles as night lights :o)

 Sunday morning, we headed out for a hike.  The trails are really nice too.

 At the end of the hike, the kids were pretty much done.  They had way too much fun and I think it caught up to them.  So, we headed back to the camper, packed it up and headed home.  

We had such a great weekend, with great weather!  I'm glad we said no to a couple of other invitations and had some quality family time.  And we're glad to know that this campground is so nice.  We'll be going back for sure!  

This week we're preparing to head to IN!  We are so excited to get here and begin the wedding festivities!

Busy Fall Weekend

Friday night we headed to Caleb's school for their annual Fall Festival.  They were told to wear their costumes so we got all dressed up.

Caleb chose to be a Marine this year:o)

 So serious.

 We got Amelia all dolled up.

They played games and ate candy and cotton candy and Amelia even won a cake at the Cake Walk.

 Saturday morning we went to Caleb's soccer game and then headed an hour away to Mike's Farm.

We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

 And then searched for the perfect one.

 After that, we had some time to kill before dinner, so we let the kids play in the gigantic obstacle course bouncy house.

 And actually got in a nice family photo!

 The farm restaurant is family style, serving (all you can eat) fried chicken, roasted pot roast, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green beans, corn, biscuits with ham in them and your choice of three different desserts.  It was delicious!  We were lucky enough to quite a few friends of ours meet us out there to share in the fun.

 After church on Sunday, I let the kids color up their pumpkins until dad got all of this 'chores' finished and then we got carve them.

 I wasn't sure we'd be able to carve Amelia's pumpkin since it was so little, but it looks pretty cute…with the patch she said she wanted:o)

 (Pay no attention to the Christmas shirt Amelia has on.  She has hit a growth spurt and none of her clothes fit her.  I guess we'll have to go shopping!)

We are looking forward to camping this coming weekend!