Halloween festivities

Azure changed her mind multiple times this year about what she was going to be. Last year I bought her a sailor costume and a princess costume on Nov. 1st  (great time to buy clearanced costumes). However, she really wanted to be a pepperoni pizza after seeing the previously mentioned Halloween costume demonstration. That was a little too involved for me to get excited about. I know, way to quell your child's imagination! I admit I am much too intimidated by grandiose projects.

 Maybe she toyed with the idea of being Daddy.

She finally decided on her pirate costume that she had so cleverly put together earlier. And I found this Superman costume at a consignment sale for about $5.

Charles helped me concoct this pumpkin costume out of electrical tape.

Zeke-o-lantern

 We decided to go trick-or-treating on our favorite street in Savannah- Bluff Dr. a rich neighborhood on Isle of Hope overlooking the river. We were not disappointed. Such lovely Southern style homes. We had a great time with the Saavedras.

The stash

Jingle Bells

Vince for some reason thinks that the last words in Jingle Bells is:

"Oh, what fun it has to ride. A little bit ride!"

I'll never sing it the same now.

Soccer Family

*Are you wanting a baby update? Wish me luck in trying to catch up before Zeke comes!*

I became a soccer mom at the end of September. Azure had practices on Tuesdays and games every Saturday. That's about 3 hrs a week of soccer. She amazed us all and scored 6 goals in her first game! She definitely has a knack for the sport so we plan on putting her in every year until she changes her mind. Though, she did need a little coaxing from us in the beginning. She was afraid to play this year b/c she was going to have games and feared she wouldn't do well. This was part of our determination talk.

She hustled at every game. Some kids would just walk or slightly jog. Azure sprinted. She was intense. It was awesome for me and Charles to see her out on the field. Joy in our posterity :)
We talked about switching between art/creative classes and sports. Right before this Azure took 4 wks of violin and seemed to like it. I think we'll pick it back up in a few years. I don't think she's ready (or me either, let's be honest) for intense practicing of an instrument and the violin is pretty serious. Now, that soccer is over we might start piano lessons or do some more art lessons in Jan. We definitely only want to do one lesson at a time. We don't want to overschedule our children. It's going to be a delicate balance I'm sure, once the other children get older and start lessons of their own.

We were really touched when 2 of Azure's friends showed up at her game to support her. Obviously, we don't have any family here and no grandparents or aunts or uncles or cousins have ever seen her play soccer. We have been blessed this last year to have the Bryces and Saavedras as our family here. We love them so much!

And I love this little guy!

Fluffernutter break

Azure was the only girl on her team. The boy on the far left's name is Charles Jensen. We all had a hoot with that. Esp since he is Filipino :)

 You did a great job this season Cub, we're so proud of you!

Field Trip Fun

We have deemed Thursdays as our field trip days for homeschool. Back in Sept. we went to Publix, our grocery store of choice, for a tour. I was really impressed with the employees. They did a wonderful job and gave us a ton of free food! Charles said we should go around to different grocery stores every week saying we're on a field trip just to get free groceries ;)

In October we visited the Tybee lighthouse museum. What a spectacular view from the top! With no mountains here you never get an "aerial" view of the city so it's really awe-inspiring to actually get one. It makes me really appreciate living on the coast, esp since I'm a coastal girl at heart :)

Last month we finally visited the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace museum. She was the founder of the girl scouts and was born and raised in Savannah. Every Spring thousands of girl scouts come out here to visit the museum so we thought we might as well too, since we live here. Azure and I read the book, "Daisy and the Girl Scouts" back in May so it was fun to go to her house together- just the 2 of us. Juliette (Daisy) was a talented woman who never had children of her own. But, she was the mother of Girl Scouts and has influenced millions of young girls and lives. Her life story is inspiring.

While there, I received the revelation that one day I will be a tour guide. I am excited for that :)

There have been other numerous field trips but, they are not all documented with the camera. Our most recent field trip was last Thursday to see the gingerbread house display at the Westin. Then we took the ferry across the river and played on River St. with Theresa and Emily V and co.

Talk like a pirate day

We found out Krispy Kreme was giving away a box of free donuts to those who dressed like a pirate and talked like a pirate. Apparently it is an official holiday per wikipedia on Sept. 19. The day before we had seen a presentation at the library about how to make your own Halloween costumes. This very much intrigued Azure. So, when I told her about the free donuts she was all about putting together a pirate costume with what she had on hand. I was very impressed. She put almost all of this together by herself with minimal help from me. This turned out to be a great homeschool lesson :)

Who knew?

A few months ago Charles started digging through his family history and found out that his 6th or 7th great grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War in South Carolina! And that some of his ancestors settled there for awhile. And there's a historical site at the battle where he died. Who knew?! So, of course being only 3.5 hrs away we had to make a trip in early September. In their visitor's center we got to watch a video about the battle and his grandfather was mentioned.

I love this pic of Vince with his head bowed in reverence for his ancestor who fought and gave his life here.

We made a weekend trip out of it and headed up to the temple in Columbia too. While Charles was with the youth doing baptisms I took the kids to the Children's Museum since we had yet to go in Columbia. It was pretty good.