November happenings

We celebrated Isabella's birthday a bit early this year.  

Because Mercer was new to soccer, we weren't sure what to expect the end-of-season tournament -- we only knew what weekend it would be happening.  We had to plan the party the weekend before his tournament.  It's a good thing we did... the day of her party turned out to be absolutely gorgeous.  (The following weekend - the one closer to her actual birthday and the one where Mercer had 3 soccer games - was bitter cold.)  

Partly because Isabella wasn't able to ride horses at the event in October, but also because we drive by horse stables every week when taking her to dance class... she / we planned a horse party for her birthday.  The idea started with her asking for a horse... for KEEPS.  Ummm - how about we have a party where you get to ride horses?  Thankfully, she was ok with the riding-of-a-horse party and not getting-a-horse-for-keeps.  Whew!

The place we went had a covered pavilion in which we set up the party area.  We welcomed a few kids from her class + a couple of Mercer's baseball buddies who have little sisters that Isabella would play with at the ball field.  It wasn't a large party - but it was the perfect size.  There weren't too many kids there, so the ones who wanted to ride horses got to go over and over and over again.  

Isabella got to ride first, of course, and she chose the LARGEST horse to start off with.  She rode the other two horses (ponies) mostly because the large black and white horse was brought out for the older kids (Mercer, a couple of boys his age and an older girl from our neighborhood).  

She has no fear.  She just loves them.


It was interesting that most of the kids her age rode once and were done.  They went to go play with the toy horses and decorating hats.... however.... Isabella rode all 3 horses over and over and over again until the girls who ran the party put them away.  She never did play with the toy horses or hats.  She was definitely in her element up on top of the saddle riding!   Out of the 3 horses there - she wanted to ride the BIGGEST first.  No fear! 


The girls who walked with each of the kids commented on how well she did... how most kids didn't know how to hold the reins... and what a natural she was at riding.  Who knows if this will be the end of the horse thing or if it's just the beginning.  (sigh)  We were proud of Mercer for getting up and riding as well.  

First to ride...last to ride.  

Some of Isabella's classmates transitioned into playing with toy horses, decorating hats or working on a coloring sheet... but not our horse-loving girl!  

She never wanted to stop riding.



Mercer had said something about bobbing for apples a week or two before the party -- not sure where he got it from, but we arranged for this to happen.  Yes - it was a bit oowey for the kids to go in one after another and spit / back-wash - but HOLY COW the kids had so much fun with this... maybe more fun than with the horses?!  They kept coming back and trying it over and over again!!  

We had a hot chocolate bar - which was a hit.   We had snacks and of course, we had cupcakes.

Isabella kept saying that was her fake birthday party.  Noooooo... it was your REAL birthday party -- just a little early!  (1 1/2 weeks early)   

Her actual birthday fell on a Tuesday.  I had worked out to have a substitute teacher cover my classes so that I could take Isabella's birthday off and take cupcakes to her school. 
















Absolutely love this photo!!

She woke up sick, however, and vomited several times.  She has had - off and on over the past several years - done this with a build up of mucus.  No fever... perhaps it's allergies?  Unfortunately, she did not go to school.  (I messaged her teacher and we sent in the cupcakes the next day.)   

After going back to bed, she felt much better and back to normal.  Since I had the day off, we ran a couple of errands, had a bit of lunch (she ordered a double-chocolate shake) and then we came home.  

It was her choice not to go out - rather - to make macaroni and cheese (from a box) at home for dinner.  She loves mac-and-cheese, but doesn't get it often.   Her actual birthday was pretty low-key, but she seemed to enjoy herself.  

Considering the weather and how she felt, it was a good thing we had her fake birthday party earlier!  Ha~

One of the things most anticipated moments on their birthdays... marking the wall!   

The next couple of weeks in November was just making it through 'til the Thanksgiving break. 

I have had a lot of anxiety about school grading, student behavior and parent contact unfortunately.  It has been a very stressful job so far.  It was nice taking a break from school and letting go of all school-related work for awhile and focusing on our little family unit.

We visited the neighborhood art festival - but did not set up the volunteer rock-painting tent.  They asked - but I decline this year.  There was - as always - the Nerdy Baby booth with a children's STEM activity.  Yay!

We started our week together at a bowling and gaming party with Mercer's baseball crew.  There was one final team-building event with a giant game of laser-tag.  The Spikes versus a group from a kid's birthday party.  Both Mercer and Isabella participated in the laser tag event and had a great time.  We also had a blast as a whole family on the bumper-cars!

The next day, we hosted a cub scout event at our house - decommissioning our tattered flag in a respectful flag-burning ceremony.  At the instruction of the den leader, we also baked brownies inside of hollowed-out oranges.  (It was a little weird, but yummy)   We had a couple of days of errands and cleaning before we went out of town.    

Mercer went in for a doctor's appointment and he got some milestone measurements:  He now weighs 90 lbs and just stretched past 5' tall.  He is 5'-0 1/2"!    He has also lost ALL of his molars in about three weeks' time!  The tooth fairy has just about gone broke AND missed a couple of initial tooth placements out for collection... probably just can't believe that he/she has to visit Mercer's room AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN!  :)   

We think Isabella has her first legitimate wiggly tooth now.  Just finished this with one kid, but here we go with another~  

We went to my dad's for a quiet Thanksgiving.  It was small - besides us visiting, there was only my step-sister Michelle that came over.   Isabella said Michelle was her best-friend and told her a secret right away.  (Michelle told us later that Isabella shared that she still wears diapers at night.)  :)     We did not take photos of our Thanksgiving festivities, unfortunately. 

We DID take photos the next day when we took the kids to an interactive science museum in Orlando.  I have to admit, the place was pretty spectacular!  Maybe this is what I need to do next in my career... design science exhibits or do informal science education at a museum??  Ha!

Our final days of break were spent travelling back and then tending to Cub Scout stuff, Mercer attending a church meeting of his own AND getting organized for back-to-school.  OK... we can hang on for 4 more weeks 'til we get our next break... right?!    

Between the breaks - October

Once break was over -- we went right back to the normal schedule of work, school, and extracurricular activities.  

The first weekend back, we went to a football game at the local high school.  They were having "spirit night" for our elementary school (which is just a couple of blocks away) and the kids got to go down on the field.

The next morning, I had a "sustainability" event at church that I helped to organize - called Creation Fest.  Since the beginning of the year, I have been working with people at our church to get an energy audit done... we had a lecture series on Creation Care (taking care of God's earth)... and we formed a Green Team.  We had an internal event where we educated church members about recycling, about energy efficiency and about getting rid of the styrofoam cups / containers that the church uses.  There is a little bit of momentum going and generally it is well-received.  The event in early October was our first (annual) outward / community event.  It was not heavily attended by the public - but we did get some foot traffic from people going to the Marietta farmer's market and from a foot-race that was going by our church.  The vendors seemed to be happy overall... and each made connections with other vendors / were glad to be there.  Hopefully they will return next year when this event is bigger and better!! 

We have a little bit of a hook on getting good vendors: someone on our Green Team who asked that they be there.  A woman who is on our church committee is the daughter of a trail-blazer / game-changer in the sustainability community nationally.  It certainly helps that she can ask vendors to be there and they will help us out at our little event!

Actually, the following weekend was the "big" sustainability event that our family goes to each year down at Serenbe that is hosted by this woman and her well-known family.  Unfortunately, Todd and Mercer were not able to go because they had a baseball game in a tournament that Mercer was in that same day.... but Isabella and I still ventured down for the afternoon.  I love going to this event because I see people I used to work with and volunteer with from my old sustainability community.  Plus there are free activities, beverages and food trucks.  

This year, they did not do the tethered balloon rides (which we were never able to partake in anyways because our kids were too little)... but they did carnival rides instead.  They were a little rickety and scary, but, Isabella didn't mind -- except a little bit for the height of the ferris wheel.   Isabella was smitten with one of the daughters of a former co-worker.  We kept running into her and her friends at various spots around the festival.  She rode a ride with Isabella which made our little girl's day!

Isabella only got to pet horses instead of ride this year.  We waited in line twice, but there was something that happened to the usual family that brought horses, so the substitute horse vendor was late and had fewer horses to ride.  Despite her disappointment in not being able to ride this year she did really well and listened.  (whew!)  I do hope that next year, we can all go as a family - for it is wonderful event on a beautiful farm. 

  

Mercer's "fall travel league" for baseball ended in October officially.  We never did intend for there to be 2 sports going on at one time... but this just sort of happened.  In the end, we are glad that it did, though.  He was ready to quit baseball after a couple of tough seasons (last fall / this spring), so we signed him up for fall soccer instead. 



He had grown as a baseball player, but was playing with some other kids who were newer to the sport and there were just a lot of errors, missed plays and losses.  Lots of losses.  It was hard for him to keep up a positive attitude throughout the seasons.  He ended up playing (a little bit) during the summer All-Stars for the league competing against other local leagues including some of my previous students.  Mercer didn't get a lot of play-time, honestly, and still wasn't that stoked to be playing ball -- except they did have a win or two and it fueled his spirit a bit.



Overall, there was a good rapport with the team so the coach thought about continuing and also trying something out new for our league -- a tournament team or a travel team.  He arranged for there to be one day out on the field that there were no conflicts so the boys who were playing fall-league baseball could meet up and practice. 

The league was behind it - as they are interested in expanding their brand.  So, the "East Marietta Spikes" were formed.  There were some tournament games that the boys held their own... and they even won a handful of games throughout the fall.  One of the things that I liked that the coach said "we belong in these tournaments."  The rules were different... even different equipment was used by the other teams (we learned about big-barrel bats).  The Spikes never did win a tournament, but GOOD baseball was being played and the boys were having fun.   By default, this team will start back up in the spring, so he will be rejoining the camaraderie of the Spikes... until next year's All-Stars.... (Assuming he makes it + if he is picked up for the travel /tournament team again.)

Mercer enjoyed soccer.  Several of the parents came up to us to tell us how impressed they were that this was Mercer's 1st year playing... that he developed so much over one season.... to talk about how much his foot-work had improved.  It was nice to hear, of course, but mostly - it was GREAT to see him happy and smiling as he would play!! 

They won some games, lost some games and went to the championship - but did not win any of those.  That's OK.... after the season ended, he told us that he wanted to play again next fall.  He wants to do baseball in the spring... soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter.  (oy - the shoes alone for the 3 different sports are going to set us back a bit!)  :) 

Basketball is about to start, actually.  He already had tryouts.  He says he knows the coach already too -- that the coach talked to him at this after-school thing he goes too called "Rise-Up" at school.  It's a church-based activity that takes place once a month.  We asked him - as a 5th grader - if he wanted to do this on his own or with his sister.  He said alone!  ha.  (It's the 1st year that this club is taking place at his school... Isabella can join next year when Mercer has moved on to the 6th grade.)

Speaking of 6th grade.  I have been worried sick about M moving up... seeing how out-of-control some of the kids are at my school where I'm teaching.  He still has a sweetness and innocence about him that I don't see much of at my middle school.  But - Todd and I went to a parent night at his new school - just for 6th graders... and I feel SO MUCH better.  It still seems a little bit more elementary-school like than my middle school.  And - the principal talked about how few discipline referrals there are...  whereas at my school there are a lot.  So.... fingers crossed he will have a great experience there.  in the mean-time... just need to soak in a little more of the quaint little elementary school where he is going for the next 6 months!! 

He is getting more grown, though.  Check out these pictures of him at the pumpkin patch we visited in October on a nice fall day.  (He wanted the long hair, but has since changed his mind and cut it all off.)  Isabella is looking quite a bit older too - not as much of the baby-face as before. <sigh>

We picked out pumpkins, ate pumpkin rolls (favorite quote about pumpkin stuff - Isabella said that she would do ANYTHING for cream cheese and pumpkin bread), and we took a hay ride through the farm.  There are these weird animatronic pumpkin people.  We all thought they were pretty cheesy... here's the face that Isabella made when she saw them.  :) 

After that, we visited a nearby sunflower farm that we saw last year / wanted to check out.  Not much to do.... but wander through / look at flowers (and get an up-close look at some pollinators). 

Pretty scenic, none-the-less.

We stopped by a Halloween store on our way back. Isabella had some fun trying on different masks.  We opted for store-bought costumes this year... just no time to make them or shop at various consignment stores to piece something together. 

Isabella wanted to be a ghost and scare people. She has no idea that she's a character from the Scream movie.   Mercer went as Chewbacca from Star Wars and wore an inflatable animal called a Porg on his shoulder.

Here is the newest member of our neighborhood.  Isn't this precious?!  

This year, Mercer jumped into the cleaning of the pumpkins himself... but it seemed that Todd had to take over the pumpkin carving for both of the kids.  Here's a picture of them lit up at night.  

This takes us through the end of October... more fall activities will show up in the next post for November.