Slower times

Things haven't been quite as busy this last week with the Warren's so there hasn't been as much to write about. But we still had plenty to do. It was our first week without soccer practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights......however, somehow we were able to find other things to do to fill up those nights. Both Christian & Rebecca have been elected as 4H officers in their class, so off we headed on Tuesday night to a 4H Officers Installation & Training. Christian will be the Vice President in his class and Rebecca will be a Service Project Leader. They are both excited about that.

On Thursday, they both went on their RISE fieldtrip to Traveler's Rest Plantation & Museum in Nashville. What is this? Here is their mission from their website: "Travellers Rest Historic House Museum, Inc. is committed to the preservation, research and interpretation of the historic house, collections and grounds that represent life in Middle Tennessee from the Native American period through the Civil War with an emphasis on the period 1789-1833, when Judge John Overton lived there." The kids had a great time and really learned a lot. They both came home with pumpkins and Rebecca spent much of her time making crafts from the different time periods.

On Friday after school, we headed down to Franklin (Leiper's Fork) and went to Mom & Dad's. Matthew was asked to perform a wedding for the grandson of someone in our church and so we decided since he'd have to be in Franklin on both Friday night and Saturday afternoon, we could take advantage of it and hang out at Mom and Dad's. We had a great time and even got to visit with Cassie & her kids on Saturday.

Other highlights of the weekend were Georgia's win over LSU (GO DAWGS!!) and getting to see HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 at the theatre!

Here are just a few pictures I took this week - nothing exciting - in switching out our summer/winter clothes, we found some cute hand-me-down jammies for Julianna and I had to get a picture. Also, Rebecca did her hair completely on her own and I was quite impressed so I had to take a picture of it, too.

Boring, I know - but more to come soon!!!!

New jammies (well, new to Julianna!!)
Rebecca is very creative with her own hair & this was impressive to me!
The front view of her hair.

Fall Festival

Saturday night, our church had its Fall Festival. Costumes are optional, but most of the kids, and a few adults, enjoy dressing up. The evening is full of chili (our chili cook-off), a bonfire, line dancing, a cake walk and a hay ride. It's always a fun time to hang out with our church family.

Here are some of the pictures from the event!

Julianna as Snow White

Christian as Harry Potter

Rebecca's last minute costume as a cowgirl

Our neighbor Ally, came with Rebecca

Julianna's winnings from the cake walk - she was so proud!

Our family on the hayride. This picture was taken in the complete darkness!

This is Julianna's friend Ella. Her dad is in Iraq and she and her family are here until his return next summer.

The Shear/Weikel family always outdoes themselves. They were all Harry Potter characters... (I couldn't find Christian when I took this picture and Kaitlyn had already taken off her Hagrid beard!)

Harry & Professor Dumbledore

A very creative costume theme by our friends the Wiggins girls.... Mario, Luigi and of course Princess Peach

Pickin' out some trees

Matthew has been on a bit of a kick to spruce up our yard. For Mother's Day, the kids took me to Wild Iris Row, a farm around here that is covered in gorgeous iris's and picked out some for me. So we've moved around the ones we had, then we've added to it. Then Rebecca and I had a project of beautifying the mailbox area so it still has really pretty pink & red geraniums and yellow marigolds.

Rebecca received a tree for her birthday from my parents and she loves it. (Remember we live in what used to be a cow pasture I'm sure so there are very few trees around). Anyway, one of the elders at our church has offered us a few things recently - iris's, canna's and trees. They live in the country and have a lot of woods behind them and know a little about what we're doing so he called Matthew the other day and said we're welcome to come pick out some trees.

So we headed out there yesterday and each kid picked out "their" tree. They are all young, small sugar maples and they will be placed in the back of our yard. We marked each one and when the leaves all fall off, Matthew will head back and dig them up. Of course I had to take some pictures for you. Here they are:

Christian & his tree Rebecca and her tree Julianna and her tree Much happier now

Mr. Duane (who gave us the trees) and Matthew

What do we see at the zoo, zoo, zoo?

Hopefully after reading the title, you're singing the Barney song!!! Well, we had much better weather on Friday and met Cassie & her kids at the zoo at 9am. It was a cool morning but very enjoyable.

We were there looking at the exhibits all morning, ate a picnic lunch and got to play on the newly refurbished playground and even rode the new carousel. We didn't leave the zoo until about 1:30 and were all pretty worn out but really had a great day.

Here are some pictures from our day. Enjoy! (I tried to put my comments above each picture - I can't tell if it's easier to read it above the picture or below.... any thoughts from my readers (If I actually have any??? ))

Pretty Birds

Julianna's first look at the monkeys - they were quiet while we were there
The crew in front of the giraffes - he walked behind the tree as soon as I took it of course

He got really close to us - these guys are amazing!

Rebecca brought her elephant Webkinz to "see his grandparents" so we took a picture!

Our little meerkats!

During our picnic, the boys found a caterpillar - I had to get a picture!

It took Josiah a while to warm up to me, but he eventually did - it took me dancing on the carousel but crazy Aunt Katie doesn't mind at all.

Finally a good smile from Ruth - They're such good playmates

The zoo was decorated for Halloween so we got a picture with scary guy!

All the cousins in the bamboo!

Christian

Rebecca

Caleb

Anna Blair

Katie, Julianna & Ruth on the carousel

Lazy Days of Fall Break

We've had Fall Break all this week and had no particular plans other than going to the zoo. So we've really been lazy. Most of us haven't minded (Christian's been a bit antsy though). We've watched movies, played games, Rebecca has learned to crochet, Christian had a tennis lesson with Dad, and Julianna has even caught up on her sleep through many long naps.

We had some friends at church who had a baby so we went to see them in the hospital. Then the kids and I went out to eat for lunch before running errands. Below you'll see some pictures of both. Our zoo trip today was postponed due to rainy weather, but we are VERY excited about going tomorrow.

So here are a few pictures from our "slow" week, but we have a busy weekend ahead of us: zoo trip, Church Fall Festival and our last soccer games on Sunday. So watch this weekend for more exciting posts & pictures.

Mark & Audrey Hanchett with sweet Sarah Grace

Christian holding Sarah

Rebecca with Sarah

Matthew & Julianna with sweet Sarah

Having fun with our Taco Bell toys!!

Such silly girls!!

Just a little Pow Wow during tennis lessons

Even Rebecca gave it a try

Sweet girl with Barney


Rebecca learning to "chain" - her chain right now is about 7 feet long!!!

Hopkinsville Tournament - Day 2

Well, our tournament is over now and sadly, I don't have the exciting news I thought I might have for you today. We played our game at 10:30, anticipating a win and then playing in the final match this afternoon. However, our team seemed to be "flat" the entire first game. The other team came out and quickly scored a goal on us. It should have easily been answered with a goal from us, and we had plenty of opportunities, but we couldn't take advantage of them. We did have a bad call against us, which gave them a kick, which the wind was their friend, and the score went to 2-0. We truly believed if we'd been able to score one, it would have turned everything around but we just couldn't produce what we needed. So we walked away very sadly with a 2-0 loss.

This did mean, however, that we had a little extra family time together this afternoon which was nice. So soccer is winding down now - we have friendlies next Sunday in Murfreesboro and then we're off until the spring. We will miss it but we always enjoy the break.

Here are a few pictures of our day...

Katie & Christian before the game Christian & Parker Part of the team BEFORE the game - see the smiles??

Christian

On the move...

Such sad long faces..... a VERY disappointing loss....