Early Thanksgiving Dinner with Maggie

Today, Maggie's 3rd grade class prepared a Thanksgiving lunch for family and friends. Jeff, Jake and I were able to attend and her class did all the preparation work and served all the parents. We had a great meal that consisted of salad, homemade ranch dressing, cranberry salad, real mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls and turkey. Plus, pumpkin pie and individual cheesecakes for dessert. Each child made placemats for their parents and wrote on them what they are thankful for. Jeff's said, "Thank you for making money" and mine said, "Thank you for making food all throughout the year." She wants me to be sure to say that the reason she is thankful that Jeff makes money is because it pays for our food and the important stuff. ;) Each child also had to say one thing they were thankful for in front of all the parents and Maggie said she is thankful for everyone who takes care of her. And of course, we are very thankful for Maggie!!

Trick or Treat Fun

Spiderman & "Bat" Girl waiting for Daddy to get home to go Trick-or-Treating. The carved pumpkin was done by Krysta. She gave a speech in one of her classes on "How to Carve a Pumpkin".

Silly Jake & Maggie ready to get some candy!

Jake as his FAVORITE character: Spiderman! In action...shooting his web.

Maggie decided to ditch the Hannah Montana wig...was getting on her nerves...so at the last minute put on this bat headband, put on her fangs, and went as a very "bat" girl.


Here is Maggie as Hannah Montana with her brownie troop at a local Halloween Festival. She's the one with the long blonde wig. ;)

Maggie's 9th Birthday

Today Maggie turned 9 years old. She had her birthday party on Sunday at Glo Golf at the mall. It's indoor putt putt with blacklights and everything glows. She had a fun time with her friends and got some new cool gifts. This morning she opened up her family presents. Her best gift was the Hannah Montana tickets she got for the upcoming concert in December. I think she may have had an idea, but she seemed surprised and is excited to be going to her first concert. And no, her mommy and daddy did not pay an insane amount of money for the tickets. Jeff just got lucky and got right in when they went on sale with Ticketmaster.

GranC comes for a visit

GranC came to town for a few days while Granddaddy Mike was doing some work in Phoenix. It's been almost a year since they were here for a visit. The rain seemed to follow her from Texas as it rained non-stop for the majority of her trip. She helped Michelle get caught up on a few small jobs around the house. Maggie & Jake both enjoyed her reading lots of books with them.

LSU Defeated!!

Jeff, Krysta & Jake made a little road trip to Lexington to the Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday to see Jeff & Krysta's favorite college football team the LSU Tigers play the UK Wildcats. LSU came into the game as the #1 seed and undefeated. We happen to be at the last LSU/UK game a few years back when LSU beat UK in the final seconds also known as "The Bluegrass Miracle." It was an exciting finish to say the least. But...the Wildcats had different plans on this gameday and after 3 overtimes, gave LSU their first loss of the season with a winning score of 43-37. Although it was a tough loss, they had a good time and Jake loved his first college football game.

A Toasty trip to the Pumpkin Farm

The Gang's All Here!
One of several Jake picked up
Maggie got this one

We continue to have warm temperatures for the month but made our second annual trip to Daniel's Petting Zoo this morning to get our pumpkins. We met up with friends from church so the kids could play on the playground equipment, feed the animals, and take a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. Last year, the temperatures were pleasant and so were the moods of the kids and parents. There was a little more whining this time because the sun was beating down on us, but overall, the kids enjoyed it and everyone got a treat to take home. More pictures in the "Daniel's Petting Zoo" link.

Zoo Time

Jake, Lily, Samuel & Vince
Jake & the elephants



Jake and his mommy met up with some friends at the Cincinnati Zoo. It is not feeling like Fall yet, but hopefully within the next week or so we will start having some "Fall like" temperatures. Jake always enjoys seeing the animals, especially his favorite..the elephant.