Happy Halloween

Halloween was extra busy this year.

It seems that this year I am room mom for both the kids. Thankfully Izzy's Halloween party was on Friday (as was her field day) and Drew's was on Monday, Halloween.

For Izzy's class we had 4 stations of crafts/activities for the kids to do. One was to decorate a mesh trick-or-treat bag with cool markers. Another activity involved silly stickers used for decorating cardboard pumpkins. Perhaps the favorite was decorating a pumpkin shaped cookie. And the last one involved scratching the surface off of various cutouts and underneath the "drawing" was a sparkly design - hard to explain.




We also had a snack table for which I made "mummy" juice boxes and pumpkin shaped cheese. I also bought bat/pumpkin shaped pretzels and someone else provided a fruit tray.




The kids in Izzy's class where so well behaved, and so mellow compared to the parties last year. I think having field day prior helped tire them out.

Drew's class party was lots of fun. The kids were all dressed in costume and super excited for the first class party of the year. My co-party helper picked up Chic-fil-A nuggets and then I provided the same "mummy" juice boxes and pretzels that I did for Izzy's class. I also did apple slices and carmel dip. And for dessert I did a spider web cupcake cake. It was super easy and I knew it didn't need to be perfect for a preschool class. The kids thought is was awesome...which made me feel really good.





This is a picture of Drew, his buddy Jack, and Ansley (who will also live in our new neighborhood). How cute is Ansley dressed as Spiderman? When we saw her later that night she had green hair :)




Tonight we went to a "kickoff to trick or treating party" at Drew's best buddy's house. I think I have also mentioned that Drew's best buddy lives 4 doors away from our new house. We were able to meet so many of our soon to be neighbors and as if we weren't already excited to move, we are now even more so! It is a small pocket neighborhood of two streets and everyone we met is super friendly and seems to have kids between 2-8 years of age.



Just before we left for the party, we were able to get a picture with Nikki...our current "backyard" neighbor. Look how sweet the girls look as a pink poodle and a bumble bee. And then there is Drew as Boba Fett with gun a'blazin.



Izzy, Averie, and our directly next door new neighbor, also Avery.


"Directly next door Avery" (as to not to be confused with Izzy's best friend Averie who lives at the end of the street), Berkley (who is in Izzy's class and live across the street from our new house), and Carsyn (Drew's best buddy, Jack's big sister who lives 4 doors away).


Piñata time. Izzy's hits it with a bat...


And Drew whacks it with his Boba Fett gun.


The kids had so much fun trick or treating in our "soon to be" new 'hood and we are SO looking forward to moving there! ...have I mentioned that the neighbors are already planning a welcoming oyster roast for us?

Drew's 5 Year Well Visit

Oh what a fun day this was...NOT!

The boy got 3 shots and the flu mist :)

But for the record he weighs 44.4 lbs. and is 44 inches tall. I didn't even need the nurse to write that down cause it was all 4's.

Nothing else to report. He is fine. He passed all the necessary tests and even answered the trick question of "which teeth do you brush?" He answered, "All of them."

I can't believe my boy is 5. He really is ready for kindergarten next fall, but this mama is in denial BIG TIME!

Fly By

Monday morning...October 24th.

6:15 am: Aunt Jaclyn, Uncle Mike and Baby Connor leave for the airport

7:00: Molly, Drew and Izzy head to drop Izzy off at school

7:25: Molly gets a text from Uncle Andy asking if she wants to have lunch...

Confused?

While waiting in the drop off line at Izzy's school, Andy shot me a text asking if I wanted to meet him for lunch? I asked "when" and he said, "today". He was flying into Charleston from Langley and wanted to see if I could meet him.

Drew had a field trip to the pumpkin patch that day so we stopped by for 30 min (just enough time to pick out a pumpkin) and then headed to the airport. Andy thought he would land at 10:30 and I was hoping to watch his plane land ... I had visions of taking great pictures as the hatch opened and he emerged like a Top Gun actor.

Well that didn't happen due to the wrong address I was given by Andy! So after nearly 2 hours spent in the car with Drew we finally made it to the correct airport. Thankfully Andy was also running behind so at 11 as Drew and I approached the correct airport we were able to spot the T-38 overhead. Drew was SUPER excited and so was I!

We were only able to see Andy for an hour, but what an hour it was!

Walking out to see Uncle Andy's plane - Drew was so excited yet it was so loud :)


Checking it out


This is one of my favorites!






Getting ready to watch Uncle Andy take off...he's the one of the far right


While we waited for the planes to run their system checks, Drew killed time with shadow play.


Look closely and you will notice he has earplugs in now (which we still have because he thought they were super cool!)


Waving goodbye while he taxis...


Drew snapping pictures with his ds of the take-off to show his classmates


If you look closely you will see two dark dots which are the planes :)

Cousin Connor Visits Charleston

This was the visit that almost didn't happen! The night before Cousin Connor, Aunt Jaclyn and Uncle Mike were to arrive, we got a phone call from Uncle Mike saying that it was going to be a "game time decision" because he wasn't feeling well. So we crossed our fingers and toes and anxiously awaited a phone call (or text in this case) to see if the visit was to be.

Thankfully on Thursday night the gang arrived! While I didn't take nearly enough pictures I did take a few to document this super fun weekend. ...it must be noted that we were Baby Connor's first airplane trip :)

Could he be any cuter?!?!


We all seemed to have our own special way to make Connor laugh. For Drew, he would run past Connor and then Connor would bust into a fit of laughter.


I love how Drew is looking from afar...


The boys (minus Pete)



The biggest belly laughs (and some of his best from what I heard) came while Izzy was doing silly little dances for him.

And of course peek-a-boo is a no fail winner!


Izzy loved her some baby Connor



I have no idea what Connor/Izzy are looking at in this shot, but clearly it is much better than me!


This picture was taking at Red's in Shem Creek and I can't pass up the opportunity to take a sweet shot of my two loves.


No visit to Charleston is complete without a carriage ride downtown




I had hopes of putting up historical pictures and fun Charleston facts...but pooped out after the first shot. I mean how many pictures and statistics of Charleston do you want?


As much as Izzy and Drew LOVE a good carriage ride...Ben & Jerry's ain't far behind!



A couple other memorable moments from the weekend...

Aunt Molly, needing to try and one up her kid by doing her "ride the pony" signature move (which isn't original because it was first done by Uncle Andy) and getting some pretty good belly laughs :)

We ate lots of food, had fun with friends, and stayed up late discussing "male Swyts"...ahhh, that could be a separate post in itself!

It is no secret that Drew really wants a baby for our family. The morning after Connor was here Drew said to me, "Mom. How long until I get a baby brother? I've been asking for forever!"

...not sure if we should have a third or just try and kidnap this super cute nugget?


*As I write this Cousin Connor has been gone for 11 hours and Drew just said to me, "I miss Baby Connor. When can we see him again? When can he come back to our house?"

We had a super fun time and loved visiting with our family from Chicago. PLEASE COME BACK SOON!

Hollywood Studios

We spent Tuesday at Hollywood Studios. We got there as the park opened and I took the kids and made a mad dash for Jedi training registration while Pete headed to the Toy Story ride to grab a fast pass. At 9:20 am, the line for Jedi Training was registering 4:45 pm.

As soon as we met back up we saw the Disney Channel Parade. Izzy was in heaven as it had songs from Shake it up, High School Musical, Camp Rock, and probably some others.


Next up was the ever popular waiting in line for autographs...luckily this wasn't too painful.









While waiting for the Buzz and Woody picture, Pete and Drew had some fun...

Look, it's Stinky Pete


And I love this one of Drew


It must be noted that Pete and I almost left Hollywood Studios a couple hours into our day. We took the kids to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids exhibit and it almost ended in an Amber Alert. The kids thought it would be funny to hide from us...NOT FUNNY! We weren't worried that they had left the exhibit because there was only one way out and the way Pete and I were situated the kids would not have passed by us. I also took comfort in the fact that I knew they were together. What got me was the fact that just the day before we had a talk about hiding for "fun" versus hiding when you shouldn't be. Just as I had contacted the security guy, and he had notified the other employees (he remembered the kids when we walked in in bright tie-dyed shirts that said "Safety Town" on them) to look for the kids, I saw Pete walking towards me with them...and boy did they know they were in trouble :)

Once we got past the emotions of that experience we were able to enjoy ourselves again. One of our favorite parts of Hollywood Studio's is the afternoon parade. While Pete and Izzy were at the Little Mermaid show, Drew and I popped a squat in the shade and enjoyed a funnel cake.


I have so many parade pictures, but can't imagine you want to see them!

I think one of the coolest parts of the day for all of us was Jedi Training. The kids first trained with a light saber and then got to fight Darth Vader. At the conclusion of the course each was presented with a Jedi Training certificate.

waiting to train


the instructor


Darth Vader


The fight




We ended our evening with snacks while waiting for the Fantasmic Show. I thought it was a little "dark" for the kids but they both seemed to enjoy it and no nightmares followed.



While our days started like this...


had some of this...


They always ended like this


Izzy asleep before getting to the car and Drew wide awake!